‘Have your own Voice’- Mary Papageorgiou inspires new authors

Megan Chapman | 16th April 2018

Mary Papageorgiou (Left) and Angela Alva (Right)

Recent graduate Alice’s hunt for a job quickly turns upside down in this action-packed psychological thriller by best friend duo Mary Papageorgiou and Angela Alva.

Mary, 30, who grew up in the glorious Greek sunshine (To see the Greek Version of the Facebook page click here), wrote a few children’s books before turning to fiction writing with her best friend Angela, the product of which was this ‘gripping’ page-turner, ‘Side Effects Part One: Injected‘ (out now).

Viva recently caught up with her to discuss the book, what co-writing is really like and advice she would give to any aspiring authors.

Could you summarise the book for the readers of Viva?

The book is called ‘’Side Effects: Injected’’. It’s the first part of a trilogy. It’s a psychological thriller, with elements of sci-fi. The main character is Alice. She’s a recent graduate who just completed a degree in journalism and is currently living in London where she is struggling to find a job.
Being desperate she finds another solution, she takes part in a medical experiment and this is how her story starts.

Why did you choose London as the book’s setting?

We wanted a big city to highlight the differences of living somewhere more out of the way. It’s more difficult to actually find a job in a big city because there is more competition, more things at stake. We wanted our main character to be in a position to question her own dreams.

Why did you choose a medical experiment?

When we first had this idea for a book, we started with different things. We wanted to have the psychological parts of the story where we wanted to explore a young person’s feelings after finishing her studies and after being rejected. But we wanted to focus on what drives a person to join a medical experiment and even put your own life at risk. After doing some research on what people go through physically and emotionally when they take part in a medical experiment we wanted to explore it within the book.

Why did you decide that Alice would be an aspiring journalist?

We wanted our character to be able to find out things on her own, to have the basic instinct for research and that was the perfect profession to help our main character find things out. After taking part [in the experiment] she has to find out some things that don’t add up and be able to find clues to solve this mystery. We wanted her to be like the main character in a detective story but without help. So, she has to have this instinct.

What was your inspiration?

I wrote this book with my best friend (Angela Alva). We have the same dream: we wanted to write. We had an idea that was really similar but with different elements which, in the end, matched perfectly. We combined all these things and made this whole idea. We wanted this trilogy to be different, from a psychological thriller in the first book to a romantic second book and the 3rd which will be completely different. We wanted to make 3 different types of books made into one trilogy.

How was co-writing the book?

It was more demanding and difficult to write the book because there is a different person who has a different writing style and different ideas. So, when we first came up with the idea we had a draft of how we wanted the story to be so we start building the story and the characters first. We wanted it to be how we had it in our minds. We have some differences, but we ended up being completely satisfied with how it worked out.

Then we divided the chapters, so each person had to do a certain chapter and a certain part of the story. After each chapter we gave each other suggestions, we changed things and then put the whole thing together. But it was really inspiring because you get to know the other author so well. It took a lot of changes and took a lot of patience but in the end, we had such good feeling for the story as it was exactly as we wanted.

Do you think you based Alices on both you and Angela?

I think all the characters have characteristics of people from real life. We wanted Alice to be a real person that you can identify with so, she has a lot of elements to her. Sometimes we see part of ourselves in Alice, but we didn’t want to make an autobiographical character we wanted her to have her own substance so we wouldn’t say that Alice is us.

How did the writing process of this book differ from the other books you have written?

This is a completely different type of book and writing. I think that I have matured and gained more knowledge, both on how I write and how I want the story to be told. I think by gaining more experience as a person, by reading more books and that, I came to gain more elements of my writing. I can describe things better and I know how I want them to be.

I can also describe emotions better because there are things I didn’t know at a younger age. That’s why when you read a children’s book it’s completely different. I think I have a more holistic idea of how a story wants to be told and what the audience can expect from this story.

Did anything you have read inspire the book?

I like classic literature mostly and detective or psychological thrillers. Obviously, this concept isn’t something you haven’t heard before, about the experiment, so we wanted the book to have a never seen before element by having our hero have some sort of superpower or side effect. We wanted to show how a young girl with ambition is lead to take part in a medical experiment and how this changed her whole life. Actually, we wanted to make something different that hasn’t been out before and I think we have achieved that. We have a lot of elements: psychology, social experiment, hiding and finding. But I think it’s a real-life thing that could actually happen to someone and that what we want someone to see.

What did you do behind the scenes for the book?

We wanted characters to feel authentic so we read a lot about psychology and how a person is before and after a medical experiment. We had our own experience with our studies, so we know what its like to be a recent grad and not finding a job. We have a lot of internet research, i.e. pharmaceutical companies and articles of how journalist expose things. It was a long process to gather the information and put it in the story.

Can you tell us anything about the upcoming book in the trilogy?

We left it at a part that creates a lot of questions for the audience. The next one will be very different, a completely different genre. We want to focus on the aftermath and the exposure so, it’s going to follow a different direction.

Do you have any advice for aspiring authors?

It’s a very inside process. You have to write and come up with a lot of ideas that won’t always go onto paper. I’d advise an aspiring writer to find their voice, find what they like and how they want the story to be told. Don’t be affected if it’s more sellable; you have to have your own voice. Find how you want to write.

Watch out for the next book in the trilogy and for the upcoming website!

Buy ‘Side Effects: Injected’ on Amazon.