Very expensive pens are wasted on me because I’m so very good at losing them, but I do have a supply of Pilot G-2 07 black pens on me at all times. They work well even though I’m left-handed and are great for signing books as well as writing lists, letters and notes!
For some reason, I have to have A5 notebooks that aren’t spiral-bound, but other than that I’m not fussy! I like to always keep a thin notebook for my to-do lists, and another thicker one for when I’m planning my books. I’ve been using a lovely hardback Hufflepuff yellow one for my last three books – it’s finally running out, and I’m quite sad about saying goodbye to it!
The only other stationary items I buy all the time are letter-writing kits and sticker sets! I write to fans longhand, and like to decorate the letters with stickers (I get a lot of stickers and drawings, and think it’s only fair to respond in kind). Getting a letter from an author is a hugely exciting thing for kids – I want to make sure that everything about my response feels special.
I plan longhand, but write all of my books on my laptop, the same one I’m responding to this on! I write about two 60,000-word books a year – which I can manage because my books are always mysteries, and a mystery plot is quite quick to write once you’ve plotted it out properly! My newest book is The Guggenheim Mystery, the sequel to Siobhan Dowd’s The London Eye Mystery, and in February I’ll be publishing the sixth book in the Murder Most Unladylike series.
My website is at https://robin-stevens.co.uk/ and my Twitter and Instagram handle is @redbreastedbird.
