Griselda Heppel - once an editor and now a winning author -
Ante's Inferno, written for children age 9+, was published by Matador in 2012.
It took a Silver in the Wishing Shelf Awards
http://www.thewsa.co.uk/winners2012 ....
And won the Children's People's Book Prize
http://www.peoplesbookprize.com/winners2012.htm.
It was also a finalist inWriting Magazine's self-publishing awards 2013!
Well, what a delight to be able to welcome Griselda to my blog. Just look at that list! It's no wonder I'm thrilled to be able to discover more about this author's journey to where she is now.
Every time I feature an author I love finding about their varied approaches to their work, their subjects and how they came to be a writer.
Share with me and enjoy finding out how Griselda finds her ideas for her books, it's quite fascinating.
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| 'Ante's Inferno' - a prize-winner! |
I'm absolutely intrigued, Griselda, can you tell us what started you on your writing journey?
Before my children were born I worked in publishing, where I loved shaping an author’s work to help it reach the highest possible standard.
I didn't think I was cut out to be an author myself until a story came to me when my youngest son was 11.
For a long time I’d wondered why, given all the marvellous children’s books based on Greek myths and wonderful legends like Robin Hood and King Arthur, no one had ever created a children’s version of Dante’s Inferno. Difficult, perhaps, to send a 12 year-old into Hell, but I was sure it could be done and gradually the character of Ante (short for Antonia) formed in my mind. A tragic story of a pupil’s death at my son’s school on the eve of the First World War gave me the idea for Gil, Ante’s mysterious companion, and I was off!
And every author appears to have their preferred places to do their writing, where's yours?
At my desk.
Well that's straightforward, but the rather more complicated question has to be - 'How do you write?'
The funny thing about a story is that a whole plot doesn't need to come at once (not to me, anyway). You can start with a single idea, an image of a character in an empty room, say – what does she want?
I read around the themes in the story e.g for Ante’s Inferno I went back to Dante, obviously, and Greek myths of the Underworld, but I also researched the First World War (an important element in Ante’s Inferno).
For my current book, The Tragickall History of Henry Fowst, I read as much as I could about the Faust legend and Elizabethan magic. I make notes and gradually other ideas come until I have the whole story.
I write down the outline and think about the characters, what they look like, where they live, their family, friends, motivations, fears, secrets – you have to know them inside out. I make a timeline – especially important for The Tragickall History of Henry Fowst, to make sure the story fits properly into the shape of a school term. At some point I start writing the story, knowing the first draft will be very rough and trying to silence the voice inside my head telling me so – it’s better to get everything down at the beginning, however misshapen, because only that way you’ve got something to work on.
Which other writers have proved inspirational to you in the past, (maybe in your childhood) and now?
Anyone reading Ante’s Inferno will see how much I adored C S Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia! His drawing on mythical beasts and themes from the English literary tradition (many references I didn’t discover until I read English at university) made me realise that children can be entertained, amused and enriched by a really well-crafted, exciting adventure story.
J K Rowling does this too: while her readers devour Harry Potter’s battles with evil, they’re also learning about mediaeval (and older) beliefs about alchemy, mythical beasts such as hippogriffs, unicorns, phoenixes and basilisks – themes that occur repeatedly in western literature.
What are you working on at present?
Well, speaking of magic...
My current book is called The Tragickall History of Henry Fowst. Beset by problems at home and at school, thirteen year-old Henry Fowst stumbles across a diary written by a boy his own age in 1586. Intrigued by the similarity of their situations, Henry finds himself increasingly drawn into John Striven’s life; and when John resorts to desperate measures to defend himself from his murderous foster-brother, Henry follows suit in order to deal with the boy who is persecuting him.
Unfortunately, in calling up Mephistopheles, Henry finds his problems are only just beginning.
So many original and fascinating ideas! Can you share with us your plans for your literary future?
I hope to publish The Tragickall History of Henry Fowst in 2015, and meanwhile get on with more writing. I have the germ of another story in my head, centring on 11 year-old Ellie who’s sent away to school in the 1960s, where she uncovers a mystery dating back 30 years, a family torn apart... watch this space!
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Thank you Griselda, for taking the time to answer all my questions, I'm certain that there will be many fascinated readers out there enjoying the glimpses into your writing world!
Links to Griselda:
Griselda's website: www.antesinferno.com
Griselda's Amazon link:
Griselda's facebook page:
@GriseldaHeppel (Twitter)
And.. if you're a member of Goodreads, here's Griselda's page link:
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