INTERVIEW BY ALEXIA E (YEAR 7)

When did you first realise you wanted to be a writer?
Miss Maurer started writing in Year 5 but had always had ideas. She started writing her recently published book, The 7 Lives of Milly Gray, in 2017.

How do you find time to write as well as being a Boarding Assistant?
Miss Maurer likes to write during the holidays when she has long amounts of time.

When is the best time for you to write?
Definitely during the holidays! In terms of the time of day then either early in the morning or later at night, as Miss Maurer likes to have a lot of time to get into the flow of writing.

What is your favourite part of being a writer?
Miss Maurer loves to see the story unfold in her head and then onto the page.

Where did you get the idea for The 7 Lives of Milly Gray?
Miss Maurer started writing just Milly’s story but then she felt like it needed something more so added the character of Sawyer and began to develop her story.

What is the most difficult part of writing a book?
The hardest part is keeping going! Writing a book takes time so it’s really important to keep motivated and moving forward with it.

What are your favourite books to read?
Miss Maurer’s favourite genre is mystery - probably why The 7 Lives of Milly Gray is a mystery novel! She also loves reading fantasy novels.

What’s next? Will there be a sequel?
Yes there will be more! Miss Maurer has finished the first draft of a sequel which is under the working title, The Lies of Sawyer Bennett.

Who is your favourite character in the book?
Miss Maurer thinks that Quinn is probably her favourite character, but she is not sure.

How did you choose the names in your book?
Someone Miss Maurer knows told her about someone else named Sawyer and she thought it was a really original name that fitted the character. She also spent lots of time deciding whether Milly would be spelt with an ‘ie’ or a ‘y’ at the end!

Why set it in the United States?
Miss Maurer likes being in the United States so decided that was where she was going to set her book. Also, a lot of the books she read growing up were set in the USA and this also inspired the setting of the book.

If you could choose an actress to play Milly or Sawyer, who would you choose?
Miss Maurer had to think of some actresses for the cover artist to base her designs on. Milly was based on Dafne Keen and Sawyer was based on Sadie Sink - she would love them to play the roles if the book was developed for film or TV!

What is your all-time favourite book?
A very hard question but… Reckless by Cornelia Funke.

What advice would you give to a would-be author?
Miss Maurer’s top tip to any future authors is to “read lots”! Read lots of things that you enjoy as it will only inspire and improve your own work.

You can read The 7 Lives of Milly Gray by purchasing a copy here.