After gushing about the book, the trailer and the book launch of Black Arts (here), I am positively thrilled to received the authors on the blog today to answer a few questions about their writing.
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Hi Jonathan, Andrew,
Congratulations on your
wonderful book and welcome to Portrait of a Woman!
It was lovely to meet you at your book launch and I devoured the book in just a
few days. I loved how rich, atmospheric and dark the story was and I can't wait
to read the second book in the Books of Pandemonium series!
My first question to you would be: how did you meet and how and when did you
decide to write a book together?
We first met at school: we got to know each other better in our sixth form
English class, and editing the school newspaper together. After school we
went to different universities, but stayed friends, and when we finished we
decided we wanted to write an epic graphic novel that reimagined all of human
history. We got about sixteen pages in until reality intervened and we
had to get jobs. After floating around a bit we landed a very
strange job for an aquarium/sushi tycoon: we wrote dialogue for robots and put
on Nativity circuses in the snow in December, as well as scripting animation
and comics. We learned a lot about how not to do things there. When
we were sacked in one of the blood-lettings that periodically swept the
company, we tried to write comics again. It was then our agent spotted
us. She hinted that we might make better authors than artists, which was
a very wise suggestion. With her encouragement we decided to change our
comic proposal into a novel.
Very wise suggestion indeed! I really loved the book and really liked how you managed to write with one
voice. Writing a book together, how easy is it? Do you split the tasks or
scenes by "specialty" or do you write everything together?
It took us a while to iron out the kinks in the system, but we've been
collaborating on various projects for nearly fifteen years, so we know each
other pretty well.
We don't have specialties - we just split the chapters between us, and
then rewrite each other's drafts. In the end, we've found that writing
with one voice is a matter of bashing each chapter back and forth - like
a long tennis rally. We both have an idea of the tone and rhythm we are
aiming at. It's very hard to get there at first draft, but by the time a
chapter has been swapped seven or eight times, it usually gets the zip and zing
that we are listening for.
That method clearly works! What are the hardest and the best parts of writing a book with another
person?
The hardest part is accepting that one of your treasured phrases or pet ideas
Just Isn’t Right. The best comes when ideas start to spark off each other
– a semi-serious remark by one person gets misunderstood by the other, in a way
that actually makes much more sense than the original . . . and ends up leading
both of you to something great that neither could have achieved alone.
It does sound like you two could invent quite a few things together. When I was at your book launch, you hinted that the story hadn't started
exactly like it is now, what was your initial idea?
We've always been writing about a vast historical conspiracy, magic, and mayhem,
and the book has always been set in the grotty, treacherous streets of
Elizabethan London. The initial plot was a very different beast. There
was more high politics (Sir Francis Walsingham, the Armada, religious
persecution and court intrigue) and the magic system was completely different.
That said, through five major redrafts, we've slaughtered a dozen different
plots, hundreds of characters and millions of words. Their frozen corpses
lie behind us like French troopers on the retreat from Moscow. We
particularly mourn Sir Julius Jamstock, the talking dog from drafts four
through to eight. He was amazingly fun to write.
Well I do hope we'll get to see Sir Julius Jamstock in action in future books. How much research did you do on the period and on magic / black arts in
general? Was being historically accurate an important concern for you?
Real historical detail is usually richer, sicker and more unexpected than
anything you could come up with yourself. A really important change came
when we decided to base the magic in what they actually believed at the
time. We'd been using a completely made-up system until that point, but
the story really came alive when we decided to take on the central belief of
historical renaissance magic – the idea
that you did magic by striking deals with devils.
That said, you don't want to clog up the story by showing off how much research
you’ve done. We try to use real historical details like a spice, adding to
the fun and lending their flavour to the things that we invent ourselves.
Which part of Jack's story did you enjoy writing the most?
Dialogue is always the most fun, especially thieves' cant. Mr Smiles' and
Sharkwell's conversation became a kind of competition between us as to who could
come up with the most elaborate villain-speak.
Dialogues definitely were some of the best parts of the book! Beth Sharkwell is quite possibly one of my favourite characters; she is
strong, passionate and full of surprises. How did she come to life and was she
inspired by anyone in particular?
In some of the earlier drafts we had two female characters – Beth Plaistow, a slightly
priggish sailor’s daughter who hated all thieves, and an older character called
Queen Moll. She was based on ‘Moll Cutpurse,’ a real historical figure from
the early seventeenth century – a cross-dressing, pipe-smoking bandit queen who
once robbed the roundhead General Fairfax on Hounslow Heath. She didn't quite
fit into the final version, so we took what we liked about her and put it all
into Beth – and that was when the character really came to life. Stuck-up Beth
Plaistow became stick-’em-up Beth Sharkwell, thieves’ princess – but still with
a bit of the old Class Monitor, follow-the-rules-or-else quality that we’d put
into the original character.
So now I'm fascinated by Mary Frith aka Moll Cutpurse ' I'll definitely be looking up some books to read on her. What was the strangest idea either of you came up with for the book (which
may or may not have ended up in the final version!)?
In one of the early drafts there was a scene where Jack jumped a galloping
camel (which was on fire) off a cliff to escape from pirates. There was a
football match where the goals were giant wheels of cheese three yards
across. There was a man who had to be tethered by a rope to the ground at
all times, or he'd fly off and hit the moon. There are loads more, but it’s
a little depressing to list them: hopefully we can recycle the best bits in
later books.
A galloping camel on fire? Yes please! You mentioned that it took 5 years for you both to write the book. What did
you learn during those years as writers and what did the story and the
characters bring you on a more personal level?
We definitely thought that writing a book would be easier than it turned out to
be. We learned an enormous amount – much of it through the sage advice of
the editing team at David Fickling Books. Perhaps the biggest lesson we
learned was about consistency. To start with we were trying to do too
many things. The story oscillated between comedy and horror, joke-driven
magic and serious world-building. The result was a mess. We've learned to pare our ideas down, and be much more ruthless. The
book is better for it.
Although this process has been frustrating at times, we're so lucky to be
allowed to do this. Writing a book with your best friend is the best job
in the world.
Yes indeed, sometimes less is more. You are currently writing the second book in the Books of Pandemonium
series, what can you tell us about it? Is it set in the same time period? What
will Jack, Beth and the Intelligencer have to face?
It's going to be immense. Beth is trapped in the eighteenth century – Jack
wants to rescue her from the clutches of the Worst Man in London – but Beth ain’t
so sure she needs rescuing. Meanwhile, the imp is threatening rebellion and Kit
is working on a time-travel scam to become the greatest gambler ever. Oh, and
they’re going to find out who the real bad guys are. We are having so much
fun!
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Wow! That sequel sounds positively awesome! Thank you both so much for answering my questions and good luck with the writing (and don't forget the galloping camel!)!
You can follow the authors on Twitter (@prenticeweil)
