I posted about Saturdays at Noon last week, the debut novel by Rachel Marks. It is an adorable story about Jake, dad to 6 year old, Alfie, and a young woman, Emily. When Alfie takes a liking to Emily and she starts taking care of him while Jake goes back to work, Emily learns to love a child like she never loved anyone before while Jake learns to appreciate all parts of his son – the exciting, the obsessed, the loving, the creative – all of it. I am thrilled to host Rachel on the blog today and talk to her more about the book.
Rachel Marks studied English at Exeter University before becoming a primary school teacher. After having her first son, she decided to focus mainly on being a mum, teaching one day a week and nurturing her creative side by starting a small photography business. Her inspiration for her first novel came from the challenges she faced with her eldest son, testing and fascinating in equal measure. When she discovered Pathological Demand Avoidance, a poorly understood Autism Spectrum Disorder, she could finally make sense of her son’s behavior, and the idea for the first novel fell into place.
It was wonderful to connect with her! Enjoy the interview, and get some insights about the book! 🙂 If you haven’t read my thoughts on the book yet, click on the graphic below to head to the review.
- I read that Saturdays at Noon is inspired by your eldest son and Pathological Demand Avoidance. Did you find out about this lesser known Autism Spectrum Disorder in a similar manner to Emily?
Yes, actually! It was on a programme called Born Naughty and so after watching I looked it up and found the PDA society, which is absolutely brilliant. There is so much fabulous information on their website and the forum is really great for sharing experiences with others and asking questions.
- Alfie is such a creative boy and in Emily he finds an advocate for himself. I really liked her and the understanding that she brought to his life. Did you always plan to write it this way or is this something that evolved as you worked on the novel?
I really wanted to show the positive aspects of having a child with additional needs as well as the challenges. I liked the idea that Alfie had a really positive effect on someone who was quite unhappy, someone who had never really felt loved. And I wanted Emily to be the one who understood Alfie, who saw him differently and helped Jake to see an alternative way of dealing with him.
To me, the ultimate love story in the book is the one between Alfie and Emily and the way in which they both bring out the best in each other.
- As you know from my review of the book, I loved the commentary on house rules. What is some advice you would give to new parents as they try to find structure in their new life with a child, knowing that things evolve as kids grow older?
I think there are a lot of different ways to bring up kids and that none of them are wrong or right, but you have to find what works for you and to have the confidence to parent in the way you think is best for you and your child. With a child like Alfie, too many rules just make him more anxious, so it is important to try to get the balance right between giving that child the control they need to make them feel safe but also having necessary boundaries. When I first had kids, my mum always said to me, ‘don’t have too many rules but stick to the ones you do have’ so I’ve always tried to take that on board and tried to focus on the rules I think are most important i.e. being kind, but different people have different ideas of what is important and that’s OK too. Follow your gut!
- If someone could take away one thing from your book – a lesson, an inspiration, anything – what would you hope it to be?
Good question! Probably to be kind to others and not judge – because you never know what’s going on in someone else’s life – but also to be kind to yourself – it’s OK to find your child unbearable sometimes, to make mistakes, to not know what to do and it’s OK if you don’t parent in the way your best friend does or your parents did or the way you’ve read that you should in books and magazines. And I wanted my son to know how wonderful he is, that he’s changed my life for the better in so many ways. Sorry – that’s more than one thing!!
- Do you have a second novel in the works?
Yes I do! We’re just in the editing process with it at the moment and I think it should hopefully be out February 2021. It’s called Every Other Weekend and it’s about a divorced dad called Noah who is struggling to adjust to his new life only seeing his boys for 2 days out of 14 and who is secretly still in love with his ex-wife. Noah’s a pretty flawed character, particularly at the beginning of the book, but I hope that readers will love him as much as I do!
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Hope you enjoyed reading about Saturdays at Noon. Want to connect with Rachel? You can find her on Twitter.
** Saturdays At Noon is now out in stores in UK and available for preorder in other countries so get a copy and let me know what you think! **
Amazon Print
Amazon Kindle
Cover image: Photo by Rick Mason on Unsplash
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