1) Could you tell something about yourself?
Hi! My name is Rachel and I live just outside Manchester with my boyfriend and our young son. I was a teacher before I became a writer. I’m a huge live music fan; I used to be a Goth; I’ve been a vegetarian since I was twelve; I read a lot; I’ve got a twin sister; I go to the gym; I am a terrible cook (I set fire to a jacket potato the other week) but I like making cakes; I lived in Spain for years, New York for a while, love travelling and only have a few left on my “visit every European capital” bucket list.
2) Your book Me and Mr J is about a serious topic, bullying in an extreme form. Was it hard to write about it and what inspired you to write about this?
All the episodes of bullying were inspired by events I’d seen, experienced, heard or read about. Bullying never goes away, does it? I’m sure even cavekids were at it. And I think with the advent of cyber bullying, it comes home too. Reading about teenagers who’d committed suicide after being targeted online horrified me and made me realise it’s an even bigger problem than when I was young. I did cyber awareness training through work and was completely shocked how trolling has become embedded in teenagers’ lives in such a comparatively short space of time. As Lara says in the book, it’s like having your bully’s beady eyes mounted on the wall of your bedroom.
3) Some of the scenes made me cry, did you feel like that when you wrote about Lara?
Yes, definitely. I think she needed to be having a terrible time generally in order for the plot to develop. If her mum hadn’t worked for Molly’s parents; if her cousin hadn’t moved away; if her dad wasn’t having financial problems… then she probably wouldn’t have got involved with Mr J. It had to be a kind of “perfect storm” of circumstances that led her to throw rationality out of the window. Poor girl, she had a terrible time. I think that’s why it was important to keep her sense of humour. I wanted to show she wasn’t being ground down.
4) Mr J is that kind teacher who wants to make the world a better place, but somehow it doesn't work out, why do you think that is?
I don’t personally know anyone who has been in a teacher/student relationship but with Mr J, I wanted to present someone well-meaning who makes a massive mistake. He confuses compassion with something more and then when Lara’s at a low ebb, he has a bit too much to drink and it tips his judgment. He makes a huge error and deservedly pays for it.
5) What kind of advice do you/would you give girls like Lara?
a) If you have to keep a relationship hidden, then you almost certainly shouldn’t be in it.
b) TELL SOMEONE. You really shouldn’t keep things to yourself. Bullies are never as powerful as you think. There is ALWAYS a way out, even if you can’t see it.
6) Me and Mr J makes the reader have conflicting emotions, was this intentional?
Yes, definitely. I didn’t want to write anything too predictable and I think the thing that’s shocked me most is reader reactions to the ending. I was prepared for people to find it a difficult topic. I was very prepared for the knee jerky “you can’t write about this!” outrage. BUT what I wasn’t prepared for was the number of people who wanted there to be a happy ever after. I guess in every book, there’s a head ending and a heart ending and when they’re in conflict, that makes for an interesting-if unsettling-read.
7) I think your book shows young girls who are desperate for a little bit of love and care what could happen to them and what the consequences are, but it also shows parents that they should pay attention to their children. The story never becomes moralistic, it's actually the complete opposite which for me is one of the reasons that the book is so good. Was it hard to write it like this?
Yes. I knew writing the whole book from Lara’s perspective would be controversial. But I didn’t want to patronise the readers or be the morality police. Everyone knows it’s wrong, it’s illegal for a start! So going into it with that as a given, I wanted to show how it might happen. We all know it shouldn’t but the newspaper stories show us that it does and that’s what I wanted to explore: why a girl would get involved in a situation that could only have an unhappy ending.
Lara’s dad is based on mine. Unfortunately, my dad was unable to overcome his demons and died young. In giving Lara’s dad a happy ending, I was definitely re-writing my own dad’s story. Lara’s parents aren’t there for her because she’s always been such a good girl. She’s done well at school and not caused them any bother. And because she’s a nice girl, she doesn’t want to burden her family with more problems. It’s a mistake and it makes things worse, but it’s easy to understand why she does it. She suffers in silence because she doesn’t want them to have more to worry about.
8) What are your 3 favourite YA books?
Ooooh. Tough!
Of all time, the Adrian Mole books.
In recent years, I like everything Sarah Dessen writes and I loved “Stolen” by Lucy Christopher.
9) What are your plans for the future?
Keep writing books that deal with difficult topics! You know what I love? When readers tell me how they read the book in one sitting. So, to keep doing that would be amazing.
Thank you so much Suze!
Giveaway
Rachel McIntyre has sent me a signed copy of Me & Mr J to give away to one very lucky reader of my blog. Enter the giveaway and good luck!
