Are you a budding JK Rowling?, or have you ever dreamed about being a world famous author?
Lincguide caught up with North Cyprus resident author Sibel Hodge and asked her about her books, her life in Cyprus and her plans to take Hollywood by storm.

Q Have you always enjoyed writing stories or is this something you have discovered recently?
I’ve always wanted to write women’s fiction. As a little kid, I was always scribbling stories. In the UK I was too busy in the rat race, paying the mortgage, to have enough time to actually concentrate on writing. But when I moved to North Cyprus three years ago, I finally had the time, peace, and the beautiful scenery to give me the inspiration I needed to start on my novels. I’ve also written many published feature articles

Q Where do you get the ideas for your books from?
Many ideas come to me while sitting outside my villa on a lovely, hot summer evening, enjoying the view with a glass of wine! The ideas are a mixture of real life events that people have told me about, films I’ve seen, books I’ve read, or personal experiences, but of course it’s all topped off with a lot of imagination.

Q Fourteen Days Later and The Fashion Police are both comedies, do you plan to write in any other genres?
I’ve always loved making people laugh so it felt natural for me to write comedies. A wise piece of advice given to me was to write what you know, and that’s very true. If you’re interested in writing comedy, you won’t be as passionate writing a serious literary novel about the war, for example. You have to write the genre that you love.

Q What is your hero Amber Fox like? Is she based on someone you know?
All my characters are mixtures of friends and family, people I’ve met, characters from films, even myself. Sometimes I take an element of one person’s character and mix it with someone else’s to form a whole new character. Inventing characters is one of my favourite parts of working out a new novel. With Amber Fox, I wanted a female character who was feisty and larger than life, yet, like many of us, was aware of her flaws. I think she is someone that most women can relate to in some way.

Q How long does it take you to write a book on average?
On average about three months. Fine tuning always take a bit longer until I’m happy with a final draft. With my first novel, I didn’t have a draft plot outline. Ideas just pinged out at me while I was writing. With my second novel I did draft a basic plot outline before I started writing. That makes it a lot easier to keep track of things like time lines, character development, and plot arcs, although a lot of the time I still don’t know what’s going to happen until it pops into my head. Creative or crazy? I’m not sure which!

Q Roalh Dahl used to pop down to the garden shed, Do you have a routine for writing?
Once I start writing a novel I’m so engrossed in it and blinkered to everything else around me. I will write from the minute I get up until late into the evening.

Q Do you think your books would translate well to the big screen? If so who would you like to see play Amber Fox or perhaps some of the other characters?

Several editors and literary consultants have suggested that I rewrite both novels into scripts for the big screen, and this something I’m currently working on. If the success of my novels progressed to this, who wouldn’t want Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie to star in a film that they’ve written?

Q Your website says you divide your time between Hertfordshire and North Cyprus, do you own a property in North Cyprus?
I own a villa just outside Karaagac with spectacular views of the sea and mountains. I spend the majority of my time in North Cyprus and the ambience is very conducive to creativity.

Q What do you like best about Northern Cyprus?
Of course the weather! My father’s Turkish Cypriot and my mother’s British so I have family here, which is nice. Turkish Cypriots are traditionally very family orientated, friendly, and giving. The scenery in places is breath-taking and it’s full of historical significance. The potential of North Cyprus is endless.

Q Do you have a favourite restaurant in Northern Cyprus?
I don’t really have a favourite because there are many fantastic restaurants here to choose from. I enjoy trying a variety of tastes from traditional Turkish Cypriot food to a nice Chinese or Indian.

Q What exactly is an eBook?
An ebook is an electronic version of a printed book that you can read on your PC or other hand-held device. Sales of ebooks are rapidly increasing. With the demand for new technology we have the Blackberrys, iPhones, iPods, laptops and ereaders, which all support ebook download technology. We even have big companies like Amazon introducing a whole new website for their Kindle ereader range. Now you don’t just have to be tied to your PC to read an ebook, with our busy lifestyles you can read them on the run. They are also environmentally friendly, saving tonnes of paper, although you can print an ebook if you prefer. Because ebooks are downloaded instantly you don’t have to wait for your favourite book to be delivered by post. In fact, Stephen King is only selling his new novels online as ebooks

Q Do you have any advice for aspiring writers?
Whatever you do keep writing! It’s hard getting rejections letters from literary agents and publishers, but it’s part and parcel of becoming a writer. They’re not always right. Even J.K. Rowling had rejections letters. Have faith in yourself and your words. Everything will be OK in the end. If it’s not OK, then it’s not the end.

Q What’s next in the pipeline?
I have so much that I want to do. Of course I’d love my ebooks to be picked up by a mainstream publisher to sell in paperback version. I’m planning a series of books following on from the Fashion Police that will send Amber Fox on various adventures. I’m also planning to write a sequel to Fourteen Days Later that will be set in North Cyprus, and I’m working on turning both novels into film scripts.

Many thanks to Sibel, I’m just off to download her latest book from here.
Look out for a review on Lincguide early next year.

Lincguide is giving away a copy of both of Sibel’s eBooks, in order to enter the competition simply sign up to our free email alert service and get notified anytime there is news on Lincguide.  Click here to activate and enter our competition.
Competiton closes New Year’s Eve and the winner will be notified shortly after, if you already receive our updates you have been already entered in the competition.