In the first of our online series about Estelle Maskame, Press and Journal reporter Christopher Rae, met with the north-east author to hear how her novels are making waves across the globe…
Sitting in her the living room of her Peterhead home it is hard to image Estelle Maskame being any other than an average 16-year-old.
However the Peterhead Academy pupil is in fact a renowned author with a trilogy of novels under her belt and legions of fans across the globe.
Estelle wrote her first book, Did I Mention I Love You? (or Dimily as it has become known), age 13 to much scepticism from her family.
The teen-fiction story charts the illicit love affair of soon-to-be step-siblings Eden Munro and Tyler Bruce who are thrust together over a summer break.
Last week Estelle’s third novel in the Dimily series – Did I Mention I Miss You? – hit the online shelves with young fans counting the minutes until they could order a copy.
Speaking exclusively to the Press and Journal the part-time supermarket worker said she was amazed at how much attention her work was getting.
“I had to pester friends and family to read the first book and I’m kind of embarrassed by it now because you can tell how young I was when I wrote it,” she said.
“It was when I published the sequel – Did I Mention I Need You? – that things started to blow up and kind of snowball.
“It weird to think that people all over the world are reading something I wrote in my living room in Peterhead.”
Despite the characters in her books being her age Estelle said there was no not to reality in her stories.
She said: “I don’t really have any inspiration for my books – I just get an idea and try and fit it around the plot.”
Come back on Wednesday for part two of our exclusive interview with Estelle Maskame…