This week something very different indeed! 'I Wrote it My Way' always comes up with some surprises but today we look inside the box and what do we find? Vampires!!
Author Suzy Turner is a 'Yorkshire lass at heart' but moved to live in Portugal when she was ten. She tells us how she came to write fantasy fiction for young adults - and probably a few older ones as well. Just look on Amazon or Suzy's blog to see all her stunning book covers:
'In my teens
and early twenties, there was nothing I loved to do more than curl up with
a chick lit novel. It was my absolute favourite genre. The pathos and
humour often blew me away but a few years later I was introduced to an
altogether different kind of book: YA urban fantasy.
I loved the
way the authors combined fantasy elements into a world which we know and love
today. Harry Potter, for example, a boy who lived in an ordinary house with
ordinary relatives (okay, perhaps the Dursleys aren't quite your every day aunt
and uncle, but you know what I mean!) was also an imperative part of a very
different world, one with magic, witches, wizards and talking giant spiders and
the like. I completely fell in love with JK Rowling's books, which led me to
start reading books by other authors in the same genre. In fact, I could say I
devoured them!
Later came
Twilight, bringing vampires and werewolves to life. I was immediately hooked.
This came around the time of my very first holiday to Canada in 2009 (with
husband and friends). We spent three weeks travelling from Banff (Alberta) to
Vancouver (British Columbia). It was the most beautiful, awe inspiring place
I'd ever had the pleasure of visiting. But it wasn't until we found ourselves
in a small place called Powell River that my overactive imagination began to
run wild with ideas of vampires and creatures roaming among the trees and
mountains there. Thus, The Raven Saga was born.
I continue
to love YA books and have now written a total of five in the genre: Raven,
December Moon, The Lost Soul, The Ghost of Josiah Grimshaw and Daisy Madigan's
Paradise (a novella). I have plans for countless more!
The only
thing that's better than reading these kinds of books is writing them!'
