With my short story, The Induction of Satine, releasing next month, I thought I’d share some character work for the eponymous heroine, Satine Luna.

One of my favourite thinking games is the casting game, where you imagine a beloved book as a movie or tv show, or a beloved movie remade or rebooted, and set up your own cast of actors. I play this game a lot when imagining characters for my stories. Even a very short story like Birdwatchers gets the brain treatment, though to a lesser extent than a novella like Chasing Sisyphus.

I’m currently loving Emma Stone as my model for Satine. She has those sly facial features that would easily typecast her as a thief. I quite like the look of Rhianna, Vivian Hsu and Olivia Wilde as well, for different variations of this character.

Since putting pen to paper, I’ve had a very strong image of her in my head. Red hair, green eyes, smooth skin, lips that taper off in sharp corners on the edges of her mouth. But note, you won’t find a description in this book. I left it out on purpose, because it’s inconsequential to the story. If there are more stories in future, maybe it’ll come up then, but for now, dear reader, Satine is yours to style (assuming I haven’t ruined it for you already).

Entirely through fault of her own, our brainy yet misguided vixen finds herself running with the infamous thieves’ guild, the Night Foxes, stealing trinkets and secrets from rich people. Until one day — no spoilers — she gets caught. That’s where our fun begins.

The Induction of Satine comes out 7th Nov.