There had been a lot written about vampires and werewolves so I consciously didn't want to write about them. For me, it was a natural move from middle grade fantasy into YA paranormal writing. Books like Faerie Wars, The Hobbit, LOTR played a huge part in my early YA reading. I also started interacting online with YA writers and readers, seeking advice about the different things I should take into account when writing YA - like swearing and love scenes! I was already a member of SCBWI which also helped.įantasy has always been my first love. Why did the world need another one, especially an inexperienced one? But the need to do something different burnt away at me as I was reading more and more YA novels and enjoyed them. There were so many good YA writers out there already. I saw YA as a challenge, something I didn't really think I would be able to do. Some took home the whole manuscripts to read which was a little scary, but they were truthful in what they liked and what they thought didn't work. I was able to read parts of the books out and get feedback from the pupils too. At the time, I was teaching Year 6 (10-11 year olds) in primary school so I had a captive audience for my stories. My first three books were middle grade fantasy novels about stroppy teenage tooth fairies.
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