IN
SEARCH OF THE MEANING OF DEATH, SHE’LL FIND THE MEANING OF
LIFE.
Seventeen-year-old Scarlett Blake is haunted by
death. Her estranged sister has made the ultimate dramatic exit.
Running away from school, joining a surfing fraternity, partying
hard: that sounds like Sienna. But suicide? It makes no
sense.
Following in her sister’s footsteps, Scarlett
comes to the isolated cove of Twycombe, Devon, with grand plans to
uncover the truth. Alone. But she hasn’t reckoned on meeting two
boys who are determined to help her. Luke: the blue-eyed surfer
who’ll see the real Scarlett, who’ll challenge her, who’ll save
her. And Jude: the elusive drifter with a knack for turning up
whenever Scarlett’s in need.
As Scarlett’s quest for
the truth unravels, so too does her grip on reality as she’s always
known it. Because there’s something strange going on in this little
cove. A dead magpie circles the skies. A dead deer watches from the
undergrowth. Hands glow with light. Warmth. Power.
What
transpires is a summer of discovery. Of what it means to conquer
fear. To fall in love. To choose life. To choose death.
To
believe the impossible.
Once upon a time a
little girl told her grandmother that when she grew up she wanted to
be a writer. Or a lollipop lady. Or a fairy princess fireman. 'Write,
Megan,' her grandmother advised. So that's what she did.
Thirty-odd
years later, Megan writes the kinds of books she loves to read:
young-adult paranormal romance fiction. Young adult, because it's the
time of life that most embodies freedom and discovery and first love.
Paranormal, because she's always believed that there are more things
in heaven and on earth than are dreamt of in our philosophy. And
romance, because she's a misty-eyed dreamer who lives for those 'life
is so breathtakingly beautiful' moments.
Megan grew up in the
Royal County, a hop, skip and a (very long) jump from Windsor Castle,
but these days she makes her home in Robin Hood's county, Nottingham.
She lives with her husband, a proud Scot who occasionally kicks back
in a kilt; her son, a budding artist with the soul of a
paleontologist; and her baby daughter, a keen pan-and-spoon drummer
who sings in her sleep. When she's not writing, you'll find her
walking someplace green, reading by the fire, or creating carnage in
the kitchen as she pursues her impossible dream: of baking something
edible.
1. If you could work
with any other author, who would it be and why?
Meg Cabot. I love her
style, and very much admire her versatility in writing across
different genres and her work ethic – I’d love to be as prolific
as she is. I like the sassiness of her heroines, and the humour she
injects into everything she writes.
2. What would
be a typical writing day for you? When and where do you write?
I write for as many
hours as I can around work and family commitments. I’m an early
bird, so I try to start by 7.30 a.m., and I go through solidly until
lunch. Then I’ll go back until the school pick-up at 3, and then
try to do some editing in the evening. Occasionally, I take a writing
sabbatical and do a ‘writing binge’ for a few days. Before my
daughter came along I spent every Sunday night for a couple of months
at a local hotel, writing from check-in at 2 p.m. until midnight, and
then 6 a.m. to checkout at 12. It was a very productive time for me,
away from distractions.
At home I write in my
writing room, which has a big desk overlooking the garden. But
sometimes I need a change of scene and a bit of a buzz – and
coffee! – so I decamp to a local cafe. My other favourite writing
spot is in the arts library on the university campus near my home.
The smell of old books there is intoxicating.
3. What is the
hardest part of the writing for you?
The way it consumes me.
When I’m in the concept, first draft and rewrite stages, the story
takes me over. I love the feeling, but it can make focusing in other
areas of my life tricky. The day job becomes more challenging, and at
times I find I’m washing up/cooking/building Lego
towers/finger-painting with the kids in a dreamy haze. At its worst,
that can mean slightly charred dinners and Technicoloured children.
Thankfully, my family is very understanding!
4. When and
why did you first start writing?
I’ve
been writing for as long as I could write. In my ‘treasures’
shoebox I have my very first story, written aged six. Reading it now,
I assume my school was offering a Most Adjectives Crammed Onto a Page
Prize – I can’t fathom why else I felt the need to be quite so
descriptive. From there, I wrote many stories through my childhood
and teens, but I didn’t quite get the courage together to write a
book until adulthood. I’d written a lot of non-fiction books before
I took a stab at fiction, and then I was hooked. When I write
fiction, I feel like that six-year-old again, totally enchanted by
writing. I think that’s the crux of why I write - it’s the most
‘me’ I can get; it’s what I always knew I wanted to do. So it
takes me to a really happy, calm, fulfilled place.
5. How did you
come up with the idea for your book?
Death Wish –
and the Ceruleans series – began life as four discrete ideas that I
planned to make into four discrete books. Then one day as I was
walking (something I do when I’m looking for inspiration) the ideas
knitted together, and from there the overall story arc of the series
took form.
There are many
inspirations for the book. The story is quite personal to me, based
on a mix of experience and fiction woven from my imaginings and
ponderings. The setting – in a part of coastal Devon where I spent
every summer as a child – was a key inspiration. But the story,
about love and loss, light and darkness, good and bad, is based on my
own efforts to make sense of a world in which people close to you can
die; in which being true to yourself can be incredibly difficult; and
in which love – for people, for places, for a way of being, for a
passion and an ethos – is the only reason to hold on.
6. Are you a
big reader? If so, what are you reading now?
Oh yes! I don’t cope
well with being ‘between books’, so I always have a stack of
paperbacks and a few novels lined up on the Kindle ready. I have to
read a lot of books for my day job, but I also make time to read
according to my personal preferences. At the moment I’m reading an
early Richelle Mead novel called Storm Born. I only recently
discovered Richelle, and as I always do when I find a new author
whose work I love, I get hold of the entire back catalogue. This
edition of Storm Born is pretty battered, as I bought it
second hand on Amazon, but I think I’m enjoying it all the more for
that – I love ‘loved’ books.
7. Do you have
any advice for other aspiring writers?
Have fun and keep
writing! I’ve worked with plenty of authors who risk killing the
joy of writing by getting bogged down in the business of being an
author (and, consequently, give up after one book). I try not to take
myself too seriously. I love to write, and if others enjoy reading
what I write, that’s a brilliant bonus – but either way, I’ll
still write.
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