One of the greatest pleasures of writing adventure books set in the Scottish countryside is researching locations: up hills, on beaches, and in lots of beautiful bits of Scotland.

But I don’t just go for a wander somewhere pretty! I visit potential locations to find out what’s there, but also to imagine what isn’t…

For the Fabled Beast series, I mostly researched locations I already knew from family holidays, like the Ring of Brodgar and Dunvegan Castle, or well-known tourist locations that were easy to find on the map, like Smoo Cave and Dunadd fort.

For the Spellchasers trilogy, I revisited woods and rivers and hills and moors that I knew from my Speyside childhood, and looked at them with a writer’s eyes, which was a slightly odd experience.

However, for my new series (which doesn’t have a name yet, and I can’t give away any spoilers – mostly because I’m not sure what happens in the end myself…) I’m mostly setting the action in places I’ve never been before, and often choosing to visit places that aren’t well-known, and aren’t always marked on a map…

So I might think: I want to defeat this monster, where could we do that? And after a bit of research I find an ancient poem hinting at a mysterious weapon used at a real historical battle, and decide to visit the site of the battle…

Or I might think: I want to write about that magical creature, where might she live? I know, perhaps she lives near the childhood home of my favourite folklorist…

Or I might say: I love that really obscure fairy tale, I wonder if I can find the (non-existent, magical) hill that fits the story?

So it’s like magical geographical detective work, with a fair bit of research and map-reading before I go. And when I get there, even if I can find the right location, it’s never exactly how I’d imagined it…

I’m discovering lots of bits of Scotland I didn’t know very well before, and lots of potential locations with historical or folklore connections which I think will be really exciting to write about.

Because that’s the point – I do all this research in order to write the best story I can. I visit all these places hoping to imagine new ways to use magic and ambushes and battles and surprises. I sit on rocks or walls or tree stumps, letting the landscape suggest new and exciting ‘what happens nexts’ for me to write, and new and challenging questions for me and my characters to answer.

I don’t tend to take photos of locations, because I reckon that if I can’t find the words to describe them when I’m actually standing there, I’m not going to be able to do it when I’m sitting at my desk looking at a photo.

But my very helpful location research quest team member and driver sometimes takes pictures of me while I’m scribbling:

Me on a very wet beach in Skye. I bought a waterproof notebook after this research trip.

Me on a windy rainy hilltop in Annandale. (Having foolishly left the new waterproof notebook in the car, at the bottom of the hill.)

My temporary desk on a sunny day in Angus. I remembered the waterproof notebook (that’s it on top of the OS map) but didn’t need it…

But it’s not just about the where, it’s also about the when.

It’s all about the right time of year. I often visit a location at completely the wrong time of year, because I’m writing it at the wrong time of year… The book I’m writing right now is set in early July, ie right NOW, but I’ve been writing it since the start of the year and will be writing it until the end of year. However, I’m trying to do as much of the location research as possible at exactly the right time.

And just as well. I first visited the place my baddie lives before Easter, and noticed that all the stone walls my main character would have to climb over in order to sneak up on the baddie’s lair were overgrown with brambles, so I wrote a very thorn-based scene. I went back last week, to check a few other things, and the three months of sun and rain and growth meant that while there were still brambles, they were barely visible past nettles, sticky willies, rosebay willowherb, and these lovely wild roses. So if I had written what I’d seen in March, as if that’s what my character experienced in July, I would have been horribly wrong… The landscape itself may not change from month to month but the vegetation does, and if you are on foot tracking a monster, that’s quite important!

But fitting all this research into the few days when the story happens, means that I have to research the scenes in the wrong order. One day this week, I spent the morning researching the location for the battle at the end of the book, then in the afternoon, I visited the village where the main character first meets the baddie, a scene which happens several days and many chapters before that battle. It’s a bit like time travel…

But it’s great fun, and I hope it means that my stories feel real and convincing to anyone who is familiar with the locations of my battles and quests. Also I’m sure that I come up with original and spontaneous ideas when I’m standing on rainy beaches and windy hilltops that I would never imagine sitting at my calm dry desk…

So, now I have lots of inspiration. All I have to do is write down all the ideas. In roughly the right order…

I hope you have a great summer, finding locations for your own adventures!

And here is a bonus baby roe deer that I met while researching last week. (At least, I think it’s a roe deer – happy to be corrected!)

I love winter. I love frost-patterned windows, ice-rimmed leaves, brisk cold air, seeing my breath ahead of me, and wearing hats and gloves and scarves. I’m definitely a winter person rather than a summer person.

My love of winter inspires my books. For example, I’ve written a collection of winter tales from around the world, with lovely crisp silhouette illustrations by Francesca Greenwood.

I loved researching this book, and discovering how winter is viewed in different cultures. In some (colder) parts of the world, winter is the baddie, killing the friendly warmth of summer; in other (hotter) areas, winter is the goodie, saving people from the vicious heat of summer. Also I got to retell stories about wolves, polar bears, eagles, reindeer, trolls, and the only really positive story I ever tell about spiders.

Winter inspires my fiction too: I’ve set a couple of my Scottish adventure novels in cold Scottish winters.

First Aid for Fairies is set around the winter solstice, though in keeping with my experience of most Scottish Decembers, the weather during Helen’s first adventure with the Fabled Beasts is cold and wet (including raining on one of Helen’s violins!) but not actually snowy.

The final book of the Spellchasers trilogy, The Witch’s Guide to Magical Combat, is set in February, which is often colder than December, so I wrote a fight scene set in a blizzard, with sharp snowflakes used as weapons again Molly, Innes and their friends. And this book has a beautiful icy blue cover!

Even though my other novels are set in spring, summer and autumn, I often do my location research in the winter, during the Christmas or February holidays.

So when I was researching Storm Singing (which is set in the autumn) I was trapped in the snow on a steep road in Sutherland. And when I was researching Maze Running (set in spring) I was nearly blown off a cliff during a winter storm, and I dragged my kids up a hill on a freezing cold Christmas Eve to time how long it took a flower to float down seven waterfalls. (They have never entirely forgiven me…) So when I reread those books, I’m always reminded of winter!

Of course the best thing about winter isn’t the weather outside, it’s curling up inside, with a warm blanket and perhaps a purring cat and a hot drink, to read a shiny new book. I hope to do lots of warm reading this winter.

But I will also be researching and writing more books over the winter months. And I’ve just realised that my  current books are set in spring, summer and autumn. It’s definitely time to come up with some new wintry story ideas!

It’s exactly 10 years today since the launch of my first novel First Aid for Fairies and Other Fabled Beasts.

It’s very odd to realise that I’ve been now a published author for 10 years; that writing has been my job for 10 years; that I’ve been turning up at book festivals and schools to talk about writing, as if I knew what I was doing, for 10 years.

It’s even odder to realise that, nowadays, I am often talking to readers who weren’t BORN when my first book was published!

The launch of First Aid for Fairies 10 years ago was the start of my journey as a children’s writer. And what a journey! Not just for me, but for the book too. It has had three covers, over 10 years!

cover artists: Amanda Sinclair, Maria Perez Sanz, Manuel Sumberac

Which cover is your favourite?  For a long time (even after the new covers came out) mine was the second one – the green one with the silhouettes – but now I think I like the magic of the most recent cover best.

When First Aid for Fairies was first published, with the hairy paw and pink fairy on the cover, I had no idea that it would be popular enough for long enough to justify other covers, nor that there would ever be any other books beside it on the shelf.  I did hope to have other books published, but I knew nothing was guaranteed in publishing. However, the first book did well (won the Scottish Children’s Book Award, sold a respectable number of copies) and readers wanted to know what the characters did next, so I wrote another one – Wolf Notes – which raised a few questions that I wanted to answer in more books, so I wrote a third then a fourth. So that first novel become my first series: The Fabled Beast Chronicles.

The third book also prompted a question about the magic of curses, which led to the Spellchasers trilogy. The contacts I made while promoting the first novels led to contracts with other publishers. The research I did into folklore, myths and legends in order to write the novels led to retellings and collections. And the fact that I was now spending all day (and most nights) thinking about stories, some of which didn’t fit the same age group as First Aid, meant I started to experiment with picture books and YA. So over the past 10 years I have published 29 other books…

And it was First Aid for Fairies that started it all, exactly 10 years ago.

That book launch was the start of me becoming a freelance writer, the start of all the school events, book festivals, award ceremonies, tours, workshops, blog posts and an endless cycle of deadlines.

First Aid for Fairies and Other Fabled Beasts was the start of a pile of novels with ridiculously long titles.

But most of all, it was the start of me having the wonderful freedom to lose myself in adventures every single day, and call it work. If I hadn’t written about Helen and Yann, I might never have written about Molly and Beth or Pearl and Thomas or Ciaran and Lucy (or indeed the characters I’m writing about now, who may or may not be called Ailsa and Ninian…)

I have learnt a great deal over the last 10 years, about writing and about being a writer (those are two different things), but I also feel that I don’t yet know nearly enough. So I will keep learning, and keep writing. It’s been 10 years, and I’m still making it up as I go along…

I love every single one of my books; I have challenged myself and stretched myself in different ways for each book I’ve written. But only one book can be my first book. Only one book can be the one that started it all.

So today I want to remember the glorious moment that I had the idea for First Aid for Fairies and Other Fabled Beasts (ooh, what about a vet who only treats magical creatures… or, no, make it a vet’s daughter, and what magical creatures would she treat, and what injuries would they have, and what adventures might they have been on to get those injuries… ) and the joy of discovering as I wrote that this was an idea with enough strength to support a novel (then a series) and the amazing moment that a publisher agreed to publish it (after it had lost a competition), and the nervous excitement of standing up in front of all my friends and family to launch it. Exactly 10 years ago!

And today I want to thank Helen the violinist, Yann the centaur, Rona the selkie, Lavender the flower fairy, Sapphire the dragon, Catesby the phoenix and the Master of the Maze, for setting me on this fantastic path.

Also, I want to thank the wonderful Floris Books, who published my first book 10 years ago, and will be publishing my 31^st book in 10 days’ time. (And perhaps more in the future…?) And thanks to my agent Lindsey Fraser, who had faith in Helen’s story before anyone else read it, and who has given me wise advice to keep the stories flowing ever since. Also, thanks to all the booksellers, librarians, teachers, book festival organisers, Scottish Book Trust magicians and everyone else who has put First Aid for Fairies in front of kids for the last 10 years. And of course – thanks to all the readers whose enthusiasm about the Fabled Beasts’ adventures gives me the energy to keep writing. (With all those thanks, this post is starting to sound like a speech at a launch party!)

How will I celebrate today? I could bake a cake, and put 10 candles on it. I could sit on the couch and reread Helen’s first encounter with a centaur. Or I could get on with the job I’ve had for 10 years, and just write the next chapter of the next novel…  Guess which of those I’m most likely to do?

I ask my characters difficult questions all the time: ‘how are you going to get out of this trap, how are you going to defeat this monster, who do you trust, what kind of magic user do you want to be…?’ So I thought it would only be fair to let the main Spellchasers characters ask me a couple of awkward questions in return.

(nb – I’ve tried not to give away too many spoilers, but if you don’t like to know too much about a book before you read it, you should probably read the Spellchasers trilogy before you read this post)

Molly

Q – Why did you choose to turn me into a small vulnerable hare?
A – Hares are beautiful, fast and very hard to catch. Also, there are lots of old stories from the north of Scotland about women transforming into hares, so it felt authentic. Finally, the witch who cursed you was obsessed with dogs, so it made sense for him to turn you into something that dogs like to chase. Is there an animal you’d have preferred to be? Mouse, snake, goat, worm, perhaps?

Q – Why did Beth dislike me so much when she first met me?
A – She was afraid you would slow the curse-lifting workshop down, and prevent her lifting her own curse. She has never really trusted humans, because humans can be very damaging to trees. Also, to be honest, Beth can be quite grumpy at times. I suspect she doesn’t make friends easily. (Just ask Snib…)

Innes

Q – Why are you so negative about kelpies eating their natural diet of human beings?
A – Because I’m a human being, and so are all my family and friends who live near your rivers! (Here, have a biscuit…)

Q – Am I the hero of this story? I’m the best warrior, so I should be the hero!
A – It’s Molly’s story… And you all work as a team (some of the time, anyway) so it’s not about one of you being more of the hero than anyone else. But you all get to be the heroes and heroines of your own subplots and your own part of the huge battle at the end.

Q – Do I ever get to beat Molly in a race?
A – Probably not! Perhaps the only way you’ll ever beat her is to see if she can shapeshift into a horse, and race as exactly the same animals. Or you could challenge her to an underwater race?

Beth

Q – Why are you so obsessed with dark magic, and with characters who use dark magic?
A – Probably because stories with a little bit of darkness are more exciting, to read and to write. And because you get so upset about dark magic, which is also fun to write…

Q – You feel sympathy for the witch who burnt my trees, don’t you? How dare you take her side rather than mine?
A – Yes I do. She was tortured and executed in a genuinely horrible way, and her curse on your trees was a panicked reaction to that. I don’t think she did the right thing, but I do feel sympathy for her and the circumstances under which she did it. The true history of how people accused of being witches (people who weren’t really magical at all) were treated in Scotland hundreds of years ago is really nasty and distressing, and I couldn’t write a trilogy about witches without recognising that. So, yes, I do feel sympathy for Meg Widdershins. But I’m not taking one side or the other, I’m trying to see both sides. Something which you very rarely do, Beth…

Atacama

Q – Why do I have a job, when all my friends get to go to school and take holidays?
A – Oh, sorry! I wanted you to have a connection with riddles (because I love riddles!) and guarding a door to somewhere important, using a riddle as the password, made sense for your character and for the wider story. And I didn’t think you’d be guarding a door as a hobby, so I had to make it your job. Which I know meant you had to dash off to work quite a lot. Sorry. But I did give you a few catnaps as well. And as for not going to school – you have much more magical knowledge than either Innes or Beth, so you must be doing a lot of reading!

Q – And why do I work at a distillery?
A – Because I grew up in a house beside a distillery, and saw pyramids of casks every day when I was young. So when I needed somewhere that felt right for a sphinx in Speyside, I decided that you and your family would be guarding a door beside my own local pyramids…

The toad / Theo

Q – Innes shifts into an elegant powerful horse; I transform into a clumsy warty toad. That doesn’t seem fair.
A – Kelpies have evolved to take on shapes that lure humans to the water, so their out-of-water forms have to be attractive. You were cursed to become a toad, so your form was meant to be insulting to you. Also, Innes has tentacles when he’s under the water, therefore he’s not elegant all the time!

Q – Why do you keep denying me the chance to use my full magical powers?
A – Partly because you have the potential to be so powerful that if you had your full powers right from the start you would probably defeat the baddies and shut the story down too fast. And partly because you are more interesting as a character and more fun to write when you are having problems. And honestly, I didn’t want to unleash your full powers until the battle at the very end.

Snib

Q – I joined the story really late, so am I a member of the Spellchasers team or not? I don’t get my symbol on the cover.
A – I think you have to decide that for yourself, and work out whether you can really be friends with people if you don’t tell them the truth about what you are doing…

Q – Why are you so cruel to your characters? You always take away the thing that means the most to them, like my wings.
A – Am I cruel? I suppose I am. I took your flight, Atacama’s riddle, and Theo’s power… But if I hadn’t taken something you really care about, you wouldn’t have a reason to go on dangerous adventures and face difficult obstacles to get it back. And I needed you to do that so I could write an exciting story. If I am cruel to my characters, if I take something you love and force you to take risks to get it back (and yes I realise that is horrible, sorry), then at least you know it’s all for the story and the readers…

A shorter version of this post was put up on the Discover Kelpies website during the Spellchasers blog tour in October, and some of the additional questions above came from our request for even trickier questions! I’d be happy to add more awkward questions if you want to suggest any! Possibly a few questions from the baddies?

(And if you liked these awkward questions from the Spellchasers characters, you might enjoy this set of difficult questions from Helen, Yann and the other Fabled Beast characters)

The final book in the Spellchasers trilogy has now gone to the printers. I can’t make changes to it, ever again. I can’t change the little things, like commas, and I can’t change the big things, like who wins the battle at the end. The book is finished. It’s not mine any more, it’s very nearly yours instead.

(The Witch’s Guide to Magical Combat is published in mid-August, and if you want to hear me chat about it before it’s even in the shops, come and see me on the first day of the Edinburgh Book Festival. And if you want a really early copy, check out this competition.)

So, how do I feel right now? Now that I’ve said goodbye to Molly, Innes, Beth, Atacama, Theo, Corbie, Mrs Sharpe, Estelle and Snib…

I feel sad. This trilogy has contained lots of my favourite characters, and lots of my favourite magic, chases, and fights. I might never write about Molly, her friends and her enemies again. I’ll read the books out loud at author events, but I won’t be able to change the outcome, or tweak the dialogue, or suddenly change my mind about a moment of magic. So, saying goodbye after years of writing this trilogy is sad.

But I also feel relieved. Writing a trilogy has been a huge challenge, much harder than anything I’ve ever written before. and I got to the end! And I think it worked! (Though honestly, I won’t know if it really has worked until I hear from readers…)

And I’m exhausted. Writing three novels containing four stories (one story per book, and one story arching over the whole trilogy) has been extremely tiring. I’ve had to hold the whole story – more than 150,000 words – in my head at once, which hasn’t left much space for anything else! And publishing the books at six monthly intervals has been an interesting and energy-sapping experience…

But I’m also excited! I’m excited because I want to know what you think about how I decided (or how Molly decided) to end the story. I want to know what you think about the new characters I introduce in Witch’s Guide. I want to know what you think of the biggest battle I’ve even written. (Actually, maybe I’m nervous about all of that, rather than excited…)

But there’s something else I am genuinely excited about:

What’s next?

This trilogy has been the main story in my idea for years. For YEARS. And now it’s finished. So, what will I write next?

That’s not an easy question to answer. I’ve spent more than 4 years writing and editing the trilogy. I’ve never spent less than a year on a novel. So whatever I decide to write next will be a huge chunk out of my life. And whatever story I decide to write next, that decision will mean not writing lots of other ideas. So it’s a very hard decision to make.

not an ad for a stationery shop – all the notebooks I’m scribbling ideas in right now

I have lots of ideas for novels. Some of those ideas arrived in my head years ago, and have been waiting patiently for me to finish the Spellchasers trilogy. At least one idea arrived while I was editing Spellchasers (just like the idea of a curse-lifting workshop rose out of a subplot in the Fabled Beast Chronicles). And I’m planning to allow myself a few months free of deadlines, in order to simply read and think and play with ideas, so perhaps the perfect idea hasn’t yet arrived in my head.

There are lots of things I love about writing (and this bit – finishing a story, and passing it on to readers – is one of the best bits.) But my favourite thing of all is the process of an idea coming to life: a story starting to grow and develop and spark and bounce and fill my head. The first few pages of a new book, the first few lines in a new character’s voice. The first time I see the journey ahead, the paths that this new story could take me down. I love finishing books, but I love starting new ones even more.

So ‘what’s next?’ is never an easy question. But it is the most exciting one.

Ultimately, I always end up writing the story that demands to be written, about the characters who just won’t leave me alone. So, I think I’m going to sit quietly now, and listen, and find out what story is shouting the most interesting questions in the loudest and most intriguing voices…

In the meantime, if you want a chance to read Witch’s Guide before anyone else, here’s a competition to win an early copy.

‘Where do you get your ideas from?’ I’m asked that question at almost every author event. It’s a great question, but there’s no quick easy answer!

My ideas don’t come from a place. I don’t think it’s possible to draw a map of where ideas come from. Maybe we need a history of ideas, rather a geography of ideas? Because I can tell you the history of the Spellchasers idea coming to life in my head…

All stories start with a spark of an idea, usually a ‘what if…?’

But Molly’s story started with three different sparks, at three different times. Which is probably appropriate for a trilogy!

The first spark arrived when I was writing the third novel in the Fabled Beast Chronicles. That must have been in 2010 or 2011 – 6 or even 7 years ago. One of the new characters in Storm Singing was a mermaid called Serena. I had lots of fun writing her, partly because I was never entirely sure whether I liked her or not. And Serena was cursed. She was taking part in the same Sea Herald contest as my main character Rona, because she thought winning would help her to lift the curse on all mermaids. And one little line of Serena’s dialogue made me think about whether there was a right and wrong way to lift a curse, ie whether there were rules of curse-lifting, and I wondered if there was a story in that.

But I was still in the middle of editing Storm Singing and I knew there was another Fabled Beast Chronicles book to come, so I just scribbled the thought down and put it to one side.

So that was a wee spark, about the rules of curse-lifting. And it sat in my head for a while.

Then there was the moment that the story arrived. That wasn’t a spark, that was a firework, exploding in my head. I still remember how it felt.

It was in January, 2012, so just over 5 years ago. I was meant to be doing my tax return, but that’s really boring, so instead, I was having fun typing up a list of possible future book ideas. I found the little note I’d made about Serena’s curse, and I started to add it to the list, but as I typed, the sentence about rules of lifting curses became a question about ‘what if…?’ ‘What if there was a workshop about lifting curses, and what if lots of young cursed fabled beasts met on that workshop… ?’ And suddenly I wasn’t typing a list of possible future books, I was typing characters and curses. Then I started to see and hear what I thought might be the first scene, in a room with desks, and they were all snarking at each other and arguing about curses…

This is a blog post I wrote that day, showing just how excited I was… Rereading the post now is quite odd – I can still remember that physical sense of a story coming to life in my whole body, not just my head. (Also notice how I carefully didn’t give anything away about the details of the idea!)

So that was the point when I knew that this idea was strong enough to be a book.

But I was still finishing the Fabled Beast series and I knew I wanted to write Mind Blind next. So I put this idea to the side again. But I was really excited about it, and I was sure it was one I was going to write very very soon. However, at that point, the idea was based around a mermaid, not a hare. So it still wasn’t Molly’s story.

And then, the third spark:

In 2013, so almost 4 years ago, someone asked me to write a very short story about winter, to publicise a book of winter stories I was launching. The first image that came to mind for a winter tale was a hare’s pawprints in the snow. So I wrote a page about running like a hare, about being chased as a hare. And as I wrote, I knew this wasn’t a real hare, it was a person who had become a hare.That was when I knew who my main character was, and what her curse was. And I knew this book was no longer about a mermaid, which I’d honestly never been convinced about, it was about a human girl transformed into a hare.

That was also when I knew that I had to write this book as soon as I could. In fact, I never sent the winter hare story (I wrote something else about paper snow) because I knew this character’s adventure wasn’t a short story, it was a novel.

But soon, it wasn’t even a novel, because once I went on the curse-lifting workshop with Molly and the others, there was so much story, so much magic, so many questions to answer, that it become a trilogy.

And now you can read the trilogy (well, the first two parts anyway!)

So that, as far as I can remember it, is the history of how the idea for the Spellchasers trilogy arrived in my head and grew into the story I started to write. But it’s still not a complete answer to the ‘where do you get your ideas from?’ question, because every other novel idea has arrived in a completely different way!

Though one common factor is noticing the ideas when they arrive, and remembering to write them down. And the other common factor seems to be that writing stories (or even lists) gives me ideas for other stories! So that’s not a ‘where’, that’s a ‘when’ and a ‘how’ and maybe even a ‘why’…

Tom and Beth of the Scottish Book Trust’s events team

I’m just back from a week-long tour of Northern Ireland – the Scottish Friendly Children’s Book Tour, organised by the wonderful Beth and Tom of the Scottish Book Trust, with the help of Book Trust Northern Ireland. And I had a brilliant time!

I visited pupils from 13 different schools, in ten different events, ie two events a day from Monday to Friday. I read scenes from the first and sometimes the second Spellchasers books, and occasionally a bit of a Fabled Beast Chronicle too. I also chatted about how stories worked, and told a myth, legend or folktale in every school as well. I had a wonderful time in each school, and I can (almost) remember what we did in each session:

Holy Child Primary and St John’s Primary in Derry: our first school, so I took a risk and told a story about an Irish Celtic hero visiting Scotland. I got away with it, though it turns out I’ve been pronouncing Cuchullin wrong all these years…

Hollybush Primary in Culmore: This time I told a Scottish folktale, one I tell at home all the time, but it felt quite strange taking a Scottish story across the sea, almost like being an ambassador for Scottish trad tales!  Also, it turns out that they don’t call potatoes ‘tatties’ in Northern Ireland…

St Joseph’s Primary in Dunloy: Their hall had a very echoey wooden floor and I was wearing very clunky boots, so after consulting the P4s (always wise people to consult) I took my boots off and did the whole session in my socks. I told a Viking myth, which meant that I got to be Loki in stocking soles and sneak around like a real god of mischief.

St Patrick’s Primary in Glenariff: they were reading Wolf Notes, and the hall was filled with wonderful pictures of wolves! (And centaurs…) Also, a pupil called Molly was our guide round the school, and she was remarkably relaxed about how badly I treat the Molly in Spellchasers…

St Comgall’s Primary in Antrim: This session started with a witch chasing a phoenix, and ended with an amazing Q&A session in which a P6 girl asked a question that I’ve never been asked before, and as I thought my way round an answer I found myself having an idea for a new novel while standing in front of 290 primary pupils…

Phoenix Integrated Primary in Cookstown and St Patrick’s Primary from Monymore:  I couldn’t help myself. I was in a school called PHOENIX Primary, so I chatted to them about Catesby, the phoenix in Fabled Beast Chronicles, and we also come up with lots of exciting cliffhangers, not all of them about fiery birds!

Carrick Primary in Lurgan: The Carrick pupils created a story by trapping a tiger in a cage, but the tiger kept (almost) escaping. It was a relief that we reached the end of the story without anyone in the school getting eaten!  Then, inspired by their tiger trapping, I told them a Hindu myth.

Templepatrick Primary and St Joesph’s Primary, Ballyclare: this was our biggest audience, with more than 300 children in one hall.  They were incredibly well behaved and listened to each other’s ideas and questions so politely! We invented a chase in which a werewolf was trying to eat a rainbow elf. Did the elf get away safely? That’s the cliffhanger…

Lisburn Central Primary, Lisburn: I met some very imaginative pupils, who invented some great cliffhangers, and also come up with some very positive and cheerful endings for my favourite (but usually quite tragic) Viking myth.

And finally

St Mary’s Star of the Sea, Belfast: the very last school, with a very lovely warm welcome. (They brought us chocolate biscuits before we started…) It got a bit more dangerous once we started talking about stories, because we trapped a fairy godmother in a cave. With sharks.  But it all ended happily, just like the tour!

I was asked wonderful questions in every single school. I can’t remember them all, because I concentrate on answering the questions, not scribbling them down.  But I do remember the one which prompted a novel idea.  And I’ll never forget the one which stumped me completely.  Someone in the front row in St Patrick’s on Tuesday asked me:

‘If you had to kill one of Helen or Molly, who would you kill?’

I did try, but I just couldn’t answer it.  So I wimped out and said I’d fight whichever baddie wanted me to make that choice, in order to give both my heroines time to get away…

The ten school events were the highlights of the tour, but we managed a few out-of-school highlights too:

Beth, Tom and I visited the Giant’s Causeway one evening as the sun went down.

And I found a 1000 year old fort, all grown over with grass, on a night-time walk in a town called Moira, and scrambled over it in the dark and the rain. (That prompted a few story ideas too.)

I must say that the Scottish Book Trust team were fantastic.  Beth and Tom were extremely efficient and well organised, and looked after me very well (except when they took me to Dangerous Places) but they were also fun to spend 6 days with. We played several very serious games (or perhaps very silly games which we took very seriously) in the car. They taught me games involving actual horses and imaginary thimbles and I taught them one involving yellow cars.

They drove me around in a big car (small van?) which left Edinburgh full of boxes of books, and by the time we headed home was almost empty. Which I’m sure will make my publishers happy.

But the best thing about the van was the squirrel on the bonnet, and various other wonderful Scottish animals reading books painted on the sides – all created by the illustrator Sarah Macintyre. It was a lovely cheerful vehicle in which to visit all these villages, towns and cities.

And driving between the schools was wonderful, because Northern Ireland is very beautiful. It has lots of green fields and hills, but also dramatic glens and rocky coastlines.

It was a privilege to share stories with all those imaginative Northern Irish pupils, and to visit all their lovely welcoming schools. Thanks so much to everyone who put the tour together and who made it such a wonderful experience!

I love riddles! And I don’t try to hide my love of riddles: I’ve put riddles in every single one of my novels so far…

I shamelessly used the Halloween guising scene in Mind Blind to slip in one of my favourite short riddles.

You to look at bit sideyways to find the riddle in Rocking Horse War.

But riddles are an essential part of the plot of the Fabled Beast Chronicles, with the task of solving or matching riddles of some kind  in every single one of Helen’s adventures.

And riddles are an even more important part of the Spellchasers trilogy, because they are an essential part of the life, job and self-image of one of the most important Spellchaser’s characters: Atacama the sphinx.

I slip riddle tales into my folklore and legend collections too, like the Russian girl who solves the Tsar’s riddles in Horse of Fire, and Odin putting on a silly hat to solve a king’s riddles in Dragon’s Hoard…

Where do all these riddles come from?  In the folktale and legend retellings, I often use or adapt the original riddles. But for the novels, I always write original riddles. I could probably add riddle-writing to my CV now, I’ve written so many…

But why do I write them? There are so many fantastic riddles out there (I know because kids often bamboozle me with ones I haven’t heard!) so why do I make up new riddles?

Because the riddles need to fit the story. Sometimes the answers are linked to the plot, sometimes the riddles are designed to allow the characters (usually Innes…) to argue about the answers. Also, I want to surprise readers, rather than give them a riddle they might already know.

Also, honestly, I like inventing new riddles. There’s a satisfaction to it, an elegance and a logic that you usually only get with numbers.  I sometimes call it maths with words – two of my favourite things together!  (Yes, I love maths. I did maths at university. I love algebra and circles and straight lines and triangles and problem-solving… ) Also, one of my daughters is a riddle-master, and sometimes we collaborate on the riddles, which is great fun.

But I don’t just write riddles for books. Last autumn I wrote five new riddles for The Beginner’s Guide to Curses launch, and was very impressed at how fast all the young adventure fans answered them.

And now I’ve written three more riddles (with the help of Atacama, of course) for a competition run by my publishers to win a signed copy of the next Spellchasers novel: The Shapeshifters Guide to Running Away.

I wonder if you can answer them? Good luck…

(I might be doing a few riddle-writing workshops once Shapeshifter’s Guide is published, so keep an eye on my diary if you want to learn my riddle-writing secrets!)

Why do we love Vikings? Why are Viking–themed festivals, parties and superheroes so successful? Why are we almost as familiar with the Viking gods as we are with the Greek pantheon?

What is it about Vikings?

Is it the swords? The beards? The dragon-prowed longships? The helmets? (No horns please, if you want to be historically accurate.)

Or is it the stories?

I think it’s the stories.

I think Viking myths and legends contain some of the best, most exciting, most vivid, most original plots in the whole world of stories. (For example, Viking gods can die. That’s higher stakes than any Greek myth!)

I love Norse and Viking stories. I tell them as often as I can. Two of my favourite stories to tell to a hall full of 10 year olds are myths about the Viking gods: the story of Fenrir the world-destroying wolf, and the story of the sun god Baldur. I also love telling the stories of when Thor met the Midgard serpent, and when Ragnar Lodbrok met a pet dragon… I love Norse stories!

But I don’t just tell them out loud. I’ve written down some of my favourites in collections of myths and legends: Ragnar and Baldur both appear in Winter’s Tales. The Viking warrior Hervor and her cursed sword appear in Girls Goddesses and Giants. Loki gets into trouble in my shapeshifters collection Serpents & Werewolves.

Viking stories inspire my own fiction too. The entire plot of my final Fabled Beasts adventure, Maze Running, was inspired by one small moment in Baldur’s story.

So, I’ve been playing with, being inspired by, and retelling Viking stories for years.

But I haven’t done a whole book about Vikings before. Until now! Here it is, The Dragon’s Hoard:

Isn’t it lovely?

And here’s how I finally got round to writing a book about Vikings:

I was chatting to Cate James, who illustrated the gorgeous collection of Scottish stories Breaking the Spell, when we were both appearing at the Wigtown Book Festival three years ago. We were keen to work together again, so we started brainstorming ideas. We came up with quite a few fun ideas (I hope they will all happen eventually!) One of our favourites was inspired by the fact that I had written a ‘Vikings invading Scotland’ story for Breaking the Spell, but it hadn’t made it into the final book (partly because it was a bit violent, but mainly because it was historical not magical so didn’t really fit with the other stories.)

I’d found that particular story, about the Earl of Orkney fighting a duel with the chief of Moray, in the Orkneyinga saga. The saga tale has the invading earl as the hero, but because I’m from Moray, I’ve always told it to kids from the other point of view, with the Moray warriors as heroes.

So I mentioned to Cate, over a cup of tea in Wigtown, that I was fairly sure there must be other excellent stories in the sagas, some of which might even be suitable for children. And it turns out that men with swords and scary monsters are two of Cate’s favourite things to draw, so we decided that I would look for a few more interesting saga tales, then we’d pitch the idea to our Breaking The Spell editor.

And I found SO MANY BRILLIANT STORES! Most of which I had never come across, even though I’ve been a fan of Norse and Viking stories for years.

When I put together a list of saga stories about swan warriors, dragons, riddles, saints, explorers, polar bears and zombies, the editor said YES!

So I spent months researching the Viking sagas to find the strongest stories, and Cate did lots of research into clothing, buildings, ships, weapons and helmets. (No horns!)

I found dozens of wonderful stories. Some of which were just too gory, bloody, vicious, nasty and revenge-driven for me to want to tell them to 10 year olds. (Or even my teenage daughters.) But there were still so many fantastic stories that I was really keen to tell.

Then I told them to classes (usually when I was doing author events about other books – I’m a bit sneaky that way) to find out which stories most intrigued and excited them.

Then I wrote the stories, and Cate drew the pictures, and now the book is ready! (That’s a short sentence, covering a lot of hard work…)

So, I’m really happy with our collection of Viking sagas. The book opens with a dragon and finishes with riddles, and there are Vikings on every page in between. What more could you want?

So, I’ve finally done a Viking book. But I don’t think I’ve got Vikings out of my system yet. I’m sure there are lots more Viking stories for me to discover and to share with you.

In the meantime, I’d love to know what you think of The Dragon’s Hoard, and I’m really looking forward to sharing these Viking saga stories with lots of young Viking fans!

PS – I should just say, this way of working – with me and Cate coming up with the idea together, pitching it together and working together – is VERY RARE. Normally I never even meet the artists who illustrate my words. But I like this way of doing it!

I had the oddest feeling as I was writing the Spellchasers trilogy. Whenever I injured my characters, I kept expecting Helen to turn up, and start to do her first aid thing.

I am still quite happy with my decision to end the Fabled Beast Chronicles and to start writing another set of magical adventures. I might (maybe, perhaps) return to Helen, her music and her world in another book, sometime far in the future. But right now I’m delighted to be in Molly’s world, with shapeshifting and races, curses and crows.

Of course there are a few minor similarities in the two worlds I’ve created.

There’s my persistent habit of having a horse-boy as a sidekick. In the Fabled Beasts series, there’s Yann, the centaur, half horse and half boy. And in Spellchasers, there’s Innes, the kelpie shapeshifter, who can be either horse or boy.

Ok, I admit it. I like to write characters who can gallop, kick hard, and who aren’t always friendly and polite. But Innes and Yann are very different people, with very different problems, and very different ways of dealing with those problems. Not the same horse-boy at all.

And there are Scotland’s hills, rivers, trees and weather. But Fabled Beasts was mostly about places I love visiting on holiday: Orkney, Skye, Sutherland etc, whereas Spellchasers is set in Speyside, in the town where I grew up and went to school. So that was VERY different to research and to write.

There are baddies, of course. But because it’s a trilogy, the baddies in Spellchasers all have a connection to each other. So even though I do introduce a new villain in each new book, the old threat from the previous book might still be hanging around. The same dark magic just keeps getting darker and more dangerous…

And of course, there’s a group of friends. But there are no dragons or selkies or phoenixes in Spellchasers. This time there’s that kelpie, a dryad, a sphinx, and a toad. Though I have to admit that flower fairies appear in a cameo role in Spellchasers. But I know Lavender will be horrified by what I do to them.

Also, the Spellchasers team aren’t actually Molly’s friends. They have the same goal, and they work together, but that doesn’t mean they’re friends. So I didn’t trust the Spellchasers team in the way I could always trust Rona and Sapphire and even Yann… Especially Yann.

So, Spellchasers and Fabled Beasts are very different. I wanted to write something different, and I hope I have. I hope I’ve created a new adventure in a new world.

But is it a different world, or is it the same world? I wondered about that, as I was creating Molly’s world. And perhaps it could be the same world. There’s nothing in the magic or the plot of Spellchasers that says it isn’t the same world as Fabled Beasts. Nothing happens in these adventures, that would be impossible in the world that Helen and Yann adventured in. And of course, The Beginner’s Guide to Curses is set in a part of Scotland that Yann and Helen never visited, so it could even be happening at the same time!

But there is one major difference between the world of the Spellchasers and the world of the Fabled Beasts. In Spellchasers, some of the magical beings aren’t too worried about hiding their existence or identity. Innes and Beth go to the local primary school, and some of their classmates (the ones whose families tell the old stories) know they are a kelpie and a dryad, who look after the rivers and the trees. And Molly’s entirely human aunt knows where to find a local witch when Molly needs help with a magical problem.

So, some perceptive human residents of Craigvenie know a bit about the magic around them. And that never happened in the Fabled Beast Chronicles. Yann and the rest went to great efforts to hide their homes and their existence. The Fabled Beasts’ adventures could have been happening right here, right now, in a world where we tell magical stories but don’t believe in magic next door.

So perhaps the world of Spellchasers is the same as the world of Fabled Beasts, perhaps Helen and Molly might meet some day. Or, perhaps Spellchasers is set in a world a little bit more magical than our world, one where your neighbour might be magical and you might KNOW!

But whether it’s the same world or not, it’s certainly a world with danger and fights and injuries. And there were times, when I was writing the first draft and someone got hurt, that I wanted, even expected, Helen to turn up with her first aid kit and take over!

I did miss Helen’s first aid skills, her common sense, and her experience balancing the magical and human world. The first two books in the Spellchasers trilogy take place over just ten days, and the third is set only a few months later. Even by the end of the trilogy, Molly is still trying to work out how this magical world she’s fallen into works. I’m sure she’d have benefited from what Helen learnt in a couple of years of adventuring, and she’d certainly have benefitted from the first aid kit…

But Molly has one advantage that Helen doesn’t. Speed. Molly is really really really fast on her feet. (Or on her paws!) And that was so much fun to write!

So, I can’t wait to find out what you think of Molly’s world, and the magic Molly encounters…