with Susan Kaye Quinn and Kim Batchelor
Sue: I love the forbidden science! Nice.
Kim: How do your characters combine the two?
The Island of Lost Children
Writer of magical realism and other imaginative fiction
Sue: I love the forbidden science! Nice.
Kim: How do your characters combine the two?
The Island of Lost Children
Heather Killough-Walden counts 6 series and trilogies and multiple books within each of these in her body of work as an independent author. I got to know her first Neverland book while researching the market for my own book, The Island of Lost Children , based on the Peter and Wendy story. Heather’s Forever Neverland is for young adults (YA) while I intended my book for middle grade readers. I enjoyed reading her modern take on the story, with Peter on a motorcycle and Wendy and her brothers dealing with the aftermath of their time with him.
Heather and I are visiting in a virtual Victorian parlor something like this one drinking hot Irish Breakfast tea (Heather’s with soy milk) and nibbling on sugar-free dark chocolate bars. Come and sit down, have a cup, and listen in on the conversation.
Heather’s latest book in the series, Beyond Neverland, is available on Amazon.
KB: You have an impressive body of work—series on werewolves and warlocks and other beings that lurk in the night. I understand that you started with a vampire series and your writing career took off from there. Where did your original vampire(s) come from?
HKW: I fell in love with The Count from Sesame Street when I was very little. My fascination with the night-dwelling be-fanged just grew from there.
KB: What I like to focus on in my blog conversations is exploring what inspires us and where our imaginations take us. What would be the most interesting inspiration you can describe for any of your numerous books/characters/settings?
HKW: Well… I’ve been all over the world, but I guess there’s no place truly as interesting as a person’s imagination. My dreams give me a lot of ideas for characters. Sometimes inspiration just strikes out of the blue, with no provocation. Music can also trigger images, as I like to create music videos in my head when I listen to songs. I was listening to Mitternacht when I saw Roman D’Angelo for the first time – gracefully hacking and slashing his magnificent vampire way through his enemies to reach the throne he occupies now.
KB: I’m interested most of all in your two Neverland books: Forever Neverland and Beyond Neverland, which you recently released. What sparked your interest in re-imagining that story?
HKW: I’ve always felt unsatisfied with the book. I felt as if it opened a door and then wouldn’t let anyone through. It was full of possibilities left unexplored, and fantastic things undiscovered. Especially when it came to Hook. I had never in my life read a more two-dimensional character. I very much felt there was so much more to him than, sadly, because of the way the book was written, anyone even cared to learn. And then I saw the 2003 production of Peter Pan with Jason Isaacs, and that sealed it. It was time for me to tell Neverland’s real story.
KB: How did you decide to age and “modernize” those characters?
HKW: You write what you know. I didn’t live in Victorian times and I had no desire to reawaken the overly romanticized version of them – they were anything but romantic, after all. They were misogynistic, ignorant, disease-ridden, and backwards. So I brought the characters into a time where they could fully develop and then I sat them down and said, “Okay. Tell me your stories.” And so they did. Hook’s was especially gratifying.
KB: One of the most compelling aspects of your book—and this is something that struck me after I finished reading it—is how Wendy’s storytelling is being stripped away from her. I find that aspect of the story powerful and incredibly tragic. So Wendy’s “story inspirations” (Peter, Hook, etc.) rescued her. I’d like to hear your thoughts on that aspect.
HKW: It’s exactly what you said. Society attempts to strip away the magic from us, the imagination. The result is a kind of death. This happens to millions of people every day and no one gives a thought to how tragic it truly is. I wanted people to see it – and understand it. Fortunately for Wendy, her imagination was strong enough to step in and save her.
KB: I realize after reading your work how Wendy’s storytelling ability has mostly “flown” under the radar.
HKW: There are so many talented people out there whose stories will never be read due to the circumstances of how our literary society is set up. Traditional print publishing made it next to impossible. EBook reading devices made it a little easier, but now that market is so flooded, all of those truly talented people are drowning in a sea of people who think they are talented but perhaps are not so much. So the result is the same. Thousands, if not millions, of magical imaginations go unnoticed. I just wanted to shed light on one – just one – and hopefully help some readers to comprehend that if Wendy’s stories are never heard by society, then maybe there are others who aren’t being heard? Perhaps we should attempt to listen a little harder?
KB: Given that Kathy Rigby is still touring in Peter Pan, what do you think makes this story so compelling?
HKW: Well, to be honest, I can’t see the appeal in a woman playing Peter Pan. At all. However, I think just about everyone sitting in the audience has experienced the desire to fly. All it takes is faith, trust, and pixie dust, right? Who wouldn’t get on board with that?
KB: What would your Neverland look like?
HKW: If you’ve read the book, then you know. (smiles) But if you’re asking me what my own fantasy world would look like… wow. I’m afraid even I am not a good enough storyteller to convey such wonder.
Jay Noel: After doing some freelance writing and editing for more than a dozen years, Jay decided to stop procrastinating and pursue his dream of being a novelist. He’s been blogging since 2005. Jay spends his days working in medical sales, but he can be found toiling over his laptop late at night when all is quiet. He draws inspiration from all over: H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, Shakespeare, Ray Bradbury, Douglas Adams, and Isaac Asimov. You can find Jay at his website.
SM Blooding lives in Colorado with her pet rock, Rockie, and Ms. Bird who is really a bird. The guitar and piano have temporarily been set aside. She’s learning to play the harmonica. The bird is less than thrilled. Her real name is Stephanie Marie (aka SM), but only family and coworkers call her that, usually when they’re screaming at her. Friends call her Frankie. You can find out more about her and her writing at her website.
You can’t see me right now, but I’m 5’1. My hair is “platinum” rather than Marilyn-Monroe-blond. I have never worn food, although I once saw a meat dress in the Musee George Pompidou in Paris. Close enough.
Two things: I like to make things up. And I like to inhabit characters in my mind. I’ve been doing it for years. I started early, daydreaming in class. Slipping into my room after school to write volumes based on the characters I imagined into being. Wearing out my poor little typewriter, one spool of ribbon after another (remember ribbon?), telling their stories. Wearing their joys and sorrows and their experiences in the worlds I also invented. It never stopped.
Many say that real writers have to write. We can’t stop ourselves. But isn’t it more accurate that we fiction writers have to tell stories, and that in the process of telling stories, we have to tell the stories of those people we’ve made up?
(Excuse me for a moment. I have a dance number.)
I’m back . So if I were to write a novel based on a tall golden-haired singer with heavy makeup I’d be right there in her head, even as she walks down the street and people stare at her and whisper to the people walking next to them. Then the threatening message is left on my car and I’d realize that the note is not meant for me but that I have to warn the intended target who is performing that night in a meat dress at the local music venue.
Try this at home. Anyone can do it. You don’t have to write it down.
I have to duck out now. Someone who looks just like George Clooney is waiting for me. And, by the way, don’t worry about correcting those people who think I’m Beyoncé. I get that a lot.
It appears in those moments between waking and sleep. Or slips into a dream. It lurks in the shadow of a corner. A brief conversation overheard gives it a voice. A man sitting alone on a bus wears it. A woman’s face behind heavy makeup shouts it into being.
A story.
Some say that writers write because they have to. I believe that writers write because they have stories that have to be told. And they can’t stop themselves. Those stories that gnaw at me are why I set aside time every day to put words to paper. Writers have to write down those stories that dredge emotions from us, scenes that make us cry, relationships that make us laugh, and, often, situations and conditions that provoke in us rages small and large.
When I decided I wanted to post regularly, to communicate with my readers—current and future— I didn’t want to talk about myself (although I’m sure one might find my ramblings profound and scintillating and, frankly, life-altering to the point you will never be the same). Instead, I want to know what forms the fuel of inspiration and imagination plays in the creative process by talking to a range of people with ample imaginations. Okay, occasionally I may indulge in sharing my own ruminations. But mostly I want an excuse to hear from creative storytellers, in all the forms their storytelling takes.
The blog is represented by this photo of the “Harvest Moon” originally posted on Facebook by Anna Maria Gardner. This and two other of Anna’s photos inspired me to want to ask her about how these photos speak to her differently than they speak to me. One of the photos inspired a story I’ll be posting on the web site for my children’s book, The Island of Lost Children. There you’ll find the occasional “Five Minute Bedtime Story” as well as blog posts from the characters in the book. I’ve already approached a couple of writers, one of whom draws from the same source for her material as I have, but who approached it in a very different way. I have in mind a new animator who just revealed a very funny project. And songwriters.
Most of all, I want to have fun and occasionally be moved. And, yes, even inspired. So join me on a flight to the moon of harvesting stories every week or so. Who knows where we’ll end up at the end of the flight.