Visit the new 'Listener's Corner' to hear a few exerpts from some of my most popular books  
Listener's Corner
 
What were you like at school?

I was shy and not very bright. I travelled in the gleaming wake of an older sister and brother who were both brilliant, so I suppose I was a bit of a disappointment. The teachers (with one exception) certainly made me feel so. You might have thought they would notice that I loved the literature we studied – Keats and Shakespeare and so on – but love did not seem to count for very much.
I had a good time, though, writing stories for my mates and reading them out in breaktime.
 
What did you want to be when you were a child?

A horse. A knight. A North American Indian. A spy.
 
Which three words describe you best?

Forgetful Fantasist – I forget what else.
 
What is your favourite word?

euphonious
 
What makes you cringe?


People explaining jokes .
 
What are you afraid of?

Spiders (and dying, of course).
 

When did you last have a really good laugh?

Watching Daisy lick the dust out of her empty sack of dogfood. You've heard of chicken-in-a-basket? This was dog-in-a-bag. Just a very waggy tail left sticking out.
 
What is your most treasured possession?

A brooch my best friend Emma made me – a silver Peter Pan – when I wrote Peter Pan in Scarlet. I have to wear it whenever I do anything in public. She died soon after, cycling to work, so be careful, everybody on two wheels: the world can’t do without you.
 
What do you do as a hobby?

I write.
 
What do you day dream about?

I have a whole imaginary world I never write about, peopled by all sorts of characters it is good to spend time with.
 
What profession other than yours would you like to attempt?

I would like to be a photographer for much the same reasons that I write – to capture a moment in time and fix it on paper for ever.
 
If you could meet one person, dead or alive, who would it be?

Aphra Benn – a woman playwright in Elizabethan times.
 
What quality do you most admire in a person?

Self-containment – they keep their thoughts and sorrows secret while all about them are prattling on. (oh and I admire anyone who can act or dance, because you always admire most in other people the things you can’t do yourself)
 
What is the most interesting place you have ever visited?

Albania before it opened up to the outside world. There were machine gun emplacements on the rooftops and signs hanging in all the trees saying “Beware of Spies”. Almost everyone on the expedition turned out to be secretly writing a novel set in Albania, me included. (Mine didn’t get published.)
 
What is the best advice anyone has ever given you?

Hitch your wagon to a star.
 
What would you most like to change about yourself?

I’d like to be able to get spoken words out as well as written ones. … Mind you, another good piece of advice I was give was: Don’t apologise for not being able to be someone else.
 
What has life taught you?

Some people are different from the rest of us – and so are the rest of us.
(Clive James said it first, but he’s not wrong)
 
How long have you been a writer?

I’ve been writing stories since I was 8 – so I suppose I’ve been a writer for 50 years. I’ve been getting published, though for only 30 of those years.
 
Was there a specific moment in your life when you decided to become a writer?

No. I thought you had to be clever and go to university to be a writer, so it never occurred to me. Why, am I a writer, then? Gosh!
 
Where do you do your writing?

In bed, if I’m allowed. I used to write in the bath, but now and then the notebook would fall in the water and I would lose weeks of work.
 
What are the best and worst things about being an author?

The best thing is travelling inside my own head to places I’ve never been and doing things I could never achieve in real life; investing my hero/heroine with all those qualities I don’t have; going on adventures without actually getting killed.

What’s worst? Having to get up and talk about it.
 
Where do you get your greatest ideas from?

Snippets of fact I’ve read or seen on TV. Real Life comes up with much stranger scenarios than anything you could invent just sitting looking at the all and sucking on a pencil.
 
What do you do to combat “writers’ block”?

If anyone knows, please tell me.
 
What was your favourite book as a child?

Joseph and his Brothers in Egypt. The illustrations showed men in transparent white skirts with their legs showing. It seemed wonderfully exotic to me.
The Silver Brumby by Elyne Mitchell and Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliffe came later.
 
What book do you wish you had written?

Jeremiah in the Dark Wood b Allan Ahlberg – perfect spacing, perfect placing of the perfect word.
 
What advice would you give to aspiring authors?

Don’t do it unless you don’t care two pence whether you get published or not. That way no one can break your heart by rejecting your work. The joy needs to be all in the writing.
 
What is your favourite book?
As a child I remember enjoying The Ship that Flew by Hilda Lewis as well as horsey books like Silver Brumby and historical novels by Rosemary Sutcliffe. I think now that Alan Ahlberg's Jeremiah in the Dark Woods is literally 'perfect' - not a word wrong, not a comma out of place. My favourite adult books get inside the heads of each character in turn and makes you like and understand every single one.
What inspires you?
I can sometimes work myself into a good frame of mind by going to the theatre. It makes me feel things more strongly and see things in sharper focus. I often also style my characters on actors because real people don't use their faces and voices as much as actors on a stage; they exaggerate movements and expressions in the same way a writer needs to.
What is your favourite place?
Home, definitely, though I do like hot sun and blue-sea-side and bright, bright light. I get gloomy in the winter.
What does Ailsa think of your books?
The first one I remember is the Orchard book of Greek Myths. I didn't really start to appreciate the novels until I was 11 or so. Now I really like the fact that I am the first person to see them. Mum tries them out on me. She even believes me when I tell her what needs changing! My favourites are The White Darkness, A Pack of Lies and Not the End of the World. One day I'm determined to act in one of her plays.
Do you have any pets at home?
Daisy, a Golden Retriever. Until recently we had never had pets - except for fan-tail doves which the neighbourhood cats quickly ate.
What was your favourite subject at school?
English Literature - though it was better at college, where the teachers asked what we thought of the books instead of telling us.
What do you do to relax?
I write. The only time I get really miserable is when I can't get any work done. I only put off working when a novel is proving really difficult and I know the day's writing won't go right.
What ambitions do you still have?
I'd like to write more plays - for stage and radio and schools. Maybe Peter Pan will give me the chance. I'd like to get on a train or Tube or bus and see the passenger opposite reading a book of mine. One day!
What is the recipe for a good story?  
 
 

A time
A place
Not here but stranger
Good girl, bad guy -
all set to do or die - 
some such danger;
dark and light;
day and night;
wrong and right;
black and white;
love that mends
(and maybe magic)
starts and ends,
joyous, tragic:
somewhere
somewhen;
stir once
and once again.

  
 
The Characters
 
  The Villain: Jack - secret name: Ginautibus  
     
 

Jack is 26 years old and lives on Indalia, as does Sleeping. He is described as sinister, dangerous, fiendish, powerful, scheming and angry. However his evil is sometimes hidden by the fact that he can be  funny, unnervingly  honest, and is slightly dinky and pink. His main skill is with a sword.

His line of trade is capturing children but his chief ambition is to kill people (namely the heroine whom he hates most of all. This is because, after attempting to kill her father, he was thrown into prison which he still blames her for). He also plans to capture Sleeping's baby to be an heir for his new evil empire, while Sleeping would be sold on e-bay. His vehicle is a dragononibus, and his lucky mascot is the same. Once, when he had betrayed his dragononibus, he was scratched down his arm, and this scar remains with him to this very day.
     
  He doesn't eat much but he when he does he eats everything; he's an omnivore. However even though he eats little, he is still quite rotund, with a belly made out of a burger. He doesn't have any hair or legs, though as a substitute for the latter he has motorised wheels. He has three arms, one of which is used for hypnotising, the other on his back for waving, and the last is a hook. On each of his hands he has claws. He has vampire teeth, snake eyes, rabbit ears and no nose and wears a clown hat on his head. He also has three tails.
     
The Heroine: Sleeping – secret name: Sleeping Ella Super Princess
     
 

Sleeping is twelve years old, has been twelve for millions of years and will stay twelve forever. She is described as faithful, bold, handsome, brave, clever, sunny and golden.  In short, quite nice. However she can also be ordinary, everyday, a bit timid and boastful. Her main skill is running; she can run up to 100mph. She has a magic hat which allows her to fly and produces a jar of ants as protection from the dragononibus.

She has lots of pets including a turtle, a dog and a small dragon. Despite her love of animals, she enjoys eating live snakes and birds. Her father, who was eaten by Jack’s dragononibus, gave her a box when she was seven and told her never to part with it. Inside was War. She has hair made out of fire, making her afraid of water. She also wears a helmet with horns on, a sword, armour and wings on her leg-armour. She is tall and has four fingers on her left hand. She also works at a nursery in her spare time.
     
The Monster: Dragononibus

The dragononibus lives in the Underworlds and is a ferocious beast, as well as being a father to Jack, who it gave birth to out of an egg dropped from the sky. All of the eggs from a dragononibus hatch into evil people like Jack.

The dragononibus is the size of an elephant and has scales. It has ten scorpion legs and a sting instead of a tail. It also has the mouth of a
crocodile and the fangs of a snake. Its natural colour is blue as it was born in the ocean, however its colour changes when it comes ashore, so as to adapt to its environment like a chameleon.

Its only fear is of ants which can get under its scales and peel them off.

  
     
The Setting
 
The Island of Indalia (a cross between India and Australia):

It is a wild place with no signs of civilisation such as roads, cities or ruins. However it has plenty of lakes, rivers, trees, animals, a big desert, a little jungle and mountains with snowy peaks. It has a nice and hot, yet often stormy, climate.

Sleeping, having received the phone call that told her that her baby had been captured, ran until she came to a fork in the pathway. She was tempted to go left but she realised this would lead her straight to the dragononibus' nest. So she went right, which brought her to a cliff. As she began to climb the mountain using her rope, a huge storm broke out. However as the sun set the weather cleared up and she scrambled up the slippery rocks to a plateau where she was greeted by many snakes and bears, which she managed to outrun. However when confronted by a three-headed tiger with a snake's tail, she had no choice but to overcome her timidity and run straight at it, bowling it over.

Meanwhile, floating on a boat in the middle of the ocean, Sleeping's mother, protecting Sleeping's second child, was attacked by a three-headed shark which began eating through her boat. Sleeping, from her high vantage point, saw everything and was torn between saving her mother and daughter, and rescuing her other child. However in the evening sunlight she notices her shadow, which set off of its own accord to save her mother.

By now it was growing very very dark and soon she couldn't see a thing. She heard the bears, dragons, lions and dinosaurs roaring in the night. She could smell the dinosaur close at hand, with its stench of rotting meat, fish and eggs. When she reached out with her left hand she could feel a sticky slime beneath her fingers and with her other hand she could feel soft rabbit's ears, the cold metal of a hook and as the clouds cleared from the moon, she saw the villain clearly in the moonlight.

She shouted out for help and a dragononibus came to her and ate Jack. She took his hat, and in doing so gained control of his dragononibus and flew away to a beautiful meadow. However she was followed by Jack's shadow whereupon she wished to be good at fighting. Her wish was granted and Jack was bested, though she spared his life and so won his friendship.
 

THE END SONG
 (chorus  only)

HERO AND VILLAIN
MAKING A JOURNEY
THAT’S WHAT THE SOTRIY’S ABOUT.
WHO’LL BE THE WINNER?
WHO’LL BE THE LOSER?
LET’S FIND OUT
(THAT’S HOW IT ALL TURNED OUT.)

 
     
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Geraldine McCaughrean Copyright 2006©

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