Interviewing Lily.

Thank you to everyone who offered a question for Lily. She's answered them all in her own way, and she's said she'll come and reply to more in the comments. So, when you've finished reading, if there's something you want to ask then please do.

[image error]The kettle's hot, curls of vapour rise from the spout, steaming up the kitchen window as pale winter sunshine fails to challenge the boiling water. Pulling mugs from a cupboard, Lily paused, unsure of her imminent guests. On the counter near the kettle sat the grey and purple teapot that Kate had loaned her for today.

"Why did I let her talk me into this?" she muttered as she heard the distinctive sound of a car pulling up outside. Lily threw tea bags into the pot and stuck her head out of the back door. Sure enough, that was her dark green Citroen parked behind Lily's own red VW Golf.

Lily waved as the car door swung open. "Hi, Sarah, come on in. No-one else is here yet."

The author pulled a small netbook from the door pocket and tucked it under her arm. "I have their questions here, it's just you and me."

"Oh, I thought… Never mind. The kettle's hot. Cuppa?" Lily stood aside to let the author into her kitchen and she threw tea bags into a mismatched pair of mugs. "Did you bring biscuits?" she called over her shoulder as teaspoon clinked on mugs, stirring the tea and fishing out used tea bags.

"I did," she replied, pulling a pack of chocolate covered digestives from her coat pocket. "Do you have wifi?" Sarah asked as the netbook came to life. "Because we have questions from America, Italy, Cyprus, and the UK. We could try to see if anyone's on skype?"

"Really? They read about me in all those places?" She thought for a minute. "I don't think I want to be bothered wit skype though."

Sarah nodded with a grin. "Yes, they do, and they love your story too. Ready?"

"No." Lily brought the tea over and set the mugs on the table. "You know there are some things I just won't discuss?"

"As is your right, but you promised to do this." Sarah was firm, Lily squirmed in her seat. "I'm just going to mix up the questions and you can check what I've typed afterwards?"

Lily nodded, cradling her tea mug in both hands, leaning back in her chair. "Can I correct your spelling and grammar too?"

Sarah laughed, "Of course you can, someone has to." She looked down at the netbook screen where a document was open. She positioned the cursor and was poised to type.

"OK, First question. What's the secret to the perfect cup of tea?"

Lily sipped at her tea. "You really need to ask Kate that. She's the one who's picky about brands and flavours. She takes so much care to make your tea just right for you."

"How about your secret to a perfect cuppa then?"

"It's not a cup, tea should come in a mug that you can wrap your hands round and feel the heat as it cools. My perfect cuppa will be different to yours, and everybody's perfect cuppa will be special for them. I'd have to say the secret is knowing the person you're making the tea for." Lily tore open the packet of biscuits and dunked one in her tea. The chocolate covering melted and swirled on the surface.

"Ew!" Sarah grimaced. "How can you dunk those? Right, that leads nicely on to the next question. What's the best biscuit for dunking in tea?"

"The one in my hand." Lily grinned, waving the remains of her biscuit. "Even better if it's home made, or brought by someone else."

Sarah laughed. "I'm with you on that!" she agreed. "But if you could choose just one biscuit as your absolute best dunker, which would it be?"

"Home baked ginger. Preferably made using the recipe from the Shrek cookbook, they always come out just right and keep for ages." Lily shook her head with a smile, long, dark hair flicking over her shoulder. "Well, they would if they didn't get eaten so fast."

"True." Sarah typed, trying to keep up with the conversation, keyboard rattling as she hit the keys. "Next one. How many cups of tea do you drink in a day?"

Lily roared with laughter. "Are they really that obsessed with my tea drinking?"

"You do drink rather a lot through the books."

Lily gave Sarah an amused glare. "Only when you have writer's block, need Kate and I to have a serious chat or need to fill some word counts."

"How many?" Sarah pressed.

"Loads." Lily shrugged. "When I'm at home there's generally a mug of tea being drunk as I get things done. Probably far too many really and I've never counted them. Anyway, Kate drinks way more tea than I do."

Sarah reached for her own mug. "What's your greatest passion?"

"That's a good question." Lily frowned.

"But a hard one?"

"Really hard. I could say my garden, or my kids, or…" Lily's voice trailed off. "It should be my children." She shivered. The kitchen grew quiet in that anticipating silence where the tension just rose until Lily set her mug down with a soft sound. "My greatest passion, the thing I do just for me is my garden, or my knitting."

"It surprised me to find out that you knit." Sarah smiled, knowing the change of subject was necessary.

"Really? I've always knitted, I spin too, you wrote that into one of the books. The second one, I think?" The gratitude in Lily's eyes masked the still raw pain. "Next?" She helped herself to another biscuit and dunked it until the chocolate started to melt.

Sarah pulled a face, drawing an amused chuckle from Lily. "What are you most proud of? And what are you least proud of?"

"What, ever? Or just in the parts you know about?" Lily leaned back in the chair.

"Either. You never know, there might be another book in it." Sarah glanced away with a sly smirk.

"No thanks." Lily was serious.

"What?"

"No more books. I've had enough." She drained her tea mug in one large gulp. "Refill?"

"What are you most proud of? And what are you least proud of?" Sarah insisted. "And those were the easy ones, they just get harder from here."

"Least proud." Lily stared into the distance, memories flashing across her eyes. "The event in my life that I'm least proud of is turning away from my daughter. I hoped it would protect her, but it harmed her in ways I'd not considered. It's no excuse really, but, I didn't know, I didn't realise." [image error]She stopped, stared at her hands on the wooden table top. "I'm getting old," she said in a sad tone before giving a small shudder.

"And what are you most proud of?" The question burst the silence that was settling around Lily.

She looked up, pale blue eyes less like ice and more like winter sky. "Most proud?" She scratched her head. "Honestly?" She waited for the nod. "I don't know that there's one thing really. I'm proud of Susan. I adore Andrew and Tom too, don't get me wrong there. But Susan is special, she had the sense and the strength to walk away and leave the magic mostly alone. I'm proud of my friendship with Kate. That came so close to breaking, more than a few times over the years but we're closer than ever now." Lily ran her hands through her hair, pulling it free from the ponytail and letting it hang loose.

"Did you ever use your magic just for fun? Tell us about that?" Sarah threw in a lighter question, scanning those yet to come and choosing carefully.

"Of course!" The smile lit up Lily's face. "Let me think." She took a breath, gaze distant and remembering. "There was the time I used the magic to hide from my sister. Have you met Heather? We're twins. She's the older one and she was meant to inherit the magic, but that didn't quite work the way it should. We played in the woods near our Summer home and we'd hide from each other. She could never find me and she was furious when she found out I'd used the magic to hide. Our Mother scolded me for weeks about it."

"What's your favourite memory from your childhood?" Sarah followed the childhood a little way.

"Sitting in the lightening blasted yew. It's only half living after being struck by lightening so half the tree is charred and dead while half grows green every Spring. It was my favourite place to be as a child. I loved that tree."

"Least favourite?" Sarah tapped at the keyboard.

Lily thought for a moment. "Finding out, at age eighteen, that my sister wouldn't follow our Mother as Mistress, that I'd have to do it instead." She got up from the table, gathered the mugs and set the kettle to boil again.

"Can you talk about Sam, I have some questions about her?" The question wasn't the shock it might have been. Lily had suspected it was coming.

"Ask them," She said. "I might not answer." She came back to sit at the table.

"Why did you leave Sam here? Why abandon a new born?"

Lily tipped her head to one side, holding the penetrating gaze of the author who knew all her secrets. "I was pregnant and the magic wanes while the mother is carrying, even more so if the daughter has the ability too. So I had little power to use. I was with Ametsam, he was my consort and he was beginning to become the monster who took Sam. He was jealous and aggressive and Sam wasn't his child. I knew I was carrying a daughter and I knew she wasn't his. He found out and was furious. I was convinced he'd kill me, and the child I was carrying. So I ran."

"Why go back?"

"It had been drummed into me for years that I mustn't leave my land, mustn't abandon the Eysi. I had to go back."

"And you couldn't take Sam with you." Sarah filled in, Lily nodded.

"He would have killed her. As it was, by the time I went back he'd found and killed my lover."

"Sam's father? Will you tell me who that was?" Sarah pushed.

"No. It doesn't matter now, and his memory deserves to be left alone." Lily was firm.

Sarah just typed the answer, accepting the refusal. "Then when you left the second time, with Andrew?"

"Same situation really, but that time he worked it out sooner. He beat Bramble to death and he made me watch. I couldn't go back after that."

"Bramble?" Sarah prompted.

"Yes, Bramble, because he grew like a weed and got in the way all the time as a child. Elder named him." Lily softened at the memory.

"Why did you neglect to train Sam properly? Or at least prepare her?" Sarah watched Lily's face closely. That had stung.

"I didn't neglect to train her. I wasn't sure how much magic she had and by the time I knew her she was already adult. If the magic isn't disciplined during puberty it tends to fade and die. I did what I could." Lily was becoming defensive and Sarah wondered just how far to push the subject, and decided to leave it there because of the next question.

[image error]"How do you truly feel about Sam and how everything ended?"

"That's two questions." Lily stalled. "Sam was so emotionally hurt, so messed up, in many ways she was such a pain in the neck. She was hard to be around. But I still wish we'd had more time, I wish we'd been able to get to know each other properly." The kettle boiled and turned itself off. Lily ignored it. "I'm glad it's over. But, it hurts, and I don't really want to discuss what might have been." She held the author's gaze without blinking, the plea clear as tears welled.

"OK." The word, softly spoken granted that wish.

Lily blinked and drew a deep, calming breath.

"I've been asked more than once, how old are you?" Sarah leaned back, rolled her shoulders to relieve the ache building.

"Depends how you measure it." Lily traced the grain of the wooden table top under her hands. "I've lived for just a few more than fifty summers since my birth, but I saw your English Civil war the first time I found my way through the Portals. You work it out!" She shrugged, leaving the challenge open.

"Almost done." Sarah scrolled down the list of questions. "Last one. Hedgehogs or Badgers?"

"Hedgehogs." Lily answered without having to think about it. "I love hedgehogs. Nothing against badgers, but I love hedgehogs."

"Thanks, Lily, that was great." Sarah finished typing and saved the document. [image error]"You can read it through, and when you're happy then I'll pop the whole thing on my blog. Will you answer any more questions in the comments?"

Lily reached for another biscuit. "If I get to keep these? And if I can reserve the right to reuse to answer?"

"Of course, on both counts." Sarah closed the netbook.

Any more questions? Leave them in the comments here and Lily will come and answer them for you.

The Portal Series on Amazon UK.

The Portal Series on Amazon US.

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