Sophie McKenzie
About Author
Sophie McKenzie - 'an author whose profile is sky-high following major success on Richard and Judy' The Bookseller.
Sophie is the author of the multi award-winning Girl, Missing, as well as Blood Ties, Six Steps to a Girl, Three's a Crowd, The One and Only and Sister, Missing. The Medusa Project is a series for teens about a group of teenagers with psychic abilities.
Sophie lives in London with her teenage son.
**** Interview with Sophie McKenzie ****
When did you decide you wanted to be a writer and why?
Hmmn. The truth is that I can't remember not wanting to be a writer, so I guess ever since I could read. However, I only started writing fiction seriously a few years ago after I got made redundant from my office job. I took a creative writing class and within a month or so realized that writing fiction was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.
Where do you go or what do you do when you're looking for inspiration?
I listen to music - all different kinds, depending on my mood. Could be anything from hip hop or rock to Frank Sinatra or cheesy pop... Then I let myself daydream about imaginary situations, characters, stories, scenes etc. I also keep a notebook to write down ideas and bits of dialogue. You think you'll remember everything, but you don't.
What did you do before you were an author?
I was a journalist then, after my son was born, I worked part-time as an editorial manager for a business publishing company. I've also been a shop assistant, a waitress, an au-pair and a receptionist.
Describe yourself in three words...
This is very difficult...
Tenacious
Inquisitive
Impatient
...but I also like having fun!!
What kind of person were you at school?
A very irritating kind of person - I was good at everything except maths and science and generally popular. I made a big effort to get on with everyone, I was never in one clique or anything like that and I tried hard to please most of my teachers. However, when I didn't like a teacher I was sometimes rude and used to get sent out of the classroom and to see the headteacher.
Have you any advice for aspiring authors?
Yes:
Read a lot.
Write a lot.
Daydream a lot.
Don't give up.
What is the best thing about being an author?
Writing. Seriously! I'm doing what I love to do - and then getting paid for it!! It's also lovely when people tell me they've enjoyed my books.
And what is the worst thing about being an author?
When the idea or the character in your head doesn't come out on the page like you want it to. That's really frustrating.
How do you relax?
My ideal week is one where I write all day, then spend time with my son or go out with friends in the evening - but, if I'm on my own (which I also love), then I relax by listening to music. Like I said, I'm open to everything, but my absolute favourite is Bob Dylan.
What could you not live without?
Without a doubt, music.
Who from the past would you most like to have met?
Jane Austen, because she was such a fantastic writer - funny, observant and way ahead of her time in the economy with which she expressed herself. She was able to stand outside her own society and satirise it, but also be completely inside her character's heads, making them totally believable.
What is the most outrageous thing you've ever done?
Nothing very outrageous - like I said, I was a bit of a goody-goody at school. I did once (when I was 14) try to get rid of my maths teacher. I thought he was useless, so I wrote a petition explaining why and arguing that he should be sacked, then I got everyone in my class to sign it and took it to the headteacher. She wasn't impressed!
Author link
Interview
ALL MY SECRETS
SIMON & SCHUSTER
JULY 2015
Sophie McKenzie, an accomplished writer of psychological thrillers for teens, delivers a gripping and atmospheric story in All My Secrets, perfect for readers who enjoy thrillers with a touch of romance.
When Evie Brown discovers that the woman she thought was her mother is actually her step-mum, she doesn't know where to turn. She agrees to spend the summer at Lightsea island with other troubled teens, to try to resolve her past and make sense of her future. There she meets the gorgeous Kit, but she is also troubled by strange, ghostly sightings and mysteries that seem to be emerging from the past. When she realises that she is terrible danger, Evie has to decide who she can turn to for help.
We asked author Sophie McKenzie to tell us more about her latest novel.
Q: Your previous novels Split Second and Every Second Counts both have a political backdrop. Why have you returned to writing psychological thrillers in All My Secrets?
A: All My Secrets is very different from my previous two novels. Although they are all set in the contemporary world, Split Second and Every Second Counts are about public life with a political backdrop. All My Secrets is more like Girl, Missing, because the drama comes from a big family secret about the main character's origins, so I've moved from the political to a personal, family-oriented story of identity. That's what I wanted to focus on.
Apart from my Luke and Eve series, which is driven by the relationship, everything I write is a thriller with romance and I think there is a huge gap in the market for this type of book.
I'm not sure why this is what I write, I suppose it brings together those elements of stories I enjoy reading. The kind of television shows I like to watch are ones where there's a lot going on but where there's an emphasis on the relationship between the characters.
The big disadvantage in writing thrillers for YA readers is teenagers' lack of power to act independently, as well as the support network that the average young person has around them; their parents, social workers etc. Plus they are always in contact by mobile phone; there's always someone they can call on for help.
It was important for this story that the teenagers were at the centre of the action, moving things along, so I set All My Secrets on an island which has no 'phone signal, so they are cut off from adult help and support.
Q: There is a lot of focus on identity in the novel, but what was your starting point for the story?
A: I started with the character of Evie and the idea of inheriting money from someone you have never met. I thought that could be interesting but it needed to be more than that. The person she was inheriting from needed to be an important, significant person in her life; the mum she has never met.
At that age, it's easy for people to fantasise about an alternate family so I thought I should give Evie someone inspirational so I made her real mum a dancer, someone she could identify with. It was a great thing to write about and it taps into that YA desire that they have another 'real' family out there somewhere. I remember thinking 'I couldn't possibly belong to this family' as a teenager.
Part of the psychology of being a teenager is that you don't want to be like your parents; you're programmed somehow to not want to be exactly like your mother. You're working out that you're your own woman, hence mother and daughter relationships at that age can be tricky. Each generation needs to move on.
This is happening at an unconscious level and it plays out in what people do and say and that is why sometimes fiction can be better than psychological analysis in exploring how people act and think; we identify with fictional characters, we hook on to them and see ourselves more clearly than if we were reading an analysis of how we are.
Q: How did you develop the group of characters Evie is on the island with?
A: Another reason for having an island setting, apart from the lack of technology, was to have a finite group of people, so when someone goes missing or apparent murder has been committed, you know it has to be someone on the island; it would either have to be one of the six kids or an adult. So I liked the contained environment and knowing the antagonist has to come from that group.
In terms of numbers, if you make the group too big it becomes hard to juggle. I wanted each of the teenagers to have their own characters and to come over as strongly as possible, so six seemed a good number to work with, including three girls and three boys. It meant I could work them into the plot so each of them had something to do.
I had the idea for Pepper in my head, I hadn't done a funny, outrageous, ballsy girl before. She just walked in and in many ways was the most important character outside the romance stuff, she was a fun and funny character to write. I wanted there to be some lightness in the book and she provides it. Anna is manipulated, so she's the opposite of Pepper.
As for the boys, I wanted a love triangle so I needed two really hot teenaged boys and just as Anne and Pepper are very different, Josh and Kit are both very attractive but in different ways. I based them on two actors who are both attractive and charismatic. Thinking of someone who reminds me of the character helps me imbue my character with those qualities.
I found it a challenge to get the structure of the love triangle right. I really, really wanted the reader not to be sure who Evie would end up with so I kept it open, for myself, too. I also wanted the reader to not know which character she wanted Evie to choose.
Evie is on the island because of her problems at home. She wants to know who is her real mum and she also has lots of questions about her relationship with her father and the woman she now realises is her stepmom, not her biological mother, because they have lied to her or kept her real identity a secret.
Q: When you're writing a thriller, how hard is it to balance giving some clues while not giving away the answers?
A: For the plot to work, everything that happens has to be unexpected but convincing. The reasons for putting in the clues and hints is so that when you come back to think about the story later, you don't feel cheated.
What you often find is that adult reviewers read YA books from an adult position and they forget how little power teenagers have in their lives; they have very little money and are forced to do things that they don't want to a lot of the time. As adults we often overlook that.
Teenagers often want more rights and powers in their lives, even if they're not ready for the responsibility that comes with them. In fiction, it means you can push the boundaries so young people end up doing things that they tend not to do like, in this book, sailing across the sea by themselves. It's important to have that in fiction because young people don't have it in their own lives.
Q: Evie's problems begin when she finds out she's inherited a vast sum of ten million pounds. How different would your life be if you inherited that amount?
A: I would definitely buy a bigger house. We moved here six months ago and there's a lot of work to do on the house but we have to live here while it's being done. Wouldn't it be great if I could move out while the building work was being completed!
The truth is, the only thing I ever wanted to be able to spend my money on was a home and I love where I am and I don't really want anything else. There are things I might pay for, like experiences, but there are not material things I feel I lack like designer dresses and flashy cars. Maybe I'd set up an organisation of some kind and use it to do something I really believe in. But I think that rather than buying more things, I'd prefer to get rid of some stuff!
Q: What are you writing now?
A: At the moment I'm working on my next book for adults and then I have to decide if I want to write a new standalone YA book or to follow up All My Secrets.
I'm thinking about a follow-up because I like the relationship between Evie and her boyfriend, so there is more to be explored here, and the other, bigger reason I'd like to follow it up is that Evie is about to inherit a huge sum of money and there are pitfalls in that, so it would be nice to explore what happens next.
But I'll wait to see how readers respond to the story, to see if they feel it needs rounding off. The ease with which we get feedback from our readers, especially YA readers, is dramatically different now from just ten years ago and the use of social media, the immediacy of feedback you can get, makes it far more important than having a website.
Q: Where do you write?
A: I have a small room that's my office but it's not finished yet; that will have to wait until we've finished the kitchen! So I don't have anything in my office except for my poster of The Walking Dead, which is there to inspire me.
Q: Why that particular poster?
A: When I was writing Split Second, I got really stuck at one point and got bogged down with the plot and the weight of expectation. I was trying to work out how I could get out of the rut I was in when I watched episode four of season three of The Walking Dead, one of the most fantastic, dramatic episodes, and I remembered that this is what matters; to cut out the complicated stuff, make sure the stakes are high and go back to storytelling.
So I went back to Split Second and cut out things that were holding me back and got through it with no problems - then I got The Walking Dead poster and had it framed.
Q: What's your favourite escape?
A: I used to live in a flat but now our house has a garden and we are growing vegetables and there are all sorts of flowers left by the previous owners so I'm enjoying having an outside space.
Since I love stories and we're lucky to have a cinema at the end of our road, I might also go out to the movies or meet up with some old friends.
My hobby is writing stories and while it's not the most glorious or exciting hobby, I do enjoy it. I've also met a few 19 or 20 year old women who have read books like Girl Missing and gone on to read my adult books, and that's my dream, that people grow up on my YA books and then move on to my adult books.
SPLIT SECOND
SIMON & SCHUSTER
SEPTEMBER 2013
Sophie McKenzie's new YA thriller, Split Second, explores a social and economic landscape where deprivation, uncertainty and fear drive a resurgence in extremist politics.
Charlie and Nat, whose lives have been torn apart after a bomb tears through a market place, want to find out who was behind the bombing. They commit themselves to a powerful but unknown group that claims to want to put things right: to fight injustice, expose corrupt politicians and bring balance back to society.... but just how far is this elite force willing to go? And what part do the teenagers play in their plans....?
Q: Why did you decide to turn to politics for your new thriller?
A: I saw two TV documentaries. One was about the economic situation today in parts of the Eurozone. It looked at the rise of extremist political parties in times of economic hardship and showed how such parties often gather support by, among many other things, offering free food handouts. The other documentary was an exploration of Hitler's rise to power, with a focus on his personal appeal to millions of ordinary people.
I wanted to write about what can happen when austerity gets really tough and citizens lose faith in established governments. My aim was that everything in Split Second should have really happened - or be happening - somewhere in the real world.
Q: Does the book reflect your own concerns about where we are headed, politically and economically?
A: I believe in the view (which is expressed in the book) that democracy is our least worst option so the rise of extremist parties worries me greatly.
Having said that, one of the blessings (and curses) of being a writer is that I tend to see the shades of grey in almost everything. I automatically look at situations from lots of different points of view, so I tend not to have hard and fast rules about what specific governments should and should not do.
Q: What do you love and loathe about politicians and politics?
A: I am fascinated by the slippery nature of politics - the agenda of spin and the ability of politicians to speak and say nothing. I also find these things disturbing and frustrating!
Q: Do you think young people should have a greater involvement in politics? Did you as a teenager?
A: I had far more rigid views when I was younger, though I was never involved in party politics. Obviously its good when anyone - young or old - engages with the world around them, but politics is everywhere. You don't have to join a party or a pressure group to take a view or make a stand.
To be honest, young people have enough adults telling them what to do without me saying what they should or shouldn't do.
Q: You also tackle racism and I wondered how hard it was to portray this, especially as you have one scene where a girl is 'beaten' because of her race?
A: That scene was the hardest in the book to write. I wanted to show the viciousness with which such attacks can take place, but also to make Nat's repulsion at what he has to do very clear.
To be honest, I didn't enjoy writing it at all - it made me feel sick to think of these things happening in real life - but that made me all the more determined to try and write as convincingly as possible.
Q: You have a major twist in the novel so was it all carefully planned before you began to write?
A: I did know about the big twist beforehand, but lots of other elements were added as I wrote. I like to work with an outline, but not too much plot detail so that I have a structure to follow but the flexibility to keep the story fresh as I go.
Q: Did you always know which characters would survive to the end, as not all of them make it...?
A: No, that was one of the things which developed as I wrote.
Q: Do you enjoy reading (as well as writing) thrillers? What for you is key to a successful thriller?
A: I don't really think in terms of genre. I love strong, pacey stories with characters I passionately care about. For me, these elements are key to any successful story.
Q: What's your worst writing habit?
A: I have many bad habits. I'd say my worst is impatience - with myself and with whatever I'm writing.
Q: What book do you wish you'd written and why?
A: There are many books I admire, but I never think in terms of wishing I'd written one of them.
Q: What are you looking forward to reading?
A: I've just read Night School by CJ Daugherty and I'm looking forward to reading the next two books in the series.
Q: If your teen self could see you as you are now, what would she have thought?
A: I have no idea! But if I could go back and talk to my teen self I would tell her to worry less and take more risks.
Q: If you could fill a day with the things you love doing best, how would it go?
A: Writing, enjoying some good food (preferably cooked by someone else), having a laugh with friends and family, getting engrossed in a great story - basically a balance between inventing imaginary worlds and feeling connected to the real one.
SISTER, MISSING
September 2011
Published by Simon & Schuster
It has been two years since the events of Girl, Missing and Lauren discovered her birth family but it hasn't all been plain sailing since then. Trying to live between two families is hard. Then things take a dramatic turn for the worst when Lauren's younger sister is snatched from the beach...
Q: Did you always plan to write a sequel to Girl, Missing?
A: No, I hadn't planned a sequel to Girl, Missing and for about five years I didn't think there would be one. It seemed to have a really natural ending, Lauren finds her birth family and things are resolved so that she goes between the two homes, so what could I possibly write about that would be a coherent story companion with that?
And then I was watching a film, Fargo by the Coen brothers, and it sparked the idea for a story about a kidnapping with a twist.
I thought it would be a really interesting idea to put into a teen novel and the story suddenly came clearly to me, a kidnap story line that would fit in with the characters in Girl, Missing. If Lauren's sister, Madison, is kidnapped then Lauren has to go about finding her and that would enable me to show something new about the characters.
Q: How hard was it to return to the world of Girl, Missing?
A: I did re-read Girl, Missing before writing this because I wrote the first book such along time ago. There were a lot of things I wanted not to change; I wanted to write in the first person again and from Lauren's point of view. I made her two years older to allow for any differences that came up.
The kidnap of the sister is the link to the first book but I develop the overall story by having it much more as Lauren as older person maturing and trying to come into her own as a young woman, and her decisions make her the person she will become.
When people read a sequel they want the same thing but different, it can't be a carbon copy of the first story, or completely different, which is quite a challenge.
Girl, Missing was dominated by the question, who am I? Sister, Missing is also about who I am but who I am as a person, how will I behave under pressure, so the same characters are back but Lauren is more reflective. She bulldozes through everything but learns something about herself by the end.
I also make Lauren think that it is Stella (the original kidnapper from Girl, Missing) who is behind the latest kidnap but it may not be her at all.
Q: Did you enjoy writing about the same characters, or was it hard to go back to them?
A: As soon as I sat down to write Sister, Missing I was right back in Lauren's head and when you get back to the characters, it's like meeting up with really good friends; you've not seen them for years but you fit right back in again.
What drives the plot of Sister, Missing is the missing younger sister but what drives the story are the disagreements between Lauren and her other sister, Shelby.
Their younger sister, Madison, is gone and they have to find her but what gives the story more emotional interest is that Lauren is not just battling kidnappers but her mum is useless and the girls don't agree on what to do.
In Sister, Missing it's natural that Lauren is devastated about losing her younger sister but also natural that she is still not getting on with her other sister.
Q: Sister, Missing has a dramatic ending - did you always know how it was going to end?
A: I worked out the ending to the story about half way through writing it. All I knew before was the twist with the kidnapping, but it ends with another surprising thing happening.
Q: Are you planning a sequel to Sister, Missing?
A: As I was writing Sister, Missing, I thought it might be interesting to do a final book at some stage, something from Madison's point of view. That could be completely different from the two that came before, but in a similar style. In six years Madison will be 14 and so many things have happened to her, being kidnapped twice and her father died and her mother has gone loopy, it's a pretty traumatic childhood and she'll be an interesting person by the time she's 14. I'd think about how she survives and how her childhood influenced the kind of person she turns into.
Q: When you're not busy writing, what sort of books do you like to read?
A: I'm a big fan of psychological thrillers. I recently read Sister by Rosamund Lupton - as an adult, her sister went missing and I really enjoyed it, but I read it after I had written Sister, Missing.
I was also impressed by The Hunger Games. It's very hard to write a first chapter in a fantasy because you have to establish the entire world from the bottom up and create a strong hook for the reader. Suzanne Collins completely does that. I also watch a lot of crime drama on TV.
Q: Is there anything you wouldn't write about for teenagers?
A: There's only really one rule I have for myself. I don't think anything should be taboo (depending on the age you write for), but what I would never do is to end a book with no hope. The end of Sister, Missing is harrowing but I hope it ends on an uplifting note. Lauren has learned something about herself, it's a hard lesson but afterwards, she is more prepared to let people in and looking to the future and able to be more vulnerable with people.
All these things are hopeful, but I wouldn't apply that same rule to an adult book; adults are tough enough to have any ending. But with younger readers, while you can look at difficult things along the way, there needs to be hope.
All My Secrets
Sister, Missing
