Penny is a UK scientist, a crime writer and an academic (Health Informatics), and currently Chair of the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society which is the largest writers’ organization in the world.
A writer all her life, she penned her first story at age 4 and won her first writing competition at age 9. In 2004 under the name Ellen Grubb she received an international award, the Crime Writers’ Association’s Debut Dagger, and can be seen here giving her acceptance speech at the awards lunch.
She has worked in a variety of jobs, having been on the inside of pathology labs, operating theatres and medical schools across Europe.
Home is with her husband and a transient population of family members and animals large and small in an old farmhouse in a small East Yorkshire village.
Penny’s work involves four different workplaces in three different geographical locations several hundred miles apart. Even with modern technology and cloud computing, it takes some serious organisation to keep the plates spinning on the sticks. To find out more about Penny and her work visit http://www.pennygrubb.com/index.htm.
What is the current project you are working on?
My current big project is launching the first three of my private investigator series in paperback: Like False Money, The Jawbone Gang and The Doll Makers. They were published in hardback by Robert Hale in the UK over the past few years and are just now out in paperback with Acorn Press. I have had real support from WH Smith book stores who put in a big pre-order and I will be spending every Saturday from now to Christmas in a WHS store signing books - or maybe twiddling my thumbs whilst the shoppers meander by, but I hope not. I'm also writing the 4th in the series and I'm a little behind schedule with it, partly because I have a children's book that I'm rewriting for a different publisher.
How do you set your book apart from other books in the genre?
The way I see it, we are all different and we experience the same things in different ways. And the trick is to bring that over into the books. My trade mark is to keep things credible and authentic for a 21st century private investigator and then to make sure that the books are written from right inside my heroine's head. That way, they are different from any other book because it is always uniquely Annie's story. I also draw a lot on my own experience. I've never been an investigator but I've worked in forensics, in diagnostic pathology and spent a decade heading a research team in health informatics. There is an element in all these roles of searching for something that will be hard to find and that might not be there at all.
What inspired you to become a writer?
I think it must have been growing up in a home where books and libraries were such a big part of life. I don't remember a time when I didn't want to be a writer, specifically a novelist.
What is the best thing about being a writer?
A specific high point for me was winning a Crime Writers' Dagger for The Doll Makers. More generally, the best thing is the satisfaction of being able to record the world in words, to capture emotion as well as facts and figures, and to be able to do the same for worlds that exist only in my head.
What is the worst thing about being one?
The all too prevalent assumption that writers don't need to be paid for what they do.
What advice would you give to an aspiring writer?
Learn the craft, otherwise you're fighting with one hand tied behind your back. If you're serious, make time for your writing because if you wait for time to become available, it won't. And practice. Get words on paper. Don't expect a masterpiece first time. You wouldn't expect to hit the bullseye the first time you fired an arrow so don't expect the same with writing and don't allow the page to remain blank just because you can't find the perfect set of words.
What is the estimated number of projects you have worked on?
I've lost count, but it's dozens. The first novel I had published had been at the back of a cupboard for years and I'd given up on it. A publisher wanted a later one in the Annie series and I had to get out that first badly written one and redo it. I rewrote those 100k words from scratch several times. If nothing else, it taught me not to be scared of rewrites.
What do you like to do besides writing?
I have two-day jobs and they are 200 miles apart, so with novels to write, there isn't a lot of time left over, but my favourite form of relaxation is to walk on the beach with my husband. I'm a full-time academic. I teach various topics including academic writing techniques and creative writing, but for the past few years my time has been partly bought out so I can Chair the Authors' Licensing and Collecting Society www.alcs.co.uk which is the UK society that collects and distributes fees to writers for secondary use of their work. Last year the ALCS collected just over £30m. With over 80,000 members, the ALCS is probably the largest writers society in the world.
Who is your favorite author? What are some of your favorite books?
I'm taking these two questions together as I don't have a favourite author as such. I have favourite books / authors of the moment. I like Jeffrey Deaver's books because I enjoy the detailed unraveling of the puzzle, but I couldn't pick a favourite. They're the sorts of books I tend to read, enjoy and then forget. I like Danuta Reah's crime novels which are fairly dark psychological thrillers, Strangers being my current favourite. I like Linda Acaster's Torc of Moonlight which gives a very real sense of the history that lies just inches beneath our feet as we go about our daily lives. I'll happily reread many of the classics - Jane Austen, the Brontes, George Elliot. And I can still happily reread Richmal Crompton's brilliantly crafted William books. Recent great reads included Peter Godwin's Mukiwa and When a Crocodile Eats the Sun - and after reading the latter we no longer refer to cell phones in our family, we talk about the 'screaming in the pocket'. I found Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall unputdownable, too.
How would you describe the writing "scene" where you live?
It's vibrant. East Yorkshire is a hotbed for writers and has several literature festivals. I belong to a writing group that meets weekly and has members published in almost every genre, fiction and non-fiction. We have some great libraries as well, currently under threat. Protecting our libraries is a big deal for local writers at present.
How has social media changed the publishing industry?
I wrote about this 4 years ago in the Guardian Books Blog when I was first appointed as ALCS Chair. http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2007/nov/30/theendofthewritingworldi And I stand by what I said then. The simple answer is massively. Like any revolution, there's a period of upheaval during which there will be winners and losers and eventually things will settle down. The digital world will revolutionise the publishing industry. Already we're seeing an unprecedented rise in Indie publishing and with it new industries to service the various elements of the process. I don't have the answers but I'm confident that the world will always need great content and thus will always need writers.
What is your thought process like when you're writing?
Depends what stage I'm at - planning, drafting, editing, polishing. Getting down the first full draft is when I really get in the zone and can write non-stop for as long as my hands can take the typing. If I had regular working hours, I would write in the mornings and edit in the afternoons, but if I have a deadline to meet I can generate the mental energy to write almost any time of day or night.
You could have any super power. What would it be?
I already have all the super powers I need.
Do you believe in life on other planets?
I'm a scientist. I believe it's a statistical certainty that there's life out there somewhere. Whether or not it's life that we would recognise as such is another matter.
What is your opinion on book to movie adaptations?
Some work, some don't. I've known great books make dreadful movies and vice versa. An example of a great book making a great movie is Silence of the Lambs. I'd love for my books to be adapted for TV, but no one has the money right now.
If you could have any first addition book. Which would it be and why?
Ah ha! Here's a chance for a clever answer, given that I always enjoyed Math, I should think up an 'addition' book to put here. However, I think you meant 'first edition' and that's a tough one. I'd either go for a first edition of a book, any book, written by one of my ancestors. There were a good few writers in the family and we don't have a full collection. My other option would be purely mercenary, I'd go for a first edition of Ulysses so I could sell it for a hundred grand or so, retire from at least one of the day jobs and devote more time to my writing.
