Tag: Mafia

Could you tell us a little about Lie or Die?

Lie or Die is a twisty, dark YA thriller set in a Reality TV game show. It follows 17-year-old Kass Kennedy who auditions for the show to help her fame obsessed best friend, Thea. Once in the game Kass soon realises that not everything is as it seems and, as the contestants start dying for real, Kass realises that they are trapped in a TV show set with someone who isn’t here to play. To survive Kass must figure out who the real killer is and find a way out.

Reality TV just got real!

You’ve worked in television before. Did this inspire any elements of the book?

I did! Lie or Die’s setting is inspired by my time as a Production Manager for Fountain Television Studios in Wembley, the biggest TV studio in Europe. It was my job to oversee the shows that came in, working closely with each production to make sure they had the crew, equipment, facilities, hospitality and celebrity care they required. I worked on a number of shows with a great deal of celebrities, directors and crew, giving me quite a thorough and unique insight into the world of TV and celebrity. My (now) husband worked on all the reality shows, from Big Brother, X Factor to I’m a Celeb so I had a real insight into reality TV from the inside. When I had the idea to make a Mafia type murder mystery game show, it seemed natural to place it in a reality TV setting.

There was one character in particular who I really didn’t want to kill, but realised I had no choice! Sorry – I can’t tell you which one **spoiler**.

There are many gruesome and creative deaths in Lie or Die. Were any particularly difficult to write, or did you have fun thinking them up?

I had great fun thinking them up! (I obviously need to get out more.) I read and watch a lot of psychological horror and thrillers and grew up reading the masters of horror, James Herbert and Stephen King, so I had a lot to fall back on. It was great to let my imagination run wild – as a TV show I had the freedom to do pretty much anything. There was one character in particular who I really didn’t want to kill, but realised I had no choice! Sorry – I can’t tell you which one **spoiler**.

What top tips would you give someone planning on writing a YA thriller?

Thrillers take a lot of planning, which is something I’m not very good at! I like to go with the flow and let the story evolve, but I think thrillers need more structure. Don’t forget to leave breadcrumbs, little clues for the reader to pick up along the way and of course red herrings, you can have lots of fun with them! I kept asking myself – what would the characters try to do next?  Then I would show the characters doing just that and failing, starting with the most obvious and then moving onto the next possibility. The reader will expect those questions to be answered.

Are you a plotter or a pantser? Can you tell us a little about your writing process?

Ahh like I mentioned above I am a natural born panster. I like to have a loose outline, a chapter ‘in’ point and an ‘out’ point and then have the freedom to get from A – B. It’s harder to do that with tightly plotted thrillers, and this one was quite complicated, being a game, set within a reality murder mystery game, set inside a television studio. I tend to get a first draft out quite quickly – it’s terrible but at least then I have something to go back over and work on. It’s like placing the foundations and the scaffold of the story. Later, when I feel secure enough, I take most of it away.

This is your debut novel. What advice would you give someone about to embark on a similar journey? Have there been any particular highlights?

There have been some fantastic highlights such as being a finalist in the Undiscovered Voices 2022 Anthology. There have also been some difficult lows, including a novel going out on submission the first week of the Covid lockdown and disappearing into the pandemic ether, losing my agent and having to start all over again. But along the way I have won competitions and made many, many amazing writing friends and found representation with my new and fabulous agent, Saskia Leach. I would recommend to any new writer not to try to do this alone; it’s hard, you need a community of writers around you to support you and pick you up and also to help celebrate all those little wins along the way.

What are you reading and enjoying at the moment?

I am loving Mirror Me by Jan Dunning, a fairy tale retelling set in the fashion world and I have just started Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros.

A.J. Clack

A. J. Clack moved from a small village in Wales to London to pursue a career in television. She worked on a huge range of shows from Teletubbies to Friends, while also writing plays for the Edinburgh Fringe and development scripts/pilots for children’s television. She now lives in Essex with a handful of teenagers and can often be found freezing on the side of a football pitch.