Congratulations on being Shortlisted for the Carnegie prize, who told you and what was your immediate response when you found out? (we can star swears if it was a swear!)
I was on a mini break, standing in a slow-moving queue at Malta airport, idly checking my phone (as you do) when an email appeared from Emma Matthewson, Executive Publisher at Hot Key Books with the news. I was so shocked because I’d totally convinced myself there was no hope! I didn’t swear – nothing as eloquent as that. My husband says I flushed scarlet and flapped my mouth like a hungry pelican – very flattering!
Not Going to Plan is an incredibly relevant story, what do you hope young readers take from it most?
I wrote Not Going to Plan for the teenager I was. Too impulsive, too grateful for attention, not understanding how I was being damaged. And I wrote it for the Zeds: for those who need more time to work themselves out, who maybe don’t know they are very special.
The book is a reminder of how important our friends are, and that we have a right to our different views, but we shouldn’t judge each other. The teenage years are about building our tribe, and it’s healthy to have difference, a bit of an eco-system going on.
It’s also very practical and fact-based, which is kind of counterintuitive for a work in verse! But I want readers to be aware that what happened to Marnie can happen to anyone . . . Here’s how to avoid it, but it’s your choice what to do if you do get pregnant unintentionally. There should be no shaming. And stealthing (lying about using a condom) is a real thing. It’s rape.
One of the many privileges of being on the shortlist is to see the reviews from the Shadowers posted on the Carnegie book page. I get quite emotional when they understood what I was trying to say.
Your story takes on a set of circumstances that can divide people. What sort of research did you need to do prior to and during writing Not Going to Plan?
Abortion is an issue I knew a bit about, both from personal experience and in a political sense (a family member runs a charity helping those in Trump’s America access the healthcare they need). I did some internet digging into the attitudes of various world faiths, and created Rakel – who is very happy with her religion’s teaching, but comes to understand that Marnie is entitled to make a different choice. I fed this research into Zed, whose methodical fact-based approach gives readers a balanced picture.
It’s obviously important that Marnie’s experience is factually accurate, so I spoke to a GUM nurse and a receptionist in an abortion clinic. I did a lot of internet research, and checked what kind of AI results might have come up for Marnie and allowed them to slightly mislead her. The final manuscript was read and approved by Brook, the national charity for sexual health education and wellbeing.
You’ve written on some heavy hitting teen experiences. Difficult I know but what three words would you use to describe how your teenage experience was?
How would What3Words have located me back then? I guess my teen years were frequently painful, often joyous, and very intense.
Not Going to Plan is the kind of story that really sticks with a reader long after they have turned the final page. What’s one book you read as a child or young adult that has stayed with you into adulthood?
I wish I’d read Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret (Judy Blume) when I was growing up, because it would have resonated so deeply. But for some reason I didn’t come across it, or indeed many ‘coming of age’ books except the Flowers in the Attic series (!). In all honesty, the book which embedded itself most strongly in my psyche was a very different masterpiece – Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy!
What is the Best Bit and the Worst Bit about writing a book. And what is one Random Rest bit (which has no positive or negative assigned to it rather it is an interesting piece of information) about writing this book in particular?
Best bit: When the words are flowing freely, it’s like dancing to a favourite tune. Or maybe when I’m out for a walk and ping! the solution to the plot-niggle just pops into my head without effort.
Worst bit: When the words have dried up and I am officially The Worst Imposter Writer Ever.
Random Rest bit: The character work for this book was very personal. Marnie was easy – mostly introspection – but learning about her foil, Zed, enabled me to understand better a person very dear to me, someone normally very private. They kindly agreed to be the basis for Zed’s character, and answered my questions with patience, quirked eyebrows and occasionally deadpan sarcasm. As a result, the quickfire interchanges between Marnie and Zed really wrote themselves.
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Many thanks to Tia for answering our questions and a huge congratulations on Not Going to Plan being shortlisted for the 2026 Carnegie Award for Writing. The Winner and the Shadowers’ Choice Winner will be announced on June 23rd and voting is now open for schools doing Shadowing to cast their votes. You can find out more about Not Going to Plan in our Class Reads Summer promo or by using the link below.
