Today I’m happy to be able to share an interview I got to do with Sherry Mayes, author of Stop the World. I’ll be reading and reviewing Stop the World soon so look out for that post on my blog.

Please tell my readers a little bit about yourself.

I live in a lovely village called Caversham in Berkshire a few minutes from the river Thames which is the perfect setting for a writer. I have a sixteen year old daughter and have worked as a journalist on national newspapers for nearly twenty years and have written two self-help books. 

How did you first come to be a writer?

I first worked on newspapers and magazines writing human interest stories when I was in my mid-twenties. I’ve always loved writing and researching anything I’m curious about, and I think the two go hand in hand.  

What is your book about?

 Stop the Word, is a YA, coming of age story about a 17 year old vain pageant queen who ends up crashing her new car and ending up in a wheelchair. You might say she learns about what is really important to her. 

Where do you get your inspiration from? 

 I interviewed a young teen nine years ago about a car crash and how she ended up in a wheelchair nine years ago, and her story always stuck in my mind. I wanted to explore what someone would go through in that scenario and how it could make you think differently about things. 

What is your writing routine? 

I go where the inspiration takes me, so I have no real routine – it’s more like a compulsion; whether that’s jumping out of bed at 6 am to write or staying up half the night to get my words down.

What has your journey to publication been like?

It’s been tough. I got a literary agent for the book who loved in back in Feb 2015 last year but she couldn’t sell it even though she tried very hard. So I ended up self-publishing in December 2015.  

What’s your favourite book that you’ve read this year?

 This year it has to be, ‘I let you go,’ by Clare Mackintosh. A great riveting emotional thriller. 

What are you reading at the moment?

 I am about to start reading ‘The Light Between Oceans,’ by M.L. Stedman

Is there a question that you wish an interviewer would ask that you’ve never been asked? What’s your answer to that question?

What’s your two favourite characters in a novel that you would like to invite for dinner and mine would have to be, Scarlett O’Hara and Alice in Wonderland. Can you imagine what a riveting conversation we’d have. 

If you were to be stranded on a desert island, which three things would you want to have with you and why?

Well I’d have to be self-sufficient, so I’d need a sharp knife for cutting out fish guts etc, a loaded gun in case I met any cannibals or wild animals, and an Ipod with all my music on it.  

How can people connect with you on social media?

 You can connect with me on my facebook page for Stop the World: https://www.facebook.com/SherryMayesauthor/

And twitter: @authormayes which shows me as S.D.Mayes

About the Book:

Published on December 9^th, 2015, Stop the World is a poignant, ultimately uplifting, coming-of-age story about self-acceptance and making the most of what life has to offer, whichever form it takes. 

Beauty Queen, Jody Angel Taylor believes her life is all mapped out – glamorous, clever and popular, and due to marry her handsome boyfriend, she has it all. Until one night she has a devastating car crash, ending up paralyzed – and her perfect world collapses.  

Committing media suicide and publicly blamed for her own accident, everything around her falls apart. She becomes a lonely recluse, feeling she’s lost everything including her legs – her boyfriend to her best friend, her father to an affair, her mother to depression – but above all she fears losing her mind. 

What she doesn’t know is that someone across the globe is about to throw her a lifeline. Can she find the courage to take it?  

Determined to love again and clear her name, she embarks on a new adventure that will transform her life beyond all expectations.

You can buy Stop The World here: 

http://www.amazon.com/Stop-World-compelling-absolutely-unputdownable-ebook/dp/B019BOXL8S

About the Author:

British journalist and author, Sherry Mayes, took her inspiration for this story from a real life case study she wrote about several years ago for a popular UK magazine (article available) revealing the often comic/tragic events of disability through a young woman’s eyes. As part of her research before interviewing the young woman, Sherry learnt a lot about hospital procedure and rehab as well as researching many other casualties who’d become paralysed through accidents, reading their blogs. 

She chose to set the novel in a small Californian town as she wanted the protagonist – a spoilt, only child of successful parents – to be a typical teenage pageant queen who aspires to live the big American dream, where celebrity and the body beauty myth are paramount, and everything is shared on social media. This is about the transformation of the so called ‘ultimate ideal’ – ‘a teen of our times’, obsessed with fame and looks, who then loses it all to discover what really matters.   

Sherry Mayes has worked as a journalist for nearly twenty years for national newspapers and magazines on human interest and health stories, most predominantly for the Daily Mail. She wrote two successful self-help books, BE YOUR OWN PSYCHIC and SUPERNATURAL LOVER published with Hodder & Stoughton, serialised by The Mail. She is also the proud mother of a 16-year-old daughter who is an avid book reader.

‘Get Reading’ a newspaper interview, published on December 17^th reveals the back story behind Stop the World, along with an extract from the first chapter. www.getreading.co.uk