I'm Joanna Kenrick. And no, before you ask, I have never self-harmed. So why did I write this book?

Well, there are lots of reasons. The first reason is the simplest: I like to write about things that I find interesting. And, despite the reactions of many people to self-harm, it is interesting. Considering the body does all it can to protect itself from harm, it seems strangely ironic that people should want to hurt themselves. Destroying yourself from within, so to speak. So from a personal and psychological angle, self-harm is interesting.

Secondly, I never heard of self-harm until I was 26. How did I manage to get to that age without realising that there were people out there regularly, deliberately hurting themselves? I still don't know. I can only assume that I just missed the signs and nobody thought that it was something I should know. When I found out, it was purely by accident. I was on an internet forum talking about soap (yes, I know! I have strange habits) when someone posted a thread asking if nice scents and pampering bubble baths had helped other people who self-harmed. I had an odd response. I was really angry that I didn't know anything about it. You know that feeling when everyone else knows something and you've been left out of the loop? I felt like that - how come there were thousands of people doing this to themselves and I didn't know?

I didn't immediately think: I must write a book about this. After all, I didn't know anything about it. But I did file it away in my mind under 'intriguing things that I would like to know more about'. Then, months later, I started to do some research - mostly online. I found a fantastic support forum for people who self-harm. I started asking questions and was amazed at the response. They wanted to talk to me; they wanted to share the bad times and the good times. People told me incredibly personal things; things they could never have told me if we had been face to face. I realised the internet is a fantastic place for self-harmers. Because inside they really want people to know and to understand; but they are too afraid that most people won't see past the scars.

The more I 'talked' to people, the more I realised that these people were just like me - some of them had had terribly difficult childhoods, but many had loving families and supportive friends. So why did they still feel that self-harm was the only way they could cope with their lives?

And thus the character of Emily was born. If you go to 'inside the book' you can find out more about her and her family, and how it all goes wrong for her.

As for me, if you want to know about my other books then check out my author website www.joannakenrick.com