Tia Fisher is the award-winning author of Crossing the Line, a novel in verse aimed at teenage readers. Fresh from appearing at Norwich Book Festival – and moving back to the city – Tia shares the story of a boy groomed to sell drugs for a county lines gang
Thank you so much for inviting me to your blog. I’m still so new to the authoring lark that it gives me a massive imposter-syndrome-boosting kick to say I’m a writer for young people. I’ve also just accepted a job working weekends in Norwich Millennium Library, which I’m super excited about and it will work well with my school visits and writing. What a great way to ease into the community!
What is bringing you back to Norwich – and where have you been in the meantime? Are you Norwich born and raised?
I had my wild years, the best, worst, most intense times in Norwich. I was ecstatic when my husband finally caved in and agreed I could go back home. He’s very brave, considering he’s never lived outside London, and I haven’t told him about the cold Norfolk winters yet. Shh…!
I wasn’t Norwich-born, but I’m definitely Norwich-nurtured. My parents moved to Norfolk when I was about eight, then immediately shipped me around a dizzying bunch of different homes and schools in the county, so I was always the new girl. I became a bit of a teenage rebel, desperate to break from the bonds of authority and experience adult life: I got myself expelled from a certain well-known state boarding school, then nearly booted out of the grammar that took me in afterwards. I was bright, but I didn’t see why I should follow a rule if it didn’t make sense…and I still don’t, not really. But if my old schools would like to book an author visit, I promise to behave myself.
After I left home, I did A levels in Norwich and the first year of a degree at UEA. I dropped out to present some programmes on Anglia TV, then eventually left Norwich to teach TEFL in Lisbon. When I came back to the UK years later, I raised a family in London while I worked first in marketing, then as a teacher, and most recently in libraries. Now the kids are off to university, and I can’t wait to come back home.
What is your writing background – and what were you doing before?
My dad was a writer and I’ve written poetry since I remember. I had poems published in The Rialto (a poetry magazine based in Norwich) when I was still in my teens, but it wasn’t until I was in my late forties that I tried writing a novel for the rebel teen inside me. It was rubbish, totally sucked, but I kept trying. I switched to narrative verse, got an agent, died on submission a few times and in the end, went back to uni to do a master’s degree in writing for young people.
As it happened, Crossing the Line was picked up by a publisher on the very day I started my course, and I ended up getting my degree and a bunch of awards in the same crazy, life- changing year.
What has led you writing Crossing the Line? How would you describe the book?
Crossing the Line is about a teenage boy who gets involved in county lines drug dealing. It’s written in narrative verse – which is super-accessible – and aimed loosely at 13 to 15-year-olds. I wrote it because my best friend’s son got caught up in county lines, selling drugs and running with a gang. This was in 2019, and back then there were no books for young people about county lines, but it’s a topic which really needs to be discussed. Because the world was so far away from my own, I did a lot of research, and I’m happy to say The Children’s Society have endorsed the book. My friend’s son helped so much: he wanted me to tell this story so that something good could come of his experience.
How has Norwich inspired CLT?
Norwich sort of haunts me. It’s been the setting for a few of my unpublished books and Crossing the Line, is, (in my mind) set in Norwich and Great Yarmouth. Place names have been changed to protect the innocent locations, but there is at least one distinctive Norwich landmark in the book.
How does it feel to be winning awards for the book? And for it to be described as lifesaving?
I had a good cry when I heard that. UK teachers voted for it to win the 2024 UKLA award and it’s all I could ever have wanted: getting the topic of county lines discussed in classrooms and letting empathy for my character show how easy it is to make wrong choices.
But it doesn’t matter how many teachers recommend it, if it’s not immersive and fun, if kids don’t want to read it. That’s why I was so, so, so happy that 30,000 UK schoolchildren voted for Crossing the Line to be the Yoto Carnegie Shadowers’ Choice 2024.
So now, I’m at that scary second album moment. But when I feel under pressure, I think of what your recent interviewee, Ali Smith, said: ‘I think we all get to an age when we wonder ‘did I do anything of any consequence?’ I hope people enjoy my next books, but Crossing the Line will always be my ‘thing of consequence’.
What was your involvement with the inaugural Norwich Book Festival?
Isn’t it great that Norwich has started a book festival? I really hope people will support it an make it the huge success that it deserves to be. I felt incredibly honoured invited to be on stage alongside two other amazing verse novelists and poets: Joseph Coelho (MBE and ex Children’s Poet Laureate no less!) and Dr Ashley Hickson-Lovence, who teaches creative writing at UEA. We chatted verse novels and their growing role in promoting reading for pleasure.
Any other plans you can share – you’re hoping CTL will be adapted for theatre-in-education?
Yes, there are plans to work with a local theatre to get an adaptation made, bring schools to watch it then tour is as a workshop. Fingers crossed!
Are you working on another book?
On two, actually. One is a boundary-pushing YA verse novel and the other is the middle-grade historical prose that was my MA thesis. And I’m starting to think of ideas for another…watch this space! Writing for young people is the most important and enjoyable job I’ve ever had. I am so lucky.
Visit Tia Fisher for more information on Crossing the Line, resources and school visits. Crossing the Line is published by Hot Key Books and is available on Amazon, Waterstones, Bookshop, and WHSmith.
Featured images – supplied
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