I adore writing the Ask Amy Green series for readers of 10+. There are four books to date in the series:

Just Out!

Ask Amy Green: Boy Trouble

Ask Amy Green: Summer Secrets

Asky Amy Green: Bridesmaid Blitz

Ask Amy Green: Love and Other Drama-Ramas

Ask Amy Green: Dancing Daze will be published in Sept 2012

About Love and Other Drama-Ramas

Everyone in Amy’s life is loved-up, including her best friend, Mills, who’s fallen big time for the swoon-tastic Bailey.

But – Drama-rama – Bailey’s cheating on her! What made him change from Love-God to Love Rat?

And can problem solving queen Amy mend Mills’s achy breaky heart?

Background to the Book (Website Exclusive)

Like the other Ask Amy Green books, Love and Other Drama-Ramas is set in South County Dublin, where I grew up and still live. Amy lives with her family in Glenageary, which is a lovely area very close to my home. She lives in a fictional estate called Sycamore Park. However there are particular places and buildings mentioned in the book that really do exist:

Sarah On Top of Martello Tower No 7 in Killiney Overlooking the Beach

1/ Killiney Beach
This is a beautiful beach about three miles from my house. It’s part sandy, part stony and I love walking along it, staring out to sea and thinking up new book ideas.

It’s also where Bailey surfs. In fact, it’s not a great surfing beach at all unfortunately, the waves aren’t strong enough, but for the story, I made it a good surfing beach. That’s what they call artistic licence!

2/ Martello Towers
There were roughly fifty Martello Towers built all along the east coast of Ireland (and parts of the UK also), and many of them still remain today. They were built in the 19th century to protect Ireland from the French. The Irish writer, James Joyce stayed in one in Sandycove in fact, where he based some of his famous book, Ulysses.

I’ve always loved Martello Towers – they’re so strong and majestic looking. In Love and Other Drama-Ramas, Amy arranges to meet Seth at the Martello Tower on Killiney Beach at a crucial part of the book.

The Background to Bailey Otis

I don’t often use real people in my books, but in Love and Other Drama-Ramas I did. Bailey Otis is based on a boy I used to know a long time ago. He was tall and slim with floppy black hair, just like Bailey. Here’s the letter from the front of the book explaining the background:

This book features a very special boy, Bailey Otis. Readers often ask me are any of the Ask Amy Green characters based on real people. In Bailey’s case the answer is yes. When I was thirteen a dark-haired boy used to follow me home from school. He never said a word, just walked a few steps behind me, which was a little unnerving.
One day I’d had enough of this creepy behaviour. I spun around and asked him what he was playing at. He shrugged and said I looked nice and that he just wanted to talk to me. Then he gave me this lovely shy smile from under his floppy fringe.

So we talked. It turned out we had a lot in common – we were both big readers and loved old movies – and we quickly became friends. He told me his mum had died recently and he was having a tough time dealing with it.

A few months after we first spoke, he and his Dad moved away and we lost contact, but I’ve always wondered what happened to him. I hope he’s happy. Bailey Otis was inspired by my lost friend.