Spotlight on Australian debut author Krystal Sutherland

[Guest Nicole]

Who? Born in 1990, Krystal Sutherland grew up in Townsville, North East Australia. The daughter of Jehovah’s Witnesses, her childhood was ‘pretty isolating'. 

'I spent a lot of time on my own because I was discouraged from mixing with people of different faiths,’ she says. As a way to escape, Krystal wrote dark, elaborate stories about knights, dragons and magic. 

Big break Krystal didn’t consider writing for a living until her last day of school. ‘I told my English teacher I wanted to be an actress,’ she says. ‘She looked at me sternly and said: “I think you should write.”’ 

Moving to Sydney, Krystal enrolled at the University of New South Wales to study English literature and film. She completed her debut novel Our Chemical Hearts in a year, ‘sneaking in paragraphs during boring lectures’. 

She then wrote to 15 literary agents and was offered representation in New York. A week later, she had a book deal.

The big idea Aimed at young adults, Our Chemical Hearts is the story of friendship and first love between high-school students Henry Page and Grace Town. 

Grace walks with a cane, wears slouchy boys’ clothes and is desperately sad. Henry, a hopeless romantic, is sure he can make her happy. 

A break-up helped Krystal to understand Henry’s heartache, but ‘it is totally not my story’.

What’s next? Our Chemical Hearts is being made into a film and a draft of Krystal’s second book – about fear, anxiety and curses – is already with her editors.

Krystal’s debut novel Our Chemical Hearts is published by Hot Key Books, price £7.99. To order a copy for £5.99, a 25 per cent discount, until 27 November, go to you-bookshop.co.uk or call 0844 571 0640; free p&p on orders over £15 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/you/article-3920244/Spotlight-Australian-debut-author-Krystal-Sutherland.html