Today we are very excited to share an interview with Author Becky Jones (Searching for Amy)!
Meet the Author: Becky Jones
Becky Jones was born in the northwest of England and now lives near Oxford. She is a mother of two who can almost remember working in cafés and going to sixth form parties rather than waiting outside to drive her children home. Unearthing her teenage diary in the loft reminded her she’d been dreaming of writing fiction for even longer than the twenty years she’d spent editing English Language textbooks. So, she stopped prevaricating and started writing, and with a little help from a course with Jericho Writers and lots of support from family and friends, she produced Searching for Amy, her debut novel, which she has now self-published.
About the Book: Searching for Amy
Searching for Amy is a gripping contemporary YA novel tackling the theme of intimate image abuse.
Amy is in her final year of school studying hard for exams, when she loses her virginity at a party. Little did she know she was being videoed and that everyone in the school would soon have seen it.
A novel about consent, friendship, trust and betrayal.
~Author Chat~
YABC: What gave you the inspiration to write this book?
I have always thought that I wanted to write a book, but it was almost a story I kept telling myself and I began to wonder if I had always wanted to write a book, or if it was just something I said to make me sound interesting. Then one day we emptied our attic, and amongst the old baby toys and camping stuff we hadn’t used for years was a box of old letters and diaries from when I was a teenager and young adult. I was transported to my adolescence in such a visceral way reading old letters from my friends and family. And then I found a diary from when I was 17 – it talked about a writing course I had been on, and it said, ‘I have to write, even when I have nothing to say. This is what our tutor told us. I want to try and get something published so I have to keep my motivation going.’
Reading that in my teenage handwriting thirty years down the line was a real message to myself. And so I started. And weirdly the thing I wrote about was a teenage girl.
YABC: What research did you do to write this book?
I talked to a lady who works for a charity that supports victims of image abuse and read lots of survivor stories. I was shocked at how common this crime can be, and at the low prosecution rates. I tried to get in the head of someone this had happened to and think, what would you do? How would you feel and how would you carry on with your life?
YABC: What came first, the concept, landscape, characters, or something else?
I started writing in lockdown, and I really really missed being able to go to cafes. I had an idea about writing the different stories of people who come and go in a café. Initially it was supposed to be almost a short story collection, so I played around with some characters and ideas, and started to develop Jon, the guy who owns the café in the book. He did a lot of talking! So I decided I needed another staff member, maybe a Saturday girl. And along came Amy and her story completely took over.
YABC: Which was the most difficult or emotional scene to narrate?
I didn’t know how to tackle the sex scene – I even went to a seminar on writing sex at a writing conference I attended! I knew that it had to be handled carefully, to show that it was consensual and to be respectful of the fact it was Amy’s first time. I didn’t want to mess it up – in the UK there is a ‘bad sex award’ for sex scenes that are cringeworthy and awkward and I kept thinking about that! So I found a way round it which I think is effective. I hope so anyway.
YABC: If you could time travel what would you want to see?
This is a bit of a naff answer but I would go back to visit my children when they were little – they are now 17 and 19 and I miss the little toddler years. Although at the time they were exhausting so I’d only want to visit for a day or two I think. I remember an English teacher I had who was a dad of young kids in his 40s telling a room full of six form girls that he advised us to have our kids and then go on and study and get a career. That seems so inappropriate looking back, but I think he was just really tired!
YABC: What do you do when you procrastinate?
While I’ve been self-publishing Searching for Amy I haven’t had a lot of time to write – I have a full time job so there’s a lot to fit in. But when I’m writing, some days I picking up a pen feels like the most difficult thing in the world. I usually try and write early in the morning – when I’m procrastinating, I will exercise, empty the dishwasher, sweep the kitchen floor, make packed lunches, do a grocery order – anything to avoid looking at a blank page. Other days I can forget to make dinner because I am so absorbed in my writing. So I guess it works both ways.
YABC: What’s a book you’ve recently read and loved?
Talking at Night by Claire Daverley blew me away last summer. It starts as a teen romance, then spans a lifetime of the two characters and their relationship. I absolutely loved it. I was reading it on a long car journey and at one point, when the kids and my husband were singing along with the stereo, I just burst into tears in the middle of the car, I was so engrossed in the story. I would recommend it to anyone, it’s a wonderful piece of writing.
YABC: What’s up next for you?
Now I have got my debut published, I have to decide what to write next. I have three novels partially started, two of them that are about members of my family at their heart, one a fictional one about a coercive relationship. But people are telling me they want to know Jon’s story now they have read about Amy, so I am wondering whether that should be my next novel.
Title: Searching for Amy
Author: Becky Jones
Release Date: 25.5.25
Publisher: ELM Books
Genre: YA
Age Range: 16+
