Suzanne Conboy-Hill

Dr Suzanne Conboy-Hill is a former psychologist, Lascaux Short Fiction, Flash Fiction Chronicles, Pen2Paper, Mash Stories Finalist, and Best of the Net nominee. Her stories – some SF, some speculative, and some based in grim realism - have been published by Zouch Magazine, Ether Books, Full of Crow, Fine Linen, and the Lascaux 2014 anthology amongst others. She is editor (and contributor) of 'Let Me Tell You a Story', an anthology of literary fiction and poems by authors of rising international stature whose narrations can be accessed uniquely by QR code straight from the page. She is also, writing as P. Spencer-Beck, the author of 'Not Being First Fish and other diary dramas', a broadly non-fiction collection of observations dating from the MySpace era. Both are available from Amazon and Lulu. She lives in the UK; this is her website http://www.conboy-hill.co.uk

Credentials

Suzanne Conboy-Hill in 60 seconds

When did you start writing?

2009 in the UK.

What do you love about short stories?

I read novels but as a writer I'm more helicopter than long haul passenger jet. It's a challenge to realise sufficiently a whole world or an intense microcosm, its characters and drives in such a circumscribed space.

Do you write in other forms?

No.

What distracts you from writing?

Cats (between me and the keyboard/notepad/screen/book), garden birds, any purposeful interaction between cats and birds necessitating intervention, music.

Outside of writing, what are your other passions?

Innovative science that has implications for assistive application - helping people communicate, become independent, be more mobile for instance; noir drama, 'literary' music (BBC 6 Music is my downfall).

What is your favourite book?

I tend to forget what I've read and who wrote it almost immediately even when it had a profound impact, which is not great for discussion, conversation, or name-dropping.

Who are your favourite writers?

Isaac Asimov - but more for his vision than for his characters, Sarah Maitland - classified as a writer of fantasy but don't be deterred, there be (not) dragons and Michel Faber - novels and short stories.

Where is your dream location?

Wherever I am.

What one item would you put into Room 101?

Sitcoms.

Do you have any advice for new writers?

Learn the rules then subvert them.