But echoes of the past whisper in her dreams a past she isn’t supposed to have. She is sent to a new family, a new school. Her memories were erased as punishment for crimes she can’t remember, and this is her last chance. Slated is Kyla’s story: she is 16 years old, and starting over. In your debut book Slated, can you tell my Book Nerd community a little about it and why they should read your novel? Some sort of osmosis takes place about how to structure stories, paint pictures with words, bring characters to life. Read everything you can get your hands on, but especially, read the stuff you like, good stuff. What is the best piece of advice you ever received from another author?Īs far as writing goes? There are a few important ones but pretty high on the list is to read, read, read. I hope people will continue to want to read them, but I’ll never stop even if they don’t. I need this out from reality, even when reality is going pretty good. I’ve always done it, even when I didn’t realize that was what I was doing, even when it was just to myself in my head. I don’t think I can generalize this beyond myself: I have to tell stories. Why is storytelling so important for all of us? But it wasn’t in my youth! I’ve been a little slow at working out what I want to do when I grow up.

Being brought up short like that and having to stop and think about it, about what I really wanted to do… yes. It is very easy with jobs and life generally to keep on doing what you are doing without thinking about it overly much. Many (many, many) years and careers and addresses later, when I moved to the UK eight years ago, I left a career behind in Australia and had to start over again. But to me at that age it was pure fantasy.

I did try, for a while – writing bad short stories. When I was 17, our high school English teacher gave us one of those pep talks, you know the ones: ‘you can do anything’.

I think with Twitter and blogs these days it is different. Authors were vague and distant gods, not ordinary people. Growing up, it never occurred to me that I could be a writer. I always loved to read, and I always made stuff up. Was there a defining moment during your youth when you realized you wanted to be a writer?

Teri terry books in order