Today we have part 4 of Six Stories with Matt Wesolowski, today he is talking about Anyu Kekkonen – another character in the mix – and we are heading towards the end of this little feature which has been the best fun, with part 5 later this week and then a Q/A with Matt to finish things off before I FINALLY get to review the book as part of the blog tour. This is an excellent novel by the way. As I have said many times and will probably say a fair few more times!
Anyu Kekkonen
Matt Wesolowski
There’s something intriguing about Anyu – the way she holds herself, perhaps? She has this ethereal quality to her – an other-worldly serenity.
When writing characters, they often come to me, they emerge, unformed, taking shape the more I write. I have little control over who they become.
Six Stories was slightly different; before I started, I had an idea of who these characters were – but I didn’t want to touch them yet. I find if I plan or plot anything, especially characters it kills them and their story stone dead. I had to just write and see what happened, see who turned up.
With Anyu Kekkonen, I wanted to capture a character who is somewhat inscrutable; instead of making her mysterious as such, I wanted to make this inscrutability accidental, something she carried almost as a burden. I wanted the others to make her into a mystery, through no fault of her own.
The inspiration for this was fairly easy; I reached into my own experiences of being a teenager, for lots of boys, probably more than we’d like to admit, we put the objects of our affections up on a pedestal, weave mystery around them where is usually none. I wrote Anyu as the sort of girl my early affections would be bequeathed to, despite being aeons out of my league. I would have followed Anyu around when I was 15 like a lost puppy, forever wondering why she had no interest in me whatsoever!
What I also wanted to do was show that someone like Anyu, despite being perceived as exotic and mysterious, quite simply wasn’t; that she was an awkward teenager like the rest of them. Anyu Kekkonen has her own insecurities and her own unrequited feelings.
She also has stories…but I’m not going to spoil that for you here….
About the Book:
1997. Scarclaw Fell. The body of teenager Tom Jeffries is found at an outward bound centre. Verdict? Misadventure. But not everyone is convinced. And the truth of what happened in the beautiful but eerie fell is locked in the memories of the tight-knit group of friends who embarked on that fateful trip, and the flimsy testimony of those living nearby.
2017. Enter elusive investigative journalist Scott King, whose podcast examinations of complicated cases have rivalled the success of Serial, with his concealed identity making him a cult internet figure. In a series of six interviews, King attempts to work out how the dynamics of a group of idle teenagers conspired with the sinister legends surrounding the fell to result in Jeffries’ mysterious death. And who’s to blame…
As every interview unveils a new revelation, you’ll be forced to work out for yourself how Tom Jeffries died, and who is telling the truth. A chilling, unpredictable and startling thriller, Six Stories is also a classic murder mystery with a modern twist, and a devastating ending.
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Happy Reading!
