Sister To A Star - Eloise Smith

Evie and Tallulah Allerby are twins, but have very different goals in life: where Evie is desperate to fence, Tallulah is reaching for the stars and the bright lights of Hollywood as she (urged on by her mum) pursues her acting career.  When an American producer casts Tallulah in the lead role in Evie's favourite book (Z for Zoe), their mum insists that Evie travel with them to America so she can be Tallulah's number two and her stand-in.  Evie is dead against this and it's clear she doesn't want to go but when a chance arises for Evie to pursue her dreams of fencing, things begin to look up; that is, until Tallulah goes missing.

From the blurb, Sister To A Star had all the makings of an enticing book: sibling rivalry, the bright lights of Hollywood, sword fighting and a sprinkling of glamour, and I wasn't disappointed.  I have to say that this is the first book I've read where fencing takes such a starting role (can I count The Scarlet Pimpernel?) and I loved the details that Eloise was able to include.  It is clear that she is an experienced fencer (she has three Commonwealth gold medals to her name) and this made the descriptions all the more real.  I think the book will definitely help to interest children in the sport.  

Evie and Tallulah are very different characters: Tallulah craves the limelight and spends her time focussing on her appearance as well as her acting, whilst Evie is quieter, preferring to spend her time learning how to fence with her grandma.  Evie sits very much in her twin's shadow and it is evident from the start of the book that their mum's priorities clearly lie with Tallulah.  From the beginning I felt for Evie and wanted to reach into the book and hug her.  Thankfully, she has her grandma to turn to and she seems to a driving force in her life. 

The plot builds nicely to an action-packed ending that wouldn't be out of place in a Hollywood film - kidnapping, near-death experiences and a chase across Tinsel Town that will have readers on the edge of their seat!  It's gripping and exciting and I know that readers won't be able to put the book down.

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Today, I'm delighted to be able to welcome Eloise Smith to my blog as she explains her writing process.

How SISTER TO A STAR came to be by Eloise Smith

Hollywood thriller: Sister To A Star

It was the Spring of 2020, as the pandemic closed in, and I had just put the phone down to my publisher. My debut, due out in May, had just been cancelled. It had been two years in the writing and a year in editing. I’ll admit, I cried.

However, as the lockdowns took full force, it felt like we all had bigger things to worry about. It’s easy to forget the fear of the early days. As an asthmatic, I was terrified. I wiped down bags of pasta, held my breath passing people in the street and washed my hands until they were sore. So the idea of writing a new book from scratch didn’t feel daunting. It felt like a beautiful escape from worries about home schooling, vulnerable parents, WFH and food shortages.

My publisher wanted a book that drew on my experiences both as an Olympic fencer and as an advertising creative director. A story that combined sword-fighting and film sets? Hmm . . . A few Zoom calls later, we agreed on a thriller about child actors starring in a Hollywood swash-buckler action movie. I’ve always loved the backstage element of film sets – understanding how the magic is created – and so it was a pleasure to throw this knowledge into my writing. And as someone who’s grown up with a sword in their hand, writing about sword-fights feels as natural as breathing.

As an obsessive planner, I plotted every chapter out before writing. For me, that’s where so much of the hard, gristly work is done. So I find numerous ways to plot and re-plot until the story is really tight. I plotted on cards on the floor, on spreadsheets, in word documents, on a matrix of post-it notes on the wall. I followed Black Snyder’s beat sheet, John Truby’s 22 steps and John Yorke’s five act structure. Until the story was bomb-proof.

And then the writing began. The most joyful part. When work and family allowed, I would escape down to my garden shed. One chair. One rickety table. A laptop. A blanket for cold feet. And no internet to distract me. Then it would be just me and the strange new London quiet, full of bird song and the absence of traffic. I wrote pretty fast, laughing at my own jokes, gasping at my characters’ daredevil stunts and welling up at the soppy bits.

Perhaps because of the isolation of lockdown, very few people read my WIP book. Just my editor (Kesia Lupo), publisher and family. I actually loved the simplicity of this – sometimes too many opinions can suffocate your own. Four drafts later, Sister To A Star  was ready for copy edit, then proof edit and type set pages.

Now, as I watch Sister To A Star go into the world, I feel so excited imagining kids’ with their nose in my story. I can only hope they love reading it as much as l loved writing it.

Sister To A Star by Eloise Smith is available at Amazon, Waterstones, WH Smith and The Book Depository.