Putting the Thrill in Thriller!

So this Saturday (11th August 2018) I was in for a real treat, as two fantastic authors and an amazing blogger were hosting a panel talk at Foyles in Grand Central in Birmingham. I had been editing hard all day and was looking forward to an evening listening to this event.

For anyone who doesn’t know what a panel talk is, it is usually where a host (this time the awesome award winning blogger, Chelley Toy) interviews one or more authors live on a topic or set of questions, with space afterwards for the audience to ask some questions too.

So I and a few fellow Scoobies (SCBWI members) headed down to listen to this much anticipated event.

The two guest authors were fellow members of the SCBWI, so I was looking forward to getting an incite into the minds of my fellow writers, the talented Sue Wallman and Tracey Mathias, both published with Scholastic.

Both authors are the proud creators of extremely popular Young Adult thrillers, Tracey Mathias the amazing brain behind Night of the Party, a dystopian Young Adult political thriller is currently enjoying the joy and excitement of her U.K debut novel filling bookshelves around the U.K. Meanwhile Sue Wallman the genius behind Lying about last Summer (which was a Zoella book club book choice!) See how they lie and her latest Your Turn to Die, is no newcomer to the world of a dark and twisting thrillers either with her first book debuting in 2016 and fans eager for each instalment afterwards.

But Chelley Toy was ready for all the twists and turns of grilling two talented authors and had those burning questions at the ready. She discovered for us that neither author had actually intended to write thrillers when they first started out, Sue would love to write a funny picture book and Tracey would like to write a middle grade feel good novel. So how did they end up gripping the attention of their audiences and sending shivers down the spines of readers across the country?

Tracey wanted to write a story about love and connecting, which is how Night of the Party began, but as Zara’s story developed Tracey quickly realised there was more to her protagonist than met the eye, especially in her dystopian future where politics have led to secrets becoming dangerously deadly and freedom is limited to the chosen few.

Sue started hers about friendship and the journey of discovery and finding themselves, but it’s surprising what her characters really found when isolated and secluded. The dark secrets and twists that crept into her story may have you gasping at just how dark some secrets can truly be.

As well as chatting about their new books, they also shared with us a bit about how they write and what they love about writing, Sue loves the summer holidays because there is so much more time to write for her, she likes her characters cut off from the world so out goes the mobile phones and the wifi, no calling for help on twitter for her unfortunate characters, and Tracey likes to work on one idea at a time focussing all of her talent on perfecting her characters and their sense of identity and belonging in a world that isn’t as accepting as it should be. But neither likes to plan too far ahead, those twists turns and connections in both stories have are organic and natural development, growing as each writer has taken the journey with their characters through the heart of their stories. Scary stuff for a thriller writer if you ask me! And to think neither had even thought about writing thrillers when they first started out.

But our two dazzling authors don’t just write, no! From swimming to singing there is no end to the pairs talents and as well as balancing families and various jobs and projects they still manage to produce these shockingly tingling thrillers as well!

And they still took time to chat with readers and sign books for those lucky people who had attended and were excited to meet this talented pair!

So are you brave enough to face the thrillers and would you guess what happens next? Why not find out and grab a copy of Night of the Party and Your turn to Die to liven up your summer adventure, just don’t read them after dark or read the papers the next day, you might get a tingle!

Thank you to the wonderful Chelley Toy for hosting this fun event, you can find her on twitter and follow her wonderful blog www.Talesofyesterday.co.uk Thank you to Jamie and the team at Foyles for a fantastic event and of course a massive thank you to Sue Wallman and Tracey Mathias for bravely taking the hot seat and baring all!