A Q&A Interview with Kate Mallinder

Kate Mallinder writes uplifting, contemporary stories about teenage girls. Her new book, Summer Under the Stars, is the sequel to Summer of No Regrets and follows four friends over the course of what should be a dream holiday as they drive through France to Marseille. Thanks to Kate for answering our questions about her book.

Summer Under the Stars is a follow up (though it can be read as a stand-alone) to Summer of No Regrets. At what point in the writing/planning of these stories did you decide there would be two?

When I finished writing Summer of No Regrets I felt bereft at leaving these girls behind, but knew it was best to write something new. Asking for a Friend was already well on the way to being finished and I didn’t think there would be a demand for more Summer stories. So it was actually quite a while after Summer of No Regrets came out that one question kept coming up: was there going to be a sequel? I’d written it as a standalone and so all the loose ends were tied up and story-wise, it was finished. But readers were attached to my characters. They were invested. And so was I! I’d had the idea that instead of them spending the summer apart, like in Summer of No Regrets, this time they should spend the summer together. And so the road trip idea was born and Summer Under the Stars was written.

How satisfying is it to be able to develop characters over two books, and did they develop in ways that surprised you at all?

It was so satisfying! Their individual problems are slightly different in Summer Under the Stars. Nell, for example, this now being a year later, has a better relationship with her family, who are now happy for her to live her life, so she has a new set of things to worry about: boyfriend stuff, which was something that had felt out of her reach in Summer of No Regrets. A couple of the problems are similar – for example, Sasha is still struggling with her dad – but if you’re anything like me, I don’t always learn life’s lessons after the first attempt. It was fascinating extrapolating their characters over the year and imagining how they would have developed over those months. Rather than it being surprising, it was a real challenge to know which way to take the characters, as I didn’t want to let readers down who’d got their owns ideas of how the characters would develop.

Why are young women like Cam, Hetal, Nell and Sasha so rewarding to write about?

I personally love the dynamics of a friendship group; how we’re affected by who we spend time with, and how we impact other people. And that was how I felt writing their stories: I was invested in them as individuals, but also curious to see how their friendship would weather the changes. And of course, it’s all magnified because teen friendships can be so much more intense. They’re such strong individuals, but made so much stronger by their friendship – which is what a healthy friendship can do. And in a world that seeks to divide us, I think it’s quietly satisfying to push back against that narrative.

Dialogue and voice are particularly important in stories like these. How do you make sure that you get them right?

I think everyone has their own way of working on this, but for me, I have to know the characters inside out. I make spider diagrams of everything I know about them, including their turns of phrase, biggest fears, favourite subjects, everything! Then I’ll try out a scene or two. It usually takes me six or seven false starts before something clicks and they seem to pop from 2D lists to 3D characters. And as soon as my characters start hijacking the dialogue then I know I’m getting close! My favourite writing is when a group of my characters is quipping together, getting into the serious stuff but still having fun.

Do you feel people don’t give stories like this the respect they warrant? If so, why might this be?

Absolutely! I think there are three reasons why:

Firstly, I think there’s an assumption of easy reading being easy writing, and for both of these things it’s not seen as ‘worthy’ enough. Fortunately, my motivation is to inspire reading for pleasure, and stories that engage and inspire need to be available at every age and stage if we’re to have adult readers.

Secondly, teenage girls’ stories are seen by some as less important. I think we as a society continually underestimate what teen girls are capable of, against the backdrop of what they’re having to deal with.

And thirdly, industry-wise teen books are hard to find on a shelf. Everyone acknowledges that there needs to be stories that bridge the gap from the big primary school adventures to hard-hitting YA fiction, but there is no shelf for these stories in a bookshop. And if they aren’t important enough to get a shelf, then they can’t be important, right?! But studies show that the biggest drop-off in reading is in the young teen age-group. I might be biased (!) but I think we need to be focusing on our young teen readers, and giving them shelves of stories to choose from. The stories are out there, but they are sometimes hard to find.

Is there a book you read at the same age as your characters that sums up that time of your life?

Oh this is a really tricky question! I read loads of books as a child and teenager, but I’m not sure there was one particular book that gave me this escapism into hopeful friendship. I guess, the closest thing for cool vibe was Nancy Drew! I loved her!

Summer of No Regrets (978-1910080948) and Summer Under the Stars (978-1913102852) are published by Firefly Press, £9.99 pbk.