by Mary Hoffman
Tell us a bit about yourself.
I was born in London in 1975 to an English mother and a Japanese father, the eldest of five children. I hated school and spent a lot of time sitting at the back of the class writing stories, which I got away with because my teachers thought I was taking notes. I played truant quite a bit and hid out in the local library, devouring teen fiction. Aged fourteen, I dropped out of school and studied for my exams at home by distance learning. I went on to do a French degree at King's College London, then trained as a primary school teacher. I taught Year 1 for a time before becoming a peripatetic special needs teacher which is what I do now when I'm not writing.
A Note of Madness is your first published book. Can you tell us a bit about why you wrote it?
I wanted to write a book about mental illness because I had suffered from severe clinical depression for most of my life and so had several members of my family. One of my siblings was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and so I started doing a lot of research into that particular condition. I became fascinated by psychology in general and mental illness in particular and enrolled on a course in abnormal psychology and completed a certificate in psychology. Flynn's character came to me one winter when I was severely depressed, trudging around Helsinki on my own in the dark and in the snow, listening to Rachmaninov on my walkman. I came home and immediately started writing the book. I chose to write about a pianist because my teenage brother is a fantastic pianist, currently at music school and applying for the Royal College of Music, which is where A NOTE OF MADNESS is set.
Has the publicity for the book focused too strongly on your personal and family background?
I am perfectly comfortable talking about my own experiences of mental illness. It still remains a taboo subject and so I think the more openness there is about it, the better. However, it has been hard on my family, as some of the interviews have focused on my siblings and their difficult past. They have been put in a tough position because on the one hand they want to help publicise my book by agreeing to these interviews, but on the other hand they are still young and starting out in life and don't want the painful details of their private lives splashed across a national newspaper.
In addition to any potentially negative reactions from friends and acquaintances, there is also the problem of employment. For example teaching is my main occupation, and the words 'mental illness' and 'primary school teacher' don't sit very well alongside each other. It shouldn't be this way, but sadly, because of a few very evil individuals, we live in a climate of fear, especially when it comes to our children.
How has writing changed your relationship with young people?
Teaching (and playing) with children is what I'm best at and what I love. My teaching so far has only been with the primary age-range, so I am hoping that writing for young adults is now going to put me in contact with teenagers too. I am expecting that to be a very different experience as well as an exciting challenge.
How do you feel about launching a new career as a writer in the currently rather difficult financial climate?
The last year or so has been a steep learning curve for me. I have met other writers, many of them very successful, who have told me some frightening stories. I think the biggest shock was the discovery that most professional writers earn less than the minimum wage. It has been equally startling to find out that nearly all writers, even if they are successful, need a second job or else a partner who supports them financially in order to make ends meet. The news that my publishing house would not even consider publishing more than one of my books per year was also extremely frustrating and difficult to comprehend.
I have written four books in two years but even though they have all been given the thumbs up, the fourth one won't reach the bookshelves until 2009. It is difficult to motivate myself to write a fifth book when I know it won't see the light of day until 2010! Therefore I have decided to branch out into adult fiction. I am fast discovering that financially and creatively, the life of a writer can be exceedingly frustrating. And I certainly had no idea, back when I was dreaming of one day becoming an author, that the children's book buyer hidden away in the back room at Waterstone's could make or break one's whole career.
Young adult fiction is notoriously difficult to sell. How do you feel about writing for this age-group?
I love teen fiction. I loved it when I was a child, as well as when I was a teen, and I still love reading it as an adult. I love the rawness, the grittiness, the pace. However it is so frustrating to find that in publishing houses it is still under the umbrella of children's books, and that in bookshops it usually consists of not much more than a single bookcase incorporated in the children's section, sometimes just a few paces away from the picture books. So far, my book seems to be appealing mainly to A level students, undergraduates and adults, and let's face it - even a 17 year old wouldn't been caught dead browsing in the children's section. Teen fiction should be a separate division in its own right and promoted as such.
Will you be doing school visits?
I would definitely like to. Although having a book for older teens published during the exam period has meant I haven't managed to arrange any yet.
You have a very full website (www.tabithasuzuma.com) What do you see as its main function?
Its main function is to publicise my books, I won't pretend otherwise. However, I also hope it will provide a spring board for people needing information on mental health issues, which is why I have included a mental health page with links to several organisations which have helped me and my family in the past. I have also provided a list of my favourite novels, memoirs and films which were a real lifeline for me in times of deep despair. I also write a weekly journal - it is meant to be light entertainment but also an insight into what it is like to start out as a writer. I know that this is something I would have been interested in reading when I was growing up.
I believe you have other books in the pipeline?
My second book, FROM WHERE I STAND, is a psychological thriller about a deeply disturbed teenager searching for his mother's killer. It is coming out in May '07. The book for '08 is WITHOUT LOOKING BACK, a story about a family on the run. If A NOTE OF MADNESS is a success, then my publishers will bring out its sequel, A SONG FOR JENNAH, which is written in alternating chapters from Flynn and Jennah's points of view. I think this last one is the best book I have written so far. I am currently working on a book about a custody battle called MAYELLA, my first novel for adults.
Do you have contact with other authors and has that been helpful?
I have started meeting other authors through the Society of Authors and the Scattered Authors Society. The support, friendliness, advice and encouragement I received was completely unexpected and has been quite overwhelming. The author Gill James, who wrote my very first review, has almost become my publicist - going into bookshops and getting them to order in extra copies, promoting my book via the web, speaking about it to everyone she meets... I didn't know her from Adam when she first started doing this, and she writes for the same age-group as I do, yet she has been promoting my book over and above her own! I have discovered a real warmth and sense of solidarity amongst authors of books for young people which has been simply wonderful.
Were you happy with the jacket of A Note of Madness and what do you think of teenage book jackets in general?
One of the first questions I asked when I was offered my first book contract was, "will I have any say in the cover?" They say 'don't judge a book by its cover' and that's all very well in theory, but in reality most people lead such busy lives that an eye-catching cover often makes the difference between people picking up the book or passing it by. I was assured that I would have a say in my book's jacket, and I had several ideas of my own, but the first information I received was when a sheet of sixteen designs was put in front of me. These weren't for me to choose from, they were just for my information. Fortunately, I liked them all. I pointed out my favourites, in the hope that doing so might have some bearing on the final decision, but I was told that three of the illustrations had already been singled out. I was shown the three and I said I would be happy with any of them.
Then after a month of silence I suddenly received my finished book jacket. To my horror, it was nothing like any of the original sixteen designs. It featured a cartoon-like character on the front in an extremely comical position. I had said right from the beginning that the one thing I didn't want was anything in the least bit 'cartoony' as I was worried it would attract an audience too young to enjoy the book, as well as alienate the audience for whom the book was intended (14+). I protested against the jacket as vigorously as I could and even got my teenage brother and his friends, who were as equally appalled as I was, to back me up. The only thing that came of it was that the position of the cartoon-like character was changed fractionally, and the font was adjusted so that you could actually make out the title. It was a bitter pill to swallow. I had written a book about a serious, painful and deeply personal subject and I felt it had been turned into a joke.
My publishers have now gone back to the drawing board for the paperback cover. Out of three examples, one was passable and the other two were actually worse than the current hardback jacket. One depicts the lower half of a body lying collapsed on the floor beside a piano. As my sister pointed out, it would be perfect for a book about a dismembered dead pianist.
A Note of Madness by Tabitha Suzuma is reviewed in this issue of Armadillo.