I love Aussie YA. I love reading books from authors that live in the same country as me, that know things that people out of Australia might be so confused about. I love how sometimes they can incorporate this into their book and it is fabulous.  

So I decided to created a feature where I interview Australian Young Adult authors about their craft, journey and some interesting facts. I thought it was a fun way of everyone around the world to get to know these authors and maybe make them want to pick up their books. And that is what I am aiming to do, spread the word about #LoveOZYA and get everyone reading it. 

So far on #LoveOzYA Interviews, I have had  Sarah Ayoub, Fleur Ferris, followed by Will Kostakis and Shivaun Plozza. Then I had Gabrielle Tozer, Jay Kristoff and Kylie Fornasier, followed by A.J Betts, Megan Jacobson then Christopher Currie, Steph Bowe, Tim Sinclair and Meg Caddy. And last week on Angel Reads I had Lynette Noni. 

Today I have Sophie Hardcastle author of Running Like China (2015, Hachette) and Breathing Under Water (2016, Hachette)  

Hi Sophie, welcome to Angel Reads. First can you introduce yourself to everyone? Tell us a little bit about yourself.

I’m Sophie Hardcastle (aka China) and I’m an author and artist based on the Northern Beaches in Sydney. I’ve been in the ocean my entire life. I don’t remember learning how to swim, just like I don’t remember learning how to breathe. When I make art, I end up covered in paint.

At the moment, my mum is lending me the spare bedroom as an art studio, (it’s the bee’s knees). When I paint, I listen to music. When I write, however, I lose myself in silence. I love writing more than anything in the world. It balances me.

What has your writing journey been like? When did you start? Why?

For as long as I have been able to talk, I have told stories. Before I learnt how to write, I used to dictate my stories to my mum and she’d type them up, print them out and staple the pages together.

In a way, they’re the first books I ever wrote. Later, I used to write stories and draw pictures to go with each page of text. By the time I was fourteen, I was filling up non-lined notebooks with my first (un-published) novel, Horizons.

Two years later, I became seriously ill and spent two years in and out of hospital. I made a lot of art, but I stopped writing stories. When I turned nineteen, I wrote a memoir, Running Like China about the ordeal. My mind and body were still healing but I had rediscovered my passion.

I decided to return to Horizons, and soon realised my fourteen-year-old self had known nothing about life, love or death, so I left it in the cupboard and wrote a novel based loosely on the original. The result was Breathing Under Water.

What was the process of getting your first book published?

I believe Running Like China was an important book because it lay bare the details of a mental illness in a way few authors ever had. There was little literature that addressed mental illnesses, in particular mental illnesses in young people, in such a brutally honest way. For this reason, it felt like people rallied around me because they thought it was a story that needed to get out there. Not only that, I wanted to get it out there and to open the conversation so badly that I was hellishly persistent and driven.

 I had drowned under a sea of depression, and in returning to the surface to breathe once more, I knew what I wanted in life and what my purpose was. I knew I was going to be a storyteller and I knew I would stop at nothing. I wrote Running Like China in seven weeks. About half way through writing it, I met with a friend of a friend of my mum’s who worked in sales at Allen & Unwin. She agreed to meet with me to tell me a little bit about the publishing industry. By the time we’d finished lunch, I’d told her my story and she was intrigued. She had me send her a chapter and asked to see the manuscript when it was done.

 A few weeks later, I sent it over and she had a publisher look at it. The publisher said it had great potential but needed a lot of work and put me in contact with a freelance editor. The editor worked with me over her Christmas break. She was amazing. When I sent the manuscript back to Allen & Unwin, they felt it was too close to something they had previously published. They didn’t take it on but luckily for me, they put me in contact with an agent who signed me. Selwa represented me during negotiations with Hachette and the rest is history!

Was it different when getting your subsequent books published?

The difference with publishing Breathing Under Water was that I had already established friendships with my publisher and the editors, sales staff, and executives at Hachette.
I put ‘friendships’ in bold because it is so important to have a genuine, heartfelt connection with the people you are working with. I lay bare my soul when I write, so it’s crucial that I work with people who respect my stories and me, people I can trust. Hachette have taken care of me in a way I never expected, and for that, I am eternally grateful.

When I finished the Breathing Under Water manuscript, my agent passed it to Vanessa, who was my publisher for Running Like China, and Vanessa took it on and pitched it to the house. It was a much a smoother and faster process because everyone at Hachette was already familiar with my character and my writing style. Thankfully for me, the house loved it and signed it.

You are an OZYA author, what are some of your favourite Aussie YA books?

Unfortunately this year, I have only had time for uni readings. I’m in my final year of a Bachelor of Visual Arts so I’ve been reading essays by art theorists and philosophers, including Freud, Jentsch, Lacan, Kristeva and Latour. I’ve also been editing Breathing Under Water and I try to keep a clear head when working on my own stories to make sure my voice stays authentic.
Thankfully, I’ve just started uni holidays and with Breathing Under Water now finished, I have some long-awaited reading time.
Today, I decided to revisit an old favourite, Looking for Alibrandi. Melina Marchetta has inspired me since I was a child. I have a stack of OZYA on my bedside table, including Summer Skin, by Kirsty Eagar and The Flywheel, by Erin Gough. I can’t wait to get stuck in. If you have a favourite from 2016, I’m open to suggestions!!

I read Breathing Under Water a couple of weeks ago and posted my review yesterday for it. Sophie deals with grief in an exceptional manner and shows that there are different ways to cope with someone dying. You can find Sophie on twitter at @Soph_Hardcastle,  her website and don’t forget to add her books to your goodreads. 

Breathing Under Water by Sophie Hardcastle

Pages: 320
Publish date: July 11 2016
Publisher: Hatchette Australia
ISBN: 9780733634857
Purchase: Book Depository – Amazon UK – Amazon AU 

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Thank you Sophie for joining me at Angel Reads and sharing your journey. Have you her books? Did you like them? Are you going to read them? 

Come back next week for some more Aussie fun. If you want to know more about the #LoveOZYA movement check out the website for all the details. Also if you have any Australian YA authors that you would like to see me interview, just let me know and I can see what I can do.