Week 8: The Next Big Thing

Thanks to Donna Huber (Girl Who Reads) for tagging me for 'The Next Big Thing'!

This is a bit like that playground game Sticky Glue, but without the energetic racing around, which is great at my age. If you're tagged, you're 'it' and you have to answer 10 questions about your WIP (work in progress) on your blog and then pass the baton on to 5 author volunteers who will answer the same questions the following Wednesday on their own blog. And so it goes... 

Below I've answered the questions and linked my volunteers so you can head over to their blogs next Wednesday (22) to read their answers. Hey, it's a Wednesday thing :)

Happy reading...

The ten questions... 

What is the working title of your book?

Kiwi in the Realm of Ra.

Where did the idea come from for the book?

I'm writing a series about a magical black cat who takes her two human friends on adventures. In book one, the children, Amy and James, discover that Kiwi can talk to them. The book I'm working on now is book five. It just needs final editing and a reread, and maybe a chapter added, I think. The Realm of Ra is set in Egypt because it was my favourite part of history when I was at school. History was one of my fave subjects and all that stuff about pyramids caught my imagination. All those gods and goddesses, hieroglyphics and mystery rocked. A totally different world.

What genre does your book fall under?

I wrote the series for readers aged 9 and up, so that's kids, middle grade, YA and, yep, even adults. And it's the fantasy genre as cats can't talk. Alas.

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

Wow. Erm. Well, I guess it would be a cartoon, so let me think about voices for some of them...

Kiwi - voice of Buffy! Aka Sarah Michelle Gellar.

Inspector Furrball - Kirk Douglas. 

Siam - Ewan MacGregor or Jensen Ackles.

I'm so not sure about Amy and James - I can't think of any kid actors off the top of my head!

Amy - Jodie Foster as a kid.

James - a very young Michael J Fox.

Moggie - Meryl Streep.

Delphinius - Tommy Lee Jones.

Bes - Mark Blucas, who played Riley in Buffy - I used to have a massive crush on him! or Will Smith cos he's just brilliant.

Imhotep - mmm, not sure.

Dev - James Marsters, who played Spike in Buffy. He'd have that cheeky, bad guy edge.

So, it's a totally star-studded cast!

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

Magical cat called Kiwi takes friends on an adventure to Ancient Egypt to find the naughty tom cat Dev, who has changed history, before it's too late and she ceases to exist.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

I have a small-press publisher called Inknbeans Press.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

I started it in April and finished at the start of this month (August). Normally, the first draft of a Kiwi book takes me six weeks, but I kept running out of time to write and I had to do a lot of research to make sure I got things right.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

Maybe The Folk of the Faraway Tree or The Chronicles of Narnia, as there are many types of creatures and talking animals, and kids go on an adventure that grown-ups don't know about. I only wish I could write as well as CS Lewis!

Who or what inspired you to write this book?

The idea for the first book in the Kiwi Series, Kiwi in Cat City, came when I was made redundant in 2002, and I had a lot of free time on my hands. It was the first whole book that I wrote and finished. The heroine is based on Kiwi, a cheeky cat I had at the time. The book began with just a description of her and then grew into a world populated by cats. 

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

It's set in Egypt, so if that part of history grabs you, you might like it. Also, I try to make my books funny and add some mystery in there. If you like books starring talking animals, who live their own lives, or if you ever wished you could communicate with creatures, you might like it. Also, if you don't want to grow up and want to go on an adventure in a fantasy world, maybe pick it up.

The Rules for The Next Big Thing...

Answer the ten questions about your current WIP (work in progress) on your blog on the Wednesday, updating the number of the week when you are running it.

Tag five other writers/bloggers, and add their links so readers can hop over and read their answers to the same questions.

In turn, the new five will choose another five volunteers.

And so the chain goes on, hopefully.

Who's up next?

Lauri Fern 

Jacqueline Hopkins-Walton 

Kat Ward 

Jt Sather

Ey Wade 

The amazing Nikki McBroom is creating the illustrations for the Kiwi Series. This pic is from Kiwi and the Living Nightmare. I love her pictures because she totally 'sees' the scenes I write about and captures them, as if by magic.


Thanks for reading and don't forget to check out these five writers next Wednesday!!