Darwen Arkwright and the Peregrine Pact
Oct. 13th, 2011 08:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mistymasseyMy friend A J Hartley has a brand-new book hitting shelves today! Darwen Arkwright and the Peregrine Pact is written for middle readers (9-12 years old) but it will appeal to readers of all ages. I think I'll let him tell you about it...
So you’re a kid: a boy of about 11. You’re in the mall in an unfamiliar city, feeling lost, alone and a bit home sick. You look up and you see a bird in one of the plastic trees. You like birds, so you watch it, trying to figure out what type it is. Then there’s a shadow overhead and the little bird gets hits hard by something much bigger, something hawkish but with leathery bat-like wings and the face of… well, if it wasn’t for the cruel-looking beak, you’d say it was the face of a man.
This is how Darwen Arkwright and the Peregrine Pact begins, though the voice is different, and oddly enough, it’s how the story began in my head. It was a half dream, I think, a series of images that popped into my head before I fell asleep proper. I liked it. I had no idea where it went from there, but I liked it, and quickly connected it with another idea I had already had, about a boy looking into a mirror and seeing something inside, something beside his own reflection. I put the two ideas together and added a transitional sequence in which the boy chases the strange winged creature through the mall and into a curious shop selling still more curious (curiouser?) mirrors into one of which the flittercrake (for that is what it’s called) has just vanished…
Darwen is my first middle grades book (and will be followed by at least another two in the series). After publishing 6 adult novels, I decided to revisit my roots, remembering what it was like to lose myself in a story that didn’t centre on what I used to call (not so much hopefully as merely inaccurately) grown-ups. I’m not done with adult fiction, but this is more than a change of gears for me: it’s a lot like coming home.
How would you characterize the fantasy world of the story?
Silbrica is a series of linked locuses, all different, though they tend to the natural, particularly forests. The links are mystical portals like great shimmering mirrors, but there are other connectors—strange, steam-punky trains which move between smoky, deserted stations, for instance. It’s a magical world, but one with echoes of our own, and it’s in crisis.
I take it that all is not well in Silbrica?
Right. Strange things are afoot, odd shifts in the landscape itself, and rumors of terrible creatures that have not been heard from for ages.
Monsters?
For want of a better word, yes: hulking goblin-men on massive steam powered motorcycles, and blind, headless ape-like creatures who find their way by using the long tongues which protrude from the shark-mouth gashes across their chests…
And what of our heroes?
Darwen is a mixed race English boy from Lancashire who fails to fit into the swanky Atlanta private school into which he has been dropped in about every way possible. He makes friends with a farm boy called Rich (but isn’t) and a girl called Alex who manages (I think) to be both the most annoying and funniest character I’ve ever written.
They are the Peregrine Pact?
Right, named after the old shopkeeper who gives Darwen the mirror through which he first enters Silbrica, Mr. Octavius Peregrine. He is their expert on everything to do with the world beyond the mirrors, but he’s decidedly odd and may not be completely trustworthy.
How long did the book take to write?
I wrote the first draft fairly quickly—about three months—but then fiddled with it for another few months before my agent sent it out. Since the book was not under contract and my credentials as an author for adults didn’t really help, this was effectively like selling a first book. It was very stressful. Landing the deal at Razorbill was one of the highlights of my life. Seriously. That was eighteen months ago, and the book has since been honed further and beautifully illustrated. The result is a great-looking book whose artwork perfectly captures the tone and specifics of the story.
Is it pure fantasy?
Nothing ever really is, is it? If it was we’d either not see the point or not understand it at all! No, it’s grounded very much in the real world and in the attendant problems of the real world, perhaps more so than a lot of fantasy which catapults the hero into a new world and leaves him or her there for the duration of the story (as in the Narnia books, for instance). Darwen is a twenty first century school boy, and the world of Silbrica is something he can visit only occasionally. Of course, the worst aspects of that world also want to get into ours, so that creates a different problem…
What’s the hardest thing about writing for younger readers?
Getting the voice right. Kids (understandably) hate to be patronized or treated like they aren’t that bright, so telling stories aimed at readers who are not supposed to be ready for or interested in the stuff of adult books is a bit of a high wire act. At first I worried about making sure the vocabulary wasn’t too sophisticated but I soon realized (at least after R.L. Stine had pointed it out to me!) that that was to sell the book and the readers short. Now I find that 99 times out of hundred I use the word I want and don’t worry too much about supposed ‘reading level.’
You say it’s scary and funny?
I think so. Of course, my sense of humor is notoriously strange so you’ll have to see for yourself, but yes, I think it’s funny. And the scares and suspense elements are as real as I could make them, using the same techniques as I would in adult fiction. I don’t pull any punches on that score. Kids like being scared. I hope.
So you’re a kid: a boy of about 11. You’re in the mall in an unfamiliar city, feeling lost, alone and a bit home sick. You look up and you see a bird in one of the plastic trees. You like birds, so you watch it, trying to figure out what type it is. Then there’s a shadow overhead and the little bird gets hits hard by something much bigger, something hawkish but with leathery bat-like wings and the face of… well, if it wasn’t for the cruel-looking beak, you’d say it was the face of a man.
This is how Darwen Arkwright and the Peregrine Pact begins, though the voice is different, and oddly enough, it’s how the story began in my head. It was a half dream, I think, a series of images that popped into my head before I fell asleep proper. I liked it. I had no idea where it went from there, but I liked it, and quickly connected it with another idea I had already had, about a boy looking into a mirror and seeing something inside, something beside his own reflection. I put the two ideas together and added a transitional sequence in which the boy chases the strange winged creature through the mall and into a curious shop selling still more curious (curiouser?) mirrors into one of which the flittercrake (for that is what it’s called) has just vanished…
Darwen is my first middle grades book (and will be followed by at least another two in the series). After publishing 6 adult novels, I decided to revisit my roots, remembering what it was like to lose myself in a story that didn’t centre on what I used to call (not so much hopefully as merely inaccurately) grown-ups. I’m not done with adult fiction, but this is more than a change of gears for me: it’s a lot like coming home.
How would you characterize the fantasy world of the story?
Silbrica is a series of linked locuses, all different, though they tend to the natural, particularly forests. The links are mystical portals like great shimmering mirrors, but there are other connectors—strange, steam-punky trains which move between smoky, deserted stations, for instance. It’s a magical world, but one with echoes of our own, and it’s in crisis.
I take it that all is not well in Silbrica?
Right. Strange things are afoot, odd shifts in the landscape itself, and rumors of terrible creatures that have not been heard from for ages.
Monsters?
For want of a better word, yes: hulking goblin-men on massive steam powered motorcycles, and blind, headless ape-like creatures who find their way by using the long tongues which protrude from the shark-mouth gashes across their chests…
And what of our heroes?
Darwen is a mixed race English boy from Lancashire who fails to fit into the swanky Atlanta private school into which he has been dropped in about every way possible. He makes friends with a farm boy called Rich (but isn’t) and a girl called Alex who manages (I think) to be both the most annoying and funniest character I’ve ever written.
They are the Peregrine Pact?
Right, named after the old shopkeeper who gives Darwen the mirror through which he first enters Silbrica, Mr. Octavius Peregrine. He is their expert on everything to do with the world beyond the mirrors, but he’s decidedly odd and may not be completely trustworthy.
How long did the book take to write?
I wrote the first draft fairly quickly—about three months—but then fiddled with it for another few months before my agent sent it out. Since the book was not under contract and my credentials as an author for adults didn’t really help, this was effectively like selling a first book. It was very stressful. Landing the deal at Razorbill was one of the highlights of my life. Seriously. That was eighteen months ago, and the book has since been honed further and beautifully illustrated. The result is a great-looking book whose artwork perfectly captures the tone and specifics of the story.
Is it pure fantasy?
Nothing ever really is, is it? If it was we’d either not see the point or not understand it at all! No, it’s grounded very much in the real world and in the attendant problems of the real world, perhaps more so than a lot of fantasy which catapults the hero into a new world and leaves him or her there for the duration of the story (as in the Narnia books, for instance). Darwen is a twenty first century school boy, and the world of Silbrica is something he can visit only occasionally. Of course, the worst aspects of that world also want to get into ours, so that creates a different problem…
What’s the hardest thing about writing for younger readers?
Getting the voice right. Kids (understandably) hate to be patronized or treated like they aren’t that bright, so telling stories aimed at readers who are not supposed to be ready for or interested in the stuff of adult books is a bit of a high wire act. At first I worried about making sure the vocabulary wasn’t too sophisticated but I soon realized (at least after R.L. Stine had pointed it out to me!) that that was to sell the book and the readers short. Now I find that 99 times out of hundred I use the word I want and don’t worry too much about supposed ‘reading level.’
You say it’s scary and funny?
I think so. Of course, my sense of humor is notoriously strange so you’ll have to see for yourself, but yes, I think it’s funny. And the scares and suspense elements are as real as I could make them, using the same techniques as I would in adult fiction. I don’t pull any punches on that score. Kids like being scared. I hope.
no subject
Date: 2011-10-14 03:24 am (UTC)