Huge welcome to YA author Sarah Mussi, who’s latest YA novel Room Empty is released in April 2017.

Tell us about you in 25 words or less.

The kind of person who likes to slip below the radar, if possible. If I was an animal I’d be the donkey in Animal Farm.

What makes you happy?

Wild countryside, a walk in the woods/fields/park/mountains, an open fire, a good friend, a brilliant BOOK, a car that works, candlelight, moonlight, YouTube, ebay, tea, old furniture, intelligent conversation, classical music and black chocolate

Where is your favourite place to write?

In bed! Snuggled under cosy covers with massive cushions to lean against with an open laptop and the curtains drawn tight.

What’s on your TBR pile at the moment?

All of the classics – even those I’ve read before – all of the best latest YA novels and The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian.

What’s the strangest question you’ve ever been asked?

Question: What is your favourite ice-cream

Answer: I don’t eat ice-cream

What’s your worst habit?

Saying YES when I mean NO

Your favourite word?

“It is what it is”

Reason being, it seems a handy thing to say when you don’t know what else to and don’t want to be fake!

Your latest YA novel, Room Empty has some strong themes – drug addiction, anorexia – which are dealt with brilliantly, how hard were they to write about?

Not really very hard once you got past the elephant in the room.

What do you hope your readers will take away from reading Room Empty?

Mostly a sense of having visited another world where everything is not in its box and things cannot be fixed by a good cry or a night’s sleep or a hot cuppa. A sense that we humans are infinitely complex and infinitely vulnerable and damaged and destructive yet capable of love, understanding and recovery.

What are your top tips for budding writers?

Read
Read
Read

Can you give us a glimpse / hint at your current WIP? (I can bribe you with cake & biscuits!)

You cannot bribe me with cake and biscuits ‘cos they have EMPTY CALORIES!! But I can tell you that I am writing a novel about abuse – emotional and physical – and abusive control/with possessive jealousy . Sort of Othello meets sexting meets someone’s step-dad.