"I'm a flitter and a sipper: there is so much in the world that interests me. I might find a sentence in someone else's novel, something in the week's news about an earthquake or a technological breakthrough, something from my own family history, something about a friend, a celebrity, or just a stranger I see in the street."
Author Judi Moore is explaining the many things that can serve as inspiration for her words.
"I piece it all together like a colourful jigsaw," she says, "And hopefully, when I've finished, I've produced a page-turning read."
Her most recent one of those, Little Mouse, is a historical novella that was released towards the end of last year.
There was also the novel set in the near future, Is Death Really Necessary?
"The books are linked; they're about the same family, the Goldsteins, through four generations - one looking at their past and one at their future."
Judi gave up the day job and realised her dream of writing full time, in 1997.
And she's been hard at this wordy business ever since, teaching Creative Writing for the Open University for eight years from 2006, while also working on her own projects.
"I'm putting together a volume of some of my short stories which I hope will be published early this year.
"I've written a lot of these," Judi says.
"I use them as a shop window for my longer fiction, as well as enjoying them as a wonderful form in their own right.
"Some stories don't have the heft for a novel, but are jewel-bright as a snapshot or vignette.
"There is also the obligatory 'novel in a drawer' which was my first attempt at writing more or less 100,000 continuous words that had a plot which made sense and characters who could walk and talk and maybe even chew gum at the same time.
"And half a novel set in Roman times which swims in and out of fashion faster than I can finish it."
Being as creative as Judi clearly is, means that there are always several things on the go - especially now that she has left that creative writing tutoring behind...
"Now that I have all my creative time to myself I've been able to put about half of my next novel into first draft," she shares.
"This one is about Genghis Khan, his death and the centuries-long search for his burial place.
"I see in the press that they think they may have the tools, finally, to find his grave. I don't think they will. I explain why I think that in the book, which is a 'history and mystery' involving monasteries perched on the top of inaccessible peaks, warrior monks, tiny ancient planes and a plague of Mongolian mosquitoes...
Judi adds: "Genuine historical puzzles intrigue me. Like this next book about Genghis Khan. The search for various treasures, burials etc is a sub-genre of historical fiction.
"I enjoy research, so the facts which support my fiction are as accurate as I can make them. I'm a historian by training, a writer by inclination. But there's no room for dry facts in my fiction.
"History is equally important if one wants to write about the future; if one doesn't understand the past it is not possible to write a convincing future."
As for Judi's future? It's one bustling with words and brimming with ideas that want to beat a path to your bookshelf.
Both Little Mouse and Is Death Really Necessary? are available from www.amazon.co.uk
