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Award winning teen author, Sophie McKenzie visits AHS
On the eighth of July Aylsham High School students were treated to a visit from award winning teen author, Sophie McKenzie, a few of us; (Alice Brooks, Alice Gaudet, Annie lamb, Chloe Ward, Delfi Goodings and Sarah Reeve) were able to interview her about her writing. The interview is as follows:
What inspired you to start writing?
I love books, I loved stories since when I was young and I love sharing stories.
Which is your favourite book that you have written?
I enjoyed writing all of them, but ‘six steps to a girl’ was the one that I most enjoyed writing, because it was a romance not a thriller which are harder to write, I think I enjoyed writing it more because it was funnier and lighter.
When did you start writing?
I loved writing at school, but I never thought that I could write properly, I thought that authors came from some other literate planet, and you had to be super clever to be one, but when I gave up freelance and published my first book ‘girl missing’ I realised that anyone who’s creative and imaginative can write. After that I got a contract with the publishers and it all kicked off, I started writing properly around six or seven years ago.
When do you plan to release/write another book, is there one on the way?
Well my next book in the blood ties series is coming out in October, and obviously my new book the rescue is just out, there might be another one in progress soon.
In the medusa project they all have magic powers, if you could have a magic power, what would it be?
In the medusa project they all have pretty awesome powers, but they all have draw backs, for example one of the characters have a power which enables them to move objects with their mind, and I think people would be pretty freaked out by that and wouldn’t want to socialise with someone with that ability. One that hasn’t been mentioned in the books is flying, I would love to fly!
Do you think that your books appeal to boys as much as they do to girls, or do you think your books are written exclusively for girls?
Well I know that quite a lot of boys read my books, from the feedback I get, especially blood ties series and a few boys have read. Six steps to a girl, yes. I think that my books appeal to both sexes.
Are any of the characters in your book based on you or people you know?
Well all of my characters have a bit of me in them, Ryan is like me in the way that he meticulously analyses and worries over everything, and it quite funny actually, but Six steps to a girl, Luke the main character is very much like my brother and I didn’t realise it when I was writing it but when he read it, he read the first few chapters then put it down and said “Sophie, this is about me, isn’t it?” and I remembered when we were in high school he had liked a girl in my class then after a while he got to go out with her, and actually, I was very like Chloe is in the book, really rude to my mum, and a bit cheeky.
Ok, thank you very much.
No problem.
Interview written by Delfi Goodings
