Sophie Plowden - The Children's Author of the Jack Dash Series - Mr Ripley's Festive Edition Q&A (Catnip)

This is the third festive interview Q&A. I would like to welcome Sophie Plowden, who is the author of the fantastic Jack Dash series. Two brilliant books to date have been fantastically illustrated by Judy Brown, who helps to bring Jack Dash's drawings to life. This series was published by the small and mighty Catnip Publishing Group. If you are looking for funny, action-packed stories for young readers then these are great gifts for this festive time. Fill the Christmas stockings with great books like these this year.  

Welcome Sophie and thank you for taking time to answer some questions. 

What would Jack Dash say about his books this Christmas?

I think he’d probably say that they make the most fantastic presents and you’d have to be leaking brain juice not to buy them.

Jack's magic feather makes whatever he draws come to life. What would he draw to bring Christmas to life?

I’m pretty sure he already did! In ‘Jack Dash and the Summer Blizzard’ he conjures up a snowstorm in the school playground, along with a hundred and eighteen penguins. Penguins make ideal stocking-fillers as they’re the perfect shape.

What makes you laugh?

Misunderstandings and minor injuries.

What can we expect next from Sophie next year?

Jack Dash 3 is coming out in September. I’m still wrestling with the title, but it features a cowboy, a castle and a Cake Off Competition.

Who would you have at a literary New Year dinner party and why? 

Dr Seuss, Lewis Carroll, Louis Sachar and Jane Austen would get along swimmingly. I’d also invite Peter Frankopan because of his Twitter feed and his magnificent name.

What book would you recommend to readers to get them into the winter/festive spirit?

Maurice Sendak’s ‘In the Night Kitchen’ is the lesser-known and distinctly weirder precursor to ‘Where the Wild Things Are.’ It lingers in the head for years because it’s magical, strange and dark.

Everyone loves books as gifts which book would you like to receive or give this Christmas?

I’d love to have the catalogue of Basquiat’s paintings, which are currently on exhibition at the Barbican Centre in London. It’s for this reason, I’m giving it to my husband.

What's the meaning of Christmas for you and your characters?

No school and family arguments – my characters and I are indistinguishable.

Are you any good at building a snowman/woman?

I live in London and there’s rarely enough snow to build anything much. I once managed a small conical structure – a sort of snow parsnip.

www.sophieplowden.co.uk

Mr Ripley's Interview with Sophie Plowden Author of Jack Dash and the Magic Feather

Today I'm very pleased to be interviewing Sophie Plowden who is the author of "Jack Dash and the Magic Feather". I'd like to thank her for agreeing to do this brilliant interview and for taking the time to answer a few questions for Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books. It's a great insight into the story and certainly makes me want to read it.....

Tell us a little bit about Jack Dash and the Magic Feather? 
It’s about a boy who finds a feather quill pen in his bedroom in the attic of his new house. He makes a magical discovery: whatever he draws with his feather comes to life, but the only problem is, he’s not very good at drawing. By mid-morning, he’s created chaos.


Give us an insight into the main character. What does he/she do that is so special? 
Jack is a loner, a fantasist and a hypochondriac, who can always be relied upon to make the wrong decision in a crisis. His speech is peppered with big words and he has no idea what they mean. I’m currently finishing the sequel, so it’s been pretty tiring living with Jack inside my head for the past couple of years, but I’m very fond of him.


How important are names to you in your books? Do you choose the names based on liking the way it sounds or the meaning? Do you have any name choosing resources you recommend? 
I start with the names and the story follows. I have a collection of names, in fact, chosen entirely because of the way they sound. When I find a particularly good one, from the news, on a road sign or off the internet, I file it away in my brain. The original Jack Dash was a British communist and a trade union leader, who championed the rights of London dockers in the 1950s. The town where my story’s set is called Curtly Ambrose, after a West Indian fast bowler. I don’t know anything about cricket, but he was one of the greats, apparently.


Just as your books inspire authors, what authors have inspired you to write? 
I remember discovering a battered copy of Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable in my parents’ bookshelf when I was about nine. I had no idea what it was, but I suspected my parents of practising some sort of literary witchcraft, so I slid it off the shelf and under my duvet for a spot of illicit bedtime reading. It seemed to me to be the most extraordinary book on earth: phrases and fantasies, myths and hearsay, all carefully categorised!

P. G. Wodehouse also provided me with a master class in farce: his sparkling characters survive twists of plot as absurd and elegant as a Pythagorean equation – and all delivered with a straight face. It makes my jaw sag.

What was one of the most surprising things you learned in creating your books? 
I trained as a painter and I’ve realised that painting and writing are remarkably similar. Both a painter’s style and an author’s voice run deep through the psyche. It makes the process painful at times: you have to learn your craft, but you also have to recognise your strengths and embrace them.


What does your writing process look like? 
Ahem. It looks like this. (Well you did ask.)

What’s the earliest memory you have of writing a story? 
I clearly remember writing long and complicated stories throughout primary school, complete with illustrations and devoid of merit.


Where do you get your information or ideas for your books? 
I start by creating the characters and then I deposit them in a situation that will drive the narrative. It’s often a chance remark that sparks my imagination, so I always carry a notebook in order to jot it down. (Last week, I overheard a man on the number 91 bus saying: ‘they’re no good to me now – not as feet anyway’ and I spent the rest of the journey tentatively peering under his seat.) When I’m back home, I drink coffee and pace the room, trying to build my character’s backstory. I ask a lot of personal questions: What do they keep in their fridge? How often do they change their socks? Who would they vote for in a general election? And most importantly: What are they most afraid of? When I’ve answered that one, I rub my hands together, flip my computer open and let them have it.

If you could own one item, that you don't already own now, what would it be?
Easy. A magic feather, of course.

Sophie Plowden is the author of Jack Dash and the Magic Feather (September 2015, Catnip 
Publishing and illustrated by Judy Brown.) Jack Dash and the Summer Blizzard follows in 2016.

Twitter: @sophieplowden