Holly Smale
About Author
Holly Smale is the author of Geek Girl, Model Misfit, Picture Perfect and All That Glitters.
She was unexpectedly spotted by a top London modelling agency at the age of 15 and spent the following two years falling over on catwalks, going bright red and breaking things she couldn't afford to replace. By the time Holly had graduated from Bristol University with a BA in English Literature and an MA in Shakespeare she had given up modelling and set herself on the path to becoming a writer.
Geek Girl was the no. 1 bestselling young adult fiction title in the UK in 2013. It was shortlisted for several major awards including the Roald Dahl Funny Prize and the Branford Boase award, nominated for the Queen of Teen award and won the teen and young adult category of the Waterstones Children's Book Prize and the 11-14 category of the Leeds Book Award.
Interview
FAR FROM PERFECT (THE VALENTINES)
HARPERCOLLINS CHILDREN'S BOOKS
JULY 2020
The first book in THE VALENTINES series by Geek Girl author HOLLY SMALE featured Hope, the youngest sister in the famous Valentines acting family. In FAR FROM PERFECT, book two in the series, we get to see behind the scenes of middle sister Faith's life.
Beautiful, calm and loving, Faith seems to have everything. But her life is strictly controlled by her famous grandmother and her social media assistant. She is constantly in the eye of the press; and she's the one supporting the dysfunctional Valentine family. So just who is the real Faith?
Funny, poignant and moving, fans of Geek Girl will adore The Valentines series. Author HOLLY SMALE tells us more about the latest book, FAR FROM PERFECT:
Q: Can you tell us a little about your Valentines series, and where the latest book - Far From Perfect - fits?
A: As some of my readers may know, I spent a decade writing Geek Girl: the story of a normal girl who gets given a fairytale and has to decide what to do with it. With The Valentines, I really wanted to flip that narrative over and explore what it would feel like to be born into a fairytale, and to try to find normality within that.
I've always loved stories about sisters - I have one, and it's easily the strongest, most complex and most enduring relationship of my life - so it felt very natural and instinctive to be examining that dynamic further. I also realised pretty quickly that I wanted to write one big story from three incredibly different perspectives: a gradual unfolding of one big plot, but through individual books that jig-saw together.
Far From Perfect is Faith's story, and the middle book of the series. Faith is the middle sister: beautiful, sweet, somewhat passive, and trapped into a life she doesn't necessarily want. In Happy Girl Lucky we see Hope idolise and pedestal her lovely sister, and it's only when we get to Faith's story that we begin to see how unhappy she really is. It's actually a loose rewrite of Swan Lake by Tchaikovsky, and we see Faith as the swan: beautiful and calm on the outside, but paddling frantically under the water where nobody can see her.
In essence, I wanted it to be a story about the danger of living your life for other people: about being brave, finding your own voice and empowering yourself to make your own choices instead.
Q: Why did you decide to write Faith's story as book two?
A: There were quite a few reasons, although if forced to boil it down the answer would be: it just felt right. I wanted to move from youngest sister to eldest - thus allowing the reader to age, but also allowing me to develop the story into perhaps slightly more mature territories - and Hope felt like the right place to start.
She's shut out of the Valentine family which leaves her as an outsider, much like the reader: we thus get to know their world much as she does. Mercy needed to be the final book, as she's the explosive firework at the end, and Faith is in every way a middle child: a people-pleaser, a go-between, a lynch-pin.
So it made sense - emotionally but also structurally - to put her in the middle: trapped between her sisters in every way.
Q: What is it that draws you to Faith as a character, and why did you give her this name? Was she hard to write, given how much she needs to hide from everyone, and from herself?
A: I think, in many ways, Faith was by far the trickiest of the three sisters to write. Hope and Mercy have such clear narrative voices - even though they're polar opposites - and I'm very aware that as readers we all tend to connect to flawed, imperfect characters. It's a human instinct, and a particularly British one: we back the underdog. With Faith, her problem was that she didn't really have any obvious flaws: she wasn't just beautiful, but she was also kind, thoughtful, loving, modest, loyal, sweet. So when I sat down to write her, I remember thinking: blimey, she's a bit dull isn't she?
Obviously, that's when I realised what the story was. A girl so stuck being perfect that she has no voice and no agency: she's always performing for others, and so she slips into a hole of feeling inauthentic and boring, to herself and to everyone else. As soon as I realised how Faith must be feeling, the story became alive and I loved her: she suddenly felt like a real, multi-dimensional person, and I knew how to engage with her. Hopefully my readers feel the same way.
In terms of names: I wanted the famous Valentines to have ridiculous, matching names, and I also wanted the twist - at the end of book two - to be so obvious it's hiding in the light, if that makes any sense. I also wanted each of the names to kind of match the sisters, and inform their characters. Hope is hopeful, Faith is constant - to her own detriment - and Mercy... Well, she's working on it.
Q: There is a lot about appearance in Faith's story - were you drawing on your days as a model for some of her experiences?
A: Probably, yes - a bit - but I was mainly drawing on my observations of girls as a whole, especially in the media. Ironically, I didn't really dive into this topic while I was writing Harriet for Geek Girl - it actually seemed more important to veer away from appearance, in order to keep the integrity of the series as being not about looks - but for Faith it seemed very relevant.
The way boys/men, society and the media treat girls - particularly beautiful or pretty girls - still horrifies me: they are objectified, valued sheerly for their appearance, not listened to, judged, trophied, both exploited and discarded, raised up and demeaned. We still have this surreal assumption that good-looking people have to be either stupid or unpleasant, as if there's some kind of cosmic scale that need to be balanced, and it's just not true.
It was important to me to lift a veil on that, as well as showing it as an important element in Faith's struggle to find her own voice. Nobody's listening, because for them she's just a prize to be won and displayed. Less a human, and more just something nice to look at.
Q: The Valentines seem to have everything, and yet their lives are far from perfect. Do you feel it's important that young people see what's on the other side of 'perfect' - especially regarding social media?
A: Absolutely: the more we're surrounded by curated, glossy versions of real life, the more we need to balance it out by showing the hidden reality. Even as adults it can be difficult not to compare our lives, our clothes, our faces, our friends, our relationships, with those we're seeing online; as younger people without experience or perhaps as much perspective, it's even harder.
It was incredibly important to me to show that we're surrounded by fabrication, lies, edits, but that - perhaps even more crucially - even if they were to achieve The Dream, it wouldn't necessarily make them happy. Perfection is a false idol, and we need more than a life that looks good.
Q: Why did you decide that romance would be a bit of a fail in this book, just as it was for Hope in book one?
A: I planned all three novels simultaneously: while they exist as separate books, they're really all one big story, so it was essential that they worked together. Once I knew what kind of personality each sister had - and the issues they were working through - it was very clear to me what kind of love story would help reveal them to themselves, grow and develop.
Hope and Faith have very different romances, and learn very different things, but I felt instinctively that successful love wasn't necessarily the journey they needed to go on. For Mercy, it's going to be a very different story, and romance will therefore have a very different role.
Also, I think it's important to note that it's a three book story, and so while Hope and Faith end their individual books alone...you see their lives continue in their sisters' books. So it was important to me that their love stories often play off-stage, through the eyes of the people who love them. Which is true to real life. We don't just stop living and loving because nobody is watching us.
Q: Do you have a favourite moment in Far From Perfect?
A: There's a moment towards the end of the second act - I always think of my books in three acts, like plays, because that's what studying Shakespeare does for you - where Faith finally lets go, stops caring about what other people think and kind of explodes in a torrent of honesty and openness. It was incredibly cathartic to write: I got such a sense of freedom, and I could feel Faith's liberation and relief. That's my favourite scene.
Q: What do you have planned next for the Valentines siblings? Can you give us a glimpse into book 3?
A: I'm actually on the second draft of Mercy's novel right now, and she has been an absolute joy to write. She's nothing like any protagonist I've created before: Mercy Valentine is angry, sharp, mean, funny, sarcastic, defensive, self-destructive, and I'd be lying if I said I haven't enjoyed every second of it.
I'd also be lying if there weren't huge chunks of me in her too. As a children's writer, there's always a bit of a glossy veneer between the real me and my public self: it's been incredibly liberating to peel back some of it and reveal a darker, snarkier side. I think my close friends will recognise me in Mercy far more than my readers might expect.
Without too many spoilers, it's clear by the end of Far From Perfect what the key problem for Mercy is - the cause of her anger and sadness - so I think it's fair to suggest the third and final novel in the series will be her dealing with this, and perhaps finding a way for the family to heal. I won't say anymore in case it ruins Faith's story!
Q: You've mentioned you will cover each of the Valentines' sisters - what about the brother, Max?
A: I love Max - he's hilarious, and a perfect balance to the sisters - and his perspective is something I've been asked for repeatedly. The only problem for me is that (as you'll see by the end of Faith's story) there is a very specific story to The Valentines, and a dramatic arc revealed carefully and deliberately over three novels. It's not just three random sisters, sharing their unrelated stories: it's one story, revealed selectively through three perspectives and jig-sawed together.
Throwing Max into the mix would potentially disrupt that. Writing a book is a little bit like captaining a ship, and I just feel instinctively that it would capsize if Max got involved too. But who knows - maybe a short story?
Q: Are you already exploring what you'd like to write after The Valentines books? How long do you spend in the planning stage of new characters / books?
A: I spend a very, very long time coming up with ideas for books: I frequently spend years sitting on ideas, turning them around, holding them up to the light, seeing what I feel about them and how they shift and change with time. The idea I'm working on right now has been sitting in my head for over four years, and it's still interesting to me: I think that's how I know it's something worth pursuing.
I'm actually very slow in terms of 'planning' too. It's a bit of a casserole situation, and I need the physical time to let things stew and get richer and develop in flavour. Plus I just enjoy it - pottering around in my brain, rolling around in ideas and themes - and I don't want to rush things or it takes a lot of the joy out of it for me.
As for what I'm doing next, I'm afraid I'm a bit superstitious and tend to keep ideas to my chest until quite late in the game... So you'll have to stay tuned!
Q: Where have you been writing during lockdown, and has lockdown helped or hindered your creative process? Would you include the pandemic in your future books?
A: Most of lockdown was spent writing in my study at home, and I think a lot of people - including some of my friends - assumed I'd have 'lots of extra time' to be super creative. Sadly, that's not really how it works; like a lot of people, I've been very lonely, bored, anxious, stressed, missing my loved ones... It made me extremely unproductive and honestly, I spent a lot of time binging box-sets just to calm myself down!
I can't see myself writing about the pandemic - frankly, there are writers out there who I believe will have a better perspective on it - but I'd never rule anything out. I've certainly found the impact of isolation on society interesting, so if anything it'll be the emotional consequences I use to inspire me.
Q: What are you most looking forward to doing, or is there a place you're excited to visit, after lockdown?
A: I was supposed to be in Mexico for the whole of March, and it was cancelled - for obvious reasons - so I'm really excited about the prospect of finally having my big trip. I'd actually already packed my backpack and printed out an itinerary (I'm a bit of a keen bean when it comes to travel) so as soon as things are safe again that's where I'll be heading. Bring on the whale sharks and cenotes!
Q: Are there any new books you've read that you could recommend to our members?
A: I'm currently reading Why I'm No Longer Talking To White People About Race by Renni Eddo-Lodge, and - while it's not specifically a teen book - I do think it's a book everyone should be reading.
HAPPY GIRL LUCKY (THE VALENTINES)
HARPERCOLLINS CHILDREN'S BOOKS
FEBRUARY 2019
HAPPY GIRL LUCKY kicks off the start of a great new series by HOLLY SMALE (Geek Girl), which features different children from a famous acting family, the Valentines.
The first book features 15-year-old Hope, who lives her life through the lens of an imaginary camera and her horoscope, waiting for the perfect romance. Gradually, the reader discovers more about Hope's lonely, isolated life while she, in turn, comes to realise that real life can offer far more than the illusions she has created.
We asked author HOLLY SMALE to tell us more about HAPPY GIRL LUCKY:
Q: How did you feel about leaving Harriet Manners and Geek Girl and moving on to new characters and a new series?
A: It was sad - and hard - but both Harriet and I were ready. I'd worked on Geek Girl for nearly a decade, and I saw Harriet grow up so much in that time: she's a real person to me, and I'd seen her change from a scared little girl to a confident, kick-ass nearly-woman. I knew instinctively that this part of her story had reached its conclusion and that it was time to let her go: if not for forever, then for a little while. It felt a bit like being the mother of a teenager leaving home. She needed time and freedom to go and do her own thing without me staring over her shoulder all the time, and I needed time to clean the house, turn her bedroom into a gym and start something new.
So I was sad, and I was scared - I had no idea what I'd come up with, who I'd write next, whether I would do it justice - but I was also incredibly excited and exhilarated. Luckily, I love Hope just as much as I love Harriet. I guess, as with children, there really is no limit to the amount of love you have for the people you create.
Q: Your new series, The Valentines, focuses on siblings in the Valentine family who come from a long line of actors. What made you decide that your new series would focus on acting? Have you ever thought of acting as a career?
A: I think it started with a genuine love of acting and theatre; for much of my English Literature degree I focused on drama and my MA was in Shakespeare, so stage and screen felt like a world I could happily (and relatively confidently) spend the next few years absorbed in.
I'm shy and self-conscious so I'm not a good actor myself - which I knew I could draw on for at least one of the sisters - but I do find it a fascinating process and have done a little training in it. There's a surprisingly small leap between writing a new character - living and breathing them, thinking like them, feeling as they do - and acting one, so I think the gap between authors and actors isn't as large as many think. One is just internalised play-pretend; the other is externalised.
I've also been lucky enough to have friends and contacts in the industry to help me out with work experience and any questions I had (one even gave me a role in her film so I could see what it was like, which I found terrifying).
From a practical perspective, I also needed a career that would make a large family very famous and rich, that could be passed on from generation to generation and that would require genuine skill and talent. Acting felt like the most natural fit.
Q: Were many afternoons spent watching old films for research purposes? - did you feel you needed to research for these books?
A: I based Hope's fantasy scenarios on general romance film cliches, of which - like most of us - I had a whole life of absorbed material to choose from. It was important to the plot that they were generic, badly written, vague, unrealistic, awkwardly scripted. Which was obviously great fun as a writer, because instead of having to create decent romance films (a lot of pressure) I got to make these fake-films as terrible and as cheesy as possible.
Research was necessary, but it came more in location and lifestyle: I went to both Richmond and Hollywood to make sure they felt real (I'm not complaining). I'm not really into pure romance films, to be honest, and luckily in this novel I was able to use my cynicism to maximum impact.
Q: The teenaged Valentines seem to have it all - fame, a big house, money. Why did you decide to give them such a privileged background?
A: Part of the point of The Valentines is that it's the anti-fairytale. It's not about chasing the dream; it's about being given the dream and not being quite sure what to do with it. Their level of insane privilege is not a background I come from - at all - but it is one that felt right for this particular story. I wanted to give my characters everything from the start so I could see what it did to them: what broke them, what fixed them, what they let go and which bits they held on to. I think it's a life many of us are curious about, and I wanted to explore that curiosity within the context of specific characters: especially in a comic setting.
Q: We learn through the first book, Happy Girl Lucky - Hope's story, that not is all as it seems; each of the siblings is struggling. Why did you make Hope the lead character in this story - since you could have chosen any of the siblings to feature?
A: I knew very early on that each book was going to feature a different sibling, and my gut instantly told me to start with Hope. She's the youngest, she's the perhaps most instantly likeable in her optimism and ditsiness, and - because of her ability to shut out the world around her - it left huge scope to reveal each sibling more organically throughout the series.
If I'd started with the more clear-sighted Faith or sharp-tongued Mercy, that slow reveal would have been difficult to manage. Hope also felt like the right introduction to the family because of her distance from her siblings: because of her situation as the youngest and not-famous-one, she almost sees the life of the Valentines from the outside, much like the reader does. It gave an unfamiliar situation a more organic and natural introduction, because we're tentatively exploring a new world at the same time as our narrator explores it too.
Q: Since Hope is incredibly sheltered and naive, how difficult was it to explore what the problems are within the family and for herself - especially as it's written through her perspective?
A: It's always tricky to explore a wider story from a restricted view point. But part of the joy (and challenge) of writing in first person is that everyone on the planet is an unreliable narrator: no matter who you're reading, you're never getting the world as it is, you're getting the world as that character sees it. Every single thing - every thought, every action, every tree or flower - is filtered through the eyes of the personality you have telling the story.
With Hope, her naivity and inexperience is part of that view-point, and it allowed me to hold back information that would have... ruined the over-arching plot. It also allowed me to be subtle with what I gave away and what I withheld, which is important: to layer stories and peel the parts away slowly, just as life is layered and complex. That's the draw, to me, of first-person narrative. You can write a story that feels as real in its omissions, gaps and errors as it does in its words.
Q: Hope is searching for true love - why do you make that her mission in this story?
A: Without too many spoilers, I wanted to directly challenge the genre of rom-com. I think, especially for girls, the focus of life is still on love: finding it, getting it, keeping it. Society still positions romantic love as the purpose of the female life (which is why romance films are insultingly dubbed 'chick-flicks' - they're not deemed relevant for men), and that's filtered down to girls at a scarily young age.
As women, our inherent value seems to be tied to who loves us, who wants us, who loses us. And I was getting a bit tired of it, so I thought: right, I'm going to write a girl who has wholeheartedly and completely swallowed all of that tosh. I'm going to really investigate why she needs love so badly: what's missing in her own life. And I'm going to see what happens when she chases it to the oblivion of everything else.
Q: Who is your favourite supporting character in this book?
A: I love all the characters I write; if I don't love a character, I keep editing and re-writing them until I do. Even the not-so-nice ones are enormous fun to explore and fill-out. But I'd say that Mercy's meanness and one-liners are pretty satisfying, Jamie was highly satisfying, and Dame Sylvia Valentine (Nanny Vee) takes over every scene she enters. I've also got a soft spot for Hope's imaginary clique: they're brilliantly indifferent for fake-friends. You'd think she'd just invent better ones.
Q: Going forwards, will the series feature each of the siblings - and if so, who is next? Will the books cover the same or different timelines?
A: Yes, each book of The Valentines is going to feature a different sister: Faith is next, followed by Mercy. The timeline is consecutive, like a relay race, so the end of each book leads on to the beginning of the next. I did briefly consider one timeline covered from three perspectives, but I realised a) I'd get bored repeating it b) the readers would know what was coming after the first book and c) it's much more fun (and more of a challenge) to create a larger, overall story told by a shifting, consecutive view-point.
Q: Does Happy Girl Lucky, like Geek Girl, cover themes that are close to your heart?
A: I only ever write about things I'm passionate about; a book takes a long time to write and plan, a long time to research, and - selfishly, perhaps - life is just way too short to voluntarily spend mine doing something I don't care about.
I do genuinely believe that books are a little bit magic, and something of the writer seeps into them: if you're faking it, or bitter, or jaded, your readers can tell. Plus, if you don't believe in what you're writing, then why the hell are you taking up precious bookshelf space? There just isn't room. So yes: if I write something, I mean it.
Q: What are your top tips for young writers?
Write what you care about; care about what you write. There are going to be many, many times that you'll stumble during the writing process: times when you feel discouraged, tired, uninspired, doubtful, straight-up dumb. And what's going to keep you going is not the desire to be 'a writer' but a deep and genuine love for the story you're telling. If you care, trust me: the readers will be able to tell, and they will care too.
Q: If you could escape to anywhere during 2019, where would it be?
A: I'm lucky enough to be free to travel pretty frequently throughout the year, and I think this time it's going to be South or Central America: I'm thinking Costa Rica, Mexico or Belize, although I'll need to work on my Spanish and Portugese skills! Maybe a quick jaunt to Greece too, and I'll be in Italy for work.
Q: Did you make any New Year resolutions for this year - and have you stuck to any of them?
A: Sadly, January is my biggest writing deadline every year, so all my resolutions tend to fail by the second week (as vegetables and running, for instance, are replaced by family-sized bags of chocolate and being chained to a desk).
But my biggest resolution is to be less hard on myself and more flexible, so I plan to pick myself up and start all over again once my schedule is less pressured. There's never a bad time to set new goals and make yourself happier, so I'll just keep adjusting them over the year. As Hope would put it: there's no such things as a fail, there's just a postponement of success.
ALL THAT GLITTERS
HARPERCOLLINS CHILDREN'S BOOKS
FEBRUARY 2015
ALL THAT GLITTERS, the fourth book in the Geek Girl series, sees Harriet Manners arrive at sixth form college where she hopes to make new friends and to shine but invariably embarrassing social gaffes, lost friendships and other disasters await her.
The bestselling books by Holly Smale deliver a funny, sharply perceived look at school life while also exploring ideas around friendship, bullying and what success actually means. While continuing the series, ALL THAT GLITTERS can also be read as a standalone story; look out also for a World Book Day Geek Girl story!
We asked Holly Smale to tell us more about her writing career and what's next for Harriet Manners?
Q: The first Geek Girl book was your debut and was a spectacular success. What made you decide to write about a 'geek'?
A: Geek Girl popped into existence within about two and a half seconds. My friend had made a bet with me that I couldn't write the first page of a book about modelling. I had worked as a model for a couple of years as a teenager but it hadn't occurred to me that there might be a story in it.
Once I had the bet, I wrote 'My name is Harriet Manners and I am a geek' and the first chapter was written in about eight minutes; not a single thing has changed from that first draft. The way that Harriet speaks, thinks and looks hasn't changed either.
When I sat down to write about modelling my interest was zero but when I started writing it I realised it was about being an outsider and geeky, rather than about modelling, so I was writing about things that came from inside me.
Q: How important is it to draw on your own experiences when you're writing?
A: You do draw on your own experiences for things to write about and I have tried to pick apart where Harriet came from. I don't see her as a younger me but someone who may be a little like a sister so I feel that I am writing about someone who is quite similar to me. If I am stuck trying to think about how she might react to something, I will think abou how I might react in a similar situation.
It is easy to get your main character to behave much more nobly than they would in real life. I try to remember what thoughts I had as a 15/16 year old and try to stay honest to that, not to write what I think the story should be but what a character would really react like. It's too easy to glamorise things and to make people seem unselfish in a story.
Q: Do you and Harriet have things in common?
A: Harriet and I have three main traits in common. First off is her tendency to be anxious and worried, she has panic attacks and I have had those too, so I can empathise with her on those things.
There's also her constantly screwing things up. Some readers see this trait in her as quite slapstick but I'm constantly having clumsy, embarrassing moments.
Finally there's her inability to see things as they are - that's me, too. I am socially pretty inept and get people wrong, just like Harriet.
Q: You've talked before about the effect that bullying had on you during your school career. How much of that experience do you use for your Geek Girl books?
A: There was a particular girl who picked on me from the age of seven but before that, I was a really confident kid and was happy to go up to people and start talking to them.
I remember not being happy at school because of being bullied. I gave Harriet a close friend, Nat, but I didn't have that at school and so my school years were pretty lonely. I was scared a lot about going to school and hated myself but I've had to pull back on that side in the book. Harriet looks at herself unkindly but I was even worse; if someone said I was boring or ugly, I believed it. It only got better for me when I left school and went to sixth form college.
Until then, the more anxious I was, the more nervous and shy I became of saying anything; the more confidence I lost the more I became geeky and a social pariah.
Q: What do you tell young people when they ask you how to handle bullying?
A: What I tell people when they ask about the bullying I experienced is that I made mistakes; I blamed myself for it but it's not your fault if you're being bullied. I used to tell myself that if I was prettier or had a better fashion sense I wouldn't get bullied but the point is that when you're being bullied, it's not your fault; so don't bully yourself!
I also kept the bullying a secret, I kept it to myself because I was ashamed and didn't want to get it out in the open because I thought that that would make it worse. I tried instead to become invisible, as quiet as I could be, so I kind of shut down. So if you're being bullied, you need to talk about it. Your parents can help you, they can support you from home or even help you to move school.
When I look back on it, the person who bullied me actually helped me to become what I most wanted to be, a writer. I had a really hard time, but it got better.
Q: How did the world of modelling compare to being at school?
A: I got into modelling because I was spotted and I didn't want to pass up the opportunity but in my pictures I looked lost and frightened - and that's because I was!
When you're working with other models, you see that the models would divide into groups of the beautiful girls versus the quirky ones and the quirky ones would hang out together and we'd all feel like misfits because we were too short or funny-looking, it was a strange hierarchy.
Three days after I was spotted I was optioned for a Calvin Klein perfume advert in New York and I was told to pack my bags in case I was called and for that week, I was insanely popular with the modelling agency! I had a sleepless week and then wasn't called.
Then I was offered some work in Japan but my mother wouldn't let me go, so I never got to do any travelling with my modelling. I quit at 17 because I was too old by then to do modelling, which sounds crazy but it's true. It's a strange kind of life, I was a 15 year old schoolgirl wearing Prada clothes which I'd never be able to afford in real life.
Q: Why do you take Harriet out of school and put her in sixth form college for All That Glitters?
A: After the first three Geek Girl books it felt like a natural step to take her out of school and into sixth form college, to start afresh. It's important to me that Harriet starts growing up and sixth form college does feel very different from being at school; you get things like a common room, you've chosen the subjects that you want to study and you can wear your own clothes and show your individuality. So it's a fresh start for Harriet and there's a shift in gear in the kinds of themes explored in the story.
This book has the theme of stars. When I told my editor that I wanted the book to be about Harriet being launched into a different zone because of her modelling successes, she came up with the title of All That Glitters so I worked with that in mind. But I didn't write the last page of the book until last week because I just couldn't get it right. It wasn't until I heard a scientist saying something about the light source in the universe that I got it and could finish the book.
Q: Harriet has a head full of strange and quirky facts; are you a natural 'fact horder'?
A: I do go around collecting facts and I have used the ones I knew already quite early on in the series. Now I know what I'm looking for, if I hear a fact that can be twisted to be a metaphor or used to describe something emotionally, I will write it down. I watch documentaries, read books and the internet, and then immediately jot things down that catch my attention.
Q: Harriet also travels a lot for her modelling. Why did you decide to take her to different countries in each book?
A: I have travelled a lot and I enjoy including the travel part in my books and taking Holly to places like New York and Japan - where I wrote the first Geek Girl book.
I think it's very important for younger readers to have this as a balance to all the dystopian books out there. Those are about places they can never visit but I want to show young people that these are places where you can go and where you can also travel as a girl on your own, so don't think that it's not within reach because you can be part of it!
I've had mums come up to me and say that their child hadn't been interested in travelling but having read the Geek Girl books, now they want to visit Japan; another reader started learning Japanese after reading the books because now she wants to go there. It's empowering to be able to show young people that there's a bigger world out there.
Q: What next for Harriet?
A: She will still be in the sixth form in book five but she will be a lot more involved with modelling. So far she's had a very blessed life with her modelling, she's been handed things that would not normally be given to a girl like her, but now things become more realistic in her career so she'll learn what it's like to go to castings and not get the job, and so on.
Q: Can you tell us a bit about your World Book Day 'Geek Girl' book, Geek Drama?
A: The World Book Day story falls between the first and second Geek Girl books, when Harriet takes part in a school play, Hamlet. I chose that theme because World Book Day is about literature and I love Hamlet. I have a masters in Shakespeare and studied Hamlet at university. I think it can be quite a funny play if you see it from a comic perspective because Hamlet makes so many mistakes, so I thought I'd have fun with that in a Geek Girl book.
Q: You've been a huge and sudden success for the last couple of years with the Geek Girl series, how have you felt about it all?
A: Two years ago I was a debut writer and I had no idea that the books would be as successful as they have been. I wrote the first one as a stand-alone book but the publisher, HarperCollins, wanted more.
I was blown away by being a World Book Day author this year and I am constantly shocked by new things that come along. I'm doing events with people like Malorie Blackman and Philip Pullman, something I wouldn't have even thought about two years ago!
It's all been amazing, I haven't had the normal experiences of a debut author, but it does mean I've been writing from 7am often till midnight for the last two years....
I've decided to take a break in April for a few weeks to go travelling, relax and think about the next book. It'll be the first chance I've had to sit down and think about it all and how lucky I've been.
Geek Girl (Geek Girl, Book 1)
Far From Perfect (The Valentines, Book 2)
Happy Girl Lucky (The Valentines, Book 1)
Picture Perfect (Geek Girl, Book 3)
Model Misfit (Geek Girl, Book 2)
