1. What is your most recent book about?
Murder on a Summer Break is the sequel to Murder on a School Night, a comedy murder mystery where friends Annie and Kerry had to solve murders involving menstrual products. In Murder on a Summer Break, they’re back and Annie’s given them the nickname The Tampon Two! After Annie decides that she wants to be an influencer, The Tampon Two end up at Heather’s Festival of Fame – a festival for influencers that she’s holding on her farm. Unfortunately, all is not as it seems at the festival, and soon one of the most popular influencers at the festival is found dead.
2. What is the weirdest or most interesting thing you had to research for your book?
For this book I HAD to watch a lot of TikTok, which was obviously incredibly difficult (It wasn’t) and I really struggled (…to tear myself away from it. Why is scrolling so addictive?) So that was fun. I also had to do some googling about some things to do with some of the deaths and the murder weapons… I’m keeping it vague here because I don’t want to go into too much detail and spoil it for anyone that hasn’t read the book.
3. You write both adult and young adult books; do you prefer writing one? What do you change (aside from the obvious) when writing for these different ages?
I honestly love writing for both. I think there’s far more that’s similar in writing for adults and young adults than people realise and I’m so grateful that I’m lucky enough to get to do both. It’s really mostly the character’s ages that change and obviously some of the more adult themes! But for the most part…there’s not as many differences as people might think!
4. Which one of your characters was the hardest to write?
Ethan the male feminist was probably the worst character I’ve ever written. I spent the entire time I was writing him with my face screwed up into a wince, hating myself for even thinking of the things he was saying. He is truly awful and went against everything I believe in.
5. If you were stranded on a desert island what 2 books, 2 movies and 2 animals would you bring?
2 books: Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging by Louise Rennison and Lucy Sullivan is Getting Married by Marian Keyes. Both of them are my ultimate comfort reads.
2 movies: Booksmart and 10 Things I hate about You.
2 animals: My cat Angus (Of course) and probably my friend’s dog, Barney. The most stoic and adorable of little border terriers.
Bonus question:
1. Can you tell me about your cat? He’s so cute.
Of course! An excellent question! Angus is a Scottish Fold cat. He’s about 5 years old and he loves treats, me sitting still so that he can sit on me, lying on his back and pretending to want tummy tickles so that he can attack hands (although he never claws or bites!) and waking me up in the morning by trying to lick my nose. I know I may be biased but he is the best cat in the world.
