Your debut novel, The Inner Channel, is out this month. Can you tell us a bit about the story?
The Inner Channel is the story of Adrienne, who is forced to go on a journey to seek help after her home is ransacked by strange travellers. On her journey, she meets the Keepers, who are the protectors of the Inner Channel, the force that holds her entire world together.
Soon, Adrienne realises that her fate is more entwined with that of the Channel than she realises, and by the end of the first book, she finds she has barely scratched the surface of all its secrets!
Who is the book for?
The story is an epic fantasy set in an ancient world but with hints of sci-fi. It’s a young adult novel but I hope it will be a book for anyone of any age who loves an adventure story – the YA branding has never stopped me before!
Is the main character, Adrienne, based on anyone you know?
Adrienne is 17 years old, and she is forced to grow up after a huge life event irreversibly impacts her life. She hasn’t quite decided who she is and she isn’t aware of her own abilities. The character isn’t based on anyone I know in particular, but in a way, she is inspired by a lot of women I’ve known who have gone through a version of this.
How is the world you’ve created similar to our world?
Adrienne’s world is an island nation that isn’t too dissimilar to ours in its politics. As far as the magic goes, I love stories where you don’t see the magic as supernatural, like The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley or The Name of The Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. In the world of the Inner Channel, the characters accept the magic around them, though not everyone can explain to you how it works. In our world, you wouldn’t call the internet, TV or even an aeroplane magic, but if you showed any of those things to someone from 200 years ago, I’m certain that they would!
Why do you love fantasy fiction?
I love classical stories where the characters are based somewhere seemingly far away but the themes explored in the story feel universal. You get to freely explore the ideas in the story without projecting them onto what you already think you know. The entire spectrum of fantasy and sci-fi goes one step further, pushing things to extremes so that we can see the consequences of our choices.
I recently listened to an episode of my favourite podcast, Sentimental Garbage, which talks about video games from the 90s like Zelda, and why they became ‘girl games’ (as if that’s a bad thing!). The crux of it was that in real life, you can’t just go out into the forest to fight off bandits or fight a dragon, and you can’t just take off on an adventure at will! For someone living in the modern world, there’s something very freeing about escaping into a world where you can…
Who are your favourite female fantasy writers?
At the moment, I’m reading a lot of Robin Hobb. In terms of YA, I think The Hunger Games books are really worth a read (even if you’ve seen the movies already!).
Speaking of which, you were longlisted for the Merky Books New Writers’ Prize – a prize for underrepresented writers set up by Penguin Random House & Stormzy! How was that?
Oh, it was brilliant! Everyone at the writers’ workshop was incredibly talented. It was humbling. Most people don’t realise this, but manuscripts will usually get rejected multiple times before ever being published. Enterprises like the Merky Books New Writers Prize are making it easier for writers to progress who would normally find it harder to get noticed.
What’s next for the Inner Channel?
I’m already at work on the next two books, so watch this space!
