Brit Writers spoke with Emily Pattullo, author of Ring Around Rosie…

Ring Around Rosie by Emily Pattullo… is a thriller for teenagers based on the terrifying world of child trafficking.

Rosie discovers a gate leading to an old war bunker where she sees some mysterious men. The men turn out to be child traffickers, and the rebellious fourteen-year-old gets caught and taken to London along with many other children that have been shipped into the country. Rosie faces prostitution, the plight of others much worse off than her, as well as her own demons, all while her brother Ted and student journalist Martha – with help from a few friends along the way – scour London and its dark recesses in a race to save Rosie before it’s too late.  

What inspired you to write Ring Around Rosie?

It happened by accident really. I wanted to write a book about smuggling; I like the covert aspect and there’s plenty of scope for material whether past or present. But when I researched present-day smuggling it wasn’t smuggling that came up on the searches, it was trafficking, and it wasn’t inanimate objects, it was people! It took me completely by surprise. And as I read the stats that included 2.4 million people trafficked each year, half of which are children; the second largest source of illegal income worldwide, exceeded only by drugs, I knew I had to write about it.

I had already decided I wanted to write a book for teenagers, but this merely confirmed it for me. After all, they’re the ones that are really going to face the problem of trafficking; although there are amazing people out there now, tackling it, it’s going to be years before true impact is made. In fact, two years ago, when I started writing this book, there was barely anything about child trafficking on the internet, and very little in the media. So already it’s come a long way.

I hope that by imbedding a very real issue into a fast-paced, contemporary thriller it will be appealing to teenagers; it’s only when they’ve finished that they’ll realise they’ve been left with quite a different view of the world. 

Tell us about your journey to publication.

Man, it’s been a long one. I’m not sure there’s enough room on your website! To cut a very long story short: I did the agent submission thing, got loads of rejections, a couple of ‘near misses’, entered Brit Writers competition, didn’t win, cried a bit, did the agents and publisher referral, got some good advice on my submission package, submitted again, got some interest, lost the interest, cried some more, got more advice about my story from Brit Writers, more interest from a couple of publishers, refused them the shirt off my back, decided to publish as an eBook.

The end (or rather, the beginning). 

How important are initiatives like Brit Writers?

I love Brit Writers. They literally saved me from becoming someone who wrote a book once (but don’t ask her about it). The frustration and demoralisation of receiving endless rejection letters after your hard work has been languishing on the (insultingly-dubbed) slush pile for months, is something I nearly allowed to beat me into submission (or rather out of it). I could rant about the unfairness of it all for hours, but what I’d rather say is, there are other ways to get your book noticed and appreciated, and Brit Writers helped me to see that. 

What advice do you give to new and unpublished writers that read this?

Until you have experienced a struggle you can’t fully appreciate the rewards of the end success you are striving for. If it all falls into your lap then you take it for granted, and then it’s more likely to slip through your fingers and be gone before you even knew what you had. 

What’s next for Emily Pattullo?

Lots more of this, and then onto the next. 

www.emilypattullo.com