Author Questions
When did you start writing children’s books?
I’ve been writing books all my life, in all different genres, for all different age groups! Some of my favourite books are children’s books, and I also have four children of my own, so I really enjoy writing for the middle-grade age group – that’s ages 8ish to 12ish.
Where do you get your ideas from?
I pick up ideas from all over the place! Sometimes it’s something I overhear, or a funny turn of phrase, and sometimes I notice an unusual person or an interesting picture. Often, I start daydreaming about how nice it would be to do a particular thing. For example, “Imagine if I walked into the kitchen and somebody was already there baking apple crumble!” Or, “What if I could go to the beach just by opening a door in my house!” Then story ideas tumble out one after another.
How can you write a whole book? That’s so many words!
You’re right! If I think about how many words it is, I might never start! So I don’t think about how enormous it’s going to be or how long it’s going to take me. Instead, I think about how excited I am to write the story and see what’s going to happen to all my characters. I write one bit at a time, and for my children’s books I start at the beginning and keep going until I get to the end. (For my grown-up books it’s a bit different, but that’s another story!) Then, when I’ve written a whole draft, I go through it all again and make it better. I might have to go through it lots of times, but I find that bit really fun, because every time I reread a section, it’s an opportunity to make everything better.
Merryshields Questions
Tell me about Merryshields…
It’s only the most magical mansion that ever there was! Merryshields Hall is the new home of Piper, Jack, Willow and Kit, four cousins whose parents have pooled all their money to buy a decrepit, old, enormous mansion. But while the adults are moaning about missing windows, a never-ending global pandemic and how many holes there are in the leaky roof, the children are discovering an endless supply of mysterious happenings in the halls and rooms of Merryshields…
Why did you set this story in lockdown?
I chose to set this story in lockdown because it’s something that every child experienced. The grown-ups couldn’t make lockdown or the pandemic go away in real life, so I decided to create an imaginary world where, even though the children were still unable to go anywhere, their lives were filled with magic. As well as this, it’s a reminder that no matter what is going in real life, we can always use our imaginations to escape, to dream, and to find different ways of thinking about things.
Where is Merryshields?
Merryshields is somewhere in Northumberland, in the north-east of England. The weather is hot in the summer (hot for England, anyway, which is sometimes very hot indeed) and snowy in the winter. In spring it is fresh and bright and green, and in autumn it’s crisp and cool and orange, and in all seasons there is a good chance of rain!
If you could have a room in Merryshields, what would it be like?
One of my favourite things to imagine is what a room would be like in Merryshields that was perfectly designed for me. What would it look like? Where in the house would it be? What kinds of magic would I find there? One magic that I dream of is definitely a cup that refills with whatever hot drink I want…
I’m pretty sure there’d be a LOT of books. Any room that I designed would have to have space for a lot of books. No matter how hard I try, I just can’t stop collecting them, and even with things like Kindle to keep ebooks on, there’s something just too lovely about actual, real, hold-in-your-hands books that I can’t imagine living without. So I’m pretty sure there’d be a lot of books, of all different shapes and sizes.
What would be in YOUR perfect magical room?
Let me know – I’d love to hear all about it!
What about the island in the attic?
This might be what the cousins see when they open that door in the attic – a long stretch of golden sand curving away ahead of them, with the turquoise sea lapping gently on the right. This is not a picture of the island in Merryshields – nobody has a photo of that island, since none of the children took a camera with them – but this gives us a bit of an idea. This is Bora Bora, but I think the soft golden sand and the palm trees might be very familiar to our pirates…
The two friendly pirates on the island have been trapped there for a long, long time, surviving on fish and coconuts. Did you know that coconuts are this orangey-yellow colour before they turn brown and hairy? I didn’t.
Is there another Merryshields book coming?
Yes! It’s currently being edited, and will be out very soon. This time the children are going to have adventures with paintings, geese, and a mysterious Librarian…
Kingdom Of Birds Questions
Is Kingdom Of Birds set in a real place?
No. The Kingdom Of Birds is a fantasy island, where we meet a princess who wants more adventure, a boy who’s the son of the Dragoner, and a whole group of dragons who inhabit the hidden northern shores.
Why did you decide to write about dragons?
Dragons are amazing! There are so many cool things to imagine when you are writing about dragons. I loved imagining what each dragon might be like, what their habits could be, their colours and wingspans… I nearly got completely distracted by writing the big, old Dragon Book that Haydn and his father have been filling in, with all the details of all the dragons they’ve ever seen…
Why is it called Kingdom Of Birds, if the story is about dragons?
The dragons are real animals that live on the island, and have an important part to play. The birds are part of the magical, mysterious part of the island, that not everybody knows about or believes in. The Kingdom is named after the ancient bird-god and bird-goddesses that nobody really remembers about, but who are going to be very important to our main characters, Haydn and Princess Elfridie…
Do you have a talking dog?
I wish! I decided that if I couldn’t have a talking animal of my own, I would write some for my characters instead. Wouldn’t it be amazing to have an animal companion that you could understand? Imagine if your pet could speak to you. What do you think its voice would be like? What would it want to say to you? There would definitely be a big difference between how our old dog would talk to me, and all the things our young dog would like to say!
Merryshields 