Chichester author Rebecca Skinner launches into the young adult genre

Rebecca said: “I wanted to write a book for the YA genre. I have spent many years working in school and a large chunk of that time I was in charge of the library. My idea was to create a story that was easy reading but still drew its young readers in, whilst allowing them to draw their own conclusions, based on their own perceptions of what was going on between the lines.

“All children experience their own version of what is real life, they navigate an adult’s world with their own, sometimes naive, interpretation of what is actually going on but it becomes their own experience. Having raised three children as a single parent, as well as working with children and teenagers, I wanted to write about fictional characters having to deal with some of the modern-day issues that are out there in the real-life world.

“My book is aimed at an audience of 11+ ish. Reading is for everyone so a younger reader might enjoy it just as much as an adult too.

“In the summer of 2019, I told my dad that I wanted to write a book. Out of character for him, he didn’t laugh nor say that I couldn’t do it. Instead he bought me a laptop. It was the push I needed and I began to create my characters and giving them personas.

“Sadly, my dad died in the October of that year and my writing was put on hold. Then March 2020 happened. Although I was working from home and looking after my three children during lockdown, I still had time on my hands. Life’s pace slowed and I began to write.

“As many of the readers so far have told me, Minor Perception: Summer Class ends on a cliff-hanger and they want to know more. My idea is that readers will all have their own perceptions of what has happened. However, I have started writing the sequel, although not as much as I’d have liked, due to ill health. I started writing in 2019. It was a dream that I always wanted to achieve.”

Rebecca added: “I grew up in Chichester and have lived in many houses in the surrounding areas such as Bognor, Wittering, Hunston, Chichester and Midhurst.

“I work at Chichester Free School and last year, whilst my book was in the early stages of publication, I shared the manuscript with some of my students who were in Years Eight and Nine. They didn't know that I was the author and they gave honest and opinionated reviews about the first few chapters of the story which we read and analysed in class. As promised, I included their reviews in the front of my published book.”

Also recently published is Saltdean-based author Elly Griffiths’ latest instalment in her Brighton Mysteries series, The Great Deceiver. Elly’s Brighton Mysteries series is set in the 50s and 60s, focused around magician Max Mephisto and inspired partly by Elly’s own grandfather’s life on the stage: “Brighton really is the most magical setting. I've lived in Brighton since I was five. I have lived away for a bit but really I've spent most of my life here. It is just so beautiful.”