Author Interview with Tabitha Suzuma - In English

Hi everyone ! Here is the surprise I was talking about on twitter : an author interview with the lovely Tabitha Suzuma! Tabitha is a UK based author who has wrote 5 young adult novels for Random House publishers. The most recent is Forbidden. Forbidden was released last year in the UK and it'll be released in june in the US. It's not translated in France yet but I hope one day it'll be so we must keep spreading the word (Tabitha Suzuma speaks french by the way YEAH :D)! Forbidden is the highly controversial love story that a lot of people were and still are talking about in the blogosphere. For any of you who haven't heard about this book you can read my review here & here’s a little bit about Forbidden from goodreads :

"Sixteen-year-old Maya and seventeen-year-old Lochan have never had the chance to be 'normal' teenagers. Having pulled together for years to take care of their younger siblings while their wayward, drunken mother leaves them to fend alone, they have become much more than brother and sister. And now, they have fallen in love. But this is a love that can never be allowed, a love that will have devastating consequences ...
How can something so wrong feel so right?"

1) We're going to start with the most obvious question : what motivated and inspired you to write a book about sibling incest?
Consensual incest was a subject I had wanted to write about for a number of years. I kept rejecting the idea because I thought there was a good chance the subject matter would never get past the 'gatekeepers' (booksellers, librarians, teachers, etc). I was only able to take the plunge once I had built up confidence in my writing ability through my previous four books. But even then I was terrified - not just that it would be deemed a subject unsuitable for teenagers but that I wouldn't be able to make it believable. I was also really afraid of being unable to make the reader care enough about the main characters so that they didn't reject them and their actions out of hand.

I was inspired by the desire to write a tragic love story. It came down to incest by a process of elimination. I wanted the book to be set in contemporary London and I needed the two teens in question to be old enough for their love for each other to be taken seriously. But I quickly realised that (fortunately) in modern-day Britain there are very few - if any - obstacles that could keep a couple in love apart. Cultural and religious difference maybe, but if the couple were determined enough to go against their families' wishes, they could always run away together. I needed something that would be condemned by everyone wherever they went - a relationship that could never be and moreover, was against the law.

2) In your acknowledgements you said that writing Forbidden was possibly the hardest thing you've ever done in your life. What was the most challenging part of writing Forbidden?
Oh there were so many! Keeping my sanity, for a start! Slowly transforming the sibling relationship into a romantic one was particularly tough. I had to try to make the reader believe that this really could happen. Writing the sexual scenes was also a challenge - I had to make sure that I made them realistic and not just glossed over whilst still somehow keeping them romantic. But the hardest part by far was writing the end. By then, I was so caught up in the characters and the story that it began to feel like I was writing a book about something that had really happened. In order to portray the characters' emotions convincingly, I had to experience them myself, which was really painful and frequently had me in tears.

3) Lochan does some research to know where they stood with the law. How much research did you have to do for the novel in terms of their legal position and also if this type of relationship occurs today?
I got in touch with a wonderfully helpful woman at the Metropolitan Police who answered all my endless questions. I was also very fortunate in that shortly after starting the book I caught two brilliantly-made television documentaries on the subject. I also found a couple of fascinating magazine articles about siblings who'd had consensual incestuous relationships during their teens.

4) As a reader, it's really satisfying to have a book that's written from different characters' perspectives. As an author, is that more difficult to write?
Personally, I find it is to start with, yes, because it's a bit more usual for books to be written from just one character's perspective and so the books I have read and have learnt from during my life have mostly been written this way. This is the second book I've written in dual narrative (the first was A Voice in the Distance), so it was easier this time round. It can be tricky if I have just finished writing a book from just one's character's perspective to adjust, but after the first few chapters I get used to the change. I suppose the biggest challenge in switching between characters, especially when writing in the first person, is to make the two 'voices' sound different. Obviously, no two people speak in exactly the same way even if they come from identical backgrounds, as in Forbidden, so you've got to find slightly different expressions and tones to make the two voices distinguishable from each other. This is one of the areas in my writing that I still need to work on!

5) Considering the controversial and taboo topic Forbidden deals with, was it difficult to get this book published?
The road to publication for this book was really quite unusual. I'd had the idea floating around in my head for a while and finally decided to take the plunge and have a go at writing it without telling my publishers. However, about three chapters in, I lost confidence and suddenly realised there was no way anyone was going to be willing to risk publishing a book about consensual teenage incest for young adults. So I abandoned it and started looking for a new idea but after a couple of months, still hadn't come up with anything.

One day, I happened to be visiting my editor at home for a purely social call (we had become good friends) when, shortly before I was about to leave, she casually asked me if I was working on anything at the moment.
With some embarrassment I told her about my 'crazy' idea of an incestuous love story, now abandoned, but instead of rolling her eyes or looking shocked, her face lit up. I firmly told her it was a non-starter because I really wasn't willing to write a book, supposedly about incest, but really only label it that for shock-value and then in the story just gloss over any sexual scenes - which I felt sure was the only way of getting a book on this topic past the YA gatekeepers. She said she understood and we left it at that. But a week later, to my complete and utter astonishment, I got a call from my agent saying that Random House wanted to commission me to write the book! I immediately replied I would only be willing if I could keep it gritty and realistic and write openly about the couple's sexual relationship. To my amazement, they agreed. It was the first book I'd ever been commissioned to write.

6) Did you worry that people would react negatively to you exploring such a taboo topic?
I did feel exposed of course, but not that much more than I do whenever I've just had a new book published. There is always an agonising wait before the verdicts begin to come in. But as for people reacting negatively to the subject, I am not too worried. I am confident enough that if people take the time to read the book before rejecting its subject matter, most people will react positively. For any who reject the book outright because without actually reading it, then of course that's their choice.

7) A lot of books, especially YA ones, are being turned into movies. How do you feel about book-to-movie adaptations? Would you want Forbidden to be adapted?I have mixed feeling about them. I often feel that movie adaptations dumb down the original book or else change it so much that it becomes scarcely recognisable. The few book-to-movie adaptations I personally think have worked particularly well in the last few years or so are The Hours, Atonement, Prozac Nation and Revolutionary Road. In theory I would love the idea of Forbidden being adapted for the big screen. In practice though I know I would have a hard time relinquishing control and would fear for the book's integrity.

8) For anyone interested in more of these kind of reads, what books would you recommend?
I haven't actually read any other YA books about consensual sibling incest, although I've heard of a couple. For fans of hard-hitting, uncompromising, gritty teen fiction I would highly recommend S.E. Hinton, author of The Outsiders and several other great books in this genre. As a teenager, I was hugely influenced by her books, as well as books by authors K.M. Peyton and Lois Duncan. I Am the Cheese by Robert Cormier is almost a classic, and definitely one of my favourite YA reads. Malorie Blackman (Edit ifmary : I love her books :D) and Keren David are great writers in this genre too. I would also suggest trying three of my other books: A Note of Madness, its sequel A Voice in the Distance, and From Where I Stand. They deal with tough issues such as mental illness, suicide, self harm and bereavement and are strongly influenced by my own life experiences. Extracts from all my books can be found on my website: www.tabithasuzuma.com
And when I was in my early teens, I did read a French book about consensual sibling incest: Malika, by Valérie Valère. I don't think it's still in print, but I'm sure it's possible to get hold of it somewhere. It's written in a very different style and the characters are much younger and it is much less explicit, but it is a book that has always stayed with me and no doubt influenced Forbidden. Looking back, I'm amazed how 'unshocked' I was at the storyline at the time. I think teenagers are often much more open-minded than adults.
9) Are you currently working on a new book? Can you tell us a little bit about it?My new book is called A Time to Die. It's another book for older teens and is also about what some might consider a controversial subject: euthanasia.

And the last question that I like to ask at the end of an author interview :
10) So far, what has been your most gratifying moment as an author?
It's hard to pick just one! Getting the phone call from the editor at Random House to say that after the standard three or so departmental meetings, by very first book, A Note of Madness, had been accepted for publication, was one. That was just incredible. Receiving it and reading it in book form was another. My first 'fanmail' had me in tears and meeting readers at an event is overwhelming and very moving - all these people I have never met, coming up to me and saying how much they enjoy my books! But if I'm completely honest, I think the highlight of my seven years as an author was winning the Young Mind's Award for my second book From Where I Stand, in 2008. It was an award I'd dreamed of being nominated for before my first book was even published! This award in particular is so special to me because Young Minds is a charity that supports children and teenagers with mental health problems. I have struggled with severe clinical depression all my life and it was the illness which encouraged me and gave me some of the tools with which to write in the first place. Tools like the experience of very powerful emotions - sometimes of elation but often of despair. So receiving that particular award was really a dream come true.

Thank you very much Tabitha Suzuma ! Now you should totally buy her books :) ! 
(french readers : i've translated this interview just in the post below)