What is your favorite (or top five favorite) children's book(s)? By this I mean a picture book or short early reader chapter book.
Honestly, I was reading full on adult novels from at least 7/8 years old. My mum taught me to read by the time I was 2 and I was at year 4 (4th grade) reading level when I started school (at 5, my mum sent me to this pre-school that was 2 years rather than 1). All that being said, I loved the books by Julia Donaldson; the Gruffalo, Room on the Broom, Charlie Cook's Favourite Book etc. Also, bc I'm really boring, the Harry Potter books are up there, especially the Prisoner of Azkaban.
How did you get into writing?
I guess I just started. After sitting through English class after English class and reading so many books, I just wanted to try it out myself. Honestly, I started by writing cringy fanfiction, but now I'm working on two full novel(la)s (not sure how long they're gonna be), so I've evolved from my small beginnings.
What sort of things have made their way into your writing? How and why? (Characters, places, plot points, personality aspects, your likes and dislikes, experiences, etc.)
Right, I've said this a lot before but Starla and Maddie are both heavily based on myself; Starla being the accurate me me, then Maddie is the idealised version of myself, with some small aspect from one of my best friends (looks mainly). That's why I feel pretty confident in writing them, because they're just me, or people I'm close to. I think that helps.
The setting of that story is sort of based on one of the places I plan to look at going to university, which is in the south of Wales. I think even the genre is because I enjoy dystopias so I know them well enough to write them.
The other book that I'm working on, which is kind of hard to explain, is completely the opposite. It's based in a completely fictional place, though still on earth, in the prison then in this horrible game show thing. It's called 10,000 doors and I've done absolutely no work on it except the concept so far. I know that the central character is going to have a dog, because it plays into one of the scenes I kind of have in my head right now. Thinking about it now, I know that some of my fears are definitely going to have a part in this one, because this game show is a way of having your case re-evaluated if you're adamant that you're innocent, but it's got these awful trials. Like it's called 10,000 doors because that's what it is. You've got one key, and only one door has the way out. There's probably going to be a time limit, but each door that isn't the exit has something awful behind it, which is where the fears come into it. I can't really go any further without breaking the rules here on CS bc it gets gory. What was the question again?
Do you have trouble with death scenes?
I am going to have a lot of pain with Maddie's because she's very dear to me but she does have to die, so that the plot can work itself out. Her death is a huge plot point so there's no way around it.
I am going to have to write at least one death scene for 10,000 doors, which is not of a human but an animal so that is going to make it a lot harder for me. Animal death scenes are much more difficult for me, because most times animals are innocent, humans not always, so it's unfair for something innocent to die. But I guess that just enhances the shock of it.
Okay so I keep bringing up my new project (though it's technically an old one bc I've been playing with this idea since befre I even thought of the other one I'm working on). Anyways, I wrote a few passages from it earlier as kind of tests but I reckon they'll be my starting point (even though they're technically from the middle section of the book) and I was wondering what you all thought? I'm going to have to edit a bit to keep in with CS rules as it is a little bit gross, and keep in mind that this was spur-of-the-moment and very much a first draft, but still be as harsh as you see fit!
Door 1
Her hand trembled as she fumbled the key into the lock. The click of the unlocking door felt deafening as the anticipation of what lay ahead amounted to a climax. Her heart was drumming against her chest as the wasps in her stomach swarmed.
“And, here she goes! The first door!”
The commentator was torture; incessant, constant. Like the ringing you get in your ears after a particularly loud concert, but worse. Louder.
The door swung open.
What lay ahead was a never-ending corridor. That’s all Femie could see. On each side, spaced about a metre apart, were doors. Doors, upon doors, upon doors. What’s to expect from a show called 10,000 Doors? Even so, Femie was in awe.
They were all the same. Plain, white panel doors. She knew that behind each of these was a horror she couldn’t imagine, except one. Just one of these was her ticket to proving her innocence.
This, and only this, was the motivation she clung to as she approached the first door on her left. (edits are in italics)
Door 2
She thrust the key into the lock. She stared at it. Hand still trembling, she couldn’t quite find the vitality to turn it.
“Freedom. A chance of freedom,” she whispered and leaned forward to rest her head on the wood. Beads of sweat fell noiselessly to the floor as she turned the key, focussing on every movement.
As the click sounded, the door swung inwards and she fell forward with it.
Femie immediately regretted her actions, as she had just fallen into a room full to the brim with poop. It smelt like nothing she had ever encountered before, even those prison bathrooms. No part of the floor was visible underneath the disgusting mess that was before her. Femie rose to her knees and puked. She didn’t want to know, but she couldn’t help but wonder whether this was of human or animal origin.
The smell was overwhelming so she stood, legs shaking, and pulled the door closed with her. She took the marker from her bag and drew a small dot on the door, so she knew that she had been here before.
Looking down, Femie saw that her clothes were covered in poop, and smelled of it as well, though not as badly as that room had. Deciding not to waste her precious water supply on washing, she turned around and faced a new door.
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