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Ali Land graduated from university with a degree in Mental Health and spent a decade working as a Child and Adolescent Mental Health Nurse; the way in which children survive extraordinary circumstances interests her greatly. Land is now a full-time writer. Books from her teenage years - in particular The Wasp Factory and Lord of the Flies - helped inspired her debut novel, Good Me, Bad Me.
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What motivated you to enter the mental health field?
I wanted to become a mental health nurse because I wanted to know about people, the way their minds work, and the 'why's' that result from individuals' experiences and, most importantly, I wanted to help. I specialized in children's mental health because it felt like the right fit for me. Being able to use stories and play and the therapeutic conversations I was able to have with the adolescents will never leave me.
How did those experiences lend themselves to writing Good Me Bad Me?
It was actually one conversation in particular that formed the basis of Good Me Bad Me. I was working with a teenage girl when she disclosed to me that her mother had been involved in the serious harm of young children and she no longer wanted to live because she was afraid of turning into her. The notion of living with a parental legacy of evil haunted me. The burden this girl, and other children I looked after, carried, was so apparent. Was this girl right? Can the apple ever fall far from the tree? How much choice do we have about who we become? I let those questions marinate for over eight years and when I couldn't hold them in any longer, the first draft ...
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