Lying About Last Summer - Swimming Pools

I am thrilled to start this Murder Month with a guest post from Sue Wallman, debut author to thriller Lying About Last Summer. I should be reading this later this month and with praise comparing this book to 13 Reasons Why and We Were Liars, this sounds perfect for this month!

Last summer, Skye's sister died tragically and Skye hasn't been coping. Her parent decide sending her to a camp for troubled teens - it might help with her grief, they think. And for a while, Skye feels like she can move on, begin to come to terms with her lost. Until the text messages start. Texts from someone pretending to be her dead sister... The past has to be confronted, but what about the present danger...?

When Faye from Faye Rogers PR asked if I wanted to be involved in this blog tour (photo on the side if you wanna see who else is taking part!), I jumped at the chance. As soon as I heard of this book, I knew I had to read it! It sounds so dark and twisted, it sounded beyond perfect for me. Before I hand you over to Sue and why swimming pools are so important to herself and her debut, I must thank both Sue (@SWallman) and Faye (@FayeRogersPR) for taking time out for this tour!

Now, over to you, Sue!

Why swimming pools are important in Lying About Last Summer and to Sue

The idea for Lying About Last Summer started with a swimming pool. I’d done a writing workshop on setting/place workshop with author Lucy Christopher and I realised I really liked pools. Not the sort with chipped tiles, floating plasters and kids chucking things at your head. No. Beautiful outdoor ones, where the sun’s bouncing off the water and I’m the only one in it. 

As a starting point for my book, I liked the idea of a lovely pool in an idyllic summer setting where something bad happens. It’s something that will change my protagonist Skye for ever – her sister dies. A year on, Skye goes to a camp for bereaved kids at an activity centre where she tries to pretend she isn’t phobic about being in a swimming pool or lake. 

I love swimming but I wasn’t a good swimmer as a child. When I swam breast-stroke one of my legs had a weird twist. It still does. I was in my 20s when my cousin taught me to swim front crawl and suddenly there was a sport I actually liked. There’s something liberating about swooshing along rhythmically with my head underwater, where sounds are different, and I’m cut off from the real world. A few years back I developed an allergy to chlorine and it felt as if I had a permanent heavy cold, so I started swimming with a nose clip, forcing myself to get used to it even though for ages it felt as if I was drowning. 

Over the eight years I’ve been writing fiction seriously, I’ve spent hours in the pool fantasising about being published as I’ve swum my lengths. To have finally got there with Lying About Last Summer is an incredible feeling.