Meeting Sophie McKenzie

Sophie McKenzie visited Waterstone’s this week, and for me (an avid reader of her books) this was brilliant. Sophie was doing a book signing for her new book Sister Missing. She also read some of the book – a special treat for the teenage audience.

I managed to set up an interview, and got to meet her. (This was my first interview and I can’t think of anyone better to have it with than my favourite author! Not just for that reason but she was also really responsive and reassuring.)

I needed to know about her characters, her books and how she writes them. And why the long gap between Girl Missing and its sequel Sister Missing? (It’s taken a few years for her to write the sequel, but it’s obvious that she has captured another side of main character Lauren’s Who am I? question really well.)

Apparently, she thinks about them all the time, and she explained how usually she just sits down and writes – but they are always in the back of her mind. Sophie said, “I takes a note book around with me in case I see or hear anything that I can use in a book.”  Much of her discipline stems from her previous career in journalism. She manages to avoid writers’ block; she just ‘gets on’ with her books.

It was obvious that she thinks about every aspect of her characters’ personalities. Listening to her, it seemed like they were real people.

Sophie is a really inspiring author. I can’t wait for her next book.

Matt Gray

http://www.youngjournalistacademy.co.uk/2011/09/meeting-sophie-mckenzie/