I
write thrillers for young
adults, suitable for age 11
upwards. My irst book,
Lying about Last Summer
was selected for the WHSmith
Zoella Book Club, and is
about a girl who feels guilty
about the death of her sister
who drowned in a pool the
previous summer. While at a
bereavement camp, she receives
messages from someone
claiming to be her dead sister.
That book was followed
by See How They Lie, set in a
wellness retreat in the States.
My third book, Your Turn to
Die, is about three families
who meet at a country house
every year, and my latest,
Dead Popular, takes place in a
boarding school by the sea. I’m
now working on another story
of secrets, lies and murder, this
time in a regular secondary
school, similar to the one
where I work as a librarian.
I prefer to write irst and
check stuf later, unless it’s
impossible to get the scene
down without prior research.
It feels more eicient because
then I understand exactly
what I need to know. My main
research tools are the internet
and talking to experts, or
people who have experienced
what I want to write about.
Dead Popular is set in a
boarding school but I didn’t
go to one, so I sought out
people who had. Someone told
me how she and her friends
would use their phones to
photograph staf inputting a
passcode on a gate, then zoom
in afterwards. I used that to
allow my characters to sneak
out of their boarding house.
Someone talked about her
gleeful times leading younger
students over the roof. Another,who had loathed her time at
school, told me:, ‘There were no
rules when the lights went out.’
That was a chilling sentence
which stayed with me. These
‘real life’ accounts helped me to
develop my ictional characters.Voice
One of the reasons I write for
teenagers is because I clearly
remember how it felt to be
one myself. I can tap into the
emotions I felt in the 1980s
pretty easily and that’s very
useful, but to write in a voice
that feels authentic to today’s
teenager requires me to do a
lot of listening.
I had three teenagers at home
for a while, but I only have one
now, so I’m making the most
of having her around. I listen
to how she speaks with her
friends, and it’s often diferent
to how she and others her age
speak to adults.
I love teen slang and ind
it fascinating but I try not to
use too much of it in my books
because it dates, and can be
particular to a region.As a school librarian I’m
well placed to listen to teenage
speech patterns. I’ll note, for
example, the way a student
might start a sentence with
‘Wait...’ or ‘Also...’ and end it
with ‘..., right?’ I’ll jot down
phrases that appeal to me.
Recent ones include ‘Don’t
kill my vibe’ and ‘If you’re
interested, hit me up.’ If I’m not
sure how to phrase something,
I ask a teenager, but the danger
is when you don’t know what
question to ask.
I was talking about teen
language with some Year 8s
(age 12-13) a while ago, saying
something about mobile
phones, and a boy told me that
he’d never call it that – for himit’s always been just a ‘phone’.
I recently heard the term
‘aired’ as in ‘opening a
Snapchat but not replying’.
Social media is prominent
in my books because I’m
writing contemporary iction.
In Lying About Last Summer,
I made up a messaging app
because I didn’t want to date
the story, but I’ve noticed
that other authors mention
speciic platforms so I do it
occasionally.
It’s when you’re discussing
your characters with others as
if they’re real that they come
alive because the voice is not
just about the words – I’m
interested in young people’s
sense of injustice about
situations they have no control
over, loyalty to friendship
groups, anxieties about how
they are perceived, and their
opinions on a diverse range
of topics.Setting
Setting is especially important
in thrillers because it builds
suspense. Mine tend to be
claustrophobic. I’ve been asked
how I went about researching
bereavement camps for Lying
About Last Summer. The truth
is such camps don’t really
exist but regular activity ones
do, and there are also various
charities that run holidays
for teenagers. I meshed the
two together, and went on
websites such as PGL Travel for
inspiration. I also talked to my
children about the centres they
stayed in when they went on
their school journeys.
See How They Lie was set in
the States for plot purposes – I
needed a place where healthcare
is less regulated than in the
UK. I trawled the internet forSue Wallman explains to Anita Loughrey how her research with teens
makes the voices of her characters and the setting come alive
Research secrets
It’s the
painful episodes
in life that
make the best
iction
AUTHOR KNOW-HOW