Interview with Sarwat Chadda, author of ASH MISTRY AND THE CITY OF DEATH and ASH MISTRY AND THE WORLD OF DARKNESS

I am absolutely delighted to welcome back long-time friend of the Inkpot Sarwat Chadda, who is the author of the ASH MISTRY TRILOGY, a dark and thrilling MG fantasy that's been described as doing for Hindu mythology what PERCY JACKSON did for the gods of Olympus.

The second book in the trilogy - ASH MISTRY AND THE CITY OF DEATH - is released in the US on 29th October (just in time for Halloween, folks - great creepy read for those who don't like candy!) but those of us in the United Kingdom already know how the trilogy ends because ASH MISTRY AND THE WORLD OF DARKNESS was released here on 4th July (this is where I do a taunting dance of smug satisfaction to the US Inkpot readers - but don't worry, it'll be out Stateside next year).

UK cover for Book 1

The ASH MISTRY TRILOGY follows a normal British Indian teenage boy called Ash Mistry.  Overweight and under-exercised, Ash loves Dungeons and Dragons, computer games and being with his mates.  He hates India.  This is a shame because he and his younger sister Lucky have to spend a summer there with his archaeologist uncle who's carrying out a dig for the sinister Lord Savage.

An accident at the dig site sees Ash infected with a splinter from the aastra of Kali, the dread goddess of death.  He becomes her servant, the perfect agent of death, just as the world needs him.  For Lord Savage has dark plans for the world, plans that involve demons and demon kings, past lives and deadly futures ...

In this interview, my questions are in bold and Sarwat's answers are in italics.

I was at the UK book launch for ASH MISTRY AND THE CITY OF DEATH where you spoke about how the lack of Asian superhero characters and your love of Hindu mythology were both big inspirations for the ASH MISTRY TRILOGY.  Did you have a lightbulb moment when you worked out how to combine those two elements or was it a process of evolution?

I have my old notes so I can see the evolution of the idea from some generic supernatural detective story to something based on Indian mythology.  Then, the more I thought about the Indian setting, the more it just seemed RIGHT.  There was an insane amount of material.  You have the terrain which covered the Himalayas to the desert to ancient cities filled with temples to cyber-cities of the 21st century.  There was unbelievable wealth and extreme poverty and the conflict between an amazingly structured and traditional society trying to play catch-up to become a superpower.

The levels of conflict and contrast were so extreme, it was perfect.

What ended up in the trilogy is just a fraction of the brainstorm that happened at the beginning.

Interestingly, the Asian protagonist came a little later, and I'll be honest, I did have my concerns about the appeal of an ethnic hero and if it would end up being side-lined because people might think an Asian writing about an Asian set in Asia might end up having niche appeal.  Then I realised life was too short worrying about such things and just went for it.

US cover for Book 2

Your first two books were YA fantasy and ASH MISTRY is a middle grade trilogy.  Does the age group of the intended audience affect what you write and how you approach your writing?  I'm specifically interested because there are some spectacularly dark moments in the books (especially in ASH MISTRY AND THE WORLD OF DARKNESS, which had some scenes where I had to put it down and make myself some tea before coming back) and I was wondering how you came at that?

When I wrote DEVIL'S KISS I wasn't part of the publishing world and didn't know what YA was.  So when I wrote my first book I just had the idea that the heroine, Billi SanGreal, needed to be 15 based on parental and physical needs.  That's the age where you decide what sort of adult you'll be and the age when the scales fall from your eyes regarding your parents.  You start to see their flaws and, at one level, cannot forgive them for not being perfect.  Plus Billi's a highly trained warrior, so needed to be that much older so that it seemed believable she could kick ass so hard without having supernatural powers.

Those were the issues I wanted to bring out in my first series.  It was what it was.  The whole YA thing came up well after it had been written.

The ASH MISTRY TRILOGY wouldn't work that same way as my hero needed to be basically a bit crap.  That seemed to work for someone younger.  But he inhabits the same world as Billi SanGreal, so there was going to be a certain level of horror.  And let's face it, it's called THE WORLD OF DARKNESS for a reason.

Finally, regarding the issues with what is YA and MG, I really don't care.  It's just another form of age-banding which, frankly, was a stupid idea in the first place.


To paraphrase Doctor Who, I think a thousand reader advocates just punched the air and said "YES!".  [/grin]

Without going into spoilers, you really explore the different elements of Ash's character in ASH MISTRY AND THE WORLD OF DARKNESS.  Do you find that your characters are shaped by their choices and events as you write them or do you map out your characters in advance so their characteristics shape how they approach events?

UK cover Book 3

Oh, it has to be both.  I do believe in plotting and do plot quite detailed outlines but am always happy to go off piste if something better comes up.  Ash evolved over several drafts and with help from my editors.  The ending of the series was about enlightenment, what Ash realises about the nature of life and was heavily influenced by my mother's passing.  None of that existed when I first set out on writing the story.  The strain of mysticism just grew and Ash along with it.  In the end all my stories have had some religious aspect and that spills into the books whether I plan it or not.

The past lives were an interesting way of exploring Ash.  What is immortal about humanity?  Do we have fundamental, unchangeable values?

Who's your favourite character in the books and why?

Ash, obviously!  Firstly, he gave me all of history to play around with.  Plus it was great fun watching him develop.  It's been a great journey.

Close second (very close) is Parvati.  She made a perfect foil to Ash and there was an interesting twist with her being half-human, half-demon and not sure which side to be on and not having either side trust her.  One of the unexpected plot twists was her rise.  I never expected that!

The villain of the trilogy - Alexander Savage - would make my top 5 Evil Git List.  Just when you think he won't stoop any lower, he finds new despicable depths to plumb.  What makes a good villain?

Belief.  The villain must believe in his cause.  This is something I worked on in all my villains.  They all, very sincerely, believe they are making the world a better place.  They just need to get rid of the undesirable elements.  The best way to view the villain is as someone who could have been the hero but had just one flaw too many.

That's why the relationship between Savage and Ash is quite close.  Savage sees a lot of himself in Ash and he's not wrong.  It's just that Ash has restraint.  He's able to control his darker elements.  Savage surrendered to them long ago.

US cover Book 1

What are your top 3 tips for anyone out there looking at incorporating mythology or religious elements into their fiction?

I really believe in research.  I've read too many books where the writer just didn't know what they were talking about.  Sadly it's still an issue with children's and YA fiction.  It's lazy and insults the reader.  Firstly, if you are going to deviate from the standard text, do it because you choose to, not because you didn't know.

Secondly, only work on something you love.  That applies to everything in writing.  Try your best to ignore the market.

Lastly, develop a thick skin.  Someone, especially if you're dealing with religion, will take offence.  Ignore them.

Great advice and thank you so much for taking the time to stop by!

In the United Kingdom, the entire ASH MISTRY TRILOGY comprising:

- ASH MISTRY AND THE SAVAGE FORTRESS

- ASH MISTRY AND THE CITY OF DEATH

- ASH MISTRY AND THE WORLD OF DARKNESS

are available from Amazon, Waterstones and all good bookstores.

In the United States, ASH MISTRY AND THE SAVAGE FORTRESS is available to buy and ASH MISTRY AND THE CITY OF DEATH is available to order from Amazon, Barnes and Noble and all good bookstores.

Sarwat Chadda and Book 1!

Interview with Mo O'Hara, author of MY BIG FAT ZOMBIE GOLDFISH

Behold!  The cover!

I am thrilled to introduce to the Inkpot Mo O'Hara, who is the author of MY BIG FAT ZOMBIE GOLDFISH, which is a hilarious comedy fantasy for readers aged 7+ and has been described as a cross between SHAUN OF THE DEAD and FINDING NEMO but for kids.  MY BIG FAT ZOMBIE GOLDFISH was released in the United Kingdom on 28th February 2013 and will get its US release on 9th July.  A sequel cunningly entitled MY BIG FAT ZOMBIE GOLDFISH - THE SEA-QUEL is released in the United Kingdom in July 2013.

MY BIG FAT ZOMBIE GOLDFISH tells the story of Tom, a young boy who discovers that his evil older brother Mark has brought home a goldfish to conduct horrible experiments on.  When he dunks the goldfish (called Frankie) into a toxic brew of his own making, Frankie dies.  Mark uses a battery to zap Frankie back into life but now Frankie has magical hypnotic powers and he wants to get his revenge on Mark ...

In this interview, my questions are in bold and Mo's answers are in italics.

Hi, Mo, and welcome to the Inkpot!

You pretty much had me with the title of your book.  Where did the idea for a zombie goldfish come from?  Are you a fan of zombies generally and what do you hope that Frankie the zombie goldfish brings to zombie mythology?

It's weird.  When I was first writing the book the working title was 'FRANKENFISH'.  Then after the first few chapters I fell for the title MY BIG FAT ZOMBIE GOLDFISH and I think it really suits the book.  You know what you're getting with a book titled MY BIG FAT ZOMBIE GOLDFISH.  It's not heavy, it's not erudite but hopefully it's flipping funny (sorry - fish puns just roll out unexpectedly).

I am a fan of all things fantasy and sci fi really.  I'm not necessarily a horror fan so the really gruesome zombie films aren't my thing.  I do love 'B' movies though and old horror films, so old zombie flicks were definitely more ATTACK OF THE KILLER TOMATOES than NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD.


I love the fact that Frankie has hypnotic powers and can take control of people and you have a lot of fun with this in the book.  Did you have definite rules in place for what Frankie's powers were and how far they went and are you going to explore this more in the coming books?

Yeah, so in my mind there are two types of zombie: 

1. the body-parts-falling off, brain-eating, virus-passing zombie; and 
2. the hypno powers, rise from the dead, trance-like zombie. 

I'm more into the second kind (although the brain-eating kind (although the brain-eating kind have their great moments too).  I always thought the Haitian voodoo kind were much more interesting.  In the book I did have definite rules as to how Frankie could zombify people and what he could make them do.  Obviously when you have a 4-inch goldfish it's kinda important to have some way of getting other people to do your evil (or not-so-evil) bidding.  I like the idea that he hypnotises a toddler to take him around and fight for him too.  Sami (Ed - the aforementioned hypnotised toddler) and Frankie as a dynamic duo just cracked me up from the start.  In the second book we discover that maybe other animals can have this hypno power too.

Mwhaa haa haa haa!

Eek!

Central to the book is the friendship that Tom has with Pradeep and how this extends to include Frankie.  Where do you start when you're constructing those friendships and how much of it starts off on the page and how much is achieved in editing?

I think friendship and sibling relationships are completely central to this book.  At aged 7, 8 and 9, kids are forming really important friendships and those friendships are tested constantly.  From the beginning I wanted Tom and Pradeep's friendship to be strong.  They both had really clear voices in my head and all the quirky plans and secret codes that they have seemed like a good way to show how close they are.  

I think the editing made the relationships stronger.  It made the whole book stronger really.  Sam Swinnerton and Emma Young, who edited book one, both have wicked senses of humour. So that meant that we were all going for the funny all the time, but they never let me slide over the edge into cartoon.  Tom and Pradeep always had to be real kids in my head and on the page.  And I think they are still.  I'm not working with Rachel Kellehar on book two and she is fantastic at bringing the friendship to the forefront of the story.  And it's even more important in book two as Tom and Pradeep's friendship is really, really tested to the limit.


Tom and Pradeep both have evil older brothers.  Very evil.  Did real life influence this at all and why do you think that sibling rivalry plays such a big part in fiction for children?

Mo O'Hara

Again, I would like to say for the record that my big brother is not now, nor has ever been evil.  Now my brother and I can sit and talk about Dr Who for hours on end and we did the same as kids but we also fought.  I think that's pretty normal for siblings.  My kids can be the same.  I remember my daughter described how she felt about her brother when she was about 6-years-old as "loving him I guess but in a not-liking-him kind of way".  Again they can play for hours and then fight like banshees.

A friend of mine asked me if I was dealing with some major sibling rivalry issues myself in writing this book.  All I can say is that anyone who has a big brother or sister knows that evil is in the eye of the beholder.  I think that sibling relationships are big in fiction in general, not just kids fiction.  It goes right back to Cain and Abel.  They are some of the most influential relationships that we'll ever form and the roles we play in our families affect who we form relationships with as adults and how we function in those relationships.  It's a big area to explore.  For kids too it's an area that they don't have control over as well.  You can't just not see your siblings.  You are with them all the time so it makes for interesting conflict and drama.


What was it that drew you towards writing for younger children (i.e. those aged 7+)?

The voice in my head for Tom was a 9/10 year old boy so that meant the book was going to be for the 7 - 10 age group.  I don't know whether I'll stay writing for this group or expand into writing younger or older fiction.  I have some ideas for middle grade books and for picture books too.  I do know that I really like talking to kids in that age group.  Doing school visits for them is a blast.  I love it!  They are independent and articulate about what they think and what they want but they aren't jaded or cynical yet.  You get all the creativity bursting out without all the self-censorship that follows so quickly when they group up just a bit.  Don't get me wrong - I've met some fab cynical snarky 12-year-olds and some super sweet crazy 5-year-olds but maybe mentally, I'm stuck at age 9 myself.

Ah, yet another question for my therapist ...

Illustration by Marek Jagucki

The illustrations by Marek Jagucki are absolutely awesome.  Did you have any input into them and do you have a favourite?

I love Marek's illustrations as well.  And the kids REALLY love them!  When I go to schools they all show me their favourite ones.  My personal favourites are the zombie dinner ladies in story two of MY BIG FAT ZOMBIE GOLDFISH and the MISSION IMPOSSIBLE-style bathroom escape plan in story one of MY BIG FAT ZOMBIE GOLDFISH.  It's the pigeon on the ledge that sets me off.  He's a genius.  In fact, I'm going to write a spin-off for that pigeon sometime.  

As far as how much input I had it varies.  Some of the illustrations that are jokes are based on illustration notes that I had in the text (about one or two per chapter I guess).  But then Marek also illustrated other bits of the story.  The editor gave him notes on which bits of the story she wanted to have illustrated and then he just put his own extremely funny sense of humour into overdrive and came up with some hysterical stuff.


I happen to know that you're a comedy performer and actress in real life.  Does that make it easier for you to write humour for kids and do you have any tips for writing humour that you'd be willing to share?

I don't know if my performing makes it easier to write but it probably means I'm a harsher critic of my own work.  I always read my stuff aloud (even at the first draft stages) to see if it sounds funny and sounds authentic.  I think the biggest tip about writing comedy is that it has to really, really, really crack you up if it stands a chance of making anyone else laugh.  Most of the comedy in MY BIG FAT ZOMBIE GOLDFISH comes from Tom's take on things and his voice.  You also have to pick and choose when to be funny.  Sometimes, you have to sacrifice a small joke because it ruins the run-up to a bigger payoff.  I always have to stop myself throwing a joke in the middle of an action scene too.  (Well, sometimes I let myself do it if it's a really good one).

I think writing humour for grown-ups and for kids is only different in the following ways:

1. Kids want really funny not moderately witty or whimsically amusing.  They want to laugh.
2. You can use curse words when you write for grown-ups but you can make up words when you write for kids, which is usually way more fun.
3. For better or for worse a kid's response is more honest and immediate than a grown-up's.  They aren't laughing because they feel they ought to.  If they don't like it, they'll let you know.  If they like it, the sound of a kid cracking up controllably is probably the best sound in the universe.

MY BIG FAT ZOMBIE GOLDFISH: THE SEA-QUEL is due out in July.  Can you give us a taster of what to expect?

Well it's a Sea-wuel because Frankie gets his first taste of the big blue sea when the families take a trip to a lighthouse.  If the series is FINDING NEMO meets SHAUN OF THE DEAD, then this story definitely has a dash of SCOOBY DOO thrown in too.  In the second story, Frankie steals the show in the school play.  This except is taken from Chapter One of story one:

"Pradeep, Sami and I all craned our necks to look.  The lighthouse was tall and white like a swirly whipped vanilla ice cream cone sticking up out of the sea.  That is, if swirly whipped ice cream cones had giant lights at the top of them.  It jutted out into the bay so the water lapped against it on three sides.

Mark sat slumped in the back of the car behind us, flicking through Evil Scientist magazine.  This month's cover feature was called, 'How to Take Over the World in Ten Easy Steps'.  He had his earphones in and didn't even look up when Dad spoke.

 'It's awesome, Mark.  An actual lighthouse,' I said to him.

Mark shot me an evil glare.  'There is nothing awesome about this moron-fest holiday.' He pulled his hood up over his head.  'You losers have made this the lamest trip ever.' 

The cool box that was under Sami's feet started shaking.  I lifted the lid to investigate.  The eyes of Frankie, my zombie goldfish, glowed green as he batted cans of coke against the side of the cool box with his fins.  He must have heard Mark's voice and gone all zombie mega-thrash fish." 

Awesome!  Thank you so much for sharing and thank you also for stopping by the Inkpot!

MY BIG FAT ZOMBIE GOLDFISH is available in the United States from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and all good independent bookstores.

MY BIG FAT ZOMBIE GOLDFISH is available in the United Kingdom from Amazon UK, Waterstones and all good independent bookstores.

MY BIG FAT ZOMBIE GOLDFISH - THE SEA-QUEL is available for pre-order fromAmazon UK and Waterstones.