My book, Stabbing the Rain, is a slim volume of short stories about a loosely connected group of women approaching their forties and simultaneously approaching a crisis in their lives. Some of them are connected by a shared convent education, others collide by chance in hospital, or by stealing each other’s husbands, but each story stands alone. Some of the stories germinated in my head as long ago as the 80s, when I was living in Egypt. Others, such as the ones involving the diagnosis of multiple sclerosis, were written far more recently. Some of the stories are autobiographical (one friend said reading them was like spending the week with me) others are purely products of my imagination. All take a nugget of reality that I hope readers can identify with, and transform it into fiction.

Tell us more about these women.
The women all have a history which I colour in to give some background while focussing on the moment they find themselves in. Delilah is on a dirty weekend in Venice with her married lover when he abandons her. Jennifer has had an abortion, and is riven with regret. Maggie has just had a baby but also a diagnosis of MS. Flora’s family don’t recognise her after a facelift, and a new bride falls for her stepson. These are strong issues, but these are also strong women struggling to face a life changing situation. But although the stories are not afraid to face the darker side of life which I suppose have weighed on my mind over the years, they aim to have the lift of optimism, hope or solution at the end.

What kind of readers will it appeal to?
Although some men have read it and enjoyed it, it would mainly appeal to intelligent women of all ages who can identify with social, marital, familial and health issues in the course of a supposedly normal life, where something clicks and everything goes out of kilter.

What genre are these stories?
These are short stories which fit into the category of literary contemporary women’s fiction.

Are there any authors out there writing similar work?
Rose Tremain, Helen Dunmore, Rosie Thomas, Helen Simpson, Anita Shreve.

Stabbing the Rain is a great title for a literary book. Does it come from the stories themselves?
The title comes from something my then three year old, a feisty, stubborn little boy, said to me one day when he was playing in our very small garden. He was wearing nothing but some shorts and wellies, and punching his plastic Halloween tripod at the sky when it started to rain. When I asked him what he was doing he said ‘I’m stabbing the rain!’

Tell us a bit about yourself.
I am an Oxford educated married mother of three boys living in Winchester. My first son was from a previous relationship, and my two younger ones are with my husband who I knew for a long time before we finally married when we were getting on in life! As well as writing and taking portrait photographs I work part time for criminal lawyers, am host mother to foreign students, and generally try to keep the ship afloat. I have wanted to write since I wrote my first novel aged 8, and permanently live in a dream world. My interests, reflected in my writing, are food, wine, cinema, photography and travelling.

Why do we feel that we know you?
I have written a raft of erotica under the pseudonym Primula Bond, the latest of which, The Silver Chain, is published by Avon Books. BUT I want people to read these stories and enjoy them, because one or two will be expanded into novels that I am working on now.

Do you have a website where we can keep up with your work?
www.anastasiaparkes.blogspot.com.

How can we follow you on Twitter and/or Facebook?
I am on Facebook and also Twitter
@anastasiaparkes.

What’s next?
I am developing one of the short stories into a novel which is a love story where everything looks dreamy until MS strikes.

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Read our interview with Primula Bond here.