Today, I will be posting an interview with Lina Young, the author of My Side. My Side is Lina’s amazing tale of survival through her life, starting from an abusive childhood, leading into her complicated pregnancy in her teenage years, and what she still faces in life today. My Side is a truly heroic tale of survival.
What is My Side about?
My Side is all about my life. From my earliest memories as a young child, through my childhood, and on into my teenage years. Falling in love, relationships, family and having children. The struggles that got me where I am today, and the fighting I had to do to survive. Someone told me it was more like a Jerry Springer show than an autobiography, and I think I would agree with that in some respects. It is a story that has pretty much everything. Hate, betrayal, abuse, incest, sex, Love, romance, and even murder (though this is only a brief thing)
My Side is an autobiography. How did you feel when you were writing it? Were you afraid or nervous that, after the publishing date, there would be repercussions?
Writing it, I wasn’t. It was written for myself, and no one else. I wrote it to make sense of my life and what I had been through. Also for a way that my girls could see what life had been like for me when I was young, when I fell in love and why I am so hard and cynical towards certain people in the family. But not to be read until I was dead, so I guess that defeats the purpose in a way.
As for publishing it, Yes, I was. I still am. Nearly all of my family do not even know the book is written, never mind published. They would freak if they found out, and I would lose a lot of family because of it. There are some that wouldn’t matter to me, but some I would hate to lose and I refuse to risk losing the few I love for the few that made my childhood, and my life so hard.
My Side is a tale about your survival through child abuse and how you become the woman you are today. Could you tell us about the emotional experience that led you through the book?
Wow, that is a hard one. It wasn’t always easy that’s for sure. It took me a long time to write it, in fact it took me 15 years to complete. I began to write it on an old type writer that I brought from a charity shop for £5, while living in a one room Bed and Breakfast. Rebecca was just a few months old when I began it. That was in 1990 I think when I became her Mother a lot of things changed for me. There were so many answers I wanted, but I knew I would never get. I had a lot of anger and hate inside, and I had to get that out. So I wrote. I wrote what I could, then put it away. I had an old notebook, and a pen, and every so often I would add what I remembered to it. Sometimes from a dream, a nightmare, or bits of information I could get from the family. I also kept a diary, so I could always go back and see what I was thinking and feeling at certain crucial points. I wrote the dates down for things that I wanted to go in the story, so I could put it in later. I always knew what I was thinking, feeling and why during difficult and wonderful times. Every few years I would write some more, and add it to the manuscript. Then in August 1999 my husband bought me a very old computer. It wasn’t good for anything, except writing, and it was what I wanted it for. So I was able to sort through time lines, dates and events. I could go back and add things as I remembered them, take out things that I didn’t feel were important, or needed and also change things as and when I wrote them. It was hard and emotionally draining to write, so I would write for a few weeks, then put it away for a few months before returning to it. In the times between I kept a pen and notebook by my bed so I could write things whenever I awoke from a dream, or nightmare. I think it was harder on my family too. There were times when I became very depressed, and other times when I became angry. It wasn’t anything I could explain to them either. My husband only knew bits and pieces from what I had told him, and what we had been through. My children were too young to be able to explain to them and so often it was Robert I took that anger out on. Later, when we bought a new family computer I was able to use that and then finally last year, I bought myself a laptop, and that meant I could write anywhere in the house then. Even retreating into my bedroom when things I was writing were tough. It also bought back some good memories that I had forgotten existed. Like family Christmases and things my Father had done to make me smile, or laugh, so it wasn’t always bad. Though the strange thing is I never considered my childhood to be abusive until just a few years ago. It was my life, and it was the way it was. It was only when I began to see a counselor and she told me my childhood had been abusive that the thought occurred to me. In fact, it felt strange when she said it to me. As if, it was a title I didn’t deserve. I found it shocking too, I was like, “My childhood?, abusive? Surely you have that wrong?” There are so many who have been through so much more than I ever did.
Was My Side something outside the normal genre you wrote, or have you always been interested in autobiographic fiction?
My usual genre is horror, and Dark poetry. I usually write just short stories, or poems. This was something new and completely different for me. I had never even begun a novel before I wrote this one.
I didn’t become interested in autobiography’s until after I began to write mine. It was after reading some of the real life ones that gave me the idea to publish my own. But after reading some of them, I thought that my life wasn’t worth publishing. It seemed dull and boring, and not really interesting. But it was something I didn’t think seriously about until I posted it onto WritersCafe.Org, and I was approached by Pauline Ramsey of Jaded Silence Press. My usual genre is more horror and Dark side based. Such as Stephen King and James Herbert, and Anne Rice.
What is your favorite autobiography? Is there a choice one that inspired you to write your own story in My Side?
My favourite has to be Extreme by Sharon Osbourne. It is written with such honesty that I fell straight into it when reading it. Also David Peltzer, writer of A child Called It, A Lost Boy and a Man Called Dave. I read that and I cried for all his pain and suffering. Now that was a real story of child abuse. When reading something like that it makes my own life look like a picnic.
How has working with a new publisher such as Jaded Silence been? Was the editing process painstaking, or was your experience with this publisher easy?
I found them to be very helpful, and I was constantly updated on the progress. In fact I was more of a pain to them I think. It wasn’t until after it had all been done when I decided I wanted addresses and surnames removed from the book. They were very obliging and helpful, even when I was a pain in the butt, lol. The editing took a long time too. I like to write, but when you write something so personal, and often painful, grammar and spelling don’t always take top priority. So I am guessing it was a hard task. Of course I always use spell check, but even that can miss some words when you miss out a letter and it spells something else. In fact, to be honest, I never read the book until I received a copy about two weeks ago. I am reading it at present, which seems strange since I wrote it, but the memories in there are often not happy and not ones I wanted relive, so I actually didn’t read it after it had been edited. I just trusted Pauline with it. I trusted her enough to know she would do what was right for the book, and for me.
Do you have any other novels planned?
I am currently writing my second novel. A fiction novel more of my usual genre. It’s called Through The Fabric Of Time, and is about an Atlantean Princess and her journey through time. There are also Vampires and other creatures in it, but it is a work in progress at the moment. I am hoping to make it into several novels.
If you could get My Side into the hands of any author and have them review it, who would that author be?
Sharon Osbourne. I know she isn’t strictly an author, but I would love her to read and review my book. She is like a hero to me. What she went through in her life, and the woman she is. She doesn’t take shit from anyone, and she is a strong and beautiful woman who has very strong family values, and I admire her for that. Of course my next book would be more an Anne Rice type of book, and I would like her to read and review it, when I finally finish it of course. Well, one can dream.
Care to tell us a little about you as a person?
Not a lot to tell that isn’t in the book really. I am quirky, and I have a terribly rude sense of humour. I love to laugh, though you wouldn’t think so to read my writing which is often dark. I love my family, and spending time with them all, escpially my nieces and nephews. I have 3 very beautiful daughters, and I am married to a loving and caring husband, and have been now for nearly 10 years. My daughters say I am like a 30 year old child. Which I am not always sure is a good thing, though they say it is meant in a good way. I live in a small house, in a quiet little town with a large garden out back and front. I have a pond in the front garden and every year we get frogs who come and have babies there. I have 3 pets in the house. My beautiful Cat Cuddles, who is a grey and white small female. She is my baby, though she is 10 years old, which makes her 70 in Cat Years. Molly is a yellow budgie, and Pancake is a large brown and white Syrian Hamster which is actually my daughters pet. I enjoy reading, and writing, drawing and I also do some cross stitching, mostly just small gifts and cards for family, but sometimes I will attempt a larger project. Most of my socializing is done on the Internet, and most of my friends are on there too. I like online gaming, and you can find me on a number of sites, such as MySpace, Bebo, FaceBook, PlayAndWin, King.com, DeviantArt, and of course WritersCafe.Org
Any links you would like to share with our fellow readers?
They can check out my other writing at: http://www.writerscafe.org/writers/Fantasyfairy/ if they would like to read more.
– – –
You can out more about Lina and her writing by visiting the official website for My Side here.
Conversations with Pens 
Leave a comment