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Stephanie Johnson

Re:Live Forum: Tabitha Suzuma - 2007/05/31 20:32 I think it must be a great relief for many of your readers to have the subject dealt with so honestly and sensitively. I have long felt that mental illness needs to have its 'stigma' removed. I also loved the strong themes of love and friendship which were so apparent in the forms of Rami, Jenna and Harry and his teacher. I felt that they kept a beacon of hope when Flynn was experiencing his darkest depths and I found myself willing them to understand what was happening to him. I was also greatly relieved when Flynn 'had another chance' in the form of the competition and how we had a glimpse of him perceiving Andre differently once he was feeling better.

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Tabitha Suzuma

Re:Live Forum: Tabitha Suzuma - 2007/05/31 20:38 Nikki Gamble wrote:
Earlier in the week we had a discussion in a different strand concerning whether when writing about mental illness in a book for young people it was necessary, or desirable, to 'show the way out of the snake-pit'. I'm not sure whether you will have read those posts. The experiences that I have had with mental health services have, sadly, not been very positive ones. And I have found that it has been through personal contacts that progress has been made, as indeed it is for Flynn. I do stress that this is a perosnal experience and I am certainly not criticising the individuals who work with dedication in this field. However, I would be interested to know how you respond to the suggestion that fiction dealing with mental health issues for children should perhaps provide a model for ways in which those problems might be dealt with or resolved.
Very interesting question. I have to admit that I didn't give it a moment's thought when I first started writing A Note of Madness. I just wanted to write about a character who enthralled me and a subject matter that fascinated me. But my editor pointed out that I should include a brief line where Harry suggests that Flynn seeks help from a university counsellor. I put it in because I thought 'yes, that might be informative'. But like you, my experiences with the mental health services have been less than positive and so I didn't want to give Flynn any easy way out. I never really felt I was writing an 'informative' book for that matter. Just about something that was very personal to me.

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Dani Compton

Re:Live Forum: Tabitha Suzuma - 2007/05/31 20:39 I also loved the strong themes of love and friendship which were so apparent in the forms of Rami, Jenna and Harry and his teacher. I felt that they kept a beacon of hope when Flynn was experiencing his darkest depths and I found myself willing them to understand what was happening to him.

I agree. Having suffered depression, was it hard to empathise with those around Flynn and consider how others respond?

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Joanna Kenrick

Re:Live Forum: Tabitha Suzuma - 2007/05/31 20:41 Hello, Tabitha! Told you I might be popping in ;-)

My question is about the effect of drugs on a person with bipolar disporder. I found it fascinating that when Flynn was on lithium, he couldn't function at the level he needed to. Although he didn't have such terrible lows, he didn't have the highs either. It reminded me of Stephen Fry's recent programme and how he said he hated being on drugs because in a way, the lows were worth it for the extreme highs.

Did you talk to any medical people about the effect of drugs on depression and what is your own perception of the treatment of manic depression with drugs? Does it work?

Post edited by: Joanna_Kenrick, at: 2007/05/31 20:45

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Tabitha Suzuma

Re:Live Forum: Tabitha Suzuma - 2007/05/31 20:42 Stephanie Johnson wrote:
I think it must be a great relief for many of your readers to have the subject dealt with so honestly and sensitively. I have long felt that mental illness needs to have its 'stigma' removed. I also loved the strong themes of love and friendship which were so apparent in the forms of Rami, Jenna and Harry and his teacher. I felt that they kept a beacon of hope when Flynn was experiencing his darkest depths and I found myself willing them to understand what was happening to him. I was also greatly relieved when Flynn 'had another chance' in the form of the competition and how we had a glimpse of him perceiving Andre differently once he was feeling better.
Thanks for that, Stephanie! I too really liked the relationships between Flynn, Rami, Harry and Jennah. I was very chuffed with the dynamics that developed between the four characters! :-)

Because I was writing for young adults, I also felt that it was important to end the book with a question mark, or at least a touch of hope although, on the whole, I'm not a big fan of happy endings! I didn't see it as a happy ending though, but I did hold some things back. The sequel which is coming out this time next May is a much darker story though...

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Joanna Kenrick	Re:Live Forum: Tabitha Suzuma - 2007/05/31 20:45 I'm interested that you've written a sequel - presumably Flynn and co will be older in that book. Do you expect it to be marketed to YA again? How happy have you been with the way the book has been perceived by the media/others?
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