Lexy Lockhart lives in the north of England with her 6 children, collection of pets and in a perpetual state of (almost) ordered chaos!! She is a huge football and rugby fan which helps her both relax and dream up fabulous new story ideas! She is fuelled by too much chocolate, copious amounts of coffee, an addiction to social media and bottles of Merlot!!
Lexy can be found on Facebook, on Twitter, pinning pictures (mostly of hot looking men!) on Pinterest or you can join her Newsletter for updates, exclusive content and regular subscriber only prizes and events!
1. How and when did you get started as a writer?
I can’t actually remember a time when I didn’t write. I can recall a song I wrote when I was around 7. Something about “don’t you love me, Alfred?”. I don’t know where I got the name Alfred from but I’m certain it was a total rip off of “Don’t you want me?” by the Human League which was out at the time!! I also won a contest and had a story printed in the school magazine when I was 10.
The books I’m writing now I’ve wanted to write for a long time but didn’t dare. It took a LOT of prodding, poking and eventually a good boot up the backside by some wonderful friends for me to put my fingers on the keyboard and create the Westchester United series J
2. How do you usually find your ideas?
I watch lots of sports so finding hero inspiration is never a problem J Ideas usually come from snippets of news articles or entertainment stories. Sometimes fully formed story ideas come to me while I’m falling asleep—which is frustrating because it means I have to get up, scribble down my idea and then try to fall back to sleep!!
3. Where do you write from? (home, office etc.)
I have a desk in my bedroom so I usually write in there but it’s currently over run by 7 beautiful but crazy kittens so I’m using the kitchen table a lot more than usual! That said, I can write anywhere when I need to. Waiting for kids at cheerleading practice, sat in the car while the little ones sleep…I make use of any minutes of peace I get!
4. How long does it take you to write a book?
I usually spend weeks vaguely planning things in my head then have a mad rush at the end to get the words down on the page. I think I wrote the last 30k of my last book in a chaotic 3 weeks before deadline!
5. What is your work schedule like when you're writing?
At the moment, it’s really hard to answer that question. I’m a foster carer and so my routine changes as the children I care for changes. I also homeschool so at the moment I’m learning to shut everything else down and write for 2 precious hours in an evening.
6. Do you have any suggestions to help become a better writer? If so, what are they?
I honestly think the best thing for writers is to read more. Of course that means you get terrible writer envy but it also means you get to see how other people craft their stories, their characters and even their sentences. Someone very wise once advised me to listen to stories and so I joined Audible. It’s amazing the things you hear that you don’t pick up when reading.
7. Something personal about you people may be surprised to know?
I’m a pretty good knitter…I don’t think people would expect that of me!!
8. What is your greatest weakness?
Chocolate. Definitely chocolate. Or maybe cream cakes. And also cherry cola.
9. What is your greatest strength?
I’m very very loyal.
10. As a child, what did you want to do when you grew up?
I wanted to be a nurse, a teacher or an author. I’m a parent to 8 at the moment so I pretty much think I have all of those covered ;)
Quick Q&A
1. Favorite movie.
I have so many…if I had to choose only one it would be Rebel. It’s an older film and has lots of music and Matt Dillon…yum!
2. Favorite website.
Sky Sports. I feel as though I should apologise for that. Or put something more interesting or writerly. But that’s the truth. It’s the first website I check when I turn on my computer.
3. Favorite color.
Red.
4. Favorite book.
This is impossible! At the moment I’m re-reading all of Lisa Gardner’s books and listening to Karin Slaughter’s on Audible. So they are my current faves!
5. Favorite country.
Again I have so many favourites but I’ll go with Italy because it’s the last place I visited and Venice is just so special :)