To celebrate the festive season I've brought you a very special gift... Lilypad Library's FIRST EVER author Q and A!
Welcome to Natasha Mac a'Bhaird, author of the fantastic 'Missing Ellen' which was released in October (check out my review posted earlier). Natasha's novel about the difficulties of friendship is beautifully written and I am ridiculously excited about interviewing her!
So here it is YA fans, my Christmas present to you!
Hi Natasha, thanks so much for taking time out to do this Q and A, it is actually a first for the Lilypad Library!
Maggie and Ellen are such different characters, do you see yourself more like Maggie's character or Ellen's character?
I think Ellen is the person I would have liked to be as a teenager, but Maggie is more like who I really was – and still am! I was definitely the more law-abiding type who thought deeply about things, whereas I would have loved to be more carefree and more exciting like Ellen. But as I’ve got older I’ve realised it’s more than OK to be a Maggie! There are room for all sorts and I like how opposites like Maggie and Ellen often seem to attract – their personalities seem to balance each other well.
Did this make it easier/more difficult to write Maggie's letters?
I found Maggie’s letters easier to write than the flashbacks but I’m not sure it was because I identified more with her. Ellen was just as real in my mind. There is a lot of emotion in the letters, I could hear Maggie’s voice in my head and they just came pouring out. The narrative was more difficult and took a lot more thought and time!
For me the ending really came as a shock as what happens to Ellen isn't revealed until the very end. Did you know what was going to happen to Ellen before you started writing or did Maggie's story come first?
I did know what was going to happen. The ending came first in a way – it was just a matter of figuring out how I was going to get there!
Despite Ellen's behaviour, did you want readers to sympathise with her throughout the novel?
Ellen can be a bit thoughtless and has no regard for rules but that certainly doesn’t make her a bad person. I think we see her softer side in how kind she is to her brother Robert, putting her own life on hold to mind him after school when her mother’s not up to it.
Ellen can be a bit thoughtless and has no regard for rules but that certainly doesn’t make her a bad person. I think we see her softer side in how kind she is to her brother Robert, putting her own life on hold to mind him after school when her mother’s not up to it.
Apart from Ellen and Maggie, who was the most interesting character to create and why?
Liam was interesting and more of a challenge for me because I’ve never been a teenage boy! We don’t get to see as much of what’s going on in his head as we do with the two girls, but I hope he comes across the way he is in my head – a nice, kind, ordinary boy next door! Pete and Spider were interesting in a very different way as it’s always quite enjoyable to create bad guys.
Are any of the characters based on real people?
Are any of the characters based on real people?
Not intentionally, but possibly one of the teachers has something in common with one of mine. I’d better not say any more!
Thank you so much to Natasha and O'Brien Press for allowing me to do this Q and A. I would definitely recommend reading 'Missing Ellen', it is brilliant! (Any of those of you who get book/amazon vouchers etc for Christmas, this is a good one!!!!)
So that's it from me before Christmas day arrives!
Have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year !
Much love,
Georgia x
