“When I was 14, my family moved overseas. I vividly remember a friend turning to me and saying, ‘You can be anyone you want now. You can totally reinvent yourself’. I think that’s so relatable, this dream of starting over. Of being someone brand new and better, like some kind of magic trick. It’s something so many of us try to do every New Year’s or even every Monday! A few years ago, I realised it would make a great opening for a novel.”
We interviewed award-winning writer @Miranda Luby Writer about writing and publishing her debut young adult novel, Sadie Starr’s Guide to Starting Over, out on August 2nd.
“After starting out at the @Geelong Advertiser and @GT Magazine, I’ve been a freelance journalist and copywriter for most of my career. I’ve written for publications like BBC Travel, National Geographic, and the New York Post.”
“My whole life I’d dreamed of writing a novel, but my perfectionism and fear of failure always got in the way. I’d write pages of notes, maybe even a few chapters, but give up when I was worried it wasn’t good enough. Finally, I decided to lean into those fears and write them into the novel in the hope that it might help someone else struggling with the same things.”
“I entered the novel in the Text Prizeand a few months later I received a call from @Text Publishing saying they wanted to publish it. It was an absolute dream come true and I have no doubt that it happened because I decided to write from the heart, which is the best advice I can give any aspiring writer.”
“Sadie Starr’s Guide to Starting Over is about a 16-year-old girl whose family moves interstate when she’s in year 11 and she uses it as a chance to reinvent herself. But when things get very complicated with a girl gang at her new school, she realises she can’t really leave her past self behind. The book is about all the ways black-and-white thinking can be harmful to us both personally and in our society: disordered eating, perfectionism, social media activism, cancel culture. I hope it helps people, especially teens, see the world and others with a little more nuance.”
“And a bonus for locals: there’s a scene set on the Surf Coast! Can you guess which lookout it is?”
Miranda will be signing personalised copies of her book at @Torquay Books on Saturday, August 6th from 11am – 1pm.
Find out more about Sadie Starr’s Guide to Starting Over here: www.textpublishing.com.au/books/sadie-starr-s-guide-to-starting-over
Miranda’s book is available for preorder now from your local bookshop.
HuG 