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Julia’s debut book, Cuckoo is out on 3rd March 2011. I’ve been lucky enough to sneak an early look, and you can find my review here. It’s a brilliant debut, and I urge you to take a look!

My thanks to Julia, who took the time to answer the following questions for me.

Q. To start off, can you tell us a little about your debut book, Cuckoo?

A. It’s a psychological thriller with a domestic setting – I sometimes describe it as a ‘nasty Aga saga’. Rose and Gareth have spent two years doing up a wreck in the countryside, and are just beginning to live the perfect life they have carved out for themselves when Rose’s best friend Polly calls from Greece to say her husband has been killed in a car crash. Rose invites Polly and her two sons to come and stay, and that is her big mistake.

Q. Where did the inspiration for the story come from, and are the characters based on anyone you know?

A. I read a Tessa Hadley short story about two women lying in the sunshine and that sparked a scene that no longer exists, but which proved to be the starting point for the story. I also listened a lot to Nick Cave’s The Boatman’s Call, based partly on his affair with PJ Harvey, and I wondered about the woman who could inspire such a dark passion. Finally, I read Simone de Beauvoir’s She Came to Stay, her fictionalised account of when Jean Paul Sartre introduced a girl into their relationship, and the ways in which De Beauvoir dealt with this.

Of course, like most writers I am a sponge, and I draw on whatever people tell me. But all of the characters and events in Cuckoo are fictional. There may be a bit here and a bit there that might be a part of someone I know, but they are entirely constructed out of my imagination.

Q. Is the book set in an area you know, and if so, is it easier to write about what you know?

A. I like to start with real settings. The house in Cuckoo began as the house of some very dear friends of mine. But, over the writing, it got bigger, acquired an Aga and an attic floor, and rooms got shifted around to suit the story better. Having the topography grounded in something real was a great help for me. It was like a film set that my characters could move about in quite freely. I am careful not to locate Rose and Gareth’s village – it is entirely made up, an amalgam of many different villages in many different counties.

I get quite detailed about settings and narrative. I like to make a calendar for my story, so I know at what time and on what date a certain thing happened, and I’m a great fan of maps and ground plans. I can spend hours on them.

Q. As this is your debut, have you always been a writer, or is it something you’ve recently discovered?

A. I used to write and devise plays with actors, and I have written a couple of unproduced screenplays. But when my three children were little, I just wasn’t able to spend any time doing anything other than being their Mum or doing my paid work. When my youngest started school, I did an MA in Sequential Illustration and wrote and illustrated a couple of children’s books. While these weren’t published, they made me realise that what I really needed to do was to write. I then did two Open University Creative Writing courses, and that set me off. I would say that I have been a writer in this part of my life for five years.

Q. What previous careers have you had, and have they influenced the way you write?

A. As a devising theatre director and playwright, I developed a really keen ear for dialogue, quick editing and economical storytelling. We would start a six-week rehearsal period with no play and a six-month tour waiting at the end of it. Definitely something for your twenties, I would say. Then, while my children were young, I retrained as a graphic and website designer, which is all about giving form to content, so I really developed my analytical, structural thinking. They are all very visual careers, too, and that certainly informs the way I write.

Q. Are you now a full time writer, and is this something you enjoy?

A. I am, and most definitely, yes! There is not greater feeling than the anticipation of a good day’s writing as I skip down the railway sleeper stepping-stones to my shed workplace at the end of my garden. With the CUCKOO publication happening this week, I am also beginning to do quite a few public events, which I really enjoy. It’s a good mix – a lot of time on my own, sitting in my room making stuff up, then regular outings so that I remember what it is like to wear something other than my writing uniform of leggings, big jumper-tunic and slippers. Today I went out and bought three new frocks, and for once felt quite justified in doing so.

Q. Do you think it’s useful these days for authors to have an online presence?

A. Oh yes, There is no quicker way to get your news out and make contacts. I have made and maintained friendships all over the world thanks to Twitter and Facebook. I really enjoy reading other writers’ blogs, and have tried to make mine both interesting and useful.

Q. As most writers are also keen readers, what are your favourite books and authors?

A. I love twisty tales, simply told. My current top favourite is AM Homes, who manages to combine pared-back language with page-turning story. I also love Tove Jansson’s adult novels and stories, which are gradually coming out in English translation over here (by Sort Of Books). Fay Weldon was a great influence in my early days – like me, she finds the darkness in the domestic – and a recent find is Patricia Highsmith. I also love Jean Rhys. But I read all the time, and I do find myself being swept away very easily. If there’s a new Ian McEwan, I can’t wait till the hardback comes out, and I just finished Maggie O’Farrell’s The Hand that First Held Mine, which had me up nearly the whole night. What a vivid, gut-wrenching story.

Q. Is there a book you wish you’d written?

A. My second novel!

And Ford Madox Ford’s The Good Soldier, because that is about as perfect as a novel can get. I once adapted it for the stage and I think it was the best theatre thing I ever did.

Q. Can you tell us anything about your next book, and how is it progressing?

A. My next novel looks at marrying too young, grand passions and big secrets. It’s about an English family who move to Upstate New York for a summer while the husband has a go at saving his flagging acting career by playing the lead in a summer stock theatre company production. But things don’t exactly go to plan…

It’s going very well at the moment. I’ve nearly finished the second draft and the story is a cracker – I have been honing it by telling it to my family, and I can keep them rapt all the way through until the end, when they gasp. So it can’t be too bad.

I have to deliver the manuscript by the end of March, and I’ll certainly be ready for that. The only problem is Cuckoo coming out at the beginning of March. I’m finding it quite distracting….

Cuckoo is published in Hardback on March 3rd 2011, and will also be available for the Kindle.

Visit Julia’s official website.

Buy at Amazon


C. C. Humphreys is the author of six Historical Fiction novels, as well as of the Young Adult trilogy “The Runestone Saga” as Chris Humphreys. Chris very kindly agreed to an interview about him and his most recent Historical Fiction novel, “Vlad: The Last Confession“.

Q. Did you always know you wanted to become an author, or did it just come about by chance?

A. Hard to say now I am so into it. I had dreams of it as a teen I think but then acting took over and occupied me for years. But there was a part of me that always yearned until I couldn’t hold it off anymore.

Q. What authors did you read growing up (or now) and who has most inspired you in your own work (if anyone)?

A. Rosemary Sutcillf was my heroine –  and still is. I read one of hers the other week ‘The Shield Ring.’  Cried three times in the last twenty pages. Such restrained emotionality. Wonderful.
I also like Guy Gavriel Kay’s historical fantasy. ‘Tigana’ made me want to start writing – so I did, a few years after reading it.

Q. You also have an extensive history is both television and theatre acting – does this have any impact on your writing?

A. Definitely. People always say of my novels: Oh, I can see the film! I do have a cinematic take, I think, visually. Plus I love good characters in hectic action. I think I write characters that an actor would like to ‘play’. Plenty of contrast, good dialogue, action.

A bit about “Vlad” :

Q. What inspired you to write “Vlad“, and what was most difficult about it? You say yourself that it was the hardest book you’ve written.

A. I was inspired by getting drunk with my editor! We decided I needed to write about someone ‘known’  rather than keep making people up. He suggested Dracula and I was amzaed no one had done it, as historical fiction. I soon found out why –  and here began the difficulties. It was just so dark! I didn’t want to write a horror story, nor one about a pyschopath. But once I started to delve and found out that most of the history was propaganda told by his enemies, and also discovered the horrific background he came from… well, the difficulty then was to find a story that was a balance. Not a whitewash or an excusal, but also not a hatchet job. When I found the way through it, it became probably my most satisfying work, partly because it was so hard.

Q. So what the was the most FUN thing about writing Vlad’s story?

A. Fun… was going there. Havng Poenari Castle to myself for five hours atop the mountain. Standing in the place of murder – the Princely Court, Targoviste – channeling. Its creepy… but such a buzz.

Q. I found your Vlad to be a very charismatic, very likeable character. When he’s being… less likeable, shall we say, I also found myself (with hesitation) forgiving his actions because I could almost understand why he did them. Was this kind of sympathetic evocation an intention on your part, or did it just come about? Do you even feel that way about your version of him? (It’s possible I’m slightly mad!)

A. More than possible, I’d say!
If understanding him makes him sympathetic, then it was my intention. I didn’t set out to forgive or justify, only place him in the context of his time and place and all the horror that he came from. But I did find I warmed to him, even his ruthlessness. I am sure I’d have hated the real guy but my Vlad… I did grow to admire his uncompromising qualities, and his self awareness. He never lied about what and who he was. And he had that dark sense of humour.

Q. You always say your books are between two people – yourself and the reader. Vlad is a particularly complex character, so have you ever heard interpretations of his motivations, etc. by readers, radically different from, or particularly surprising compared to, those you have yourself?

A. Not really. He does provoke some extreme reactions though. Or his actions do anyway.

Last bits about you:

Q. Do you have a favourite character/s, or any you’re particularly proud of out of all those you’ve written? Why?

A. I love Jack Absolute. He is all I could want to be – a swashbuckling thinker, with a blind spot when it comes to women. (Wait a minute… that is me!) Proud? I am proud of most of my characters. Some of them are very developed, like Vlad, others sketched but vibrant like, well, Anne Boleyn.

Q. You’ve written books for both adults and younger readers (your Runestone Saga). What do you like or dislike about writing for each audience? What different challenges and freedoms do you find within them?

A. Like or dislike? Almost nothing. I am a storyteller first and foremost. The type of stories I choose to tell might vary according to readership. But rarely the content.

Q. Can you tell us a bit about what you’re currently working on? What plans have you for future works? I do believe I’ve heard mentions of a unicorn…!

A. Just today I sent off the final edit of my new Teen book, ‘The Hunt of the Unicorn’ . My family crest is the unicorn so I decided to explore that. I am quite excited as it’s almost my first full fantasy book  – a New York girl summmoned by a unicorn into the Land of the Fabulous Beast, where all our myths live. Its out in North America – and Spain – next year.
I am also about to deliver –  for editing and reworking – my next adult historical, the follow up to Vlad. It’s another epic, about the siege and fall of Constantinople in 1453. There’s a few crossover characters – Mehmet, Hamza.  Its different, bigger, more narrators. And at last I have a title that sums up its apocalyptic nature: ‘A Place Called Armageddon’. That will also be out next year. In fact 2011 will be a big one for me. Two new books out and  ‘Vlad’ out finally in the USA. Perhaps I can slow down?…  Nah!

Take care!

Find out more about Chris at his website.


C. S. Friedman is a bestselling author of several Science-Fiction and Fantasy series and standalone novels, including the acclaimed “Coldfire Trilogy“. Celia was kind enough to talk in depth with us about Coldfire and her other work.


Q. Did you always want to be a writer, and how did it come about?


A.
I have always been a writer.
My mother told me once I was making up stories from the day I began to speak, and writing them down as soon as I learned to hold a pencil.  The day she told me that, she told me of something that had happened when I was six years old. Our neighbor was studying to be a psychologist and needed guinea pigs, so sometimes I would go over to her house and take all sorts of psychological tests, so she could practice giving them.  One was called “Familiy and House.”  It had a picture of some stick figures in front of a house. The child was encouraged to tell a story about the picture.  The nature of the story would then give insight into the child’s psyche, you know, like “this is a happy family going out to Disneyworld together” or “the daddy in this picture just beat his child, and the child is trying not to cry.”
After the test, the neighbor came to my mother, very concerned, and told her that when I was shown the picture I had made up a complex story in which the family were really space aliens, and the scene was part of an earth invasion. My mother, god bless her heart, said there was nothing to worry about, I was just a really creative kid with an interest in science fiction.
As for wanting to be *published* which is not the same question, I never did. I wrote for my own pleasure, and never gave a moment’s thought to the question.  Every now and then I’d show my friends some stuff and they’d tell me I “could get published.” One day I looked down at something I’d written and realized it was good enough that maybe I should give it a try.  But prior to that point I wrote for the pleasure of writing, not because I wanted something in particular to come of it.

Q.  Can you tell us about where the idea for the Coldfire trilogy came from?

A. The idea was inspired by the paradox of Catholicism in the Middle Ages, which in some cases inspired men to philosophize about the nature of God and the universe, but on the other hand, punished those who stepped outside the bounds of orthodoxy.  I was intrigued by the concept of a  man who was driven by his faith to do things that his faith disapproved of.  Over many years, that evolved into the character of Gerald Tarrant, and the book grew up around him.

Q.Your writing spans sci-fi and fantasy, and in many cases combining the two. What is the attraction of each of the two genres, and in combining them?

A. Those who know both genres well often tell me that I always write science fiction, it just sometimes looks like fantasy.  This is because two themes that are at the core of science fiction are central to my work. One is the question, “What if?”  Science fiction generally adds one or more things to our universe, then speculates what the consequences might be. The more realistic the fictional universe is, the more relevant those questions become.  I do this in fantasy as well.  The central question In Coldfire is “what would our society become, if magic were added?  How might a scientific culture deal with the sorts of mystical forces that are featured in epic fantasy?”  The trilogy is fascinating in part because that question runs quietly beneath the story, causing the reader to ask questions about his own world.  That is the kind of thing that science fiction does best.  The science fiction approach tends to focus upon “find out how it works, and then you can control/defeat it.”  The Deathstar can be destroyed because we got hold of its blueprints.  Aliens can be defeated when we figure out what they want.  This is actually poked fun at in “Independence Day”, when Earth’s defenders finally get to talk to one of the aliens.  Everyone present assumes that if they can can understand what the aliens want, a solution will of course be possible.  But the alien’s response is “nah, we just wanna kill you.” It’s a shock not only to the President and his generals, but to the entire genre.

Both of those themes run through my work regardless of what genre I am “writing in.”  In my current project, the Magister Trilogy, the very survival of mankind hinges upon his coming to understand the nature and evolution of a seemingly demonic species.  The more men discover about what it really is, the more power they have to defeat it. I like to think that the greatest moments in my books are the moments of revelation, when the reader sits back and says to himself, “wow, so *that’s* what this was all about!”.  You can write a fantasy adventure novel without those moments.  You can’t write a science fiction novel without them.

Q. On that note of magic and mythical forces, the Fae in the Coldfire Trilogy is a sort of ‘magic’ which has a science (fiction) basis; crippling technology and creating complex manifestations, from fear-inspired demons to evolutionary changes in species. What inspired this incredible force?

A. The fae was inspired by an essay by Isaac Asimov, called, to the best of my memory, “Why I do not believe in Magic”.  In it he discussed why he felt magic was a weak literary device, and did not care for fantasy as a genre.  He said, (I am paraphrasing from memory twenty years ago ) “If there really were something like magic in the universe, then it would operate according to scientific logic. There would be a First, Second, and Third Law of Magic.  Magical phenomena would be consistent with the Laws of Thermodynamics.  The phenomenon could be tested and studied according to the scientific method.”  He said this approach was generally lacking in fantasy fiction, so he found the “magic” to be something he could not suspend his disbelief  enough to accept as real.
That essay inspired the Coldfire Trilogy, in which the fae not only satisfies all those conditions, but the exploration of what it is and how it works is central to human society.

Q. Coldfire is not, I believe, your only series to explore or contain significant moral ‘grey area’ rather than straight up good and evil – is there a particular reason it’s a prominant theme? What’s the appeal for you personally in portraying it?

I think it’s one of the most fascinating feature of the human psyche in particular, and human society in general.  I also love to take people’s assumptions and then turn them upside down, presenting something that they know to be “good” or “evil” or “wrong”, and then forcing them to question whether that is really the case.  The result is an exercise in which the reader ultimately must question his own value base, and perhaps that of his culture or faith as well. Lots of fun.

Fiction is not only about a quest the characters are undertaking; it is about the voyage of discovery that the reader himself experiences, reading about that quest.

Q. So, since we now know all about Coldfire which other novels/series would you push for new readers and why?

A. My current project is the Magister Trilogy, beginning with Feast of Souls and Wings of Wrath. The conclusion, Legacy of Kings, will be published next year. This is a *very* dark epic fantasy in which magic exists, but the cost is so high that it transforms those who use it into something that is…well, I won’t ruin the story for you.   As with all my works it combines an intense story line and compelling characters with an exploration of what it is that makes us human, and in this case the thematic question, “what price would you be willing to pay for power?”.  I’m very pleased with the project, and fans seem to be very excited about it.   There are some *major* suprises coming in Book III that I know no one sees coming, that will have everyone running back to reread Books I and II and saying, “Oh my God, so *that’s* what was going on!”

Q. Do you have a favourite character (or two, or three!), or any you’re particularly proud of out of all those you’ve written? Why?

A. Gerald Tarrant is probably my all-time favorite, and I consider him my masterwork.  The lead characters of In Conquest Born rank up at the top as well.  I think a few characters in the Magister Trilogy may also wind up on there, by the time I’ve done.

Q. Would you ever feel in any way inclined towards writing in entirely another genre?

A. I write in whatever genre I want.  They can all be explored in fantasy and/or science fiction.

If you mean *abandoning* those genres, no, it never tempts me.  The imaginative potential of those fields is what makes me love writing. Anything else would bore me to tears.

Q. Can you tell us a bit about what you’re currently working on? What plans have you for future works?

A. Well, you’ve got the sales pitch on the Magister Trilogy above.  After that, I’m planning a fantasy work that takes off from a more urban-fantasy setting, and will ultimately answer the question of where all those legends of supernatural creatures really come from, as well as resolving some questions scientists are asking about the nature of human evolution.  All in the context of a really good story, of course.

I never think small.
Celia

Find out more about Celia at her website.


John Connolly is an Irish author best known for his Charlie Parker Mystery/Crime Fiction series. After finding success in a whole other genre with his dark novel “The Book Of Lost Things“, John produced a second Fantasy novel in 2009, “The Gates“.   Here John tells us a bit more about it.
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Q. When did you decide you wanted to write novels, and how did it come about?

A. Without wishing to sound like one of those dreadful kids who came out of the womb dancing, I’d always written, ever since I was a boy.  It just seemed a natural progression from reading stories to trying to tell stories of your own.  I pretty much stopped doing any creative writing at all after I went to college to study English – which is odd – and then went into journalism, where I got pretty frustrated after a while, and returned to fiction.  The first thing that I began writing was the prologue to Every Dead Thing, so that’s how it began, I suppose.

Q. What authors did you read growing up, and who most inspired you? Can you name a particular book that left an impression on you?

A. Enid Blyton was the first author whose work I ever read unaided.  I remember reading a Secret Seven book and sounding out the difficult words phonetically, so that for years I thought ‘cupboard’ was pronounced ‘cup-board’ instead of ‘cubburd’.  My mother must have thought that I’d metamorphosed into Little Lord Fauntleroy.  After that, it was anything I could find: novelizations of movies (my generation’s equivalent of rewatching movies on DVD); ghost stories of every stripe; Alistair Maclean books; H.G. Wells; John Wyndham.  I came to mystery fiction quite late.  I was probably well into my teens when I read my first Ed McBain book, but then only really read Ed McBain books.  It took me a while to branch out.
In terms of my own writing, Ross Macdonald was a bit influence on me, particularly The Chill.  Most mystery writers are either Ross Macdonald or John D Macdonald fans, but rarely both to the same degree.  James Lee Burke was another writer who hugely influenced the way that I write in terms of demonstrating that mystery fiction doesn’t have to adhere to that pared down, sub-Hammettian prose that seems to be the default mode for a certain type of mystery writer.  After that, we’re looking at Dickens (Bleak House), P.G. Wodehouse, and all sorts of odd people.

Q. On to your own work – generally what do you find to be the easiest and most difficult aspects about writing a novel?

A. The first chapter or two will always be easy, as you’re writing in the first rush of enthusiasm.  The rest are hard.  If I were to go around and look at all of the unfinished manuscripts that have been left in drawers by budding writers, I guarantee that most would be abandoned somewhere between twenty and forty thousand words, as that’s when most writers hit the wall and start doubting the value of what they’re working on.  It’s a natural part of the creative process for most writers, I think, but that doesn’t make it any easier to deal with when it occurs.  That first draft is always a long, difficult haul for me, as I write very slowly, and I don’t plan my books out.  Rewriting I love.  I don’t tend to go back over what I’ve done until I’ve finished the entire draft, and by that stage I know that there’s a book there, and all it needs now is to be honed.

Q. Where did your ideas and inspirations for “The Gates” in general, and characters like Samuel and Nurd in particular, come from?

A. I have no idea.  Like a lot of writers, I think I’m afraid to go looking for the source of my inspiration.  It feels like a candle flame that might very easily be extinguished.  Characters pop up seemingly out of nowhere, and I’m just grateful when they appear.   I do realize, though, that there is a lot of me in each and every one of them, even the bad ones.  So that’s where they come from: me, with all of my flaws.

Q. Why the Large Hadron Collider? In other words, “The Gates” takes a very factual, explanatory approach to telling a fantasy story. Why the use of quantum physics and (fantastically informative) footnotes to back a story about the opening of Hell?

A. I’m just curious about the world, and I have a magpie attitude to bits of knowledge:  I’m always on the lookout for shiny things that I can appropriate.  I was curious about the Collider, and I’d had the idea for The Gates for a long time.  The two just seemed to connect naturally, and the book came together easily as a result.  There is a tension, too, between science and the supernatural that I thought I could explore in the book.  The footnotes simply became another aspect of the narrative voice, which is very different from the one in the Parker books, or even The Book of Lost Things.  It’s probably closest to my own voice.

Q. You’re well known for your extensive music collection, and you included two ‘mix-tapes’; soundtracks of a sort with two Parker novels. If you had done the same with  “The Gates”, how different would the music be? Do you have any loose soundtrack in your mind for it?

A. Not so much for that book, but I really would like to do one more for the next Parker book.  In fact, there was one ready to go with The Lovers in 2009, but it fell apart at the last minute.  In a way, it’s very frustrating to do those CDs.  They’re expensive, arduous to put together, and the bookstores haven’t been very supportive of them, but they’re real labors of love on my part.

Q. Both “The Gates” and your previous fantasy novel, “The Book Of Lost Things” contain extra information; the regular footnotes in “The Gates” and an entire section about fairytales in “Lost Things”. Do you do extensive research to support what you want to write? Or is it the other way round – that fairytales and quantum physics interested you independantly – and these novels provided an outlet?

A. Oh, it’s definitely the latter.  I tend to have subjects in which I’m interested at the time, and then they become the source material for the books.  For The Whisperers, the next Parker book, I used a lot of material about post-traumatic stress disorder, and the aftermath of conflict, as that was something about which I’d been reading over the previous year or so.  I try not to shoehorn knowledge into the books for its own sake, but it’s an inexact science.

Q. You’ve said of “Lost Things” that it wasn’t as massive a departure from your Parker novels as people might think at first, because you’re still dealing with similar themes, just in a new way (forgive the poor paraphrasing). So just how different, or similar, is it writing fantasy books like “The Gates” and “Lost Things” compared to your Parker novels, and what appeals to you most about each style?

A. Well, The Gates is obviously much lighter, and I could let my imagination run riot in that book in a way that I can’t in the Parker books.  Lost Things was a little more literary, I think, and is probably the book to which I’m closest, and of which I’m most fond. If there’s a common theme in my work, it’s a fascination with childhood.   That runs through all of the books, even the Parkers.  There are other minor themes running through them as well, but that’s the significant one.

Q. Will we see more from either world, or any more non-Parker books in the same vein as “The Gates” (and “Lost Things”)?

A. I think I’d like to write a sequel to The Gates, which will probably be the book for next year.  I love writing the Parker books, but not every story that I want to tell is suited to them.  In addition, by moving away from them for every second book, in some form or another, I return to the series refreshed, and that enables me to make each book different, I hope, which is the challenge when you’re writing a series.  The downside, I suppose, is that my sales suffer every time I move away from Parker, but it’s worth it.  I have very tolerant publishers, and I get to write whatever I want to write at any time, and so far they’ve been willing to publish everything that I’ve given them.

Q. Can you tell us a bit about upcoming projects or plans, in the short or long term, for novels or novel adaptions?

A. Well, The Whisperers is out in May, and sometime this year I hope to deliver the sequel to The Gates.   The movie of The New Daughter, one of my short stories, came out in the US before Christmas on a limited release, although I have yet to see it.   After that, well, I’m not sure, but it seems like enough to be getting along with . . .

Find out more about John at his website.


Q. Three Weeks to Say Goodbye has just been published, could you tell us a little about the storyline?

A. After years of trying to have a baby, Jack and Melissa McGuane’s dream has come true with the adoption of their daughter Angelina. But nine months after bringing her home, they receive a devastating phone call from the adoption agency-Angelina’s birth father, a teenager, never signed away his parental rights and he wants her back. Worse, his father, a powerful Denver judge, wants him to own up to this responsibility and will use every advantage his position of power affords him to make sure it happens. When Jack and Melissa attempt to handle the situation rationally by meeting face to face with the father and son, it is immediately apparent that there’s something sinister about both of them and that love for Angelina is not the motivation for their actions.

As Angelina’s safety hangs in the balance, Jack and Melissa will stop at nothing to protect their child. A horrifying game of intimidation and double-crosses begins that quickly becomes a death spiral where absolutely no one is safe…

Q. I understand that you based the idea on something that happened to friends of yours, is this correct?

A. Correct.  Luckily, my friends made wiser choices than Jack and Melissa and everything turned out all right.

Q. Where do you generally get your ideas and inspirations from?

A. I start with dilemmas I’m mulling over: cultural, environmental, sociological.  After doing the research, I try and figure out a way to build a compelling storyline that will pull the reader through the issue in an interesting way.

Q. I admit that you are new author to me, what else have you written before this book, and what are the similarities and differences?

A. I’ve written ten novels in a crime novel series featuring Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett as well as another stand-alone thriller called Blue Heaven.  The books have done extremely well in the US are are in 23 languages.

Q. Are there any other genres that you could see yourself writing?

A. I honestly don’t think in terms of genres.  I think in terms of novels that are interesting and compelling.  I’ll let others classify them.

Q. I often see crime books described as ‘plot driven’ – do you think it’s just as important to have interesting characters, or can a good plot alone fuel a book?

A. I suppose the plot alone can fuel some books, but I’m not a fan of them.  If a reader can’t identify closely with the characters I can’t see how the novel will really resonate.  A book like that is like empty calories.

Q. As a writer, do you also enjoy to read – do you think it’s important to be a reader as well?

A. I read constantly and widely.

Q. Which authors do you enjoy – do you read within your own genre, or look for something completely different?

A. Here is a (too long) list:

- Thomas McGuane
- Ken Bruen
- Cormac McCarthy
- Flannery O’Conner
- Elmore Leonard
- Joseph Heller – Catch-22
- Steven Ambrose
- Raymond Chandler
- Dennis Lehane
- Annie Proulx
- Tom Wolfe
- James Lee Burke
- Donna Leon
- Richard Russo
- Harper Lee
- Ivan Doig
- Anton Chekhov (short stories)
- Thomas Berger
- Farley Mowat
- Herman Melville
- Wallace Stegner
- Edmund Morris
- Michael Kelly
- John Sandford
- Denise Mina
- Jess Walter
- Michael Connelly
- Richard Price
- A.B. Guthrie
- Charlie Huston
- Steig Larsson
- T. Jefferson Parker
-Deon Meyer

Q. You’ve won a number of awards for your books, how important are these to you, and is there one which stands out for you?

A. I’d have to say the Edgar Award for Best Novel in 2008 for Blue Heaven is the most special.  I was nominated for the same award for Best First Novel for Open Season in 2001 but didn’t win.

Q. How important do you think it is for authors to have a website, and/or promote themselves?

A. I think it’s integral these days for authors to be able to interact with readers.  Therefore, websites are essential and other social media as well.

Visit the Official Website


Sam Hayes has just seen the release of her third book, Tell Tale. I’ve been fortunate enough to review all three , and they have all been highlights of my reading year. Sam was kind enough to spend a little time to tell us more about Tell Tale.

Q. To start off, could you tell us a little bit about Tell Tale, and where the inspiration came from?

A. Tell Tale opens with a desperate woman jumping from a bridge. We don’t know who she is or why she is committing suicide.  The rest of the book is told from three points of view. Nina, a wife and mother, is hardworking and dedicated to her family, but when she believes she is being watched and her daughter and husband are under threat, she is pushed to the limits of sanity. Frankie, a single woman, has taken a job at a girls’ school, but she is scared, mistrusting, and running from something. Ava, an eight year old, is waiting for her daddy at the children’s home. Deep down, she knows he will never come for her. The home is a place of whispers and shadows and the children know better than to tell the truth.

The three narratives are quite separate and span three decades. As the story goes on, they intertwine and build up to what is a shocking ending. It moved me no end writing it because I’m a mother and would have exactly the same emotions as Nina if I was in her position. Ultimately, that’s how I want my readers to feel – to really put themselves in the position of my characters. Tell Tale is about telling the truth – or not – and the snowball of consequences that brings about.

I was also very moved by the alleged abuse that went on at the Haut de la Garenne children’s home in Jersey. It was as if the building itself had been harbouring secrets. Many of the victims had never spoken of their ordeal until the story was in the news. In Tell Tale, I created a similar institution, Roecliffe Hall, which was originally a private home but subsequently bought by the council and run as a children’s home. I wanted to explore what might happen if someone did tell – hence the title – but also entwine that narrative with a modern family and how secrets from the past can affect their lives.

Q. What are some of the themes you explore in the book?

A. The main theme in the book is when is it right to tell? When should you speak out and get help? And what if that help doesn’t come…what if you can’t even trust those around you? I wanted to explore what might happen if someone did tell, if they broke the rules and set off a chain reaction of events so horrific, they wished they never had. I also wanted to entwine that narrative with a modern family and how secrets from the past can affect their lives. It’s obviously a dark theme, but the Kennedy family are faced with many modern issues that most families can relate to – such as teenagers and safe internet use.

Q. Some of those themes must have been hard to write about – did you need to research similar cases, and how did you cope with that?

A. I did a huge amount of reading online and especially about the alleged abuse at the Haut de la Garenne children’s home. It was so desperately sad to learn about the children’s horror but told from an adult’s point of view, as the survivors now are. As a writer, you have to insert yourself into other people’s reality as fully as possible and it’s very hard. I think my husband knows now when I’ve had a day of writing a disturbing scene or researching a murder because I might be a bit intense for a while. Being a mother of three myself, it’s especially hard writing about the plights of children and teens. But that also has its positives as when it comes to writing about kids, I feel I’m pretty well qualified and know most of the day to day ups and downs families go through. However, Tell Tale is ultimately an uplifting book with a positive ending. I like to show that whatever my characters have been through, there’s always hope and a way forward.

Q. This is your third book so far – do you feel you fall into any specific genre, or do you have your own style?

A. I write psychological and emotional thrillers, which, I guess, fall under the umbrella of crime. But my book covers also suggest more ‘general fiction’ and are very appealing to women (although I do have lots of male readers too!) Genres are important when it comes to selling books as readers want to know what they are getting when they buy a book. That’s why branding an author is important and also where the book is positioned in a shop. If it’s on the front table in WH Smith, then the cover will be the signal to potential readers. If it’s in the shop in the crime section, again that’s a good clue what it’s about! But every writer has their own style within these genres. I like to think that I write real life fiction – stories that are easy to relate to with families and children and work and relationships. But then I like to turn all that on its head with secrets and suspicion, murder and mistrust.

Q. Have you been compared to any other writers? Do you think this is a good or a bad thing – does it help readers with their reading choices, or do you think everyone should be judged on their own merits?

A. I’m fine with being compared to other writers (as long as I approve!) because I understand what it’s like to choose a book. We need clues! I am a reader as well as a writer – and most of us are pushed for time and want to make the right choice. I certainly think that writers should be judged on their own merits ultimately, but initially it’s good to have a guide. I’ve recently been compared to Nicci French and Sophie Hannah, which I’m very happy about. We all write about women and families in peril, set in the UK, and there are usually a few bodies and much danger! But I’ve also been likened to Jodi Picoult, which again is a huge compliment. Obviously her books are set in the States, but emotions are international and, as well as the physical dangers, I like to explore the psychological ones too.

Q. Can you tell us anything about what you’re working on next?

A. I’m nearly finished writing my next novel – another topical subject that, as a mother, has my heart racing almost every week. It tells the story of Max, a fifteen year old boy who is brutally and fatally stabbed at school. I don’t have a confirmed title as yet, but it’s a fast-paced read showing the months leading up to the tragedy as well as the week immediately after. It follows a mother’s grief and guilt, although she is no ordinary mother. Carrie Kent is a famous television presenter, divorced from her son’s father, a university professor. Between them, they pick through the last weeks of their son’s life and learn that they didn’t really know him at all. I wanted to explore the ghastly knife culture that plagues our cities as well as the idea that no one is immune from these crimes. Rich or poor, if you’re in the wrong place at the wrong time, lives can be blown apart in seconds. It’s a sad, emotional read, and the relationship between Max and his girlfriend was particularly moving to write. As ever, I’ve put in plenty of twists and turns, and will hopefully leave my readers shocked, yet feeling positive with the ending.

Q. Can you ever see yourself moving into a completely different genre, or do you believe that you’ve found the best genre/style for you?

A. For now at least I’m very happy writing what I write. There will never be a shortage of ideas, and I think it’s a good genre in which to grow and develop as a writer. I think all authors, though, occasionally have ideas for books that wouldn’t sit well in their backlist. Maybe one day I’ll write something different, but that’s what pseudonyms are for!

Q. Part of your book is about internet usage, especially social networking. How important do you think this is for authors – do you need to be ‘out there’ promoting yourself?

A. The internet is an amazing tool for authors. I don’t quite know what I’d do without it, on a research level at least. Socially and promotion wise, I’m really not as good as pushing myself out there as some authors I know. It takes a huge amount of time to build up an online following, although ultimately I’m sure it’s time well spent. I have a Facebook page although I mostly keep up with family and friends who I don’t see very often. Readers are most welcome to add me as a friend, and occasionally I’ll plug my books there. I also have a Myspace account and a blog on my website, which attracts quite a few readers from all over the world. I’ve recently had my website updated too, which I’m really pleased with. Ultimately, my publicist works very hard to get me ‘out there’ and has been lining me up some lovely features and articles in newspapers and magazines.

Q. When not promoting, do you still find you can use the internet to relax and be ‘yourself’?

A. My main non-work internet usage is either grocery shopping online at Sainsbury’s or trying to fight an ebay addiction! I’m not great at battling through the high street shops, so browsing at leisure online is far preferable. I also like to catch up with other authors on their blogs or read industry news sites such as the Bookseller. Other than that, it’s quite nice to walk away from the computer at the end of the day!

Q. Finally, which book is on your bed side table right now?

A. It’s actually an audiobook on my ipod. I’m currently coming to the end of Nicci French’s ‘What To Do When Someone Dies’.



Anna McPartlin is a best-selling Irish author of four novels to date. After reviewing her 2006 debut novel Pack Up The Moon, I caught up with Anna for a chat about her work then and now.

Q. When did you decide you wanted to be a writer, and how did it come about?

A. I’ve always been a story teller but because I’m dyslexic I thought I’d be better off working as an actress. I quickly discovered that telling other people’s stories didn’t really thrill me so in my mid twenties I decided to start trying to tell my own.

Q. What authors did you read growing up and who has most inspired you?

A. I was obsessed with Virginia Andrews when I was a teenager, she was the Stephenie Meyer of my day;  although having said that instead of writing books promoting abstinence her characters had sex with the most regrettable of partners. Which actually explains a lot about my youth. But the author that inspired me to write was Roddy Doyle. I read ‘The Snapper,’ and I immediately wanted to put pen to paper.

Q. On to your own work – generally what do you find to be the easiest and most difficult aspects of writing a novel?

A. Characters come very easily to me and by the time I put pen to paper they are completely formed in my mind. I know them inside and out. My biggest flaw is overwriting. I need to be very strict when editing myself and I need my editor to be even stricter.

Q. Going back a few years, your first novel’s title, “Pack Up The Moon” stands out as having a particularly distinct poetical reference compared to your other novels. Why W.H. Auden?

A. Auden’s ‘Stop All The Clocks’ and Pack Up The Moon are all about the profound effect of the loss of a loved one. I’d always loved the poem and when I mentioned Pack Up The Moon as a possible title for the book, my publisher wasn’t sure a lot of people would understand the reference so we added a few lines of the poem to give the title context.

Q. What did you hope to achieve, as a new novelist, with that first book, and do you think you succeeded?

A. I wanted my voice to be distinctive and I think I’ve achieved that. At least I very much hope so!

Q. Do you feel your writing has developed or changed over the course of four years and four novels? Is there anything you’ve accomplished or which you still want to develop?

A. I can’t really say if anything has changed over time. I certainly hope I’ve developed and that I’ll continue to do so. My biggest accomplishment to date is getting published in the first place; it took 10 long years of working down the back of my kitchen to get that deal. As a writer what I want is to continue to tell stories that entertain.

Q. Your latest release, So What If I’m Broken, is unusually inspired by the songs of a particular music artist, Jack Lukeman – how did this come about, and why did you want to do it?

A. All my books have soundtracks. I put together music at the start of the book and that is the only music I listen to until the book is completed. In this case the book came from the music. I watched Jack perform one night and the character of Elle came to mind and she wouldn’t go away. After receiving Jack’s consent I took his music and listened to it for 6 months solid before putting pen to paper and the story came from that.

Q. Your novels overall are hugely character driven – do you draw any influence for them from anyone you know, or yourself? Any favourites?

A. Every character is inspired by the people close to me but that’s where it ends. I build a character the same way a contractor builds a house, brick by brick. Each personality trait given to my characters has to be in keeping with the others. They have to feel real even if the reader doesn’t know people like the people in my book or even if they don’t like them – I work really hard to make them absolutely believable.
I suppose if I had a gun to my head I’d say my favourite character is Emma from Pack Up The Moon, not because I like her the best, in fact, I find her quite annoying but then she’s in her twenties and thinks she knows it all so she’s supposed to be annoying. She’s my favourite because she was the main character in my first book, because she tells her story in first person and it’s the only time I’ve done that and because she grieved in the book as I have grieved in life.

Q. Have you ever considered writing a novel in a completely different genre?

A. I have and I will. I would love to write a book aimed at teenagers and I think I might have a children’s book in me too. I’ve already written for TV and loved it. So I’m really open to telling my stories in any and all genres.

Q. Lastly, can you tell us a bit about any plans you have for the future, be they novels or other projects?

A. Next up, meeting with Grand Pics about a pitch for ITV. I’m writing a short film this weekend for a pal of mine who has just started up his own production company. I’m also writing a feature film which I hope to have finished by the end of January. Then I’m starting book five and after that I might try my hand at a children’s book.

Find out more about Anna’s latest book ,  So What If I’m Broken, and her other work at her official website.


Ben Kane was born in Kenya and raised there and in Ireland. He studied veterinary medicine at University College Dublin but after that travelled the world extensively, indulging his passion for ancient history. He is the author of The Forgotten Legion and The Silver Eagle, and fans are awaiting the final book in the trilogy, The Road To Rome.

Q. For those who haven’t yet come across The Forgotten Legion Chronicles, can you give a brief overview – how would you entice someone to start reading them?

A. The Roman historical fiction genre has been enjoying increasing popularity over the last decade or more. Huge numbers of readers clearly look for books about the Roman time period – and mine are (hopefully) in the vein of Simon Scarrow and Conn Iggulden. Among other things, the trilogy relates a tale that has rarely been told – the incredible true story of how 10,000 legionaries, taken prisoner after a battle in modern day Iran, were marched nearly to Afghanistan to serve as border guards for their captors. It also details what life was like for slaves, those at the bottom of the social ladder, rather than the ‘normal’ method of using a senior army officer or nobleman.

Q. The Chronicles are a trilogy, did you write them in this way from the start, or did your initial ideas expand once you started writing?

A. I wrote The Forgotten Legion as a standalone book, with the idea for the rest of a trilogy in my head. Because my publishers were keen for a trilogy, they bought one, and I had a major writing job on my hands! While the Chronicles is a trilogy, it has the potential for more books down the line.

Q. The books weave together many characters and storylines – do you have a timeline or storyboard to help you, or are you good at keeping it in your head?

A. When I wrote the first book, I winged it quite a bit. Then during the writing of the second, I went off on a few wild goose chases as I enjoyed myself writing about the Roman army on campaign. This time, with The Road to Rome (the 3rd book), I have what happens in every single chapter written down on a document which I check every day. It’s excellent at keeping me on the straight and narrow.

Q. Is the Roman era a time that has always interested you? How much research did you need for your books?

A. Yes, it is, ever since I read Eagle of the Ninth and The Silver Branch by Rosemary Sutcliffe. I also repeatedly borrowed a book about the Roman army from my school library, and had completely forgotten about it until I recently purchased an excellent textbook called Greece and Rome at War by Peter Connolly. Imagine my delight when I found it to be the same book I’d read so many times as a boy!

Q. It’s a popular era for historical authors to write about, what do you think makes your books stand out?

A. That’s a tough question! Perhaps the fact that they’re not about the high-ranking officers or leaders of Rome – they’re about the ordinary foot soldier, slave and gladiator, and how hard life is for them. Unusually for this genre too, one of the main protagonists is a woman.

Q. You’ve done a lot of travelling – do you think that has increased your interest in history, and does it help with your writing?

A. It certainly has increased my interest in history – I’ve visited World War I and American civil war battlefields, Little Big Horn, countless Aztec, Maya and Inca sites in Central and South America and the grave of Tamerlane, Genghis Khan’s grandson. I’ve wandered around the tomb of Alexander the Great’s father, Philip, and seen the treasures found there, and travelled parts of the ancient Silk Road in Iran, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan and China. I think seeing so many places as well as reading about them helps immensely with writing historical fiction.

Q. Have you always been a keen reader yourself? What are your favourite genres and authors?

A. Sorry to be boring, but historical fiction comes top of the list as a genre. I do love contemporary fiction and some fantasy too though. Favourite authors include Simon Scarrow, Louis de Bernieres and Guy Gavriel Kay.

Q. Can you tell us a little about the road to publication – I understand there was a bidding war for the trilogy?

A. It was a long, long slog – about five years of writing, an Arvon Foundation course, and countless 90+ hour weeks (between full-time vetting and writing). Fortunately, I met my now wife when I had already started working like this, so she knew what to expect. Once the book went out on the market in August 2007, there was a bodding war for about a week between 6 of the biggest publishers around. It was so exciting! Preface, a new imprint of Random House won the war, and I’ve been very lucky to gain Rosie de Courcy as my editor there – she’s one of the best known editors around.

Q. The first two books in the series are now published – are you working on the 3rd book, and do you have any ideas when it will be published?

A. The Road to Rome comes out in summer 2010, although I’m hoping to have it finished very soon. The date is down to the publishers – sorry to any impatient readers!

Q. What comes next for you, are you going to continue to write?

A. Oh yes! I’m not going back to veterinary if I can help it. I’m in the fantastic position of having just sold a new trilogy to Preface – about the second Punic war between Rome and Carthage. This was the conflict with Hannibal, so there’s the most extraordinary amount of fantastic action to recall – from his crossing of the Alps with elephants to the battle of Cannae, when he inflicted the greatest defeat Rome was ever to suffer – 50,000 Roman legionaries were killed in one day, which must have been the most appalling sight to see.

Official Web Site


Paul and Chris are the people who have brought us The Edge Chronicles, and the final book, The Immortals is published today, Feb 5th. I feel honoured to have been able to review this book very recently, and I’m now working my way through the earlier books.

Over to Chris and Paul..

Q. Who came up with the initial idea for the series, and where did it come from? For those who are new to the series, how would you briefly describe it?

A. The Edge Chronicles themselves started in one of these sketch books. Back in 1994, Chris drew a map of the Edge, with its familiar jutting rock, floating city and endless forests. He gave it to Paul, saying ‘Here’s the world. Let’s find out what happens in it.’

The Edge Chronicles are a series of books based in the Edge lands where all sorts of adventures happen. There are battles, funny moments, characters you empathise with, sky pirate ships, strange creatures, lots of illustrations and a cracking good story.

The books are not traditional fantasies. They are influenced by the tales of the Brothers Grimm and Mervyn Peake’s Gormenghast. In much traditional fantasy, a world of good versus evil is depicted. The Edge does not deal with black and white in this way, but rather in shades of grey, which is far more like our own world. There is also no magic. We thought it would be too convenient if a cloak of invisibility or magic spell was used to solve a problem. Instead, the world has its own physical properties, from floating rocks to solidified lightning.

The Immortals is the tenth and final instalment and it publishes this month. It’s set 500 years after the end of the previous book, in the Third Age of Flight. This third age has been made possible by the unlocking and harnessing of stormphrax’s immense power: the power of lightning.

Q. How did it progress from the initial idea.. does Chris add the illustrations after the stories are told, or do you gain inspiration from each other?

A. Our working method varies. Sometimes passages influence the drawings, sometimes the drawings influence the text as we are working. Most important, however, is talking. The Edge Chronicles are a collaboration. We plot and plan together, talking over every aspect of the storyline and the Edgeworld itself. Out of these long conversations, the books slowly emerge, first as text, and then final illustrations are added.

Q. What was your initial vision, did you intend to write just one book, one trilogy, or the whole series.

A. When we first started the series, we thought it might turn out to be a trilogy – if we were lucky. By the time we’d finished the three books about Twig, Beyond the Deepwoods, Stormchaser and Midnight over Sanctaphrax, we had so many ideas remaining that we decided to produce two more books – the first, Curse of the Gloamglozer, a prequel, to tell the tale of his father, Quint; the second, the Last of the Sky Pirates, a sequel, to reveal what had happened to Twig. This book introduced a third main character, Rook Barkwater, Twig’s grandson. His adventures also turned into a trilogy, with Vox and Freeglader.

So both Twig and Rook had three books each about them, but Quint only had one – though not for long. The Winter Knights and Clash of the Sky Galleons followed his boyhood through the Knights Academy of Sanctaphrax and off in the Galerider in search of his family’s murderer. The Lost Barkscrolls is four stories in one book, taken from episodes that occurred in the first and second Age of Flight.

Once we had got so far, the Immortals – the tenth and final book – had to be written to bring all the threads of the stories together and, as American therapists put it, to achieve closure.

Q. Do you have to keep lots of notes, to remind you who lives where, the developing time lines etc, or is it all stored in your mind?

A. Yes, it’s a complex world! The thing is we’re so absorbed in it, it’s as if the characters are our best friends, and you don’t forget your best friend’s birthday or what happened to their parents, or when they were injured in a battle! We have lots of notes, but mostly we talk, talk, talk – plus our editor at the publisher is very good at spotting when we make mistakes or there are inconsistencies.

Q. Do you feel that all the books in the Chronicles are aimed at the same age group, or has the writing changed as your initial audience grow up?

A. We write the Edge Chronicles for ourselves, or rather the twelve-year old boys we once were. Both of us loved adventure books when we were that age, from Henry Treece to Willard Price. We’d have loved the Edge if it had existed then! Throughout the writing of the Edge series, both of us have had long, detailed conversations with our sons about the world, and their reactions have helped us steer a course through the books. Our readership is very varied, from enthusiastic boys and girls and their parents, to a post-graduate student in Los Angeles who was writing his thesis on the Edge. And Chris’s mum, a vicar’s wife in her seventies, also loves them.

Q. Do you have a favourite book or trilogy? How about the characters, do any stand out for you as your favourites?

A. Paul’s favourite character is Xanth Filatine. He is a complex figure, with divided loyalties, sometimes doing good things for bad reasons, sometimes doing bad things for good reasons.

Chris’s favourite character is Zelphyius Dax, a librarian knight of the Third Age of Flight, who voyages through the Deepwoods aboard his skycraft, the Varis Lodd. He remembers and reveres the past, and is an opponent of new phraxships and the ecological damage inflicted by progress.

Q. The Immortals wraps up old stories, and is said to be the final instalment in The Edge Chronicles – did you always plan to write that final book, rather then letting the series continue on indefinitely?

A. We had to stop somewhere! We’ve been in absorbed in this world for over 10 years, we live, eat and breath the Edge – it can be all–consuming.

We always intended the Edge Chronicles to be a self-contained series of books, and the Immortals completes the story arc. Various threads were left untied in the previous books. What happened to Cloud Wolf in the white storm? Was Twig alive or dead when the caterbird takes him to Riverrise? What happened to old Sanctaphrax when the anchor-chain was cut and it floated off at the end of Midnight over Sanctaphrax? Where did stone sickness come from? And what became of the gloamglozer? All these questions, and more, are answered in The Immortals.

Q. So now The Edge Chronicles has come to an end, where do you both go now? Will you continue to work together, or working on separate projects?

A. We don’t think we’ll ever stop working together! And yes, we have a very exciting idea we are working on at the moment but we’re not allowed to say any more about it. Ssssshhh!

Q. What else have you both written or illustrated?

A. Paul has a number of picture books and novels out like Dogbird and The Weather Witch, and Chris writes and illustrates the Ottoline books; Ottoline and the Yellow Cat and Ottoline Goes to School. Chris also does some picture books for Walker.

Q. Finally, what did you enjoy reading when you were younger?

A. Paul loved Rupert annuals, the Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster, the ‘Alice’ books, all the novels of Alan Garner, especially Elidor. He also read huge amounts of science fiction.

Chris, as a boy, loved Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown, old Dandy and Beano annuals, Professor Branestawm by Norman Hunter, and the Weirdstone of Brisingamen by Alan Garner.

Official Site

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Jonathan Stroud’s latest book, Heroes of the Valley, was published at the beginning of this year, and I was lucky enough to be able to review it just prior to it’s launch. Following on, Jonathan has been kind enough to answer a few questions…

Q. You’re probably best know for your Bartimaeus Trilogy, but you’ve had other books published prior to that – could you tell us a little about them?

A. My first book, published way back in 1994, was a book of word puzzles (see below); this was followed by several gamebooks – books that combined stories with puzzles of various kinds. Two of them: The Lost Treasure of Captain Blood and The Viking Saga of Harri Bristlebeard are still in print. They’re for 7-10 year olds. Meanwhile I was working on a novel about a nasty dragon – this became Buried Fire, which was followed by two other novels, The Leap and The Last Siege. These pre-Bart novels are all fairly different – BF is a straight fantasy, The Leap is a psychological fantasy and The Last Siege isn’t a fantasy at all, but a modern-day thriller.

Q. Did you enjoy writing when you were younger, and how old were you when your first book was published?

A. I always loved writing, and I’ve got various tattered stories and booklets I put together when I was 8 or so. For a long while, though, I didn’t write conventional stories – I made comics instead, or devised boardgames. But it’s all part of the same creative itch! My first book – Justin Credible’s Word Play World came out when I was 23, I think, though it’s hard to remember all that time ago!

Q. Returning to the Bartimaeus Trilogy, can you tell how some of the initial ideas came about?

A. The idea came very suddenly: walking along one day I was pondering the challenge of writing about magic and magicians in the post-Harry Potter age. And it struck me that most of these wizards in children’s books fall into the Dumbledore/Gandalf pattern – i.e. genial old coves with big beards fighting evil. I wondered if I could turn it around and make the human wizards the bad guys. For my hero I’d have a demon (again reversing the tradition). During the same walk I also decided it would be set in modern London and that the magicians would all be politicians. A few days later I sat down with this idea and wrote the first 2 chapters of Amulet: Bart just appeared fully formed and I knew that it would be good, though I hadn’t a clue what the actual story was yet!

Q. Was it always meant to be a trilogy, or did that idea develop as you started writing?

A. To begin with it was going to be a single novel, but pretty quickly I developed three strands of narrative  – following Bart in the present, together with Nat and Kitty’s back stories. Kitty was going to be a major figure in the first book then. Before long these three intertwining threads were getting too tangled and the book too complicated, so I stopped writing and worked out an overall 3-book structure, bringing Kitty in properly in Book 2 and working towards the eventual ending. Then I went back to Amulet, restructured what I’d done and kept on typing!

Q. I understand that there is to be a film based on The Amulet of Samarkand. Can you tell us how that is progressing?

A. Several years ago we had a screenplay and a director and producer and all was looking very good. Then it all went a bit quiet, but I’ve heard recently that the script Vis out to several new prospective directors, so it looks as if things are moving again – fingers crossed!

Q.  How do you feel about seeing your ideas on the big screen, and who would you like to see play the role of Nathaniel?

A. I’m delighted at the prospect of a movie version of Amulet. Inevitably it would be different from the book: it’s impossible to include all the subtleties of a 500 page book in a 2 hour film – but that’s no different from the way that traditional folk and fairy tales have been told and retold by countless different narrators over the years. It’ll be a distinct version, that’s all. As long as the key relationships between my characters are true to the book, I’ll be content. As for Nat, I don’t have an opinion – it would have to be a young actor that no one’s ever heard of, preferably fairly slender, dark and nervously charismatic.

Q. Your latest book is still fantasy, but it has a very different feel to it. Can you tell us a little more about Heroes of the Valley?

A. Heroes is inspired by Icelandic Sagas, which are remarkable medieval accounts of life on the island. They’re mainly about farmers bickering and inter-marrying, but every now and then there’ll be a sudden appearance of a ghost or giant: the supernatural lurks on the edges of ordinary life. I wanted to do a story that had the same sort of tone: the fantasy is on the margins, in stories told by the characters, constantly threatening to become real. The central character, Halli Sveinsson, wants to be like the great heroes of old, but is unfortunately rather short, stocky and a bit rubbish at fighting. He gets a chance to go on a quest, but things don’t go according to plan and he needs to team up with a clever, independent-minded girl called Aud, in order to survive. It’s got lots of jokes, action and other good things!

Q. Your books are marketed as children’s books, but they also appeal to adults. Do you set out to write for a specific age group, or do you hope that it will appeal to all?

A. Ever since Bartimaeus I’ve had the hope (and expectation) that my books would have a wide audience. Essentially I try to write something that I would like if I found it myself on a bookstore shelf. I know that I’d have liked Bart (and Halli) when I was a boy – and I’d like them now. So that makes me think that other people, old and young, would enjoy them.

Q. I’m sure your fans would like to know if you’re working on something new. Can you give us any sort of peek into what we can expect from you next?

A. Well, it’s too early to say, really! I’ve recently written a short story which is a sort of sci-fi fantasy about a detective hunting dragons in a big city: it’ll be published (I hope) in an anthology before long. Maybe that will turn into something longer one day… I don’t know!

Q. Finally, do you get much chance to read for your own pleasure.. and if so, who are some of your favourite authors and books?

A. I don’t read nearly enough when I’m writing, because I find it hard to vault into some one else’s created world when I’m struggling to build my own. But recently I’d enjoyed books by the great travel writer Patrick Leigh Fermor, Neil Gaiman’s new fantasy The Graveyard Book, and some very peculiar but great 1950s books about a schoolboy called Nigel Molesworth by Geoffrey Willans and Ronald Searle. This last series is well worth checking out: it’s very very funny, very anarchic, satirical and verbally deft. It’s also very English.

The Official ‘Heroes of the Valley’ Website



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