I think I’d be better suited to live in medieval times. This is because I am more preoccupied with the afterlife than life as I know it. I would be a learned monk who would copy precious manuscripts by day and contemplate the glory of eternal god by night. I would be living a good life on earth – this pit of disease, war and misery – so that I could leave it behind one day and transfer to the green pastures of paradise.

But because, by some freak of nature of which I had no control, a random roll of the dice brought me to this earth in the twentieth century I pretend not to be that serious about the afterlife. I serve it with a pinch of salt and a shot of tequila in the Suspended Belief series.

My first story about a trip beyond death (and back) was my debut novel, Life Without Me. It opened the doors to agents and publishers, and I found myself a published novelist. That story is about a woman called Georgie who ends up in a coma, and is able to keep a watchful eye over her loved ones, her friends and enemies alike. At first she finds it hard to believe that life can go on without her, that people can get over her so quickly and move on. She spies on them (because she can) and learns things about them – and about herself – that previously she would’ve never believed to be true.

The second book in the Suspended Belief series has just been published. It is also about the afterlife, except that here the heroine takes one step further into the unknown and lands herself in hell. She has made one too many grave mistakes in life, and hell is her only option. But she doesn’t reconcile with her fate, especially because this isn’t just about her. She must save her child from doom and evil. She embarks on a perilous journey to heaven. Along the way she sheds her selfishness and the errors of her ways on earth. And although she treads on many toes, she also makes friends – perhaps for the first time in her life (or death). Her name is Paula and her journey into the afterlife is described in a book called Paula Goes to Heaven.

http://getbook.at/PaulaGoesToHeaven