In France, Nikki Gemmell is described as a female Jack Kerouac, in Australia as one of the most original and engaging authors of her generation, and in the US as one of the few truly original voices to emerge in a long time. Her latest work is The Book of Rapture.

Mark Thwaite: The Book of Rapture opens with three children waking up in a basement room of a large city hotel. They have been drugged and taken from their beds in the middle of the night... You have 3 kids, Nikki, so does a story like this begin by exploring your own worst nightmare?

Nikki Gemmell: I wanted to write something along the lines of a thriller with this book, and of course, a thriller needs a gripping scenario - one that would wrench not only my own heart but the reader's. You can't move a reader unless you, as the writer, are also moved -- so I wrote about fears that are close to me. I cried as I was writing some of these scenes. It's a nightmare scenario. But I also wanted to write a book that's infused with love, that's uplifting and sings with hope.

Mark Thwaite: Your novel deals with our belief in -- and relationship to -- science: tell us a little about your heroine and her work...

Nikki Gemmell: The protaganist is a scientist who's involved in the field of genetics -- and warfare. I've taken as my cue Salman Rushdie's rallying cry for novelists: "A writer's work is to name the unnameable, to point to frauds, to take sides, start arguments, shape the world and stop it from going to sleep." I like provocative books that force the reader to face uncomfortable truths. The Book of Rapture is about a scientist who develops a weapon of mass destruction like no other -- and documents the moral journey she goes on. It's a book of our time that's looking at the conflict between science and religion. It asks questions like: Are human beings incapable of ethics and morality without inventing a god? Have we outgrown religion? Does goodness evolve? If science does destroy religion -- what moral code do we then live by? Have we outgrown the religious approach to the world? What can science tell us about love/heroism/sacrifice/laying down one's life for another (I wanted a book full of the heroism of the human.) Religion is about how humans should behave; science has no such fences. I'm fascinated by that.

Mark Thwaite: You published your first novel, The Bride Stripped Bare, anonymously, back in 2003. Aside from writing The Book of Rapture what else have you been doing over the last 5 or so years?

Nikki Gemmell: Living! Actually, The Bride Stripped Bare wasn't my first novel -- I'd written three before it: Shiver, Cleave and Lovesong. Over the past five years I've written a non-fiction book ("Pleasure: An Almanac for the Heart"), had a baby, raised two other kids, moved, and kept a husband (fairly) happy -- although he would have liked me to learn to cook at some point! But basically I've just plunged into life, which I think is a healthy thing to do as a writer. Raising a family constantly gets in the way of my work, but in a good sense. Being a mum puts you at the coalface of living, and I feel like that's a great place to be as a novelist. It's all fuel.

Mark Thwaite: How long did it take you to write The Book of Rapture?

Nikki Gemmell: Too long! I never know how long I'm going to take and go on a huge journey with each book -- they change enormously as I'm working on them. Everything from the characters' names to the ending to the title. The Book of Rapture was written over five years. I have to work in short bursts, around the kids, which is why the books take so long (and perhaps why the chapters are so short.) It always feels like I'm stealing time from other people when I'm writing; there's such a selfishness to it, but I need to do it too -- it makes me feel calm and strong, it stills me down.

Mark Thwaite: How do you write? Longhand or directly onto a computer, straight off or with lots and lots of editing?

Nikki Gemmell: I'm always carrying a notebook with me and am constantly jotting down ideas and observations, scraps of dialogue, quotes, possible titles, even drawings of interiors I'd like to use somewhere (a door handle, a light.) Then I mine these journals -- pour them into my work. At this stage I write directly onto the laptop but I'm a massive tinkerer, I never know when to stop. So I'm constantly printing out a draft and marking up each page with the changes, then retyping everything. The kids always have so much scrap paper for drawing -- the back of various drafts I've been working on. I just can't keep them all. The Book of Rapture went to about twenty drafts. At one point it was three times longer than it is now. I constantly pare back to accelerate the pace of the book. I have a horror of the reader becoming bored; want them gripped.

Mark Thwaite: What was the most difficult aspect of writing your book? How did you overcome it?

Nikki Gemmell: I find the entire process of writing difficult. Haven't found the magic formula. Every time I start a book I feel like I'm still learning, and the journey isn't getting any easier. The bar's getting higher, the stakes are being raised, and I'm always trying something new. I think the only way to overcome the difficulties of writing is to keep on going. Just do it. Tenacity is all, and persistence. Don't give up. Don't let the heart- sinkers of the world talk you out of it. When I first told my (ex-coalminer) dad I wanted to write books he said "waste of time, that." Thank God I didn't listen to him. I feel so lucky to be doing what I really want to in life. If he'd had his way I would have been a suburban solicitor wearing a sensible skirt.

Mark Thwaite: Did you have an idea in your mind of your "ideal" reader? Did you write specifically for them?

Nikki Gemmell: My readers are incredibly diverse -- male, female, young, old -- and I love that. Adore it when they write to me, love the dialogue between reader and writer. I don't write specifically for anyone. All I can say is that my heart has to be in whatever I'm working on -- and I'm always trying to be as brave as I can in terms of honesty. Through honesty, you connect.

Mark Thwaite: What are you working on now Nikki?

Nikki Gemmell: A new novel -- early stages -- can't say too much because I know it'll change so much. They always slip away from me and turn into something I wasn't expecting. But in a good way. It's always a big adventure and I'm never sure where it'll end up.

Mark Thwaite: Who is your favourite writer? What is/are your favourite book(s)?

Nikki Gemmell: Ooooh, so many! Ones I use as a tuning fork for my own writing: Micheal Ondaatje (especially his daring little Coming Through Slaughter), Marilynne Robinson (the luminous Gilead), Carol Shields (so much truth and beauty in her work, ie Unless), Cormac McCarthy (for scenes in All The Pretty Horses and The Road that effect me so much I can barely read them -- but to have that kind of visceral power as a writer; well, I can only salute him), Houellebecq (the audacious Atomised, for its daring and delicious grubbiness and unflinching honesty.)

Mark Thwaite: Favourite quote?

Nikki Gemmell: "Make it new." Ezra Pound

Mark Thwaite: Any tips for the aspiring writer?

Nikki Gemmell: Write as if you're dying. It's a great motivator.

Mark Thwaite: Anything else you would like to say?

Nikki Gemmell: I've just glanced over my shoulder at the gentle rustling sound that's been coming from the corner of the kitchen while I've been absorbed in these questions. My two year has opened a packet of chocolate biscuits, taken a bite out of every single one and smeared herself from forehead to toes in chocolate. I better go. Cheers!