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Interviews

Interview with children’s author Sam Thompson

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PaperBound caught up with author Sam Thompson to chat about his first book for children, Wolfstongue.

Could you tell us a little bit about your novel, Wolfstongue?

It’s the story of a boy called Silas who is bullied at school because he has speech difficulties and is very quiet. One day he meets an injured wolf, and discovers a hidden world called the Forest where animals can speak. A struggle is going on between the wolves and the foxes: the foxes’ leader, Reynard, controls everything with his clever talk, and has turned the wolves into slaves in his underground city. Silas wants to help his wolf friends escape from the foxes, but to do this he will have to face his own struggle with words.

Readers may recognise some of the names in Wolfstongue from Reynard the Fox stories. Can you tell us a little bit about how you were inspired by these, and share any other inspirations behind the book?

Reynard the Fox has appeared in many different stories over hundreds of years, including a cycle of medieval European fables which were my main inspiration. Reynard is a trickster — a bit like Loki, Anansi or Br’er Rabbit — who is always getting himself in and out of trouble with his clever schemes, and he invariably gets the better of his rival Isengrim the Wolf. One reason I wanted to write a Reynard and Isengrim story was that I sympathised with poor old Isengrim, and I felt he deserved to be more than just the victim of the cunning fox! Further inspiration came from all the books I’ve read and loved about children going into hidden worlds, from Alan Garner’s Elidor to China Mieville’s Un Lun Dun. And I took lessons in language from books like Ted Hughes’s The Iron Man and Neil Gaiman’s Coraline – writing that is so clear and simple that it feels like myth. I hope Wolfstongue has some of that spirit.

This is your first novel for young people. We’d love to know what came first: did you always plan to write something for this age group, or did the idea for Wolfstongue come first?

Actually what came first was my own young people. When my children got big enough for me to read them books with chapters, I rediscovered a lot of childhood reading that I hadn’t thought about in a long time, and in turn that got me inspired to write: I find writing usually follows from reading in that way. And then the idea for Wolfstongue came together when one of my children was having trouble with his speech. I found words difficult when I was small, and really I still do; I wanted to give my son a story about the power and danger of words, and how we get to grips with them.

Wolfstongue has been described as a fable, with references to the relationship between humans and the natural world, and to some of the more troubling times in our past/present. How did you decide what to include, and what do you hope readers take from the novel?

I didn’t really have to decide what to include, because the story led the way. Once I had the wolves and the foxes and what happened between them, the other ideas flowed in. I do hope the book gives readers a way of thinking about how humans relate to the world beyond ourselves, and how we might use our language to speak respectfully on behalf of things that are silent.

Are you writing, or planning to write, anything new for this age group?

I’m working on a sequel to Wolfstongue, provisionally titled The Fox’s Tower. I’m feeling very excited about it and would love to tell you all about the story, but I’d better keep it to myself! Writing a sequel is rewarding because it lets me dig deeper into parts of the story that I only began to uncover in the first book.

If you could pass on a writing tip to an aspiring young writer, what would it be?

If you’re like me, you started writing for the joy of it. Then, when you got serious about writing, it turned out to be very difficult. Joyful and difficult: it’s okay for writing to be both.

What are your top book recommendations for young people today?

I would recommend omnivorous reading. The most wonderful thing about being a young reader is that you can read anything and everything – read adventurously and ravenously and discover for yourself what you love. My best memories as a young reader are memories of investigating the shelves in my local library, taking down whatever looked intriguing: books I’d never heard of, books I didn’t understand, books that seemed strange or scary or like they weren’t meant for me. It’s all yours to explore.

How would you sum up your novel in three words?

Fox, Wolf, Child.

Sam Thompson grew up in the south of England and now lives in Belfast. He is the author of the novels Communion Town and Jott, and his short fiction has appeared in Best British Short Stories 2019 and on BBC Radio 4. He teaches writing at Queen’s University, Belfast. Wolfstongue is his first novel for children, published in May 2021 by Little Island Books.

Don’t forget you can catch up with the latest issues of PaperBound Magazine here – and they’re all completely free!

Interviews

Interview with YA author Clare Owen

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We chatted with author Clare Owen recently all about her new YA novel, Zed and the Cormorants.

Can you tell us a little about your novel, Zed and the Cormorants? What made you want to write it?

It’s a story of a young girl who moves from London to Cornwall. Zed’s dad is convinced that a fresh start and a simpler lifestyle will improve the family’s life – he even gives up his job to start an artisanal bakery – but Zed is riddled with anxiety about starting a new school and becomes increasingly convinced that she’s under attack from a flock of cormorants who live in the woods near her home.

 It’s got ghosts, mythology, romance, Cornish history, baking, environmental issues and bucket loads of teenage angst!

The inspiration came when I was walking my dogs and I saw two cormorants on the sand banks, and it struck me how poised but also how sinister they looked!  I went home, began to research them and learned how adaptable they are – they’ve been around since the dinosaurs and live in all parts of the world – but also how often they feature in mythology and literature. I’d been playing around with the idea of writing a story about a young girl struggling with anxiety, but the cormorants wouldn’t go away.  In my mind they stretched out their wings, and said, ‘If we’re good enough for The Bible, The Odyssey, Shakespeare and Milton, don’t you think you should give us a look in?’

Zed and the Cormorants is steeped in mystery, family and centres around a haunting love story that spurs on the entire book. Did you know what you wanted to include from the start, and did anything change through the course of writing it?

I knew I wanted to explore anxiety, loneliness and the oblique ways that we find to face difficult emotions and overcome them. Love needed to be a part of this: the fear of never finding it and the fear of finding it and having it taken away. I also wanted Zed to have a loving family – for that never to be an issue – but for them all to be real, flawed and struggling themselves, so they aren’t always able to give her the support that she needs.  The question was how to combine this very ‘real’ story with the more fanciful elements; how to introduce all the mythology, ways of communicating with the birds and the possibilities for making a truce. And that was where Denzil (a young man who sometimes sleeps rough in the woods) came in.  Once I’d got to grips with who he was – his particular challenges and coping strategies – then he became a kind of bridge between the two worlds. 

This book has themes of mental health, parental illness, loss, and new beginnings. Can you tell us a little about why you felt these themes were important to include? Were any difficult to write about?

All these things are part of our lives and as such they should be written about in literature for any age. The joy of writing YA is that you can tackle them head on, with characters who are hungry to learn about the world, open to self-discovery and their feelings are usually pretty close to the surface.  I didn’t find those bits hard to write, in some ways they were the easiest because they needed the least imaginative input.

Your writinghas been described as ‘Daphne Du Maurier for the 21st century’. Do you find your writing has been influenced by gothic style?

It’s funny, I never set out to write a gothic book and didn’t think I was drawn to the gothic style! I’ve never ever read Frankenstein or Dracula, and it’s only in the last few weeks that I’ve read Poe’s The Raven and du Maurier’s The Birds.  But, of course, Zed is gothic – it has mystery, suspense, foreshadowing, the supernatural and overwrought emotions. And I’ve always loved the Brontës, particularly Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights, and they are all about wild landscapes, hidden secrets, haunted buildings and passionate, intense love affairs.

The setting and landscape plays such a key role in this book. Did you ever think about setting it anywhere else?

No, right from the start it was always set in a particular wood near my home.  Partly because it’s where I first saw the birds that inspired the story, but also because although it’s specifically a story about a girl at war with a flock of cormorants – why they are seeking revenge and how she can make amends – it’s also about someone being forced to engage with the natural for the very first time and what they gain from that.  I needed a setting that would be alien and isolating to a city girl but also offers her headspace and access to wildlife, so that she can learn to live in harmony with it and at the same time find some peace within herself.

What’s next for you and your writing? Are there any more books on the horizon?

Last year I wrote a lot of short stories and now I’m working on a novel for adults. I’ve had to do a lot of research trips on Google Earth which has slowed me down a bit and isn’t half as much fun as spending the day away from your desk: drinking lots of coffee and lots eating lots of cake to fuel hours and hours of hours of walking round locations that may or may not be used. 

What are your top 3 tips for aspiring writers?

Read. Read. Read. As much as possible and as widely as possible and when you like something – whether it’s a description, a punchy bit of dialogue or even just the rhythm of a sentence, copy it down somewhere.  I put it in Notes on my phone.  Then when you lack inspiration, you can just dip into it and you’ll get all fired up again.

Be nosey. I don’t just mean listening to other people’s conversations (although I do this a lot, I’m afraid!) but also follow your nose. Be curious. Most of us have the internet at our fingertips, so use it.  If you have a phone, don’t just use it to scroll through social media, but use it to investigate things. Any number of questions can be answered in a ten-minute bus ride, and those questions can lead to any number of ‘what ifs’ which can lead to any number of stories.

‘Write with the handbrake off’!  I don’t know who said this, but I put it in block capitals somewhere prominent when I start any new writing project.  It’s really just a mantra to push you to the end of the first draft – because that for me is always the hardest bit.  Once you have a first draft then everything slows down, and you can spend as long as you like fiddling with one paragraph!

What are your top YA book recommendations for young people today?

I think every teenager (and probably every adult) should read All the Places I’ve Cried in Public (Holly Bourne) as it explores how easy it is to get into a toxic relationship and how painful it is to get out.

The Space Between (Meg Grehan) – a tender, lyrical novel in verse about mental anguish and coming out.

Sisters by Daisy Johnson. It isn’t marketed as YA, but it explores the dark relationship between two teenage sisters.  It’s beautifully written but very disturbing and not for the faint-hearted!

How would you sum up your novel in three words?

‘The-Birds meets Bake-off’ (ha.. that’s really cheating isn’t it?)

After working as an actor in London – performing in venues that ranged from The National Theatre to the boot of a Ford Fiesta – Clare married a boat builder and moved to Cornwall. Her short stories have been published by Mslexia, Storgy, Litro & Fairlight and in the anthology An Outbreak of Peace.  Zed and the Cormorants (Arachne Press) is her first YA novel. 

You can keep up to date with Clare by visiting her website, and follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Zed and the Cormorants is available now and published by Arachne Press.

Don’t forget you can catch up with the latest issues of PaperBound Magazine here – and they’re all completely free!

Covers

Winning Illustration – Summer 2021

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We fell in love with the illustration Elizabeth Cowling submitted to PaperBound Magazine recently. We loved it so much we decided to use it as the front cover of our Summer 2021 issue, which you can read in full here.

Elizabeth also illustrated our jam packed contents page, as well as the cover design.

Find out more …

London born, Elizabeth Cowling is an illustrator who specialises in colourful home and character illustrations. When she’s not busy working on her ideas she
spends time reading comics, playing video games and chatting with her chatty cat Rosie.

You can discover more about Elizabeth by visiting her website.

Bookshelf

Summer Bookshelf

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Our summer bookshelf is full of book recommendations set during the heat of summer for you to enjoy, from middle grade and graphic novels to YA. These are just a few of our favourites. Are there any we’ve missed? Let us know in the comments below.

You can also see this page and lots more recommendations in our Summer 2021 issue, which can be found here.

© PaperBound Magazine

Interviews

Interview with children’s author Struan Murray

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Rebecca Perkin caught up with Struan Murray to chat about his writing and his Orphans of the Tide book series. You can catch the interview in the full magazine by clicking here and scrolling down to our Spring 2021 issue.

Struan Murray

When a mystery boy washes in with the tide, the citizens believe he’s the Enemy – the god who drowned the world – come again to cause untold chaos.

Struan Murray grew up in Edinburgh and has a PhD in genetics and is a lecturer in biochemistry at the University of Oxford. And now, following his success with the Bath Children’s Novel Award, he is the debut author of fantasy adventure Orphans of the Tide. If you’re a fan of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials, then Orphans of the Tide is a must read. Children and adults alike will find themselves caught up in Murray’s dark and mysterious word, left wanting more when they reach the end. Thank goodness there’s a sequel!

After enjoying a very interesting and insightful video call with Struan through my writing group, I was thrilled when he accepted my invitation of an interview. I asked him ten questions about himself and his debut.

Orphans of the Tide has a lot of themes around trust, family and grief. What was the hardest scene to write?

To be honest, the emotional scenes are usually the ones I find easiest – it’s not hard to get into the heads of characters when everything’s emotionally turbulent. The hardest parts were more technical – there are a lot of rules surrounding the magical element of this book and it was a challenge at times to find ways to weave in the necessary backstory in a way that was organic, without overloading the reader or giving away too much too soon.

Ellie and Anna are two strong independent female characters. What is the most difficult thing about writing characters of the opposite sex?

I think it’s important for me to be mindful when writing female characters to avoid the dangers of the unintentional male gaze and be really thoughtful about expressing the integrity of someone with a different gender from me.

Aside from the follow up to Orphans of the Tide, Shipwreck Island, what other works do you have in the pipeline?

Currently I’m working on the third (and possibly final!) book in the Orphans of the Tide trilogy. So many of my previous (unpublished) projects were the first books of planned trilogies, so it is a strange and wonderful thing to finally be able to finish one.

Could you see Orphans of the Tide as a film and if so who would you like to see playing Ellie?

I definitely could – in fact whenever I’m writing a scene at least a part of my brain is imagining how it would be filmed. I’m a huge fan of Studio Ghibli, and often dream about how my novel would look in that style. As for actors, I haven’t thought much about the child characters but think Tom Hardy would do a great job of the brooding, fanatical Inquisitor Hargrath, while Chiwetel Ejiofor would be perfect as Castion, the kindly, charismatic whale lord.

If you were to rewrite Orphans of the Tide is there anything you would do differently?

If I’m honest, I haven’t really looked back through the novel since it was published. There are certain aspects of the world that I would have liked to bring out more (the politics of the City, the rivalries between different whale lords), but I think that would be more for me, because they were important considerations in creating the world, but would have slowed the pace of the story.

As an author myself, I like to hide things in my books that only a handful of people might pick up on. For example, a door code being your birth date. Do you hide any secrets in your books?

I named a few (very minor) characters after a few of my (very minor) friends. They haven’t been nearly as grateful enough.

Has a book ever made you cry, and if so what was it?

I remember crying at the end of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (spoiler alert) when Dumbledore died. Occasionally I have cried while rereading my own stuff but that’s more from exhaustion than the quality of the writing.

What is your writing kryptonite?

I sometimes get bored describing character’s physical/emotional reactions to things and usually just put an asterisk for future Struan to deal with. When he comes across them he *

If you could tell your younger self one thing, what would it be? Related or unrelated to writing.

I think I’ve spent an awful lot of my writing life questioning whether I am ‘worthy’ of being a writer, instead of just writing. This is an entirely pointless exercise – if you have made the effort to sit down to try making up a story, then you are a writer.

And, finally, if you could write anywhere, where would it be? Real or imaginary?

A big, big library full of books and comfy chairs and spiral staircases that lead to nowhere.

Thanks so much to Struan for this ten question insight into his debut novel and world of writing.

You can visit Struan’s official website to keep up to date with all his latest news and books. Orphans of the Tide is published by Puffin Books and OUT NOW. The follow up to Orphans of the Tide, Shipwreck Island was released on 4th March 2021.

Interview by Rebecca Perkin.

Rebecca Perkin is a YA fantasy and sci-fi author from Surrey. Being an avid reader from a young age, Rebecca always loved escaping to other worlds. Her passion for writing comes from the freedom it gives someone to live out another life. She has written five novels to date, and is currently working on Half Undone, a YA Speculative fiction all about secrets, memories and what it means to be human.

Don’t forget you can catch up with the latest issues of PaperBound Magazine here – and they’re all completely free!

Interviews

Interview with YA author Bex Hogan

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We were thrilled to catch up with YA fantasy author Bex Hogan and chat about her adventure series The Isles of Storm and Sorrow. You can catch the interview in the full magazine by clicking here and scrolling down to our Spring 2021 issue.

Can you tell us more about The Isles of Storm and Sorrow series and what readers can expect?

The Isles of Storm and Sorrow is a YA fantasy adventure series set on the high seas. The first book, Viper, follows Marianne, the Viper’s daughter, who has to decide whether she’s prepared to sacrifice everything to fight against her cruel father. Expect power, politics and pirates – with magic, romance and sea-monsters!

The sea can be a dangerous place but also provide the perfect sanctuary – in fiction and real life. Did you have to do a lot of research into seafaring and the ocean (or monsters!) before writing Viper?

I grew up in Cornwall, close to the sea. It’s always been a part of my life, with not a day passing that I didn’t see it, even if only from a distance. When you live near water, I think you learn to respect its immense power – certainly I’ve always both admired and feared the ocean. It’s beautiful and deadly, something I wanted to capture in Viper. But because I fear it, I’ve always tended to do little more than paddle on the shore. Although I’ve been on boats, it was very much as a passenger and not a sailor, so I had to do a fair amount of research in that respect. I was also fortunate enough to go to Charlestown Harbour, where they have tall ships you can board, which was as close to being on a ship from an equivalent time period as I could manage.

What are the best ingredients for a fantasy trilogy, and why do you think this genre is so powerful?

The attraction of fantasy is timeless. Partly because it offers an escape, and now more than ever I think we’re all desperate to lose ourselves in another world for a few hours. But the best fantasy is also rooted in the world we know, and so we can relate to the struggles and the characters in a real, but also safe, way. It offers a sense of hope too – we can be part of the epic journey, feel the many lows and the occasional high, experience power alongside the protagonist, who has the ability to affect change in their world, and ultimately take heart when good overcomes evil.

Who is your favourite character in The Isles of Storm and Sorrow series, and why?

This is an impossible question! How can I possibly choose just one?! I love all of them for different reasons – some because they’re pure and good, others because I want to hug them so bad, and a few I simply love to hate! But if I have to pick just one, I’ll have to go with my girl, Marianne. She’s the one I’ve spent the most time with over the past few years, the one I’ve been with through every nightmare scenario she keeps finding herself in, the one I’ve rooted for every step of the way. And I think ultimately, she’s the one I’m going to miss the most now the series is over.

What do you love most about writing and being an author?

I think all writers will recognise how much writing is simply a part of us. I can’t imagine not doing it – I love escaping into my own worlds, I love unravelling the mystery of a story and working out how it all fits together. When I write, it’s like I can breathe properly, it’s a release, it’s a relief. It makes me happy to tease characters out of my head and set them free on to a page. Having those words published is a whole other joy – I’ll admit it’s terrifying knowing that people can read what I’ve written, but it’s also an honour to be able to share my stories. I love knowing that the characters are on their own journeys now, that each reader will perceive them differently and give them a new lease of life.

Vulture, the final book in the series is out in April. What comes next for you and your books?

That’s a good question! The simple answer is, I don’t know! I’ve been busy writing – I’ve finished an adult manuscript and a younger middle grade one, plus I’m currently working on another YA fantasy and an adult fantasy, so we’ll just have to see where they lead – if anywhere! All I know is I’ll keep writing!

If you could create any top 3 tips for aspiring writers, what would they be?

Keep reading. Keep writing. Keep going.

You could get lucky, and your first book gets immediately picked up, but more likely it’ll take a few attempts. For me it took ten years from starting to write to publication day and trust me, I thought about giving up sometimes. But you’ve just got to keep going, because the more you write, the better you get. And so much is down to timing, so hang in there, even when it gets tough!

Raised on a healthy diet of fantasy and fairy tales, Bex Hogan has spent much of her life lost in daydreams. Writing her stories down was a natural progression and now she enjoys sharing her time between living in the real world and escaping to her imagination. A Cornish girl at heart, Bex now lives in Cambridgeshire with her family. She might be found riding horses, talking to her plants or eating marzipan. Or not.

You can keep up to date with whatever Bex is up to by following her on Twitter and Instagram, or by visiting her official website.

Viper, Venom and Vulture in the Isles of Storms and Sorrow series are published by Orion Children’s Books (Hachette Children’s Group). Vulture is released 8th April 2021, while the rest of the series is out NOW!

Don’t forget you can catch up with the latest issues of PaperBound Magazine here – and they’re all completely free!

Interviews

Interview with children’s author Tamsin Mori

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We chatted with children’s author Tamsin Mori about her debut book The Weather Weaver. You can catch the interview in the full magazine by clicking here and scrolling down to our Spring 2021 issue.

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Can you tell us about The Weather Weaver and where the idea came from?

The Weather Weaver is an adventure story with a touch of magic. Stella, the main character, is spending the summer with her Grandpa in Shetland, but her life takes a turn for the stormy when she meets an old woman called Tamar, who asks her to catch a cloud …

My mother’s family are all Shetlanders and I grew up listening to my Granny’s tales of Shetland – both family stories and the island myths and legends. In all her stories, weather was never a backdrop, it was a character – tricksy and wild. I must have absorbed that idea quite rapidly, because by the time I was 10, I was already experimenting with calling the weather.

What challenges did you face when writing a book about showing how clouds might feel?

The main challenge was that Stella can’t hear her cloud, so there’s no dialogue. Also, though they can change shape and colour, clouds don’t have faces, so there aren’t any expressions to describe! Having said that, once I’d discovered what Nimbus was like as a personality, it became surprisingly easy to imagine how he’d react in any situation.

You might not be able to chat to your pets, but that doesn’t stop you from understanding how they’re feeling – it’s all about body language. When I was editing, I did quite a lot of acting out the scenes, to get the movement right. It would have looked completely bonkers if anyone had seen me.

What do you hope readers can take from The Weather Weaver?

I hope they’ll be left with a sense of the magic hidden inside everything – things that seem commonplace until you look at them a little differently. Even stones are full of stories! I’d love readers to finish The Weather Weaver and look around with a sense of possibility and wonder – breathe bit deeper, dream a bit larger. And who knows? Maybe we’ll discover a few new weather weavers out there.

Did you get into similar adventures as Stella when you were growing up?

Much like Stella, we moved a lot while I was growing up, but my mum’s family are all Shetlanders, so that was the one place we always returned to – the place that felt like home. And exactly like Stella, what I loved most was the freedom! Although they’re wild, the islands are very safe, so I was allowed to roam and explore as much as I liked. Fog was the one thing that could keep us there – when there’s fog, the planes can’t fly – so my earliest attempts at weather weaving involved whispering spells into the wind, to call the fog. It worked, too – we once got fogged in for a whole extra week! Magic!

What does your typical writing day look like?

I don’t really have a typical writing day – I write whenever I can find a quiet moment – that can be anything from in the car, first thing in the morning, in the middle of the night, on a windy hilltop, in bed … I have two children and a part time (non-writing) job, so I’ve become a master at making time elastic – stretching it out to make space for writing!

My ideal writing day involves waking up gently, so I can hold onto the tail end of dreams, then scribbling in my bedside notebook. I find mornings best for first-drafting – inventing new things. Afternoons are better for editing, because by that time, my logical brain has switched on.

Is there anything you wish you’d known before becoming a writer?

How long it takes to make a book! Not the writing bit – I love that – more the actual process of turning it into a book. I somehow imagined that having written a book, it would just magically appear on the shelves of bookshops. The truth is, there are lots and lots of rounds of editing and polishing and proofreading, and between each one is a long period of waiting. The waiting bits are the worst – I am not a patient person. I’ve got the hang of it now, so I have several stories on the go at the same time. Each time I send back edits on one, I’ve got another story to jump into. I wish I’d known that before!

In The Weather Weaver, Stella has a book of myths and legends she treasures. Are there any myths and legends that are your favourite?

My favourite myth is the selkies – magical creatures that look like seals, but can shed their skin to become human and walk on land. Growing up, I was half convinced that I was a selkie – I’ve always loved the water. I’d love the ability to transform and be just as at home under the water as on land. We used to sing the selkies when I was small. If you sing from the beach, the seals all pop up out f the water to listen – a semi circle of sleek brown heads, with soulful eyes – selkies one and all.

Tamsin had a nomadic childhood (eight different schools!), but the one place that always felt like home was Shetland, her mother’s homeland. Shetland is a collection of teeny tiny islands, so far north they fight too fit on the map. They are overflowing with myths and legends, most of which are true.  Growing up, Tamsin was usually to be found on the beach, whispering spells into sea shells and singing to the selkies.

Tamsin now lives in Bath with her husband, two children, one rabbit, several crows, and a badger, though she flies home to Shetland whenever she can – if you go there in the summer, you’ll probably spot her, striding about with the wind in her hair, chasing a wild story.

The Weather Weaver is published by ULCAN Publishing and is out NOW! You can keep up to date with Tamsin and all her book related news on Instagram and Twitter.

Don’t forget you can catch up with the latest issues of PaperBound Magazine here – and they’re all completely free!

Interviews

Interview with YA author C.G. Moore

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In our spring issue, we chatted with YA author C.G. Moore about his own life experiences and how they led to writing his new book, Gut Feelings. You can catch the interview in the full magazine by clicking here and scrolling down to our Spring 2021 issue.

Can you tell us more about your new YA novel Gut Feelings and how it felt to write it?

Gut Feelings tells my own story of living with a rare genetic illness known as Familial Adenomatous Polyposis (or FAP for short). Wart-like lumps known as adenomas or polyps grow in the bowel and rectum and eventually they turn cancerous. The book opens with my diagnosis at eleven, then treatment, before looking at the aftermath of chronic illness. Writing Gut Feelings was cathartic but emotional. The book is incredibly personal and doesn’t hold back.

How does it feel to be able to share your story in this way?

Scary. I was terrified readers will get an insight into my deepest fears and most embarrassing moments. As someone that didn’t see their chronic illness represented in the books I read as a teenager, it was so important to put myself out there and write the story I wanted to read. While it’s been scary, it’s also been hugely cathartic and the response has been overwhelmingly positive! I’m hugely grateful to my publisher (Hazel) for believing in me and Gut Feelings.

This and your previous novel, Fall Out, deal with important topics. What do you hope readers will take from them?

I hope it will inspire readers and create more empathy for those that have had different lived experiences and challenges in their lives. Reading for empathy is so important and it’s something that fascinates me about the power of the written word.

What made you decide to write this book in verse? Did it create any challenges?

Not many people have heard of my illness and fewer truly understand how it impacts the lives of those that suffer with it. When you try to explain it, you’re trying to get as much information across as possible in the most concise manner and it’s near impossible to describe the physical, emotional and psychological impacts. It was because of this that I had the idea of writing in verse. Once I started, I couldn’t stop. It felt right. It didn’t create challenges; it created possibilities for me to explore the illness in ways I would never be able to accomplish in prose.

What books/other verse novels do you enjoy?

My favourite verse novels include The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo, The Black Flamingo by Dean Atta, Kwame Alexander’s The Crossover and Karen Hesse’s Out of the Dust. Each has a different message and distinct style, but they are all beautifully immersive and engaging.

Is there anything you wish you’d known before becoming a writer?

When you’re writing with the intention to get published, you need to be so resilient and determined, but also willing to take chances, try new things and take constructive criticism. For me, I needed to learn this over time. I started writing with the intention of being published ten years before Fall Out. I needed that time to learn these lessons and wrote something that was true to me and the best story I could create. Knowing this before I became a writer would have changed my trajectory and the kind of stories I told.

Christopher (C.G. Moore) is a freelance editor and marketer. He currently lectures on the BA and MA in Publishing courses at the University of Central Lancashire. He is the author of Fall Out and Gut Feelings which are both published by UCLAN and available NOW!

Follow him on Twitter and Instagram: @YAfictionados

Don’t forget you can catch up with the latest issues of PaperBound Magazine here – and they’re all completely free!

Poetry

Winning entry: ‘picnic thoughts’ by Georgina Dent

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We’re excited to share our first ever winning poetry submission featured in PaperBound, written by Georgina Dent. We love how this poem evokes so much emotion and conjures up images of what it’s like to share moments with someone beneath the clouds on a spring day.

You can view the poem in the magazine itself by clicking here and scrolling down to read our Spring 2021 issue.

look up at the soft afternoon sky with me

and tell me what you see when

you let your imagination dance with the sun

and form thoughts made of clouds that

don’t need to be contained

by the limiting compromise of

underwhelming silver linings.

daydream me a world in the clouds

mimicking the freedom of our own,

suspended up there

with no capacity to meet

and no rulebook to meticulously follow.

tell me you see dogs chasing rabbits,

spacemen driving motorcycles,

a lady you once saw on a packed train,

except now with a pineapple on her head,

playing a violin laced with sunflowers;

tell me that you see us, now,

sprawled on the grass,

daisy chains laced through our fingers,

our eyes glazed over with delight,

excitedly pointing out the next instalment

in our cotton candy tableau vivant in the sky.

endless possibility infuses our clouds,

and I love you in the same way.

Georgina is currently in the final year of her English BA, and she hopes to one day publish her own poetry athology. Her dream is to be living in London with her boyfriend and reading as much as possible with a pet cat in her lap (preferably multiple!)

Want to submit your own work to PaperBound? Find out more here.

Covers

Winning Illustration – Spring 2021

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We absolutely loved the illustrations Lucy H Smith sent in for the spring issue of PaperBound. We think they fit the spring theme perfectly! Lucy’s illustrations feature on the front cover of PaperBound, in the contents page and alongside the poem picnic thoughts by Georgina Dent.

You can see all these by clicking here and scrolling down to read our Spring 2021 issue.

Find out more …

Lucy H Smith is a freelance illustrator from Cornwall. Her first published work was a bookcover design for The Bras and the Bees: The Extraordinary Life of BJ Sherriff.

She graduated from Falmouth University with a degree in illustration and now specialises in children’s book illustration. She loves using art to tell stories and bring characters to life, and is greatly inspired by animals and nature.

You can discover more about Lucy by visiting her website and following her on instagram.