IN SEARCH OF THE MEANING OF DEATH, SHE’LL FIND THE MEANING OF LIFE.

Seventeen-year-old Scarlett Blake is haunted by death. Her estranged sister has made the ultimate dramatic exit. Running away from school, joining a surfing fraternity, partying hard: that sounds like Sienna. But suicide? It makes no sense.

Following in her sister’s footsteps, Scarlett comes to the isolated cove of Twycombe, Devon, with grand plans to uncover the truth. Alone. But she hasn’t reckoned on meeting two boys who are determined to help her. Luke: the blue-eyed surfer who’ll see the real Scarlett, who’ll challenge her, who’ll save her. And Jude: the elusive drifter with a knack for turning up whenever Scarlett’s in need.

As Scarlett’s quest for the truth unravels, so too does her grip on reality as she’s always known it. Because there’s something strange going on in this little cove. A dead magpie circles the skies. A dead deer watches from the undergrowth. Hands glow with light. Warmth. Power.

What transpires is a summer of discovery. Of what it means to conquer fear. To fall in love. To choose life. To choose death.

To believe the impossible.

Interview

Hi Megan, thanks for stopping by for AfternoonBookery. I hope you enjoy your time!

Thanks for having me!

So, by day you are a ghostwriter and at night you write for you. What is the difference?

To an onlooker, it wouldn’t look much different – for both I’m to be found sitting at a laptop and typing away. But to me, the two feel very different. Ghostwriting is my job, and while I enjoy it, I’m not free to write what I want – I have briefs to follow. Plus, I’m always working to a deadline, so I can’t relax. When I finish work and write for myself, I remember why I wanted to be a writer: I love the creative freedom, the challenge and the all-consuming nature of making your own story world.

Was this a natural step for you in your career?

Yes. My career trajectory goes something like this:

Step 1: Do a job that involves writing, any kind of writing.

Step 2: Do a job that involves making books.

Step 3: Do a job that involves writing books.

Step 4: Write my own non-fiction book and get it published.

Step 5: Write more non-fiction books and get them published.

Step 6: Write my own fiction book and publish it.

Step 7: Create a platform for romance writing, and write more fiction books and publish them.

From here, I simply carry on with Step 7, writing more and more books. I’ve put three books out so far this year, and I hope to publish two more before the end of the year.

Have you always wanted to write?

No, I was once intent on being a nurse, or a lollipop lady, or a fairy princess fireman. Then I discovered books, and I quickly developed a passion for reading. One day, it occurred to me to question how books got made. My ever-patient grandmother explained the process, and that was my light-bulb moment. I could do more than just love books… I could make them!

What is your all-time favourite book?

My ‘favourites’ shelf is groaning under the weight of all the books on it. Picking a favourite fiction work is pretty impossible – it’s the kind of task that would keep me up all night, and once I’d chosen, I’d probably change my mind again. So I’m going to say that my favourite book is not from that ‘favourites’ shelf at all, but from my ‘mini’ shelf – a collection of teeny, tiny items I’ve built up over the years, from a mouse trap the size of a match-head to a lava lamp that’s smaller than my thumb. There, I have two leather-bound books I found in an odds-and-ends shop in a French backstreet. They’re impossibly small, and really precious – so much so that I refuse to let my little boy play with them. Meanie mum!

Tea or coffee?

It depends on the time of day and my mood. Tea in the mornings and evenings, and coffee in the day. (Decaf for both, or I end up wired.) I have a bit of a coffee shop habit – skinny decaf cappuccino, usually. But sometimes I go to one of those vintage tea shops and indulge in a cream tea (scones, clotted cream and jam) with a ‘proper’ cup of tea from a teapot. I have a real soft spot for teapots and funky tea cosies. The other day I told my husband I’d quite like to collect them; his response left me in no doubt that would be Most Uncool.

Tell us a bit about your new book.

I’ve recently published the first three books of a young adult series called The Ceruleans – Death Wish, Forget Me Not and Wild Blue Yonder. Here’s a quick overview of the series:

The Ceruleans: mere mortals infused with power over life and death. Five books; one question: If the might of the heavens were in your hands, would you be sinner or saint?

The series began life as four discrete ideas that I planned to make into four discrete books. Then one day as I was walking (something I do when I’m looking for inspiration) the ideas knitted together, and from there the overall story arc of the series took form.

There are many inspirations. The story is quite personal to me, based on a mix of experience and fiction woven from my imaginings and ponderings. The setting – in a part of coastal Devon where I spent every summer as a child – was a key inspiration. But the story, about love and loss, light and darkness, good and bad, is based on my own efforts to make sense of a world in which people close to you can die; in which being true to yourself can be incredibly difficult; and in which love – for people, for places, for a way of being, for a passion and an ethos – is the only reason to hold on.

Tell us one random fact.

I once shared a stage with James Corden, the British comedian/presenter, back when we were teenagers. It was a production of Guys and Dolls – he was a lead and I was a chorus girl (a speck in a very big chorus). Even then he was brilliant.

Megan Tayte bio

Once upon a time a little girl told her grandmother that when she grew up she wanted to be a writer. Or a lollipop lady. Or a fairy princess fireman. 'Write, Megan,' her grandmother advised. So that's what she did.

Thirty-odd years later, Megan writes the kinds of books she loves to read: young-adult paranormal romance fiction. Young adult, because it's the time of life that most embodies freedom and discovery and first love. Paranormal, because she's always believed that there are more things in heaven and on earth than are dreamt of in our philosophy. And romance, because she's a misty-eyed dreamer who lives for those 'life is so breathtakingly beautiful' moments.

Megan grew up in the Royal County, a hop, skip and a (very long) jump from Windsor Castle, but these days she makes her home in Robin Hood's county, Nottingham. She lives with her husband, a proud Scot who occasionally kicks back in a kilt; her son, a budding artist with the soul of a paleontologist; and her baby daughter, a keen pan-and-spoon drummer who sings in her sleep. When she's not writing, you'll find her walking someplace green, reading by the fire, or creating carnage in the kitchen as she pursues her impossible dream: of baking something edible.