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A lot of people ask me where I get my ideas from and how I think up stories for my books. In this section I'll try to explain...

In FORGET ME NOT a child is taken from her bed in the middle of the night by an unknown abductor. Stella Parfitt, a teenager who lives along the road, watches this unfold. In the days after the abduction the police visit her house and her own mother is forced to admit to an event that took place twenty years before when she was a teenager. Terri Parfitt took Lizzie, a toddler, for a walk in the woods and she was taken from her by a man in a black car. These two abductions are at the heart of FORGET ME NOT.

I’ve written a number of books about missing children. It’s a motif which crops up in my teenage novels time and time again. When I try to explain why I do this to school students or adults I usually say that I got the idea from something that happened in the news. A lot of my books start off like this. Often when I’m talking about one of these stories of missing children I’m uncomfortably aware that there might be some parallel real life tragedy playing out.

Perhaps I write these stories because of my experiences as an anxious mother. While my son was growing up I pictured bad things happening. He would become ill, get run over or worst of all – someone would take him away from me. These fears and imaginings sent me into the world of fiction where I’ve written about this subject many times from all different angles.

Possibly I write about missing children because for me it is a metaphor for the loss of childhood, the loss of innocence. The teenagers in my books are all losing their innocence in one way or another. Never is this more evident than when a teenager is faced with the consequences of the loss of a child. This is crystallized in that moment of revelation when they realise that a child isn’t abducted for a ransom. The truth is darker and uglier.

Being a teenager is like standing in a gateway. The pleasures of being an adult are before them. So are the heartaches. One of these is learning hard truths. This absolutely is the loss of childhood.

Available from Amazon.co.uk

Some teenage boys commit crimes. Many teenage boys are often the victims of crime. I wanted to write a story about a teenage boy who is sucked into crime. Kenny is a decent kid, he comes from a good family. He could have a good future like his brother. He does not represent teenage boys. He is just one teenage boy whose life gets out of control.

Many questions were raised as I wrote this book. Is there a real increase in teen crime? Are modern teenage boys more violent, more loathsome than in years gone by? Or, in these days of political correctness, are they just a handy group of people that can be picked on. Teenagers (particularly boys) have many enemies and few friends. They are often represented in the media as a group, a pack.

And yet it is these same teens who cry at roadside altars when mourning their friends who have died in car crashes. They leap with joy when they get good grades in exams. They queue up to be ridiculed on reality television programmes. They fall in love and they get their hearts broken. Individually they are vulnerable. As a group they can hide behind the image of the surly, potent teen who takes no crap from anyone.

At the beginning of my story Kenny is beaten up by three other teens and this starts a kind of downward spiral. He is befriended by an older man. At first this man is his saviour but in the end he is his tormentor. Kenny Harris is good but he does bad things. The man, Mack, is bad but he does good things. Together they make a mess that has to be sorted out.

Available from Amazon.co.uk

Charlotte Simon lives with her dad and her brother. When her brother is picked up by the police and questioned about an incident on the motorway she is furious. Her brother Brad, is innocent, she is sure. But the next day he admits that he was part of a group who caused a terrible accident. She is baffled by his change of heart. She still thinks he is innocent.

Charlie is shaking off her own 'innocent' image by getting involved with her brother's best mate. It's a secret affair which thrills her.

When the driver of the crashed lorry dies it throws everything into crisis. It also means that Charlie's mum turns up again and tries to get back into the family.

I wanted to look at how a terrible event can cause havoc in a family. Lies and guilt and half truths just make everything worse.

In a single week Charlie has to grow up.

Available from Amazon.co.uk

Some years ago I read a story in the newspaper about a gang of boys who beat somebody up and injured them badly. It was a race crime. The unusual thing about this story was that the girlfriend of one of the boys went to the police and gave information about him. I saw her on a television programme. She was very young and forthright and said that she knew what they’d done was wrong. I admired her enormously, particularly as some of her neighbours gave her family a bad time because she’d gone to the police. It was a brave thing to do and it was the right thing to do.

In TOUGH LOVE I wrote about a girl called Gina who fell for an older boy. He is mature and sensible. He has a job, a car, nice clothes, decent parents. One night though he is one of a group who beat a boy up and leave him in the hospital. Gina must decide what to do. It’s a tough decision she has to make. I wanted to examine her feelings and thoughts and see what her reaction would be.

Available from Amazon.co.uk

Review of TOUGH LOVE

This novel makes you cry and laugh. I think it’s a very easy read but with a very good story line. Younger teenagers should read this novel. Teen Titles

I have written two books about missing children. As a mother the whole situation terrifies me. Maybe I tried writing about it as a way of facing up to it.

It is very rare for a young child to go missing. When they do there is a national outcry. I have found myself driving along and holding my breath, listening with concentration to a news update about a missing child on the radio. It hits all of us and we watch the parents on news conferences with disbelief at what has happened to them.

In MISSING JUDY I didn’t focus on the actual girl who’d gone missing. I wanted to look at the life of her family in the years afterwards. How would it feel, I wondered, to be the child that was left behind when a brother or sister goes missing? Kim, the main character, has huge guilt feelings and wishes she’d done things differently. The family somehow pull themselves together. They have to get on with their lives even though there’s been no word of Judy’s whereabouts for six years.

Then the police find a new clue.

Available from Amazon.co.uk

Reviews of MISSING JUDY

This is a really good book. Some books feel like they are just made up but this one was so well written it seemed really as if it had happened. Teen Titles

Touching, occasionally tragic, and always involving, this was voted a must read for all teens by my teenage testers too! School Librarian

There are a lot of stories in the newspapers about stalkers. These are people who develop an obsession about someone. They think they’re in love with them and often won’t leave them alone. I wondered what it would be like to be a teenage girl who catches the eye of an unwelcome suitor. When she first receives the letters she is flattered and thinks they’ve come from a lad she’s admired for a while. It makes her confident, reckless and she throws herself at this lad.

When she finds out the truth about the letter writer she is shocked and angry. She gets rid of all the letters and is too embarrassed to tell anyone about him. It becomes more dangerous though and when she finally does tell someone they don’t believe her. Is she making it up to gain attention?

I wanted to imagine what this would be like. Will she always be looking over her shoulder, worried that this man will be there?

Available from Amazon.co.uk

Review of LOVE LETTERS

Well written, the tension gets tighter and tighter, until you become as scared as Vicky. A gripping read for young adults. Lowestoft Journal

Some years ago I saw a film in which four men found a crashed aeroplane in a wood in the middle of a snow filled countryside. Inside the plane they found a bag of money; millions of dollars. The rest of the film is about how they try to keep the money without anyone else finding out. The betray each other and eventually most of them get killed. It was fascinating. Then I wondered what it would be like if three teenagers found a bag of money in the house of a drug dealer. What would they do? What would anyone do? Take it? Give it to the police? Keep it?

How would it affect their friendship? Would they be happy with equal shares or would one of them want more?

What would the drug dealer do when he found his money gone?

Available from Amazon.co.uk

Review of BLOOD MONEY

A hectic, all-too-believable story, gripping and gritty, told by the girl narrator in a clear true voice. Armadillo

There have been cases in recent years when young children have killed other children. It happens periodically. I can recall, when I was growing up, the case of a ten year old girl who was sent to prison for murder. These cases are a terrible shock to all of us. It’s bad enough for children to be killed at all but when the killer is a child also it’s more than we can bear. For most people children represent innocence. They have not been corrupted by the adult world. That a child could take the life of another child is incomprehensible.

I wanted to write a book about such a child. I wanted to try and imagine how she might feel, six years later, when she has been released from custody and is trying to make a life for herself, with a new identity. She has a life, people who care for her, a job, a boyfriend, a university course to look forward to. Can she ever forget the past though? Can people forgive her for what she has done? Can she forgive herself?

This wasn’t an easy book to write because I know that people have strong feelings about such things. When I tell people about this book they raise their eyebrows. Perhaps they are thinking of the victims. I also had to think about that when I was writing the book. Why should I ask my readers to try and show some understanding for someone who has taken a life away?

But I did.

Available from Amazon.co.uk

Reviews of LOOKING FOR JJ

Author Anne Cassidy has been compared with adult thriller writers Minette Walters and Ruth Rendell, with her gripping novel of secrets, emotions, suspense and death" The Sunday Express

The adult characters are very well drawn... This book is difficult to put down... Times Educational Supplement

An astonishing book that deserves to be read widely. The Bookseller

Cassidy’s book doesn’t judge, but tells a gripping story as it takes us into the world of this young woman who can neither forget nor fully understand the events of the past. The Bookseller

Totally gripping, LOOKING FOR JJ presents a compelling insight into the incomprehensible actions of a child that kills another child. Books for Keeps

Awards for LOOKING FOR JJ

Occasionally, in the news, there are cases of abandoned babies. Sometimes they’re in cardboard boxes. They’re usually left somewhere where they will quickly be found; a hospital, a church, a busy thoroughfare.

These cases are reported on television and appeals are made for the mother to come forward. The baby is sometimes named after the hospital or the nurse or the policeman who found it.

I wondered what circumstances might drive a mother to put her new born baby into a box and leave it for someone else to find. I imagined that she would have given birth in secret and would be frantic that no one should find out. She wouldn’t be able do it on her own though. She’d need the help of a really good friend who would keep her secret. This book is about that friendship. It’s also about a baby who needs its mother.

Available from Amazon.co.uk

Look out for more new books by Anne Cassidy in the coming months...

My books are available from Amazon.co.uk

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