Guest Post Plug: #1 Karen Saunders - Me, Suzy P - Templar Publishing


                                                      
People often ask me where I got the inspiration for my novel, Me, Suzy P. It’s the story of teenager Suzy Puttock, a pretty normal kind of girl with a terrible surname, who just happens to be a walking disaster area. The answer is that I didn’t have to look very far to create Suzy, because a lot of her is based on me. I am the girl that had her nose broken in a tickling fight, fell in a huge hole up to my neck while out for a country walk and needed pulling out, damaged my hand and ended up in a plaster cast after opening a window and I’ve also walked into a lamp-post. These are just four examples. There are zillions more, believe me. So hey, why not exploit a lifetime of making a complete donkey of myself?

I also take inspiration from my friends. I have an amazing group of mates, as does Suzy – her best friend Millie (wannabe cheerleader, fuelled mainly by jelly babies), boyfriend Danny (Star Wars nut) and Millie’s boyfriend Jamie (can’t-stop-eating footballer). Other inspiration comes from all sorts of places, celebrities, music, snippets of conversation I hear on the bus...(don’t tell anyone that last one, though. I don’t want people to stop having interesting chats near me). 

So when I started writing I knew I wanted a girl protagonist who was no stranger to catastrophe, who had a tight-knit friendship group. Then I looked around at a lot of the similar books in this genre, and noticed that a lot of them had storylines where the girl wanted a boyfriend. I thought it would be interesting to take a different approach, where a girl already has a boyfriend…but then realises she fancies someone else. 
Yup. Big fat uh-oh. 

Lots of conflict there, and the character put in this situation should end up causing a lot of laughs, I thought to myself.  And I really hope the book’s funny. I certainly had a good time writing it, although it was quite a rollercoaster ride. It had a fair few major rewrites along the way, which did have me tearing my hair out at several points (luckily it’s all grown back now). 
So after all that…I really hope you enjoy it. 

Come visit me online, at www.karensaunders.co.uk, ‘like’ me on Facebook at www.facebook/karensaunderswriter , or follow me on Twitter: @writingkaren. There are also tweets from Suzy Puttock @suzyputtock – so do follow her too. 
Look forward to seeing you around!

Thank you for the post Karen - what an interesting insight into the world of Me, Suzy P. I'm sure that this will interest many followers - if you like the sound of it then go and buy a copy to read. Let us know what you think of it as sometimes a male orientated blog needs some girl power! I look forward to reading all of your comments - male or female! 

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