A creative challenge

‘I find so much inspiration from reallife, real-world events firing up my imagination for so much of my fiction,’ writes subscriber Drew Payne. ‘Often just the bare bones of an event will inspire a story. ‘I am not above using events from my own life to fuel my fiction too. It can be a way for me to write about things important to me.

‘When I was twelve, my grandmother died from cancer. It left a lasting and uncomfortable memory. Even forty years later, I can remember so much from that time. This became the starting point for my book Five Days. It is a child’s eye view of terminal illness. It is about twelve-year-old Byron, whose mother is very ill but no one is telling him why. Instead, he is pushed to the side as people try to protect him from what is really happening.

‘Though losing my grandmother was the inspiration here, so much of this