Shes published more than a dozen novels to date, with plenty more on the way.

How many more have you got coming out?

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Three more?

How are you so prolific?

But its been a busy year.

Do you have to do a lot of planning to keep everything straight?

Speaking ofMayhem: its about the Thames Torso murders, a real spate of unsolved murders.

Why did you decide to write about that?

So I punched it into Google as you do!

you know, 19th century, unsolved crimes and it was just there.

I wondered about that while I was reading it.

And its much more gruesome!

Did you have to do a lot of research into it?

I did a lot of research, mainly from books and the internet.

But there were a couple of really good books about it.

And the Ripper stuff helps with that.

Its weird, isnt it, our fascination with the Ripper?

I know, this guy slashed up women!

Have you seen the Mary Jane Kelly photographs?

Luckily, theres a lot of info on the Ripper.

And luckily, also, theres not so much on the Thames Torso murders.

The police files are gone, so no-one can go excuse me, this is wrong…

I mean Im sure theyll find something, but you know, Im a fiction writer!

All of your books seem to have something macabre about them.

Do you class yourself as a horror writer?

Life is dark, isnt it?

I dont really fit into a genre any more.

I think theres a lot of overlapping between crime and horror.

Id considerSilence of the Lambshorror, you know?

You were a teacher for six years before you became a full-time writer.

Do you think that feeds into your writing at all?

Were you writing while you were teaching?

I wrote my first five horror novels while I was teaching.

and Id say, maybe before the book!

How did you make the transition from teaching to writing?

and I said, yeah!

So I got the job, and ended up writing two.

Its a weird thing, the way life works.

Because I didnt go to America, I went to Scotland.

A friend of mine gave me her house to live in, but I loathed it.

I suddenly realised that without a job you dont meet anyone.

So I did about three weeks and a friend said, if youre unhappy, just come back.

Jo Fletcher at Gollancz asked some people about me, and we went for lunch the next week.

Over that weekend, I worked so hard getting this three-book outline done, and they bought it.

And that was it.

Earlier this week you mentioned youd written 2,000 words by 9am in the morning.

Is that normal for you?

How much do you write on an average day?

That doesnt happen every day!

With the historical ones, its a lot harder because you have to stop and double-check facts.

What first made you want to become a writer?

Was there a book you read that made you think I could do this?

No, I dont think so.

I just always lived in stories in my head.

I believed I was a Martian princess until I was 10.

I never had a moment of wanting to be a writer.

I wanted to be an actress, but writing was just a thing I always did.

And then I started to really enjoy it.

I just read all these stories!

It was the first moment when I thought, well, maybe Im not terrible.

As well as books, youve written for TV and film.

How is that different from writing a book?

Oh, its completely different.

With TV, your first draft just doesnt matter.

Its just a whole different kind of storytelling.

Im still learning to do both.

Theres a control you have with words, but theres a magic to screenwriting.

You wrote an episode ofNew Tricksthat aired last year.

What was it like watching it?

It was so weird.

I was so nervous.

The edit was a really interesting process to watch, seeing how someone else pieces your story together.

But yeah, watching it was awful.

I was with my friend Phyllis Logan.

Shes an actress, so she understood.

Because its your own words, it feels fake.

Youve said in the past youd like to write forDoctor Who… Only because it frustrates me a lot of the time.

And they dont have any women writers!

But I think, if Im honest, I am designed to write my own stories.

I have this thing that other writers get annoyed with me about, which I call word-whoring.

I dont even mean it rudely, really, but when I did theTorchwoodnovels, I called that word-whoring.

I would not sit at home and writeNew Tricksfanfic, you know?

And I still give it 100%, even when its word-whoring.

Sarah Pinborough, thank you very much!

you might buy Sarah Pinboroughs novels viaher Amazon store, here.

An exclusive Sarah Pinborough short story also appears inour Den of Eek!

charity ebook, which you’re able to buy here.

And you might follow her on Twitter:@SarahPinborough.