Author Interview with Savita Kalhan author of The Long Weekend

Hey guys, I have a special treat for you this Friday to kick start the weekend, an author interview with the hugely talented Savita Kalhan who is in fact a lovely, very sane woman despite her gritty, psychological thriller for teens The Long Weekend. The Long Weekend has been receiving huge praise throughout the blogosphere as of late but in case you haven’t heard of it here’s what it’s about. "Sam knows that he and his friend Lloyd made a colossal mistake when they accepted the ride home. They have ended up in a dark mansion in the middle of nowhere with a man who means to harm them. But Sam doesn't know how to get them out. They were trapped, then separated. Now they are alone. Will either of them get out alive?"

Interview with Savita Welcome to Jess Hearts Books Savita! Hi Jess, thanks so much for inviting me here today! Your review of The Long Weekend was amazing, and I’ve been looking forward to this interview!

1.) How did you come up with the idea for The Long Weekend?

The idea came from something that almost happened – a flyer went round the local schools in my area warning that a large silver Merc or BMW had been seen cruising outside schools at pick up and drop off times. It made me wonder how easy it was for a predator to abduct a child, and I realised that it’s not so easy, but we all know that in real life it does happen. A scenario came to my mind where it happens with frightening ease. 2.) The Long Weekend is an intense read, were any parts hard for you to write? Yes it is intense, and yes some parts were very difficult to write! The writing came easy, it was the effect it had on me that was hard. Some scenes made me cry, others made me angry and there were some that gave me nightmares. Whatever Sam was feeling, I felt too. I did wonder how far I would be able to go in terms of writing about Lloyd and what he goes through, but in the end I realised I didn’t have to describe it all in detail in order to convey to the reader exactly what happens to him. 3.) Why did you decide to write about two 11 year old boys opposed to just one boy? Or for that matter a girl was it a conscious decision? No it wasn’t a conscious decision on my part. When the idea for the story came to me, my characters arrived at the same time – particularly Sam. His voice was there right from the very beginning of the book. 4.) Did you do any kind of research before or during writing The Long Weekend? No, I didn’t do any research at all. It was one of those books that didn’t require any research. I have met survivors of abuse and heard their stories. That was enough. 5.) Why do you write for teens above all other genres? I love writing teen/YA fiction partly because I love reading the genre myself! I’m an avid reader and I always have been since I was a very young child. As I was growing up and moved from the children’s library to reading books from the adult library, I ended up reading pretty much everything in both libraries. I didn’t feel that there was anything missing at the time until much more recently. There is now a teen/YA section in all libraries and bookshops, which have a huge variety of books that cross all genres, and that’s something that wasn’t there when I was growing up. I think it’s great that it was finally recognised that there was a huge gap in the market and that there were readers who needed and wanted books that bridged the gap between childhood and adulthood. I’m really happy to be playing a part in that. Besides I think teen/YA literature has some of the best reads out there no matter what your age! 6.) You’re a UK based author, is The Long Weekend available in other countries besides the UK? If not are there any plans to go global? At the moment The Long Weekend is only available on Amazon as a book and as an eBook, but the Book Depository ships the book anywhere in the world for free, so that’s pretty good. It can also be bought through Random House as Andersen Press, my publishers, are affiliated with them. But I am hopeful that one day The Long Weekend will go into translation and be available everywhere. 7.) Are you working on anything at the moment? If so can you tell us a little bit about it? At the moment I’m working on a psychological thriller about a 14 year old boy who wakes up in a hospital bed with no recollection of how he got there or who he is. I’m almost at the end of it, so I won’t say any more about it yet... You can get regular updates at my website, http://www.savitakalhan.com/ where you can have a look around, and even leave me a message on my message board! Or on twitter http://twitter.com/savitakalhan Or on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Long-Weekend-Savita-Kalhan/117223691628538 8.) Describe The Long Weekend in 3 words. Pretty damn terrifying! It was great talking to you Jess!

Thank you for doing this interview for us Savita! To find out more about Savita Kalhan or The Long Weekend stop by the links mentioned in the interview or read my review for The Long Weekend here.