To listen to me talking about MY BOOKS AND THE PROCESS OF WRITING go to www.orionbooks.co.uk/author_audio_interview.aspx?athid=5558
Why did you become an author?
It was all my daughter’s fault. She wanted a story about a truly nasty Witch, and who was I to deny her? For more info, go to the BOOKS section of the website, and look at THE DOOMSPELL.
What is the main theme of your ghost novel BREATHE?
I guess BREATHE is really about the subject of obsessive love. Can someone love too much - as Mary does - and where does that lead? In addition, if someone commits a terrible crime do they ever deserve to be forgiven? I don't think there are any right or wrong answers to such moral questions. But it's interesting to explore them. That is why, without giving anything away, I leave those final decisions up to the loved ones in the end. Only they can decide. Oh - and the reader, of course. What should happen to the ghost mother? I wanted you to think about it and decide for yourselves. One way or another I guess I'm always exploring the theme of love in my novels - different kinds of love, and how it is expressed, including the opposite of love sometimes. That's where the monsters - human an inhuman - come in!
What did you do before you became an author?
I worked in I.T. for twenty years. I found it intensely
boring and stressful. I probably gave the best, most agile mental years of my
life to something I disliked. It’s a common human story. Luckily I got out before
I died completely.
What makes you lean towards the fantasy and horror genres, and
which do you prefer?
I love both equally, actually. Fantasy with a dark edge
sits very naturally with me. As for why I like these genres, who can say? All I
know is that unless I include a powerful element of real fantasy in my work I
lose interest. But while my writing often
includes dark scenes I don’t see
the label 'horror' as helpful or even meaningful really. My imagination does incline me towards dumping my
characters into deeper and deeper trouble, but I think there are good writerly,
structural, plot-related reasons why this makes sense. On the other hand, I
can’t deny that at some primal level heading for the night side appeals to me,
and I’ve no idea why. I guess I’d feel more comfortable turning the question
around to other novelists, and asking why they prefer, often, not to do that? I
mean, to be blunt, why bother writing about happy friendly ghosts when you can
do the scary stuff?
Why did you write your ghost novel The Hunting Ground?
I have a leaning towards ghost stories, but I also wanted
to go for something a bit different from BREATHE, my first ghost novel. In
BREATHE, the ghost mother character is what is sometimes known in the
trade as a ‘good-bad’. You can take your pick on where morally you think
she deserves to end up. In THE HUNTING GROUND the ghost is an undiluted menace.
I’ve spent more than ten years creating villains, and though it’s fun to give
them more rounded personalities, reasons why they are villains that mitigate
their actions and lead us to a certain level of sympathy with them etc,
sometimes it’s good to do exactly the opposite – create a heart of absolute
darkness and see where that leads.
Actually the great thing, fictionally, about an
out-and-out villain is that there is no limit to what they will do to get what
they want. The reader instinctively knows this. It gives your story a terrific
amount of tension that more watered down villains simply can’t ramp up. It’s
also good, as a reader, to be given permission to hate a character without
reservation or limit. Adults sometimes say to me that this is something that
kids like – bad guys/good guy dichotomies; simplicities. My experience is that
while shades of grey can be very interesting, adults enjoy a classic bad
guy/girl just as much as their younger counterparts. Nobody knew that better
than Shakespeare. Look at Iago. Look at Gonerill.
Do you believe in ghosts in real life?
No, though I’m keeping an open mind. Hold on, what’s that
dark thing moving just behind my curtain? ...
What do you think appeals to readers about the horror
genre? Is it fun to be frightened?
It’s never fun to be genuinely frightened. We always baulk
at that – though we sometimes learn something from such experiences. I’m not
sure why so many people like to read scary fiction. Without wanting to sound
absurd or over-intellectual about something I don’t really understand, I
suspect that at some primal level it reminds us that we are alive. Horror is
true at some fundamental level, by which I mean that the world is not a safe,
predictable place that has our interests at heart. It is far from that. It’s a
more indifferent place than that. Most of the rules for living in it are made
up by others for reasons that have nothing to do with us. In that sense it is a
place of fear. We have remarkably little control over nearly everything; even
our own state of mind is difficult to keep tabs on or grasp, let alone the
activities and mental states of people we never meet or have no possibility of
influencing. I believe that most people, if they are honest with themselves,
are never deeply comfortable in almost any aspect of their life – either
professionally or in their personal relationships, or even their own feelings
about themselves. Or if they do feel good about some of those things, they have
a nasty feeling that some sneak is going to pull the safety blanket away any
moment. So, in that sense, horror feels real, it feels in its essence like real
life, because the crux of horror as a genre is that nothing is clear,
everything has a dangerous, chaotic feel, and you can’t understand the rules, or even if
you can they’re made to benefit someone else.
Actually, I think this is why so many adults turn away from
the horror genre as they age – they recognise too much of it in their own
lives, thank you very much. It’s one reason teenagers read far more dark
fiction than most adults as well. Generally speaking, they’re a bit less
infected than the adults by world-weariness. They’re taking new risks all the
time as they work out what kind of personalities they have, what their identify
is going to be, and all of that is scary as hell. Horror, in that setting, is
strangely a kind of comfort blanket. A sympathetic friend along for the
ride.
How much research is involved when you write your books?
Glebe House as described in The Hunting Ground almost feels like a real place.
I always do some. Even for my pure fantasies, such as my Doomspell Trilogy and Silver Sequences, I did geographical research to make certain Earth-journeys and polar sections were factually correct, and I try always to be accurate when I used real world aspects. For my first ghost novel BREATHE I did quite a bit of
research into certain elements of burial etc – almost none of which got
used, actually. But historical research is so compelling in its own right because it constantly throws up fascinating truths you did not expect. I remember coming across an 18th century government report where a girl described having the disease TB as like 'having a mouse in her chest' - which struck me as an extraordinarily evocative description which I used in the book. I also discovered that in Britain some single mothers out of sheer poverty ended up advertising their children for sale. How do you fancy that? Here was a typical advert of the time: “Adoption – A good home with a mother’s love and care is offered to any
respectable person wishing her child to be entirely adopted. Premium Five
Pounds which includes everything – Apply by letter only.' In the end I did not use that fact, but it has stayed with me - and who knows what other idea it might kick off for a story later? In my horror novel Savannah Grey I scrupulously checked the order of animals/plants/insects evolutionary history on Earth because I wanted my main creature - the Ocrassa - to have evolved in parallel with that, growing subtler and stronger. That took the novel partly into the science fiction realm - extrapolating from known facts - and I enjoyed that. As for Glebe House, I really just put together a number of bits and pieces from historical houses to give it a feeling of reality, of so-called 'verisimilitude'. And I also use a trick of technique: by constantly going back to a place - in this case, the East Wing - and finding slightly new ways to describe its same rooms and corridors, the very familiarity that settles into a reader's mind has a way of making it feel more solid and real. And of course, in a ghost story, where many of your characters may not be real or substantial at all, that is more important than it might otherwise be.
Can I get a discussion guide for any of your books?Yes. My U.S. publisher Carolrhoda have produced an excellent guide for Savannah Grey here ....https://www.lernerbooks.com/digitalassets/Assets/Title Assets/11939/9780761370253/Discussion Guide.pdf
The Rhode Island Teen Book Award also produced one for BREATHE when they shortlisted that novel. Look at: http://www.yourlibrary.ws/ya_webpage/ritba/ritba08/breathe.htm
How long does it usually take you to write a book?
Generally about 9 months, 3-4 months to do a first draft,
then the rest to get all the revisions done and dusted. But my horror novel
SAVANAH GREY took 2 years.
What inspires you as a writer and where do your ideas come
from?
My inspiration comes largely from other writers. When I see
what they do I’m deeply awed and inspired to attempt in my own small way to
emulate them. As for where my ideas come from, in the end we’re all saturated
in the same cultural environments, books, TV, film, interpersonal relationships
– and the ideas filter out of some kind of hash of those things in a piecemeal,
impossible-to-fathom way.
Your books are written specifically for young adults. Do
you think older readers can enjoy them too?
Actually, quite a lot of my readers are adults. I’m pleased
about that, because I do include themes in my fiction which younger readers
might not yet have the experience to fully appreciate. Someone once pointed out
to me that there’s a strong theme of guilt running through my fiction. Guilt is
not an emotion or mental state unique to adults, but adults have more
experience of its forms than most younger people simply because they have been
alive longer. You have seen more guilt; you have felt it yourself. That leads
you into other regions: forgiveness, for example, and all its attributes.
Are there any other genres you would like to explore in the
future?
I’m quite happy for now working within the horror/science
fiction/fantasy genres or hybrids thereof. I have no ambition to move outside
of them and write, say, a romance, or historical fiction. I suppose if I did move elsewhere it would be into pure
thriller/crime writing. But I love creating monsters too much ever to stray for
too long from fantasy writing of some kind!
What are you working on right now?
I’ve just completed the first draft of a large-scale pure
fantasy, set on another world full of elves, dragons and all the other usual
fantasy tropes. It’s a pure adventure really, and felt very liberating to write
after the claustrophobia of THE HUNTING GROUND.
The provisional title is ARAMANTH (the name of the world it is set on).
I’ve somehow got to come up with a better title than this. Help me out someone!
Are you satisfied by the quality of ghost stories out there
for tweens and teens?
Not really. First, few people, certainly in the U.K., are writing
what I would call genuinely frightening ghost stories of novel length for
teenagers. Don’t get me wrong – ghost
novels are being written, but the best of them tend to be fairly wistful
mood-pieces like MY BROTHER’S GHOST by Allan Ahlberg – which is a wonderful
piece about two brothers, one of whom dies (you’ll love it), but it’s a quiet
contemplative piece. Nor do I have any
objection to lighter ghost stories. There are loads of those – you know the type,
where the ghost is more likely to go boo!
from behind the fridge than scare anybody. People often THINK there are lots of
ghost novels out there because they often appear as a secondary character in
stories that are primarily not ghost stories. An example would be the minor
characters Nearly Headless Nick/Moaning Myrtle (note they are funny ghosts
again!) in Harry Potter or, say, the creepy Victorian ghosts in the wardrobe in
Coraline by Neil Gaiman.
But novels with a genuinely scary ghost at the heart of the
story THAT ARE ANY GOOD are rarer than football books about kids secretly
wanting become ballerinas. The reason
(having done two ghost novels now) is that ghost stories traditionally depend
on suspense and tension, and it’s hard to sustain this over a novel. To combat
that I turned both of mine into supernatural thrillers, with everyone
being threatened with death.Or worse than death, actually! One of the great things about
a ghost novel, of course, is that as soon as you write something that supposes
GHOSTS EXIST then automatically there must be an afterlife, a place
where the dead, well, hang out. The really fascinating question for a writer or
reader then is what is this place like? Is it like a traditional Heaven or
Hell? Or something else?
In my last ghost novel BREATHE I wanted to create an
absolutely terrifying afterlife place where you might end up – a region where
you just get blown forever across a great plain by the wind, bits of your body
slowly being destroyed. I called it the
Nightmare Passage, and I’m pleased to say that many people remember that place
more than anything else about the novel. A place becomes a kind of character,
and I’ve always gravitated myself towards novels that do that.
In my latest ghost story, THE HUNTING GROUND, I wanted to
create another terrifying place, but this time one where the ghosts might trap
the living. I came up with the East Wing
– a huge part of a mansion house that is a labyrinth of similar rooms and
corridors. You keep getting sucked in but you can’t get out – and it’s so dark
you can’t see either. If you’re trapped in there all you can do is hold your
nerve and try not to go crazy. I knew I
needed a really strong boy to cope with that – so I created Elliott. But he’s
not superhuman, he’s only a 16-year old boy who grits his teeth and gets on
with doing what he has to do to survive and help his trapped brother.
It was obvious almost at once to me as well what sort of
ghosts I was going to pit against Elliott and his younger brother, Ben. First,
a male ghost of awesome power who exists only to terrify and hunt. He’s a
classic bad guy, and I wanted him to be absolutely ice-cold terrifying. But
then what? As a contrast to him I knew what I needed – and I saw her right away
in my mind. A little girl. A corrupted little ghost girl, bristling with
terrifying power. Somehow it’s even more scary to wonder what a little girl
might do if you give her enough power, because she’s not going to think like an
adult. She’s going to be more unpredictable, isn’t she? One minute she might
want to play with you, the next she’s bored and dragging you to your death, and
you can’t predict when that might happen. You end up talking to her very
nicely, because you still think there’s a little girl in there you can appeal
to – but is there? Or is she as bad as the male ghost who’s been developing her
as his little protégé, his killer in waiting? Could she stay innocent? Or would she become more like him? In fact, if she had no other moral
framework to compare against, how would that little girl even know she was
becoming a monster? How could she tell good from evil at all? The great thing
with modern teenage fiction is that you can explore these ideas. I very
much enjoyed racking up the tension in THE HUNTING GROUND about as far as I could.
Why are monsters so popular in
fiction?
In his
seminal work THE SEVEN BASIC PLOTS Christopher Booker says that there are seven
great archetypal stories. One is what he calls Overcoming the Monster. It’s
really quite a simple story. There is a monster to be overcome. Sometimes it is
a real monster like Medusa or Godzilla. It might be a machine monster enslaving
humanity, as in the film The Matrix.
Usually it’s a person - someone powerful and evil who has to be stopped. And
the story always goes something like this: the enemy, monster, villain,
antagonist, whatever you want to call them, pose a terrible threat. But luckily
a hero or heroine, often reluctantly at first, emerges to fight them. That hero
or heroine goes through all sorts of trials and tribulations, and near the end
all hope seems lost. But at the last moment they snatch victory from the jaws
of defeat, the monster is vanquished, order restored and the hero or heroine
always get some kind of prize. In the case of TWILIGHT Bella and Edward get
each other.
Most of us love
this monster story in all its infinite variations. Partly that’s because the
monster story gives us a chance to truly hate at least one character, and that
always feels good. Partly it’s because it’s great to explore the darker seam of
our own nature. Even good old Harry Potter has his dark side. He’s got a nasty
temper and he can speak parceltongue (and we know who was the last to be able
to do that, don’t we?).
But the main
reason we love our monster stories, of course, has nothing to do with the
monsters themselves. It is because they bring our heroes and heroines so
brilliantly to life. Try to imagine Lord
of the Rings without Sauron or the orcs or Gollum? Or Roald Dahl’s Matilda without Miss Trunchbull? Where
would Edward and Bella be in Twilight
be without the James Coven? Or the film Jaws
without the shark!
Twilight’s Edward
himself is almost the perfect fictional character. Part-monster, but all hero.
We love it when he gives up the thing he wants more than anything (to drink
Bella’s blood) to instead do the right thing (put himself in maximum danger to save
her life).
Do you think the recent popularity in
supernatural romance is good or bad?
It’s neither
good nor bad in itself. It’s simply part of a trend. I have no answer to why
supernatural romance has become quite so popular recently, but I have a couple
of thoughts about it. First, in the
western world generally, and especially amongst younger people, there has been
a surge of interest over the past decade in the supernatural, magic,
witchcraft, ghosts, angels, vampires etc –
the whole unseen and unexplained world generally. Exactly why I’m not
sure, but you only have to get out a tv listing to see how many documentaries
and fiction series are being shown on the supernatural, and these guys only
make programmes they think people watch. But there’s another point. Basically
the TWILIGHT-type stuff is not horror but romance. You don’t agree? You think
it’s basically horror? I don't think so. There’s horror, yes, but romance has
always been the world of fiction’s most popular genre, its mover and shaker, and it always
will be as long as girls and women make up the majority of fiction readers. The
Romance
genre has simply bucked
up its ideas and turned its powerful dainty hand to the possibilities, co-opting
those parts of dark fantasy and horror that are useful to it. And if you are still in doubt that paranormal romance is mainly romance and not horror I challenge you to name a single male author of supernatural romance. Can
you? If you can, I’m impressed. It’s basically women writing for other women
and girls. It’s a love-fest with a dark heart. The reason hardly any male authors make it onto bookshelves isn't because they can't write good gothic romance, but because most teenage girls simply don't trust them to get the romantic/emotional side right. If the horror was of equal importance, male authors would be far more common on the shelves.
What
inspired your novel Savannah Grey?
I realised a
while ago that all my own stories are one version or another of the Overcoming the Monster plot. I decided to embrace
this fully in Savannah Grey and created not one but three monsters. I wanted to explore the big-implacable-foe version of the monster – the Voldemort type if
you like – which is interesting because it’s so subtle and powerful, so how are
you going to defeat it? I also wanted a baby monster – which I thought should
be all appetite and unpredictability. But the most interesting kind of monster
for me is a third type: the monster that only seems to be a monster - the
monster that somehow represses its natural appetite to kill and maim and
instead does the right thing, the moral thing. Somehow, because the monster is
built to destroy and harm, it requires a
deeper humanity, a greater compassion, when the monster holds back than
when we do it. When it does that the monster itself becomes the one who shows
us what it means to be truly human.
Why did you
create the ghost mother in BREATHE?
In most
children’s and ya fantasy/horror books the monsters start off horrible (eg
Voldemort) and the only real question is how you defeat them. I wanted to start
the other way: with a mother who could not be more loving, and then see what
happens when her love fails to save her own child. Could she survive that? If
she did, what would she be like? It’s a dark line of enquiry, but I thought it
would be interesting to pursue.
Why does
Savannah Grey have such a sudden cut-off ending?
People
sometimes do find my ending too abrupt. Should I have given it a softer, more
gradually-released conclusion to the reader? Maybe. All I can tell you is that
it felt right. And the answer to those questions I’m often being asked – what
happens to Sav and Reece? – are actually all in that last chapter if you just
read it carefully enough. Truly they are.
Can you help
me write a ghost story?
You bet.
Send me a message and I’ll email you some handy hints and tips.
I'm less than 18 and I've written a book. How can I get it published?
I get asked this all the time, which is why I've put
this question so high up. I'm sorry to say that all my research
indicates that it is almost impossible if you are less than 18 years of
age to get a mainstream publisher excited about what you've done. So
many people are writing books aimed at young people these days that it's
tough even for excellent and experienced adult writers to get
published. Publishers rarely want to hear from any new writers, and
certainly not young people. I think Christopher Paolini (of ERAGON
fame) was 17 or 18 when he signed a deal for that book, but it was a
total exception. Normally publishers find nothing of interest in authors
this age, and certainly not younger ages. However, listen to me: that
should not stop you writing! Good writing is all about learning the art
of storytelling, not instant fame. You can get instant fame on TV
just by being an idiot, but to gain a reading audience you have to learn
the craft of writing, and that takes years of hard work. Here's my
advice: form a writing group of like-minded people, write stories for
each other, and test them out in your groups. Be supportive of each
other. Also, choose published books you love, and dissect what to see
what makes them so terrific. That way you'll be learning, and writing as
well, improving your skills. If you are are young writer determined to
get published no matter what the obstacles, and you live in the U.K,
then your first point of call should be a group called YOUNG WRITER, who
will give practical detailed advice on the publishing industry. You can
contact them by email (editor@youngwriter.org) or
send a letter to Young Writer, Glebe House, Weobley, Hereford, HR4
8SD. If, on the other hand, you just want a place on the web to post
your own short stories and poems or drawings/artwork you might want to
take a look at the Stories from the Web site (www.storiesfromtheweb.org)
managed by Birmingham Libraries on behalf of libraries around the UK
who subscribe. The website is split into three parts aimed at Early
Years, 8-11 year olds and 11-14 year olds. You can browse a virtual
bookshelf, read extracts and author interviews, and send in your own
stories, poems and book reviews, plus read the work of people your own
age. Take a look ...
I'm an adult and I've written a book. How can I get it published?
The single best piece of advice I can give you is
to make sure you get your novel edited professionally before you submit
it to a publisher. New authors in particular generally make the same
kind of mistakes, and don’t think for a minute that a publisher will be
willing to overlook these or make allowances if they like your story.
They won’t. They are looking, as far as possible, for a finished product
that requires a minimum of editing. Competition is so horrendous these
days that if you’re a new writer trying to break into an already
overcrowded market your manuscript simply has to stand out. If you are
serious about getting published, I will read your manuscript (no one
under eighteen years of age, I’m afraid) and give you advice on plot and
characterization, but I will charge you ... go to the MANUSCRIPT READING page of my website for details.
Truthfully, though, even once you have a
professionally-edited masterpiece burning a hole in your desk aching to
find its way into young people’s hands, it’s tremendously difficult to
get a publisher to take on a new author. The book trade tends to regard
them as high risk as they have no proven sales record. When it comes
right down to it, there is no magic formula for getting publishers
interested in your work. Unless you have inside contacts in the
publishing world, everyone does the same thing - reads 'The Writer's
Handbook' or 'The Writer's and Artists Yearbook' (both updated annually)
which list out publishers, agents etc alphabetically. 99/100 of these
people will reject your advances - sometimes brusquely. If you think
you've written something terrific, keep your spirits up and just keep
going until you find someone who will read you. One bit of advice: if
you come across an agent who wants a 'fee' (normally a few hundred
pounds) to represent your book to publishers, they are
con-merchants. Report them if you can. A true agent never demands any
up-front 'administrative' fee.
Do you ever experience writer’s block? How do you overcome it?
I have a theory about writer’s block. It doesn’t exist. Usually writers get stuck because they are unclear what story they want to write, or how to develop their characters. In 95% of cases, if they can resolve those two questions “writer’s block miraculously disappears.”
What is the best piece of advice about writing that you have been given? Who gave you the advice?
The best advice I ever read was from an American, John Truby, who runs story-writing courses. He made me realize that you must above all else makes sure that your main characters have strong desires for things. THEY MUST REALLY WANT SOMETHING BADLY. Whenever you respond strongly to a character it is because they have a strong desire for something. Think of Harry Potter. Harry Potter is desperate to know more about his parents. Ron Weasley is desperate to prove himself. Hermione is desperate to be seen as the best student. Voldemort is desperate to kill Harry Potter. Or think of Lord of the Rings. Frodo is desperate to destroy the ring. It is not something he’ll do if he has time after tea on a Sunday night if he gets bored. He is willing to sacrifice everything and go literally to the ends of the earth, and die if necessary, to achieve it. We love characters that are passionate about things. One of the most common mistakes young writers make is that they just have things happening to their characters. An event occurs, and they just react to it. That’s not good enough. They must want something badly. As Truby says, “The most important thing you can do as a writer is to give your characters strong desire lines that the audience understand and identify with all their heart. If you do that, the audience will willingly follow your characters to the ends of the earth.”
Why did you decide to write your first ghost story, BREATHE?
'Breathe' came about initially because my wife, Ciara, said that since I keep writing scary fantasy stories, I should write a proper scary story for a change. For her that meant a ghost story. When I started to look at what ghost stories were available for young people, I was surprised. There were also plenty of ghost stories that were meant to be scary (like 'Goosebumps') but weren't. But where was the story to keep you up at night? I decided to write one.
What children’s books did you like as a boy and what do you like now?
I hardly read any books at all until I was about 10 years old. I only read comics. The first book I loved was The Magician’s Nephew by C.S.Lewis. I also remember really getting into Enid Blyton’s Famous Five adventure books. When I was about 12-13 I discovered Alan Garner’s fantasies The Weirdstone of Brisingamen, The Moon of Gomrath and Elidor. I still don’t think any better pure fantasy has been on offer since those Garner books written 40 years or so ago.
However, the range of brilliant young fiction works available now is so much greater than when I was a boy. So many excellent writers and illustrators also back up their fiction with fantastic websites as well - take a look at Caroline Lawrence's website (www.romanmysteries.com) and Candy Gourlay's website (www.candygourlay.com).
What is the best part about writing?
The writing itself. I spent most of my life in the computing industry doing a job I never enjoyed. I'm utterly convinced now that there really is no substitute in life for a creative career, but it's only really possible for older people, who've slaved away for years doing something else, to understand this fully. I also love visiting schools and other groups, to talk about books and share what I know about what makes the best stories so powerful (Please see the Schools section for more details).
Oh, and the other great thing is getting fan mail. Especially fan mail saying things like this. I quote: “Compared you J.K.Rowling is an amateur(!)”; “I thought The Doomspell was the best book I'd ever read, and then I read The Scent of Magic”. Or how about this one: “The Doomspell is the best ever book written by the human species.” Topping that one could be tricky - though just recently the Dani family in Australia sent me this, which is typical of the sort of generous-spirited correspondence I get from fans around the world. Such letters really make a difference. I thank everyone for writing such lovely things from the bottom of my heart ... Anyway, here are the Dani's ...
"I just want to thank you for the wonderful time you have given my family. We have just finished Silver World, which was fantastic. I read every night to my children and it was so difficult for them to wait for Silver World to arrive from the uk. It was worth the wait. Best of all was how much my son enjoyed it. I have two daughters aged 11 and 8, and my son is 10. I read Doomspell to them, which they loved, but it was the silver series that got my son. He would beg for me to keep reading (I would only read two chapters a night to spin it out). He told me I was meaner than TV the way I kept him in suspense. It is the first time in his life he has begged me to read and willingly come away from the TV.
So thank you so much. We look forward with great anticipation to future books you may write.
Yours sincerely
Mrs Kathryn Dani
Olivia, Alexander and Amelia Dani
Do you make a lot of changes in your books as you go along?
Yes. Endless. I never get anything right in the first draft. Take The Wizard’s Promise. In the original version I had a whole plotline where Rachel joins with Calen and the rest of the High Witches to fight together against the Griddas. Snip-snip. Removed. Also, Rachel befriended spiders which lived cosily inside her. Snip. Actually I stuck with this last idea for a long time. Some of the writing I did for those spiders I hated to part with. Especilly the tough soldiers who are prepared to stay guarding her no matter what happens to them. I also wrote quite a bit more about the creatures inhabiting Ool. It all had to go in the end. I know what you're thinking,, loyal fan: "What a tragedy! What a loss to the world!" But you'd be wrong. It was a long enough book already. Those elements held up the story, as simple as that. But I added one thing: the Essa.
What is the worst part of writing?
When a book is bogged down in difficulty, that can be very frustrating: you think you'll never get it right. I've had this problem with the last book in each of my trilogies, and especially with Savannah Grey. Finishing a book - and still not being quite sure if it's any good - can gnaw away at you as well. Otherwise - nothing at all. Or, at least, that's what I used to think. If I'm being truly honest, I was disappointed that the Silver Series didn't do as well commercially as the Doomspell series, though I think I understand why now. Putting things in perspective, one of my favourite authors, Orson Scott Card, has these wise words to say about a career in writing...'Even if a degree of fame does come quickly and easily, don't count on it continuing. The critic who loved this year's book, will rip you up and down next year; the public that bought a hundred thousand copies of the last book may buy only ten thousand of the next. Bear it calmly. Fame comes and goes, but you - your life, your work, your family, your real friends - will still be there, year in and year out.'
Where do you get all your ideas?
This is a question I'm asked a lot, and of course the truth is that I don't know. No author does, unless it's been given to them by someone else. Ideas are mysterious things. But one thing I've noticed is that many people think the ideas appearing in fiction books come perfect and fully-fledged into the author's mind as you see it written on the page. There may be a few writers for whom this is true, but only a few. Just about all my ideas start off as very simple things anyone could think up. I'll prove this to you. Lots of people tell me that they really like the physical description of the Witch Dragwena from The Doomspell. For those of you who have not made her acquaintance, she has a bald, pitted skull, four sets of jaws, armoured cleaning spiders and a snake-confidant and protector.
These ideas for Dragwena's appearance didn't come straight into my mind. All that came into it at first was that she was a nasty Witch. Initially, I wrote her as a pretty woman with a lifeless snake. Someone else then told me that maybe she should be ugly. So I gave her extra jaws. Then I thought about it again and gave her the spiders. Then I gave her snake a little personality. Each idea was separate, a little improvement. That's how you write good ideas - you keep looking at what you've got and simply asking yourself, “How can I make this more interesting?” There's no more to it than that. Which is why anyone can write a book, if only they've got the patience - ah, but the amount of patience you need! Thousands of hours worth of patience to weedle and work away in tiny ways at ideas and characters and pacing ?that is what makes all the difference. Not many people, I suspect, are crazy enough to want to put themselves through that!
Will there be a Doomspell 4?
Perhaps at some point - people do keep asking for it! But it would have to make commercial sense to my publisher (bluntly, can they sell enough copies?), and that series was written a long time ago, so i'm not sure it really makes sense any more. My style of writing, for good or ill, is so different now as well...
Can you help me write better stories?
I give talks and workshops where I present my views about what elements are required to write really powerful stories (Please see the Schools section for more details). I think these ideas can be followed by anyone, regardless of age, to dramatically improve fiction writing. But do feel free to write to me via the message section of the website, and I'll gladly give you a few hints and tips.
What advice would you give to a budding young author?
Read. By reading you experience different styles of writing. You also develop your vocabulary, as well as an ear and an instinct for what's good and bad in writing. A good writer is always, always, a voracious reader. The biggest single problem most young writers face is that they want to be a writer but they don't enjoy reading enough to have a true feel for the skills required.
Do I need to read your novels in a certain order?
No, but I'd seriously advise you to read the two trilogies - The Doomspell Trilogy and The Silver Sequence - in the correct order. Otherwise you will certainly miss out on a lot, because the characters and plot ideas have been developed over preceding books. This is even more true of the Silver Sequence books than the Doomspell books. All the others are stand-alone one-offs. Take your pick.
What’s your idea of a perfect day?
Wake up refreshed after a good night's sleep (I'm a terrible sleeper, so that's important to me). Find that I've more fan mail than I can handle crammed in the letter box and on email. Look out the window and discover there's a mountain out there that needs climbing. The gear I need is miraculously on my back and I walk, alone, in majestic scenery, without hunger or thirst. Come back to find a gorgeous meal waiting for me, and some exciting company. Maybe I crack the funniest joke in the world around 7 pm, and ... Seriously, don't ask a fantasy author a question like this! You'll get a book of answers! (Oh, I've just realised that in this hypothetical day I haven't mentioned sitting down and writing once ... ummmm ...)
Are any of your characters based on people you know?
Yes. Rachel - my daughter Rachel is the model for the Rachel in the Doomspell series. She's slightly less brave in real life, she tells me, but I'm not convinced by her on that score. Apart from Rachel, no, not really. Of course, every author puts parts of themselves and other people they know in their books, but not in any direct intentional way, as far as I'm concerned. And the rumour that the ROAR's character is based on that of my wife, Ciara, is completely untrue.
What is your most embarrassing moment?
Mm. Do you really want to know this? If so, go to the About Cliff McNish page to find out more?
Do you have a special place where you write?
I have a room, yes, which I've made into a study. Here I have my pc, my stereo (where I play music continuously as I write), pictures readers have sent me illustrating scenes from my books (I love these and seek more - send me more!), and an armchair for reading. Who could want more than this? I really think I could write just about anywhere if I had to - as long as I had a pc.
Do you plan your stories?
I do now. The main reason is that it proves the whole structure works and there is some sense of an ending that's worth heading for. It's scary if you haven't got that. Of course, another author, like my friend Sally Gardner, will tell you that she finds it equally scary knowing what her ending will be. She likes to be surprised by it. So take your pick in approach and find what works for you. When I first started writing none of the planning stuff mattered a jot to me and so The Doomspell got written without a scrap of a plan. But the amount of revisions I had to do afterwards! On the other hand, it was pure pleasure to write. Probably because - almost certainly because - there were no expectations, whether self-imposed or external. Really, we should all try constantly to write in that alpha mood of happy anticipation of the writerly moment, whatever that may prove to be, but it seems to get harder to do so over time rather than easier, like a lot of things in life!
As I've developed in experience, I've also come to learn that there are certain ways to create characters, place them in danger and develop storylines that are always likely to lead to more interesting and exciting stories. Please see the Schools section for more details on the talks and workshops I do in this area.
But - but - but - yes, I want to stress this, spontaneity is lovely, too. If you are writing purely for your own pleasure, then it's good sometimes to just let the words flow. However, if you are writing for an audience, and you only have limited time, or the outcome really matters to you, plan it, because the result will tend to be better.
The mistake most young people make, in my experience, is to set off like a roaring train with a great starting idea, then half way through simply run out of energy when they realize they don't know how to develop or finish it. I have some simple and practical ideas in my talks and workshops (see the Schools section) about how to avoid such problems.
Can you tell me when you will be doing any public events or signings?
Yes. They will always be posted on the Latest News section of this site.
What inspired you to write about magic?
My daughter, Rachel, wanted a book about a Witch and spells. As simple as that! For a fuller story go to the Books section.
Who is your favourite character in the Doomspell books, and why?
Tricky one. Obviously I like them all. I like Dragwena, Heebra and Gultrathaca as villains and Morpeth for the opposite reason. If you forced me to pick out one character for special mention it might be Albertus Robertson from The Wizard's Promise. Perhaps because he's such an unusual one. But I think I've got a new favourite now from my Silver Sequence. (Can anyone guess who it is?)
Where did you get the names you use in the Doomspell trilogy?
I get asked this regularly. Readers seem to like the names, and some think I have a special technique for choosing them. Untrue! I don't have! There's rarely anything inherently good or bad about a name in itself (unless, that is, you choose a really idiotic name. Imagine, say, the wizard Gandalf in Lord of the Rings being called “Freddy” Freddy the wizard. Doesn't work, does it?. As long as you avoid such pitfalls, what happens is that if you as a reader like a character in a book you simply GROW to like the name. It creeps up on you, until eventually if the book is good enough you can hardly imagine any other name being suitable.
In my case, a couple of the names in The Doomspell Trilogy are simply anagrams of friends names. Rachel, my daughter, came up with the name Fenagel. Dragwena - a name lots of people like derived from a girl I hated when I was about 6-7 years old, my sister's best friend, Rowena. Eric was named after my Dad. I had no particular name I wanted to use for the boy in the first draft of The Doompell but when, near the completion of the book, my Dad died after a long illness, there was no doubt what that boy was going to be called.
Did you find it hard to get published?
It depends on what you mean by hard. At the first Orion Children's Party I attended (an annual event where the publisher's authors and illustrators get a chance to meet up), I chatted to a writer who had sweated solidly for over ten years, on one book after another, without getting published. Now that sounds hard to me ?to continue believing in yourself, when you've had so much rejection.
On balance, I had it easy. The horror stories of rejected manuscripts, endlessly, endlessly rejected manuscripts, from other authors tells me I had it easy ?/P>
What are you main hobbies?
Playing golf, reading (obviously!), watching sport, walking, socialising with friends, eating live baby turtles (is he joking?). Boring, eh, though chasing the turtles is great fun. I'm not exciting at all actually - ask my wife! Ask my daughter, Rachel!
Have your books been published in other countries?
Yes. There are translations at various stages of completion of The Doomspell Trilogy underway in at least nineteen languages so far, which is great.
What do you do if you get stuck while you’re writing?
I generally get stuck when I haven't quite decided where to take the plot, or a character. Once I've decided, and I'm sure, I usually write fluently enough. I believe that most so-called “writer's block” is simply to do with this: not lack of inspiration, but lack of clarity about goals. When it happens I stop writing and think hard about what questions I need to answer before I can start again. Some other writers seem to be able to go onto another part of the book and work on that or even on to another book altogether. I can't do that. I have to resolve the part that's wrong before I do anything else.
When you write, do you wait for inspiration?
You must be joking! I spent the first four years of my writing life just trying to cram writing into a few stolen hours a week between long tracts of time at work and the usual things we all have to do when we get home, like eat, sleep, and maybe watch the news - oh, and pay a little attention to my wife and daughter, too.
That left me about 15 hours a week to write most of the time. I gave up other hobbies (only a dozen or so rounds of golf in recent years) and wrote whenever I had a spare moment. If you're a budding young author, please don't wait for inspiration. Believe me, the special inspiration place in your head really doesn't exist. You get truly inspired - and what that means is, you get your GOOD IDEAS and WRITE WELL - when you are already writing, and the ideas and the best way to express them is coming from sheer immersion in the process of writing.
Most people can find a way to write well, in my opinion. It's partly a matter of grasping certain techniques about character and storytelling which I cover in my talks and workshops (see the Schools section). After that, all you need is perspiration! It's nothing to do with inspiration. It's everything to do with having a certain hard-headed, mildly obsessed, determination to just work and work at it until you get it right.
Do you like the illustrations done for your books?
Yes, very much. I'm lucky enough to have had an excellent and much sought-after illustrator of fantasy and science fiction, Geoff Taylor, for many of my books. You can see more examples of his artwork on www.geofftaylor.btinternet.co.uk.
