Jaclyn Moriarty is an Australian author of mainly young adult literature best known for her series of books about a rotating cast of high school students at an exclusive private school in Australia and their connections with the local public high school.

She has four books out for this series; the first is"Feeling Sorry for Celia" which was published ten years ago, then "The Year of Secret Assignments," "The Murder of Bindy Mackenzie," and lastly, "The Ghosts of Ashbury High," published last June by Arthur A. Levine Books.

The interactions between characters in Moriarty's stories all take place in different formats: from letters to notes to diary entries, but never through direct narration.

Her plots are complex and the characters’ stories all intertwine to compose a larger story that keeps a reader guessing and page-turning.

Critics say that her plots can seem very convoluted, but many fans comment that her use of all these varying ways of storytelling coupled with her eccentric characters make her novels immensely compelling and original reads. Her stories are impacting not only young adult but adult readers around the world.

Moriarty answers emails she receives from fans or comments to her blog or website individually. This interview was conducted via email from her home in Sydney where she lives with her young son Charlie. 

Why did you pick kids from a private, exclusive high school to write about in your Ashbury books? Did you attend a school like Ashbury? How did you come up with the concept for the series? 

I liked the contrast between an exclusive private school like Ashbury and a rougher public school like Brookfield.  My own high school was a Catholic girls' school - a little like Ashbury, but not nearly as wealthy or exclusive - and there were always tensions between my school and the public school down the road.  We were drawn to them, afraid of them, contemptuous towards them, and envious of them and their confidence, all at the same time.

As you’ve said in your blog about "The Year of Secret Assignments" ("Finding Cassie Crazy" [as it was published in Australia and the UK]), you came up with the characters and plot one night lying on your floor listening to Placebo. How can this be? Had you not formerly brainstormed characters or story trajectory? Explain please!

Ha ha. You're funny.  Sometimes stories just come straight from the imagination.  And sometimes music seems to open a trapdoor straight to the imagination for me. [Placebo is a British alternative rock band, consisting of Brian Molko, Stefan Olsdal, and Steve Forrest, who are well-known especially throughout Europe.]

By the way, what Placebo album was that? 

Black Market Music. [Placebo’s third studio album, dedicated to the memory of their publicist, Scott Piering.]

Had you ever considered writing a book in letters, notes, etc. before? 

I always intended to write a book about two girls writing letters to each other - but I never planned for it to be exclusively epistolary. That happened by accident when I started writing Feeling Sorry for Celia.

How did you compose each chapter or section in all those different formats? Did you write out what you wanted to happen, and then figure out what would work best in each letter and note? 

Something like that - I had hundreds of pages of planning (including brainstorming and story trajectories for everyone...) - then I decided on a structure that would cycle between exam answers, interspersed with other forms of writing. I made up those other forms as I needed them.

Could you describe your writing process?

I go out to cafes with big notebooks and coloured markers, eat chocolate and write ideas.  I read books around the subject, and write notes from the books. Then I write the actual narrative at the computer, going back to the cafes between chapters. 

If you weren’t a writer, what would you do? Would you go back to being a lawyer?

If I couldn't write for a living I would probably be a lawyer again. It was a great job in many ways - intellectually stimulating work, surrounded by bright people. But I would miss being a writer enormously, and having to stop would break my heart.

Who have been your greatest influences in your life? In your writing career?

In my life, my parents and my sisters. In my writing career, my sisters, and the authors Roald Dahl, John Marsden, Carol Shields. [Moriarty’s sisters Liane and Nicola are also authors. Jaclyn wrote her English Thesis on Roald Dahl.]

What is the hardest challenge you’ve faced so far in your career/life?

In writing, the hardest challenge for me is getting the critical voices out of my head - voices of real and imagined negative reviews, and of my own self-doubt.

How did you feel making the transition from working lawyer who writes on the side, to full-time writer? Did you have doubts?

I felt frightened and excited.  I worried that I would not be able to pay the rent, and I worried about all the people who said, 'don't quit your day job', and 'writing never pays'. But so far, I have been able to pay the rent. (Most months anyway.) And as happy as I was being a lawyer, I'm incredibly happy being a writer. 

Is "The Ghosts of Ashbury" the last book in the series? What inspired this fourth book? 

This is the last book in the series - for the time being.  The characters have finished Year 12, and the series had reached its darkest point, so it seemed like the right time to stop and start a new series.  But in the back of my mind is the possibility of following the characters to university one day; or going back and looking at some kids in year 8. And this book was inspired by the ghosts who live just beyond my parents' garden.

Reach reporter Kristin Yinger here.