Sue Whiting on writing Missing: Why are you doing this to yourself?

by |February 26, 2018

Missing by Sue Whiting

Guest blog by Sue Whiting on writing her latest middle grade novel, Missing.

Why are you doing this to yourself? Why write such a sad story? Why set it in a country you know nothing about? Have you taken leave of your senses?

These questions and more plagued me during the two and half years it took me to write Missing, my contemporary middle grade novel for readers 10+. But there was something about Mackenzie da Luca’s tale that I couldn’t let go of. I simply had to find a way to tell it.

Sue WhitingThe first tiny seed of inspiration came when researching “missing persons” for my YA novel Portraits of Celina. The tragic discovery that each year in Australia around 38 000 people are reported missing totally threw me. And even though a large percentage are found within a week or so, about 1600 people are considered long-term missing, which is just plain gobsmacking. Search the Internet and you’ll find scores of tales and all are absolutely heartbreaking.

Those troubling statistics and the stories behind them haunted me. But was I brave enough to write about this? Writing about such a tragically sad circumstance for the middle grade comes with many challenges. It involves many complex emotions and much of the “drama” is played out in the adult world, not the world of the thirteen-year-old girl whom I wanted to write about. But kids are involved when family members go missing. They are affected. Embroiled in the same grief and sad realities as the adults around them. So I set out to explore this and to nut out a way to tell a story that, while inherently sad, was also relatable, suspenseful and page turning. And, yes, it was challenging!

I started researching and collecting ideas in April 2015. It was Easter and I ended up with five days R&R in Brighton in the UK, on my way back from the Children’s Book Fair in Bologna. It was here, alone in my tiny hotel room, with the gulls circling outside my window, and a thick fog rolling across the sea and swallowing up the iconic pier and boardwalk, that I searched the world (via the Internet) for where my mother character would go missing and decided upon Boquete, Panama. So while I took in the tourist sites of Brighton, ate fish and chips, and walked along the shingle beach with the chill biting my cheeks, my mind was in the heat of Central America, trekking through jungles and worrying about snakes and leeches and big cats. (Writers are a weird lot.)

I continued to research the book for probably close to a year. And I did wonder at times of the wisdom of setting a large chunk of the novel in a country I knew little about and had never visited. I took solace in the fact that the story was being told through the first person narration of a traumatised and confused thirteen-year-old girl. When depicting Boquete through this foggy lens, I realised that while I wanted the town’s depiction to feel authentic, it was always going to be a little skewed because of Mackenzie’s state of mind, lack of experience and her youth.

The Internet was key in helping me bring Boquete to life. Boquete is a tourist town with a large expat community – many who are keen bloggers and who provided wonderful glimpses into the way the town worked. But the best break came when I discovered that Boquete’s local council had CCTV cameras in the main square that provided 24-hour live feed on the Internet! I spent many long voyeuristic hours watching the comings and goings across the square day and night. It felt creepy and stalkerish, but too good an opportunity to pass up because of squeamishness. (I was actually blocked from the site for a while – too much strange activity from across the globe perhaps?)

The other really lucky break was making contact with Dianne Heidke, the sister of Australian author Lisa Heidke, who has lived in Boquete for more than ten years. We started a terrific email exchange where I was able to ask all the questions that only a local would know the answers to. She also kindly checked the final manuscript for me.

There is no denying that Missing was a tough story to write and a sad one to read, but I believe it is also an important one. Because it is as much a story about resilience and human endurance as it is about grief and loss. And it’s a story to remind us of the human faces and personal tragedies behind the statistics.

Missingby Sue Whiting

Missing

by Sue Whiting

What do you hope for when there is no hope? In search of this answer, award-winning Australian author Sue Whiting delivers a confronting mystery for younger readers.

Mackenzie da Luca’s mother is missing – she’s vanished without a trace in the jungles of Panama. Now, 116 days later Mackenzie and her dad are in those same jungles. Her dad is desperate to find out what’s happened to his wife. And Mackenzie is desperate to make sure he doesn’t ...

This middle-grade novel by award-winning author Sue Whiting is expertly structured, switching between the then and the now. Fans of contemporary narratives will be hooked from the first page...

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Comments

  • February 27, 2018 at 9:49 am

    Sue, l loved reading about your research and how you went about it. The story sounds fascinating! Congratulations!

    • March 1, 2018 at 8:20 am

      Thanks, Sheryl. Research is the fun bit! As you know …

  • February 27, 2018 at 8:41 pm

    Hi Sue, I’m really looking forward to reading Missing. Sounds gripping. Plus….panama…Boquete. I’ll love it. X

    • March 1, 2018 at 8:19 am

      Thanks, Lisa! And thanks to Dianne! Couldn’t have written the book without her.

  • Natalia

    March 13, 2018 at 6:10 pm

    Hi Sue, I have recently had you come to my school and talk to us about books and why being an author is the best job in the world. You have also persuaded me into reading Missing therefore I have placed an order for your book and I have been on heaps of websites trying to find out what missing is about because the suspense is killing me.

    • March 20, 2018 at 8:05 pm

      Hi Natalia. Thanks for the message. I have had a lot of fun talking at schools lately. I hope your copy has arrived and that you enjoy reading it! Cheers Sue

    • March 20, 2018 at 8:31 pm

      Hi Natalia. Thanks for the message. I had such a great time visiting schools last week and talking about books and writing. Thanks for ordering Missing! I hope you have your copy by now and that you are enjoying it. Best wishes. Sue

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