Half Lies
The Half Bad trilogy is set in the present day in a secret world of Black and White Witches. But Nathan is a Half Code, his mother a gifted White Witch and his father is the most evil of the Black Witches, and so Nathan doesn't belong on either side. The novel questions assumptions about good and evil and how we view our enemies and our friends. Half Lies is a short story linked to the trilogy which tells a little more about a Black Witch called Gabriel (much as I adore Nathan, Gabriel is the one I'm really in love with).
You live in Cheshire, so how inspirational is it for your writing when you go for a walk there?
I was born in Lancashire but have moved just a little further south over the border to Cheshire. When I was writing Half Bad I was doing a lot of hill walking in Snowdonia and also tramping the Sandstone Trail in Cheshire with a friend, and both these places inspired locations for Half Bad: the rugged wildness of the Welsh mountains reflects Nathan's character whilst the sandstone outcrops seemed to be perfect romantic meeting places for Nathan and the girl in his life.
Why was 2012 your writing debut?
I studied sciences at university, then became an accountant and I started a family late in life (I had my son when I was 41). I started writing in 2010 when I was 48 years old, having written nothing before that apart from notes to the milkman. I had an idea for a witchy story and on afternoon I thought I'd write it down - I just kept writing and adding to the story until in September 2010 I had a first draft. Whilst I had a strong belief in the story I knew that draft wasn't publishable and that a I had to improve my writing technique so I did some Creative Writing courses with the Open University and in 2012 I sent the manuscript off to literary agents. Half Bad, my first novel, was published in March 2014.
Why have you not been able to stop since?
Well, I love writing and I'm now being paid to do it. And I have an editor at Penguin who is constantly pestering me for more!
Please tell us about the characters of Michele and Gabriel.
My short story Half Lies centres around these two people. Gabriel is a key character in the Half Bad trilogy and in Half Lies we learn a little more about his backstory but not through himself, rather through the eyes (actually through the diary) of his sister Michele. Gabriel is a Black Witch and he has a strong Gift (his magical power). He can change his appearance to look like other people and so he uses his disguise to spy on the White Witches. Michele, Gabriel's younger sister, falls in love with a White Witch and she too has a similar Gift for disguise, but her power is not as strong and she too dares to go onto White Witch territory to see the boy she loves - uh-oh...
Why did you decide to take the book to Florida?
Half Lies had to be set in America as it is mentioned in Hald Bad that Gabriel does spend a year or two there, but I didn't want to set it in an 'obvious' place like New York or California. I wanted somewhere a little different and found that the west of Florida has some artistic communities which interested me and I felt would be the sort of place Gabriel's father would choose to live in. Also it's a very flat place and Gabriel comes from the mountains and loves climbing so I wanted this to add to his frustration.
One reviewer says that you are the inheritor of Stephanie Mayer’s crown so how does that feel and are you a fan of her work?
Well, of course it would be fantastic to have the success that she has had with Twilight and I'm always pleased with any comparisons to well-loved books. Stephanie created a simple but credible world of vampires and I'm trying to do the same for witches.
What is it about witches that intrigues you?
Two key things attracted me to writing about witches. Firstly, witches are female (there are no wizards in Half Bad, but the male witches are just that- male witches) and I wanted to create a world where the women had the stronger magical powers and had a higher status in their society than the men. I'm particularly proud of the (rather evil) Hunters, who are the White Witch police force, and are mainly female and frighteningly amazonian. The second thing is that I also like the mystery of witches, the idea of magic being linked to the earth and nature and that is a key part of the Half Bad trilogy.
What is next for you?
I'm 20,000 words into the first draft of the final book of the trilogy. Just another 60,000 words to go...