74 APRIL 2020 http://www.writers-online.co.uk
AMY’S TOP TIPS- Make time to write and never give up.
- Go to book festivals and author events.
- Fake it ‘til you make it. You have to be
prepared to talk about yourself and
your work publicly and positively. - Be open to advice from people you
trust. Don’t be precious about your
manuscript: good advice can lift your
work to another level.
NEW AUTHOR PROFILE
AMY
MCLELLAN
Adrian Magson learns a new word from
the debut psychological thriller writerco-founder of Capital Crime, Adam
Hamdy) works very long hours. I’ve
written everywhere – at football
matches, ice rinks, soft play, on the
beach, in car parks and cafes – and
spent a lot of late nights in front of
the laptop.’
Her love of writing came very
early. ‘I’ve always loved books and
writing. As a child, the headmaster
called me “the girl who writes stories”
and it’s always been something I
felt compelled to do. As an adult,
the jobs I’ve held have always been
writing-based as I love playing with
words and finding the right tone of
voice for different audiences. But
being an actual author felt like a
dream that was out of reach. I wrote
lots of poems as a child and short
stories as I got older, and there are a
number of unpublished novels sitting
in my office and notebooks full of
ideas for stories.’
As with most writers, Amy admits
to having had many rejection letters.
But they always contained enough
encouragement to keep her going.
‘Never give up, and make time to
write. Get a notebook and write
whenever and wherever you can, even
if it’s just 200 words a day – that’s
73,000 words in a year.’
She’s also a strong advocate of
getting involved in the writing
community. ‘I’ve learned so
much from author events in local
independent bookshops and festivals
like Capital Crime, including tips
on plotting, pace and structure from
best-selling authors, plus support
and encouragement from others. I
found the idea of self-promotion and
talking about myself excruciating, but
that’s part of a writer’s life. And it
does get better with practice, honest.’
Amy’s next book is yet to be
announced.I
don’t think I’ve ever profiled
anyone who had an idea for
a book from a word I’d never
heard of... but Amy McLellan
has corrected that omission with
her debut Remember Me, which will
be published by Orion in paperback
in April.
The word is prosopagnosia, known
as face blindness, which is an inability
to recognise faces. According to Amy’s
research on the subject, it’s not as rare
as it might sound.
As Amy, a freelance journalist
and copy editor explains, ‘Francesca
Pathak [now editorial director] at
Orion knew someone with face
blindness and it got the cogs whirring
about how this would work in a
murder story. I did lots of reading
and research about face blindness and
brain injuries. Although it sounds
very rare, up to one in fifty people
may have the condition to some
degree, often without knowing it.
It’s amazing how many people have
contacted me to say they either have
the condition or know someone who
has it – for some people, it’s almost a
“ta dah” moment of making sense of
difficulties they’ve faced in their lives.’
Sarah, the central character in
Amy’s book, witnesses a violent
murder but she suffers from the
condition and can’t identify the killer.
Framed for the murder, it’s up to
Sarah to find the real killer in a world
where she can’t trust anyone.
But how do you catch a killer when
you can’t recognise a face?
‘The book was written very quickly
over the summer of 2018,’ says Amy,
from Shropshire. ‘It felt very intense
living inside Sarah’s head, to the point
where I felt like I was developing
face blindness myself. I have a job
and three children, and my husband
(fellow author, scriptwriter andLISTEN
TAP HERE
To hear an
extract from
Remember Me