Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books: Amber Lee Dodd - We Are Giants - Author Q&A Interview

Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books is really pleased to be sharing with you the following Q&A with Amber Lee Dodd. Her latest book, We Are Giants, was published on the 7th April 2016 by Quercus Children's Books. The book deals with topics that will be familiar to a lot of 9-12 year olds. It is a refreshing and a heartwarming story, and very sensitively written.  I hope that this interview piques your interest and encourages you to purchase a copy and read it. Thank you Amber. 

Tell us a little bit about We Are Giants? 
It’s about love, family and being proud of who you are. 
It’s the story of Sydney, her sister Jade and her mother Amy who has dwarfism. When the family are forced to leave home and move to a new city, Sydney worries she will forget her Dad (who died a few years before) without the memories of home around her. To add to that, her new home is barely a home, it’s more of a shoe box and her new school is clearly run by mad teachers. With everything changing around her Sydney is determined to keep some things the same. Namely she wants to stay little, just like her Mum. 

Who would love reading We Are Giants, and why? 
Anyone who’s ever wanted to be different.

We all need a hero! Tell us about your protagonist(s)? Was there a real-life inspiration behind him or her? 
Sydney is shy and thoughtful and has a huge imagination. But she also has a fierce side she call ‘The Wild Thing’. Jade is brave and bold and is never more than five minutes away from throwing a wobbly. And Amy is creative and stubborn and force to be reckoned with. 

I think all the characters where inspired by the children and teens I worked with, or people I knew. 
In the book Sydney and Jade have to deal with bullies. 

How much research did you do into this subject? 
I used to tell people I hardly did any research, but that’s not true! I researched everything; it just never felt like work because all the things I found out where so interesting. Most of the research went into Amy’s dwarfism and Sydney’s fairytales. Things like place, school and the bullies are all drawn from my own childhood. 

What tips can you share in writing a believable world/background? 
I think in creating a world you have to give a voice to it as much as you would a character. Even in the craziest fantasy you have to ground your story in a place that feels real. 

For me writing about Portsmouth, where We are Giants is set, was easy as I grew up here. It’s largely a working class city with a strong, proud identity and was the perfect setting for a family struggling in post recession Britain. 
Do you have any strange writing habits? 
I write in bed because I don’t have a desk I can use. I’m also a very messy writer. I once walked out the house with several sticky notes stuck to the back of my leg! 

What do you think makes a good story? 
Oh gosh, this is such a hard one. I think great stories have their own voice. They couldn’t have been written by anyone else but that person. 

What genre of books do you like to read? do you limit yourself to only the genre that you write yourself? 
I read everything! From plays to memoir, to short stories and literary fiction. My favourite books are Olive Kittredge by Elizabeth Strout, Matilda by Roald Dahl, The play The Memory of Water by Shelia Stevenson and the short story collection How to Breathe Underwater by Julie Orringer. I come back to these books again and again. 
At the moment I have a tbr pile that includes the biographies of some lady adventures, a couple of crime novels (I love an Agatha Christie) and some smashing Middle grade books. 
If you were to look for me in a bookshop you would find me by the picture books. It is pretty much impossible to be unhappy flicking through a good picture book. 


As a child, what did you want to do when you grew up? 
The first thing I desperately want to do was be a surgeon. I like to think it was because I wanted to help people, but I think it might have been more to do with the fact that I loved blood and guts. But sadly I wasn’t very good at science or maths. However, I was very good at telling stories. So that’s what I decided to do instead. 


Is there anything else that you would like to tell us, like new writing projects? 
I’m working on some more short stories. You should hopefully get to listen to my story The Love Songs of Foxes on BBC radio 4 again soon. And I’m also working on a new children’s book, staring lady adventurers, Scottish islands and a dyslexic hero with a very unusual gift. But Shhh, don’t tell anyone.

Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books: Anna McKerrow - Crow Moon - Book Review (Quercus)

Book Synopsis: Danny is a fun-loving 16-year-old looking for a father figure and falling in love with a different girl every day. He certainly doesn't want to follow in his mum's witchy footsteps.

Just as his community is being threatened by gangs intent on finding a lucrative power source to sell to the world, Danny discovers he is stunningly powerful. And when he falls for Saba, a gorgeous but capricious girl sorceress, he thinks maybe the witch thing might not be such a bad idea...

But what cost will Danny pay as, with his community on the brink of war, he finds that love and sorcery are more dangerous than he ever imagined?

Wickedness and passion combine in this coming-of-age adventure.

Book Review: I felt that this was never going to be my favourite book in the world due to the love/romance theme. I'm not a big fan of this topic in stories or with the association of passion. Essentially, this was the theme running throughout the book and was the whole driving force of the narrative. However, I actually found the love story manageable. It was not too overpowering, but it did rule some of the story.  

So did I like it?  Could I recommend it? 

The story is actually very good. It's very different to anything that I've read this year and, in my opinion, it was a breath of fresh air. From the very first pages of the book, you follow a mystery through an intriguing plot. You'll rattle through the pages, which are immersed in a witchy eco-world that is ruled by powerful women. This brings to the forefront a great cast of strong female characters that lead you into a world of myth, magic, love and survival. Saba stands out to me as a great character, gorgeous feisty and strong, she steals Danny's heart which develops into some amazing twists and turns in the book. 

The story has an eclectic mix of elements dealing with the consequences of running out of renewable fuel and a world fighting to survive without modern power. Whilst the fantasy element incorporates witches and magic (not the Harry Potter broomstick type) but a more earthy-type related to folklore and beliefs in spirits, gods, goddesses and their association with the Earth, Sun and Moon. These traditional witches use herbs to cure diseases and, in some cases, hexes and curses to foretell the future. All of this occurs throughout the novel. 

The more that you read, the more you become enchanted by this brilliant story. The magical aspect is ramped up to a great all-action performance. You are treated to a vivid scene that hits you from nowhere, slightly reminiscent of a scene in Bedknobs and Broomsticks, it is very fantastical. Perhaps slightly out of character, but epic just like the ending. I loved it because it was different. I loved it because I was able to escape into this world. I could laugh, love and live an alternate life cleverly built up to leave me with mixed emotions and a feeling of wanting more. 

I would gladly recommend this book to you. It is a great slice of Wicca, a coming of age adventure for the teenage audience and beyond. A great debut start to an author that will blossom into a shining star. It is a powerful tale that will probably stay with you forever....

Published by Quercus (5 Mar. 2015)

Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books: Interview with Anna McKerrow - Crow Moon - Quercus

I would really like to thank Anna McKerrow for taking the time out to write such heartfelt responses to my mixed bag of questions. I hope that they will inspire you and make you inquisitive enough to read a copy of Crow Moon, which will be published by Quercus.


Tell us a little bit about Crow Moon? 
Devon and Cornwall have separated from the rest of the UK and become the Greenworld, an eco-pagan community run by witches. The rest of the country is the Redworld, where crime, corruption and pollution have taken over, and the world is fighting a final war for fuel. Danny, the main character, is a Greenworld kid who thinks the pagan stuff’s all a bit boring until events conspire to draw him into a growing conflict between the witch-led villages and the outlying lawless gangs that live between the green and redworlds. There’s some romance in there too, and lots of magic. Crow Moon is the first book in a trilogy.

Give us an insight into your main character. What does he/she do that is so special? 
Danny’s a kid that’s grown up in a closed community – a good society that reveres the land and natural ways of life, but still one that’s heavy on the propaganda. So he thinks he’s a player but he’s pretty naïve. He’s the son of the village witch but he’s not particularly on-message with the magical ethos of the Greenworld, so he describes his surroundings with a tongue-in-cheek satirical viewpoint. He tells us what we need to know about his environment but we question it a bit along with him. Also, he’s not a stereotypical hero character because he keeps getting rescued by girls. Although his is the point of view narration, the action in the story is driven mostly by a cast of strong female characters.

Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp?
There’s a pro-environmental message in Crow Moon that develops throughout the trilogy, specifically connected to fuel. Danny might point out some of the Greenworld’s flaws and make fun of it a bit, but they’ve basically got the right idea: living off the land, only consuming what you need, respecting nature. 

Do you work to an outline or plot or do you prefer just see where an idea takes you?
I have a general idea when I start, but basically just power along and see what I’ve got after a first draft. I find that just letting myself write freely means I come up with much better ideas than planning too hard. Then when I look at the crazy draft I problem-solve it until it makes sense. 

Do you see writing as a career?
It has been my career, one way or another, for a while now, and I hope it continues! I’ve worked for a literature charity for 7 years, taught creative writing for 8 and I’ve been a writer for a long time. This is my first novel but I’ve published four books of poetry before now. I’m just starting to do some consultancy for writers now too. 

Do you recall how your interest in writing originated? 
No, it was always there. I was a big reader so it was just a natural extension of that. My first story was a blatant rip off of a story I’d read where a character turned purple with rage. So in my story, I think I was about 5 or 6, someone turned yellow with rage. We didn’t have much when I was little but my mum read to me a lot, made sure we went to the library every week, and she bought me books at jumble sales. I still have a beautiful book of Grimm’s Fairy Tales she bought for 10p on my shelf. 

Do you have any advice for other writers?
Just keep going, keep writing, try new genres to write in, read across genres, read everything you can get your hands on. Analyse what makes something good and bad writing, in your opinion, then do that and see what it sounds like in your voice. Write a lot.

Do you think that the cover plays an important part in the buying process?
Yes, definitely. I’m a sucker for a nice cover, and I’ve got a lot of books I bought only because of what they looked like! But also covers don’t matter when you know the author, if you’ve had a recommendation or whatever. My favourite books are battered and mostly unremarkable covers. But a commercial publisher spends a lot of time making sure the cover is eyecatching, appropriate for the age group and that retailers like it before they commit to it.

Would you or do you use a PR agency?
I don’t, and I can’t afford one, so it’s not an issue! It would be nice but not essential for now.
If you could have superpowers, what would they be and why?
Not really a superpower as such, but the resources to be able to ensure that no child went hungry in this country. The world, obviously, but this country would be a start. I’d have a magical ever-refilling foodbasket like in the Grimm’s fairytale, or more realistically, fantastic wealth which could completely fund the Trussell Trust.

Is there anything else that you would like to tell us?
Crow Moon is out from Quercus on March 5th.

Guest Post by Lisa Glass - Blue - Published by Quercus Children’s Books

Writing and surfing: basically the same thing.

Writing, I decided one night, after consuming two Stellas, is a lot like surfing. Nonsense, you might say, writing is nothing like surfing, but you would be wrong. In fact, I would go even further and say that writing is like pro-surfing.

For a start, your friends will be watching your career with great scepticism. Being a pro-surfer, just like being a writer, seems to many people a ludicrous dream. The first time you state your intention of making a living in either of these fields, you will be discouraged and possibly even laughed at. And with good reason: it is very hard to make money out of surfing or writing; lots of people enjoy doing these things, but as a hobby rather than a career, and just who the hell do you think you are? There might be some opportunities to teach these things (surf coach, creative writing tutor) if you’re good enough or know the right people, but the available jobs are few and far between and competition for them is fierce. 

If you do happen to get sponsored/a book deal you will find that there are many critics in the world. Lots of them will be lovely and make excellent points, which you will take on board, but others will make cutting (often hilarious) remarks about your surfing/writing technique, call you all sorts of unpleasant names and beseech you to stop, for the sake of their eyes, which will be bleeding.

You will attend events where the order of business is to promote your brand and sometimes you will be asked to sign books/posters and on a good day you’ll make new friends who will enrich your life and you might even be offered complimentary wine.

In the back of my book, I thank my family for ‘helping me to the surface so many times when I was drowning in the impact zone of modern publishing’. The impact zone in surfing is where the waves break and it can be almost impossible to push through those turbulent waters to the calm of the line-up, which is where surfers wait to catch waves. For a time you have to put up with wave after wave breaking on your head and pushing you backwards, which is sort of how it feels to receive agent and publisher rejections. But, eventually, you’ll either give up and retreat back to shore or reach the line-up where you might just surf the most amazing wave of your life. Or, uh, something.

Lisa Glass is the author of Blue, a YA surf romance published by Quercus Children’s Books, 5 June 2014. 

Twitter: @TheSeaSection 

How To Claim - Surf Sufficient from www.KORDUROY.tv on Vimeo.

Che Golden - The Feral Child - A Dark Faerie Tale Preview

                            

Her curtains were hung on a pole and there was a slight gap between the fabric and the window, enough for her to peer out without touching the curtain, if she pressed her face hard against the wall.
She could feel the cold puff of a draught on her lips and see a sliver of the outside world with her right eye, the pearly glow of the white painted sill and a slice of the velvety dark beyond it. But it was enough. There was someone at her window all right, some one with a long white hand that seemed to have too many joints and yellow, pointed fingernails..."
 “Some thing was scraping the glass, long strokes down the length of the pane that hissed in the quiet of her room. She put a hand on George to get him to be quiet but the dog still kept his black lips peeled back from his teeth as she crawled across the bed to the windowsill.

THE FERAL CHILD is a scary faerie story set in present day Ireland and draws much of its source material from Celtic tales. Orphaned by a car accident, the heroine Maddy finds herself forced to live permanently with her grandparents in Blarney, County Cork. One night a young child goes missing and Maddy discovers a conspiracy of silence amongst the adults. An ancient threat in the grounds of Blarney Castle dominates the tiny village. Furious with the adults around her, Maddy sets off to rescue the missing child with the help of her two cousins.

Part adventure, part horror, THE FERAL CHILD brings ancient Irish faerie tales to life in all their grim glory. But the central theme of the story is one of identity and home. Maddy discovers rescuing others is the easy bit – finding her own way home proves to be much, much harder.
THE FERAL CHILD is an astonishing debut by a major new talent in children’s fantasy. It will be published by Quercus children’s books in January 2012, followed by the second book in the trilogy, THE UNICORN HUNT Autumn 2012 and THE RAVEN QUEEN in 2013.