Why did you start writing?
In the beginning, it was more to do with something to take up time after
I’d lost my job…and to get the idea that had been brewing over an eight year
period out of my head and onto paper. I discovered it was something I could do and
it not make me any sicker, plus I really enjoyed it which is always good when
doing any kind of work.
Why did you choose that
theme for the book? Did it just pop into your head or was it (part of it) real
experience?
90% of it was already written in my head before I started writing, but
there was some of it that ended up the way it did because of experiences I’d
had. Lisa’s experiences at her previous school were down to some personal
experience, and I discovered that you can only write what you know…and I know a
lot about hospitals and medicine, so yes, that obviously has a lot to do with
the way I write and what I write about.
Do you recognize yourself
in one of the characters?
I think there is a part of me in Tally, as well as Lisa. I was very much
like Tally in that I didn’t fit it, but I’m like Lisa in that I didn’t care
that I wasn’t part of the elite group.
Did you want to tell a
message (moral) with the book?
There wasn’t one when I started writing, but the more I read it, the
more I see that there is a moral hidden away. It’s okay to be yourself and if
people don’t like it then they aren’t worth it, your real friends will stand by
you through thick and thin and “fitting” in isn’t the most important thing in
life – I think everyone can relate to that, at some point everyone goes through
a stage of not fitting in, even the really popular kids.
What’s your favourite part
of Blackout and why?
I’d have to say the ending, because it just came together so well. I’d
known how I wanted it to end from the beginning, but I was worried that it
wouldn’t make sense or it would be too obvious and such, but it’s not turned
out that way and I just love hearing about people’s surprise at the end J
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