Over to Margaret:
I feel we writers are a very privileged lot. Okay, most of us don’t have our own islands in the Caribbean or a fleet of Rolls Royces – although this doesn’t mean I don’t I live in hope – but we’re so lucky to be able to do what we love. I don’t know where the desire to create stories comes from, or why we writers are not satisfied with just the one reality. But I do know I’ve needed to make stories ever since I was a little child, even though I didn’t get round to writing them down until I had children of my own. Maybe having incubated those additional brains spurred me on and made me seriously creative, whereas I’d just been playing at being creative before?
My own novels are mostly set in the recent past – I write about my parents’ and my grandparents’ lives. The social history of the two world wars fascinates me and, since this is a huge subject, I don’t suppose I shall ever get tired of it. The courage (and there are many kinds of courage) of ordinary people in terrible situations motivates, moves and inspires me, and makes me want to tell their stories. 
If you’d like to read a story of mine set during the First World War, please leave a comment and you could win a copy of my novel The Silver Locket, which is the first in a trilogy about the Denham family and is set in Dorset, London and France. I’ve recently brought the Denhams’ story up to date and my next novel is a romantic comedy set in the present day – but that, as we say, is another story!
You can find out more about Margaret James at her website http://www.margaretjames.com and her blog at http://www.margaretjamesblog.blogspot.co.uk
Or talk to her on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/margaret.james.5268
