(A list of things about Lying About Last Summer where some things are true, some things are false but no indication of which is which)
• My character Brandon was named after Brandon Stanton who founded Humans of New York, which I follow on Facebook. I was on Facebook in one of my (many) writing breaks when I was trying to name him.
• When I wrote the first draft of Lying About Last Summer I wrote it in chronological order and didn’t include any flashbacks.
• When Skye and Brandon go orienteering, Skye vaults over a five-bar gate. I used to be able to do that.
• There’s a paintballing scene in the book. I was once hit in the neck by a paintball pellet and had a massive bruise that looked as if someone had tried to strangle me one-handedly.
• I was shown an early version of the cover in black, white and red.
• The epilogue was the quickest chapter to write.
• There’s a farm shop in the book. I had a Saturday job at a farm shop for a couple of years when I was teenager.
• After I’d finished writing the book I read a story in the paper about a grandmother who’d been buried with her mobile. Her granddaughter used to text her to help get over her grief and was stunned when she started getting replies.
• For research I interviewed someone who runs activity camps for teenagers in Scotland.
• My middle daughter helped me get the kayaking scenes right. She’s kayaked for England.
ANSWERS! (Highlight to see)
My character Brandon was named after Brandon Stanton who founded Humans of New York, which I follow on Facebook. I was on Facebook in one of my (many) writing breaks when I was trying to name him. TRUE – I’m a big fan of Brandon Stanton
When I wrote the first draft of Lying About Last Summer I didn’t include any flashbacks. TRUE – I misguidedly thought it was frowned on to put flashbacks into young adult fiction
When Skye and Brandon go orienteering, Skye vaults over a five-bar gate. I used to be able to do that. TRUE – I used to get a real kick out of doing this
There’s a paintballing scene in the book. I was once hit in the neck by a paintball pellet and had a massive bruise that looked as if someone had tried to strangle me one-handedly. FALSE – I’m too much of a wimp to go paintballing
I was shown an early version of the cover in black, white and red. FALSE – I only ever saw the finished cover and as far as I know there wasn’t one in black, white and red
The epilogue was the quickest chapter to write. TRUE – it just all came together really easily (the only part that did)
There’s a farm shop in the book. I had a Saturday job at a farm shop for a couple of years when I was teenager. FALSE – when I was a teenager I worked in a café and the local post office, and I was also a chambermaid
After I finished writing the book I read a story in the paper about a grandmother who’d been buried with her mobile. Her granddaughter used to text her to help get over her grief and was stunned when she started getting replies. TRUE – the grandmother loved her mobile so much she’d been buried with it. Then O2 reassigned the number to someone else and when the granddaughter texted the number to feel close to her nan, the man who’d acquired the number texted back as a prank.
For research I interviewed someone who runs activity camps for teenagers in Scotland. FALSE – I based the camp on a mix of activities my daughters had done, trips they’d been on, and internet research
My daughter helped me get the kayaking scenes right. She has kayaked for England. TRUE – apologies for parental boasting
Did you uncover the truth? Make sure you follow the rest of the blog tour!
