Live Radio With Karen Skinner

One of my favourite questions is when someone asks me, ‘Hey Karen, what do you do for fun?’ I can then say, ‘I write novels,’ (as you do). I’ve written all sorts of short stories, but for novels Ilove writing crime fiction with a strong conspiracy twist.It’s criminally good fun.I’m a print operator by trade and temp to support my writing habit. In between assignments I write about my brave, but troubled protagonist, Kim Anderson and her fight against the sinister Fireflight organisation.The best storiescome from the most unlikely places and if you enjoy blending crime and conspiracy as much as I do, you’ll never run out of ideas.Some of the most entertaining ones are heard around a restaurant table (usually one with a very good bar) and,near the end of the evening, somewhere between the coffee and taxi home, the conversation will start to dip into the events on the news. Someone, who should have excused themselves a couple of drinks ago, will then lean forward to whisper, ‘I’ll tell you what really happened.’This is the moment when most of the dinner guestswill pull out their phones to call the local cab office. I pull out my phone too, but I press the voice record button.