AJ Grainger
About Author
Annalie Grainger studied English Literature at Exeter University and worked in PR and subediting before becoming fiction commissioning editor at Walker Books.
She works on books for children of all ages but has a particular passion for YA novels - and has now written her own YA bookS, Captive (published by Simon & Schuster), which she began while studying for her writing MA at Birkbeck University, and In Your Light.
She lives in London and loves writing and editing because it means she gets to talk about books all day.
Interview
IN YOUR LIGHT
SIMON & SCHUSTER
MAY 2018
IN YOUR LIGHT by ANNALIE GRAINGER, author of CAPTIVE, explores love, loss and finding oneself, as well as important questions around mental health, through the story of two sisters, one of whom goes missing.
The story is told in a dual narrative with Lil, whose sister Mella has disappeared, and Brilliance, a member of a community of women who worship light. Gradually, the past is revealed and we come to learn more about Lil and Mella's relationship as well as what lies behind the mysterious cult of women; could their worship of the light be hiding a much darker secret?
Author ANNALIE GRAINGER tells us more about her latest novel, IN YOUR LIGHT.
Q: This is your second published novel; how did your experience of writing In Your Light differ from your debut, Captive?
A: Well, I had a tiny baby during the edits, so sleep deprivation was definitely more of a factor! I also think I felt under more pressure this time because I had a contract.
I was also aware of how exposed I felt when Captive came out. It sounds mad but it had never occurred to me that people might read it! I found the reviews hard, even the good ones. I am more prepared for that this time - I think - and I took the writing process and editing much more slowly to make sure that this was really the novel I wanted to write.
Q: What for you is the heart of a novel when you are writing?
A: The characters - the plot, setting, everything falls apart if we don't care about the people at the centre of the book.
Q: You mentioned that your volunteering work at Missing People helped develop your idea for In Your Light. How did it help you to write to this novel?
A: I had an idea for a book about a runaway teenager so I got in touch with Missing People. What began as a half-hour research session turned into eight months' volunteering on their 24-hour helpline. I was just so inspired by the work they were doing to help both those missing and their families. It was one of the hardest and most rewarding things I've ever done, and the experience shaped the book.
After that, Mella's story just took over, and Lil's absolute commitment to finding her sister was what began to drive the book. None of the events are real or are related to anything that I experienced. But it was a determination to try to represent the issue of "missing" fairly and with compassion that I took from my time on the helpline.
Q: Why did you decide to tell this story in dual narrative, from both Lil and Brilliance's perspective?
A: The idea for the book came to me as "missing sister" and "cult", so it just made sense to set one half with Lil and one half in the Sisterhood.
Q: Mella, the sister who disappears, has mental health health problems that are gradually revealed. Was this an area you needed to research in order to really understand Mella's character?
A: Many aspects of Mella's mental health issues are drawn from personal experience so, while I did lots of research into many aspects of the novel, this part came more from me. Among other things, I was keen to show how varied people's experiences are and how very, very hard it can be to ask for help. You can become very good at hiding how you really feel from all those around you.
The new focus on mental health, and how we all have to take care of our own mental health, is so positive. I hope it eliminates some of the stigma attached to mental-health issues and allows more people to get the help they need and deserve.
Q: Was it also important for you to show that the family Mella ran away from was caring and supportive, not negligent or abusive as might be assumed in the case of runaways?
A: There are myriad reasons that people run away. I was keen to avoid perpetuating stereotypes. Also, for me, love and hope are the backbones of this book, and I wanted those two things to shine out more than anything else.
Q: You also explore the idea of cults in your novel and how they can manipulate and distort how people think. Why did you decide to make this a part of Mella's experiences, and why is the cult in your novel run by women?
A: All cult books seem to centre around a charismatic man! I wanted to show that women can be equally powerful, alluring and dangerous. I was also keen to avoid the suggestion of abuse that sometimes runs through those books. Again, I wanted love and hope to be at the heart of this book, and to run through the Sisterhood, despite everything that happens there.
Q: There are many ideas explored in the novel, as each of the sisters learns more about themselves and life. What would you like your readers to take away from In Your Light?
A: Towards the end of the novel, there's a line from Lil's viewpoint: "Sadness pinged in her chest, and she wondered how sadness could come so quickly on the back of all that happiness, but then, as clearly as anything, she realised that was just how life was." For me, that's what the book is about - the crazy happy-sad-joyful-painful mix up that life is, and how we're all just doing our best to negotiate it.
Q: What are you writing now?
A: I'm working on a detective mystery aimed at adults. It's very early days and I've never written a book for adults before, but I'm enjoying the experience so far!
Q: How does your writing day go?
A: I don't really have a writing day! I work three days a week as a commissioning editor at Walker Books and then I'm at home for the other four with my two-year-old. My writing happens in the spaces in between - usually very late at night or very early in the morning. Most of the final draft for In Your Light was written at 4 am.
Writing is something I love, though, and I'm a great believer that if you want to achieve something then you find the time to do it.
Q: What was your first job in publishing and what surprised you most about the publishing world?
A: My first publishing job was as a junior publicist. I loved publishing, but I knew very quickly that PR wasn't for me. I'm an introvert at heart and, although I love meeting authors, I found the touring and socialising bit much. I'm much happier in editorial!
Q: You now work as an editor - what are your top tips for young writers?
1. Write everyday, even if only for ten minutes.
2. Start up a writing network, so you can share your work and get feedback.
3. Read as many books as you can and as widely as you can, so that you can hone what kind of writer you want to be.
Q: Who are your favourite contemporary authors?
A: Rainbow Rowell, Celeste Ng, Donna Tartt, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Margaret Atwood
Q: Can you share three things our readers won't know about you?
1. I love sewing, and I used to make a lot of my own clothes. (It's harder to find time at the moment with a toddler in the house!)
2. I am very clumsy.
3. I get grumpy if I'm hungry!
In Your Light by Annalie Grainger is out now (£7.99, Simon & Schuster)
CAPTIVE
SIMON & SCHUSTER
FEBRUARY 2015
AJ Grainger's CAPTIVE is a tense and intriguing story set in the world of politics. The prime minister's daughter Robyn witnesses her father being shot before she herself is kidnapped. As the kidnappers gradually reveal the reasons behind their actions, Robyn is forced to question her view of politics and to reassess her perceptions of her father.
We asked AJ Grainger to tell us more about her debut novel and she answered the following questions for us:
Q: Your day job is as a commissioning editor. Have you always been interested in books and writing?
A: I have always written, I remember making my own books since I was tiny and when I was at university I started writing for competitions.
I loved books but I never thought much beyond the book itself so didn't think about a career in publishing. I ended up working in publicity and then magazines before starting to work as a junior editor at Walker Books. I'm now commissioning editor which I've been doing for seven years.
Q: Was working in publishing helpful or a hindrance in writing your first book?
A: I have always been really shy about my own writing, especially as I read so many fabulous books by other people. I eventually decided to do a part time MA in writing at Birkbeck University. I started working on Captive during the course and decided I needed to send it off to see what would happen. It was sent out under a pseudonym because I know so many people in the industry but when it was published, we agreed that we'd just use my own name, AJ Grainger.
On the other hand, being in publishing did help when it came to getting my book published because I knew what people were looking for and the standard it needed to be before it got to editors, plus I had a list of agents that I knew.
Q: Your book is set in the world of politics. What prompted you to explore that environment?
A: I think that politics can seem very alienating; by the time you're 18 you are just supposed to know how to vote and politicians expect you to go on and do that. So I wanted to explore politics from the inside, to shine a light on a world that many young people don't really know about.
I wanted to humanise that world by focusing on a girl who happens to be living within this political framework. There are still questions about big business and politics but the focus is how my main character engages with that.
Q: Do you feel young people should be more engaged with politics?
A: I think there is a lot of disillusionment with politics and that's not just among young people. We read about scandal after scandal, there's too much privilege, in-party fighting and so on, although I'm less interested in Politics than politics.
There are so many questions that we should be fully engaging with as humans, like global warming and how we can help humanity develop. Those are the kinds of issues that I feel we should be talking about and that I think would also engage young people.
Q: In Captive you give us a pretty detailed description of what it's like inside 'Number 10' - have you visited?
A: Captive begins inside number 10 Downing Street but I haven't been there. Luckily you can take a virtual tour on the Downing Street website that shows how it looks inside and I did a lot of research into how number 10 looked when Thatcher lived there as well as the Camerons. Once I had an understanding of the layout, then I just started writing.
I did once find myself inside 11 Downing Street. It was for a celebration of children's books and I happened to look out of a back window and down into the garden next door and caught the eye of someone there who raised a glass. I suddenly realised it was David Cameron sitting out in the garden at number 10. It made me start to wonder how he manages to go home and just be a husband and a dad?
In Captive, Robyn's father is both a dad and a prime minister and it isn't until half way through the book that she realises that they are two different people and that his constituency sometimes comes up against his family. The book is about how she deals with that.
Q: Much of the story focuses on Robyn's relationships with her kidnappers. Did you need to do a lot of research into the psycology of abduction?
A: The book has a lot of action, there's shootings and abductions, but I also did a lot of research into how kidnapped victims can react when they find themselves in this kind of situation and their relationship with their kidnapper.
I read quite a lot about kidnapping victims, just to make sure that I knew what I was writing about. We've all read about the Stockholm Syndrome but I also read about the Patricia Hearst newspaper heiress who was kidnapped in the '70s. She was abducted by a small terrorist group and ended up robbing banks with them.
Q: How carefully did you need to plot your novel before you started writing it?
A: Because I've written a thriller, there are lots of different threads that need to be pulled together. However, I didn't plot the novel before I wrote it, I just had a sense of what the beginning, middle and end would be.
It was quite a painful way to write though - there were times when what the characters wanted to do, and what the plot needed, were hard to resolve. My second book was much more tightly plotted; that is also an adventure thriller for YA readers, but there are no politics.
Q: Why did you choose to write a novel for young adult readers?
A: There are lots of reasons why I write for YA readers. I remember how I loved reading at that age. There is so much energy with all those first experiences and changes, which makes it a very powerful time to write about, and I like the sense of redemption in YA literature.
Writers out there that I really rate are people like Rainbow Rowell (Eleanor & Park) and Jenny Downham who wrote Before I Die, and Lisa Williamson - everyone is talking about The Art of Being Normal. As an editor, I have found that social media has been great in helping me to find out out about new writers and to see what everyone is talking about.
Q: Since you work full time, when do you find time to write?
A: I get up early in the morning to write, I write from 6.30am to 7.30am, then I go to work. My husband leaves the house really early so that helps to get me up!
When I'm not working or writing, I love baking and sewing and making things, as well as going to the cinema.
Q: Any top tips for young writers?
A: Don't feel intimidated by not getting your story right the first time, don't feel that anything you write is wasted. I have written thousands of words that will never be published but I know I couldn't have written the book I have without those, so just relax and get on with the writing!
