Before I actually ever read a novel, I hated reading. I used to love the idea of creating my own stories, but despised the idea of actually reading a book — I assumed they were all boring. In junior school, I enjoyed listening to people read but could never commit to reading a book myself. During the start of secondary school, I tried to get into the popular books at the time that all my friends used to read. I felt sort of left out of the friend group, as my friends were all very much into reading. At the time, I was more into horror films. It was only until my dad presented me with one of his books to read, that I managed to finish a novel by myself… It was something I'd never even heard of, and I have to credit the man, the myth and the absolute legend here — Darren Shan. He was the person to start it all for me. Initially when my Dad handed it to me, I remember looking at the front cover and sort of thinking “what the hell is this?”, then smirking at my Dad and asking him, “do you really expect me to read this?”. I did, in fact, read it. All in one sitting. It was just incredible. 

I'd never felt so sucked into a book before that I physically felt as if I couldn't put it down, and I genuinely didn't! To this day, I still credit that book as the book that ignited my passion for literature. From then and on, my Dad kept on buying me horror and fantasy books… I finished that series, then went straight onto another. I became obsessed with vampire literature, especially. So much that I went on to write my dissertation on the representation of queer sexualities in Dracula and Carmilla. Yeah — I studied English Literature and Creative Writing at University. And it was all down to that one book that changed everything. 

My debut novel has always been a work in progress for me… I began writing it in Year 8, and the amount of times I have changed elements, plot lines, characters is too many to count. I loved the premise of what I had, but being twelve years old, it was written poorly. However, one of my proudest achievements to this day was that I did win a spooky story competition when I was in Year 10, so clearly my writing couldn't have been that bad at the time!

Despite all of the different side quests and projects I dabbled in in secondary school, I always kept coming back to my main book series that I had hundreds of thousands of words completed for. Then, after I completed my GCSEs, I just dropped it. I had completely lost interest. It just wasn't good enough. So, for about five years, it just sat there waiting in a Google Doc, untouched. It was only in December of 2024 that I had the urge to rewrite the whole thing from scratch and once I started, I was unstoppable. Eventually, I ended up with a polished book, which is how I ended up with the Vanishing of Toby Gray. I'm still not entirely sure that the book is perfect; I acknowledge that there are some inconsistencies that need to be addressed — potentially in the next book (hint hint!) — but for now, I am just relieved that I have finally made it. My book is published, after all these years. I just hope you'll love it as much as I do!