Inside the Mind - Bridget Finklaire

Let me take you back to 2013. I had lived in Cape Town for almost a year, and it was my first winter. With no heating, rain beating down on my small rented apartment, and feeling a long way from home (England), I had connected with a friend from UK. I knew I had to write a book, and she inspired me to start. I always work intuitively, so I went into a meditative space, connected with my GPS - "Greater Powerful Self" - and started writing what was to become my debut novel, Red Dress!

I'm in the midst of writing a non-fiction book, called The Bone Circle, which is based on a training program I developed in 2017. On the back burner, is the sequel to Red Dress! Red Dress, which I published in 2021, is set in London. It follows the life of Katy, a career woman in her 40s whose seemingly perfect life is beginning to unravel. With a disconnected marriage to a power-hungry man, the pressures of teenage children, and the daily juggle of work-life balance, Katy feels lost and disillusioned. An impulsive decision sets off a chain of events that changes her life forever. An encounter from the past and a mysterious sequence of numbers lead Katy on a rollercoaster ride of self-discovery. With apprehension and humour, she walks a transformational path of spiritual awakening. Delving deeper, she sees what truly matters and discovers her life purpose.

My daughter, trained as a professional actor, was taught to develop characters for stage and screen. She taught me a lot about characterisation. I spend a long time creating characters who are believable and relatable. It's one of the things that reviewers often mention. I know each character inside out, so I can get inside their minds and think like them, talk like them, and know their deepest secrets - the ones that are not revealed overtly. I seek to understand what makes each character tick. That probably comes from my life as a psychotherapist!

Chaotic! I'm a binge writer. I lead a busy life with many strings to my bow, so I'm not one of those authors who sits and writes between 9am and 11am, Monday to Friday! I write when I have time, energy and inspiration - and once I start, I find it hard to stop until I finish a chapter. I can sometimes write into the early hours for several days, then not write at all for weeks!

Learning my craft, being published and receiving such positive feedback!

Time and energy. I was very sick with a mystery illness when I wrote Red Dress. I had no energy and frequent migraines. I juggle a busy schedule, so this is the biggest challenge of all.

No. I don't go in for gadgets. I just write on my laptop in Microsoft Word. I loathe AI because it tries to take away your unique voice - so I avoid it as much as possible.

Learn your craft. Be patient. Develop your characters so they are rounded. Edit, polish and let go of extraneous words.

I don't. I'm terrible at book promotion. I did an online launch for Red Dress, and a social media campaign, and a mail-out. Luckily, my publisher, Collective Ink (formerly John Hunt Publishing) did most of the promo for me. I did a lot of podcasts and interviews, which you can find on my Bone Circle YouTube site.

Completing The Bone Circle© book, then creating video content and a new website, dedicated to The Bone Circle, which is a teaching based on eighteen principles – called Bones. These enable you to live the life you love. I designed it as an inspirational and transformational course with practical tools that string together as pearls of wisdom. I'm also working on the sequel to Red Dress - and that's under wraps for now!