All of the characters are based loosely on people I have met, sometimes they are just physical elements but generally they mirror the real life personalities of people I have spent time with.
The locations in the book are places I have been to. I wanted a way to tell my grandchildren about some of the cool places I have been lucky enough to visit without having to bore people with my stories!
I tried to remember the smells and sounds of a place to create different atmospheres in the book, the smell of burning popcorn or cries of stall holders.
Most of the activities or modes of transport the main character in the book uses are things I have done:
She paddles, I paddled.
Helen Skelton
She sort of gate crashes a carnival in South America - so did I!
She sleeps in a jungle, surrounded by unidentifiable animals and sounds, so did I!
To describe the physical challenges the main character went through I described injuries and bruises that I have had. Talking through the way they looked and felt.
I tried to think about how I would have reacted in certain situations and based a lot of the main characters reactions on that.
I used my brother! The relationship between the main character and her brother is based on how I was with my brother at that age. I adored him (still do) but didn't want to tell him that!
When I was describing the home life of Amy, I kept picturing my family home and where I grew up.
In my actual life I am SO unorganised and useless at technology so I ended up re writing the book several times on several computers, hence why it's taken so long to actually publish and get it into a readable shape!
Helen Skelton's children's book Amy Wild: Amazon Summer is out on the 7th May and is available in all good book stores. @HelenSkelton