You might have a question about me. I've answered a few questions here. Why not see if I've answered yours?

When did I write my first story?
When I was five and had just learned to write. My teacher gave me a big red exercise book and asked me to write a story. I started to write about an evil goblin and a gigantic vat of boiling toffee. I got quite carried away and filled nearly the whole book with my enormous messy handwriting. I can't remember what happened in the end of the story but I can still smell that toffee!

What did I do before I was a writer?
I've always been a bit of a writer. I used to be an actor in a theatre company, and we wrote all our own plays. That was really good fun because it meant we could write ourselves really good parts too. I used to love playing lots of different characters, doing all the voices. I think that was a big help to me when it came to writing the dialogue in my books. I got to play some of the characters from famous children's stories too. I was the Snow Queen in The Snow Queen, the rose in The Little Prince, Susan in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and Piglet in a musical of Winnie the Pooh.

What gave me the idea for Opal Moonbaby?
It was my own daughters. They wanted to read something funny and exciting that wasn't about a) fairies, b) princesses or c) mermaids. Don't get me wrong, they loved fairies and princesses and mermaids too, but once they reached the age of about eight, they were starting to look for something a bit different.

They both really loved Astrid Lindgren's Pippi Longstocking books (and I enjoyed reading them aloud at bedtimes) and if Opal is inspired by anyone it has to be Pippi Longstocking. She's so carefree and funny; she really makes me laugh. Opal’s a very entertaining character to write about. Alien girls who land on earth and live on their own in the human world can get into all sorts of trouble.

It's not just about Opal though. Martha and Robbie, the human children in the story, are very important too. I think Martha's probably a younger version of me really, and when I'm writing about Robbie I think a lot about a boy who lives in my lane. I won't tell you his name – I don't want to embarrass him!

What advice would I give to someone who would like to become a writer?
Be curious like this little person...

(And yes, OK, it is me but it's a long time ago and I didn't choose my own pants in those days!)

Don't forget to read and listen to lots of other people's writing first. In fact you can never stop reading and listening. It doesn't have to be just books or audio books. It can be newspapers and magazines, road signs, song lyrics, bus timetables, even the list of ingredients on a packet of biscuits. It all helps. Speaking of road signs, here's one of my favourites.

Other extremely important information about me:
• My day is not complete until I've eaten some chocolate.

• I live in a village near Bath with one husband, two daughters, two cats, three chickens and seven stick insects.

• I'm married to Gary Parker. He's a writer too. He writes for TV. If you're a Tracy Beaker or a Dani's House fan, you might well have seen one of his shows. So, with two writers in the house, guess what our daughters want to be when they grow up? Sigh! Oh well, there's still time for them to change their minds and be rocket scientists.

• I have two big brothers. They used to tease me when I was little and I used to call them the Ugly Sisters! Here they are.

What do you think of them? Pretty ugly, eh? Actually, they’re much more handsome these days, although they don’t have quite so much hair.

• I have a pizza oven in my garden and an apple press so I spend a lot of time making dough and juicing.

• My family has a coat of arms because my dad was a knight. (Not the kind that wears armour though unfortunately.)

• I like playing tennis but I'm not very good at it and I like doing yoga but I sometimes get a bit tangled up.

• I'm not very brave. If I had to choose between twiddling an elastic band and doing a bungee jump, I'd choose the twiddling. Every time.

• I think being on the top deck of a moving bus is the best place to write.

• When I'm not writing, I like gardening, going to the theatre, doing crosswords, cooking, reading and singing in the bath and knitting (not in the bath).