Here you'll find all of G. J. Reilly's interviews with Indie Brag and Layered Pages all in one place.
Please use the index below to navigate to each interview, or why not read them all. Each interview has a back to top button at the end, in case you would like to come back to the index and choose again.
Here you'll find all of G. J. Reilly's interviews with Indie Brag and Layered Pages all in one place.
Please use the index below to navigate to each interview, or why not read them all. Each interview has a back to top button at the end, in case you would like to come back to the index and choose again.
Indie Brag Interview
- June 20 2016
Today B.R.A.G. Medallion Honoree G.J. Reilly is talking with us about his self-publishing experience.
G.J., when did you decide you were going to self-publish?
When I sent out my first manuscript and it took close on a year to receive a reply. Okay, that’s not really fair. A major publishing house had an open submission window for a very exciting new project. ‘Inquisitor’ was barely finished, unpolished and pushed through editing using the bare bones of MS Word. By the time I’d received my first inevitable rejection, ‘Inquisitor’ had changed and evolved and I was so close to it that I really couldn’t tell if I was deluding myself, or whether it was actually worth reading.
I’d had a few beta readers, but nobody who’d ever really written for themselves and, although trusted their opinions and they were very honest, I felt like I needed completely impartial feedback. However, just about every article on the internet was telling me that getting feedback is like winning the lottery on Friday the 13th. So, instead of wasting professional time, I decided to read as much as I could about self-publishing in the hope that readers might leave reviews. It took a long while to decide to push the button on my submission, but, as it turns out, it was the best thing I could ever have done.
What has your experience been like along the way?
It’s been a steep learning curve and very daunting, but incredibly rewarding. As soon as I’d made the decision to self-publish, I ventured into a few of the better known online fora hoping to learn from other people’s experiences. Anybody who’s done the same can tell you, some fora can be downright competitive and some just mildly unfriendly.
However, I managed to find a digital home with one in particular and haven’t looked back since.
I can honestly say that I’ve learned more about writing in the year since I joined the Goodreads Kindle User Forum than I could ever have hoped for. And it wasn’t only about tweaking and enhancing my prose, but cover design and promotion, and even the social etiquette of writing. I know that last part sounds crazy, but it really is a valuable lesson to learn if you’re thinking of associating with other writers, even online. I’ve had ups and downs, as with anything in life, but the experience has been invaluable and it’s something that will stay with me forever.
What are some of the challenges you have faced?
I’ve mentioned the fora and finding a place in the writing community before, but I think the most difficult challenges have been personal – physical and mental. Juggling writing with an average work day and a home life can take its toll sometimes. Not that I would change it for the world, but I’m not often able to start a session at the keyboard much before 9pm, which doesn’t leave a great deal of time if I want to be fit for work the next morning. For me, those extra hours build up over the course of a few weeks and I need to take a break. I think the key to overcoming that was setting a routine that I could follow. These days, even if I don’t hit my word count for the day, I know I’ve put in the hours. It really takes the pressure off.
Mentally speaking, I think the worst challenge so far has been getting past the self-doubt and insecurity. Even before I’d published ‘Inquisitor’ I was comparing it to other books in my genre and wondering how on earth it could hold its own. I’m sure it’s the same for most writers, especially with their first manuscript. Eventually, I learned that I didn’t need to compare my work to others, mostly because readers will do that for themselves. All I can hope for is that the reviews speak for themselves.
What have you learned in this industry?
Patience. It’s the must have virtue if you’re going to survive as a writer and every aspect of the industry requires it.
What are the do’s and don’ts of self-publishing?
DO:
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Dream big. You are the only person who believes in your work 100%.
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Join a group or forum of like-minded
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Ask for advice and decide for yourself which advice to take and which to leave.
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Learn everything anyone is willing to teach, no matter what aspect it relates to, craft or publishing.
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Ask as many people as possible to read your work and give you their feedback.
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Get a website and social media page. Free sites can look just as professional as paid these days. Find the company that suits your needs best.
DON’T:
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Pursue readers for reviews – it’s their prerogative to offer their opinion, not their duty.
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Badger other writers to read your work, most are busy with their own. Ask by all means, but no means no.
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Respond to bad reviews. A reader won’t change their opinion just because you ask them to.
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Pay someone else to do anything you can do it for yourself – cover art, promotion etc.
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Release anything that you wouldn’t pay for yourself.
What advice would you give to a writer who is considering the self-publishing route?
Learn everything you can before you start. Be absolutely sure that the company you’re publishing with is right for your book and never give up your publishing rights.
What are the promotional techniques you use via social media and how much time a week do you spend promoting your work?
I use Facebook and Twitter to promote my work, although I have a Pinterest account for posting book covers as well. I think it’s important not to bombard followers with updates or sales pushes too often, so I try to keep updates to important events such as free giveaway periods or new releases. That’s not to say that I don’t spend time retweeting other people’s messages or talking about other people’s work. Sometimes a little promotion for someone else can encourage them to reciprocate. But with everything else to juggle in a working week, I try to spend around 10 minutes a day on social media – more if I’m responding to a direct message or a post.
So far, I’ve only dabbled with paid advertising through Amazon as I have a limited budget, but I would definitely consider a paid call to action through Facebook next time, just to have a comparison. As for free promotion, giveaways advertised on Goodreads and search-engine optimization have really helped boost my exposure … and that was before IndieBrag!
Where do you see this industry in five to ten years?
I’m hoping to see self-publishing settle into a more manageable industry. At present, there are a huge number of works being self-published every year, as well as an increase in the availability of mainstream books for digital download. Unfortunately, not everything available is of a standard that paying customers expect..
If I had to make a prediction, in five years self-publishing will have seen a decline in sales for quality reasons. However, an increase in groups and companies such as IndieBRAG, who are able to provide readers with some assurances, will help to reform the digital market.
In ten years, I think self-publishing will have reached a point where the majority of paid sales will be of a high enough standard to compete with the traditional market. It’s going to be a long and bumpy road, but I honestly believe that authors who are producing good quality self-publications now will be in a stronger position then.
If something can be improved upon in this industry, what do you think it should be?
Quality. Please don’t misunderstand me, there are huge numbers of great self-published works already available and those figures keep on growing. Then there are the others. Some have wonderful stories and bad covers. Some have amazing covers and terrible editing, and others still try to pass off ten pages of web addresses as guides to self-publishing a best seller. Part of the joy of this industry is that its only restrictions come from hosting companies like Amazon, who aren’t looking for a particular genre or age range, or depend on current reading trends. But with that freedom, we’ve sacrificed the quality of what’s available, meaning that every self-published book ends up tarred with the same brush.
I’m well aware that the digital world is very different from the material one as far as shopping is concerned, but if you bought a bottle of milk, got it home and discovered it was rancid, you’d take it back. There are standards of quality in place for goods we buy over the counter, so why shouldn’t we expect the same digitally, where readers often can’t return a book once they’ve read past a certain point? Better quality controls could help change many readers’ perceptions of the self-publishing industry and help weed out the poorest quality works until they’re truly ready for publication.
How long have you been an indie author?
Long enough to be cynical, but not so long that I wouldn’t at least try the traditional route – if someone were to offer me a contract.
Interview with B.R.A.G. Medallion Honoree G.J. Reilly - June 26 2016
I’d like to welcome back B.R.A.G. Medallion Honoree G.J. Reilly to Layered Pages!
Hello, G.J.! Welcome back to Layered Pages. It is a delight to be chatting with you again and congrats on another B.R.A.G. Medallion. Please tell your audience how you discovered indieBRAG and self-publishing in general.
Hi Stephanie and thanks very much for having me again, it’s great to be back.
I decided to follow the self-publishing route mainly because I was completely new to the industry. I’ve been writing on and off since I was young, but ‘Inquisitor’ was the very first full-length manuscript I’d ever produced. When a friend got in touch to tell me that there was an exciting open submission opportunity a few years back, I jumped the gun a little and sent it out unpolished and unrefined. What really surprised me was how long it went un-rejected! Of course, with the huge number other submissions, I finally received my very first ‘no’ and was surprised to find that it was incredibly polite and sincere. That’s when I discovered the indie writing community. But until I joined the Goodreads Kindle User Forum in early 2015, I had no idea how vast that community was. Well, one thing led to another and I soon noticed indieBRAG’s name on my screen time and again.
After looking at the quality of work submitted by other honorees at the time, I didn’t think that ‘Inquisitor’ would stand a chance of being accepted, so I put it out of my mind. Then, sometime during that summer, another writer friend brought indieBRAG up in conversation again and persuaded me to send my details. So I did. Then I forgot all about it again, so that I wouldn’t be too disappointed when it was rejected.
Well, I’m sure I don’t need to tell anyone who’s received that confirmation from Geri how it feels! Now I visit the site every day just to marvel at the company I’m keeping and to check out the blog and read the interviews.
Tell me about your story, Piper.
‘Piper’ continues the Book of Jerrick story two years from the end of part one. Now a Grand Inquisitor in training (under the watchful eye of the ever-present Mr Catchpole), Tamara learns that Michael is alive and begins to form a plan on how to rescue him from the clutches of the Elder Council.
Meanwhile, having fled from their home at the old Masonic temple, Michael, Anna, and their friends learn that the Flayers – grim, half-dead shadows that lurk in the world between the mirror portals – have been growing in number and that the Piper of legend has returned to settle a score with an old enemy.
When Jerrick is forced to take refuge, things inevitably take a turn for the worst. In his absence, the more militant elders of the Council decide that the time is right to break with their passive traditions and take the war to the Inquisition. Having been ordered to guide a team of would-be assassins back to the academy, events take an even darker turn for Michael, as a heart-wrenching mission becomes a battle for survival.
Please tell me about the new Grand Inquisitor and what is the mood or tone he/she makes and how does this affect the story?
Although Tamara Bloodgood is the new Grand Inquisitor, she is very much the puppet monarch of the Inquisition in Britain until she’s eligible to take up her reign at 16. In spite of the fact that Tamara’s story seems to take more of a backseat in ‘Piper’, she’s perhaps more important than Michael to the tone of the story.
Tamara’s decisions impact the story from the very first page, bringing the Inquisition closer to open conflict with the Council than we’ve ever seen them. Her intentions are absolutely clear and she even goes as far as brokering a deal with the Piper to achieve her goals. Even when she discovers the truth, Tamara’s still intent on the destruction of the Council once she’s rescued Michael from his ‘captors’.
‘Piper’ takes a very much darker, broodier tone than ‘Inquisitor’, but it’s not all Tamara’s fault. It was intended to reflect the changing moods most of us experience during our teenage years. But I didn’t want it to be the angst-ridden melodrama of some other coming of age stories either. Michael’s rite of passage comes in a single incident, where we can tell the kind of person he’ll be later on, but Tamara’s is drawn out for almost the entire length of the book.
Her attempts to break out from under Catchpole’s shadow only serve to draw unwanted attention from some important people. In a way, her drive to succeed forces the magister’s hand towards the end of the book and leads us into the next part of the story. For me, that’s where the most dramatic change happens. I don’t want to reveal the ending, but I wanted there to be an icy feeling to it that reflects what happens to Tamara. Hopefully, readers will feel the full impact of that change in the next book.
Who is Jerrick and what are his motivations?
Simply, Jerrick is the genie of the lamp. His story is a mishmash of the original ‘nights’ legend and the story of Solomon and the Djin (with a few embellishments). Unfortunately, because of the nature of his imprisonment, he decided long before the beginning of the series that he couldn’t lead the Elder Council any longer and now only serves as an advisor.
His motives for everything from the time we first meet him at the end of ‘Inquisitor’ are driven by guilt. To a certain extent, he was responsible for the beginning of the war and for the creation of the Inquisition. When we next meet him, we learn about his part in the Pied Piper’s tale and why he carries a share of the burden for the missing children of Hamelin.
‘Piper’ reveals a little more of Jerrick’s past, and of how a once compassionate idealist becomes the vengeful trickster of many folktales. He’s is a paradox in that his actions seem to be for the good of the Council and for the people he cares for, but his motivation is his own redemption for past mistakes.
Please share with me something suspenseful in your story.
I’d love to, but rather than hearing about from me, here it is:
“Michael closed his eyes again, centering on the Inquisitor closest to him. Extending his will, he let it wander until it met the warrior’s defences, feeling an unpleasant tingling in his brain as he came into contact with the barrier. Tracing the line of the wall upwards until the tingling subsided, Michael pushed his mind over the top until he came into contact with the barrier’s caster. The Inquisitor’s head snapped upwards immediately. The sickening renewed tingling broke Michael’s concentration.
Okay, he thought. I can’t attack, but perhaps I can disarm.
Just as he had done time and again, Michael began to draw on his target’s power. He willed it upwards until the ribbon of energy arched over the Inquisitor’s shield and wound towards him. Risking a glance, he was elated to see that his attack had gone unnoticed. He stopped, knowing her suspicions would be raised if she suddenly ran out of power.
Is it possible to do more than one at a time? Michael wondered.
Stretching out again, he began with the woman and spread his attention to the next Inquisitor in the circle. As both streamers rose, Michael felt a noticeable difference in the ease of his endeavour, but it was still manageable, so he moved on to a third. The tricolour of energy felt like a sack of wet sand on Michael’s mind, and when it reached him, the squirming of it made him blanch. His stomach felt like he’d eaten an eight-course meal, and his head spun from the effort of moving so much weight so far.
It’s just like the trials, he reassured himself. If I can move an anvil, I can do this. What did Rupert say: “let’s kick some serious booty,”?
This time, he took a deep breath and let his shoulders drop. Watching through closed eyelids, he drew on the nearest Inquisitor once more, splitting his attentions in both directions. The weight of it was much easier to bear as he directed the ribbons to a space above the centre of the circle and held it there. Extending his will to the next in line, Michael felt a jolt of pressure as he watched the fresh colours mingle with the others.
By the time he had completed the circle, his shoulders were shaking and sweat poured down his face. He groaned with effort, trying to control the ball of energies that hung in the air above the Inquisitors. Unlike the dull, cold iron of the anvil, the ball felt white hot in Michael’s head, as though he were trying to lasso the sun. It struggled against him, wriggling and twisting in Michael’s mental grasp. At last, he cried out in anguish, shuddering with pain as he let it go.”
(From ‘Piper; The Book of Jerrick – Part 2’; by G. J. Reilly)
What are the mirror portals?
Mirrors have been used in stories for as long as there have been fairy tales; either to see over great distances, tell the future or, most famously, to fuel the jealous rage of wicked queens. But as well as for spying, I use them as doorways that magically interconnect like a vast subway system. The rules for using them are a little complicated, but I hope they’re as realistic as they could be under the circumstances. For example, people can only travel between mirrors they can fit through, so your average car rear-view would be great for putting a hand through to steal something, but no good for travelling from London to Paris. Only highly reflective surfaces can be used for travelling; shop windows are good for spying, but not reflective enough to support a stable connection over long distances. Most importantly, however, the heavier the weight travelling between two destinations, the further apart the portals become, making solo travel almost instant, but group travel a much longer journey.
Will there be another book for this story?
Yes, two in fact: The Cull; The Book of Jerrick Part 3, and the final chapter (no official name as yet). I have outlines for character stories in this universe as well – one for Catchpole and one for Jerrick so far, but I’m planning on a well-earned break in another world before I put pen to paper on those.
Thank you, G. J.!
You’re very welcome, it’s been a pleasure!
Interview with B.R.A.G. Medallion Honoree
G. J. Reilly - March 16 2016
I’d like to welcome B.R.A.G. Medallion Honoree G.J. Reilly to Layered Pages! By day, G. J. is a teacher of (mostly) ICT and Computing in the South Wales valleys, where he lives with his long-suffering wife and 2.4 cats.
He has an eclectic selection of hobbies, from playing a number of musical instruments with varying degrees of competence to learning the art of contact juggling and teaching sword-based martial arts. Having gained his degree, he spent ten years working in industry, before deciding to change career and head into education.
With an interest in high fantasy, contemporary fantasy and science fiction from a young age, it comes as no surprise that his first work falls into the young adult contemporary fantasy genre.
How did you discover indieBRAG?
Before I answer that, I have to say that I count my lucky stars every day that I did!
I’ve been writing seriously since 2009, but I’ve only really discovered the indie writing community in the last twelve months. When I joined the Goodreads Kindle User Forum in early 2015, I had no idea how vast that community was, but one thing led to another and I soon noticed indieBRAG’s name on my screen time and again.
After looking at the quality of work submitted by other honorees at the time, I didn’t think that ‘Inquisitor’ would stand a chance of being accepted, so I put it out of my mind. Then, sometime during that summer, another writer friend brought indieBRAG up in conversation again and persuaded me to send my details. So I did. Then I forgot all about it again, so that I wouldn’t be too disappointed when my little book was rejected.
Well, I’m sure I don’t need to tell anyone who’s received that confirmation from Geri how it feels! Now I visit the site every day just to marvel at the company I’m keeping and to check out the blog and read the interviews.
Please tell me about your book, Inquisitor; The Book of Jerrick – Part 1
‘Inquisitor’ is a contemporary fantasy novel for Young Adults that centres on an ongoing war between two ancient factions.
The night that Michael Ware is born, his uncle is murdered, leaving him a locked leather book that has been fought over for centuries. In the weeks following his uncle’s funeral, the opening of the thirtieth Braxton Academy is announced. To everyone’s astonishment, they say that they are going to offer scholarship places to any pupil able to pass the entrance examination. Unknown to the general public; the academy is a front for a society of powerful psychics known as the Inquisition, who are replenishing their ranks for their campaign against the nomadic sorcerers of the Elder Council. And Michael soon discovers that the truth depends on your point of view and that comfort and opulence come at a heavy price.
Set in and around an alternative, modern day London, ‘Inquisitor’ draws on inspiration from One Thousand and One Nights and Grimm’s Fairytales but isn’t a direct retelling of any of our old favourites. Instead, as a reader, you’ll be immersed in a totally familiar world, yet with some fantastic differences and unexpected twists.
‘Inquisitor’ is a book that I hope readers of all ages can enjoy as a bedtime story or something to take your mind off a tedious train ride to work although it does have a good subtext for people who like to read between the lines. Each book in the series is a snapshot of the lives of the main characters as they live through an ongoing war.
Without giving too much away, the main theme of this first book is deceit. I’m not talking about little white lies; I’m talking about the whopping great lies that fester and, hopefully, readers will enjoy trying to decide who they’re rooting for before the end of this adventure. I want them to feel the indecision that Michael has to live with. Most of all, I want their loyalties to waver from one book to the next.
How did you come up with the title for your book?
I was looking for a title that summed up the mystery of the story in one word. Inquisitor – for me, it’s a word that has a lot of superstition surrounding it and an almost mythological quality that people still recognize (even if they only associate it with a famous Monty Python sketch that nobody expects).
It also conjures an image in the mind of what an inquisitor should look like. Think about it – what image comes to mind when someone says ‘Nurse’, or ‘Bishop’, or ‘Undertaker’? Given the plot, it might have seemed blatantly obvious to have chosen that particular word for the title, but I must have gone through a list of twenty others before I made the final selection.
Who designed your book cover?
I did. Those hands around that big ball of fire … they’re my hands, wedding band and all. Actually, the photograph was taken by my wife (don’t worry, she gets royalties). I’d been trying all day to get into the right pose during the 5 seconds the camera was counting down. 60 seconds in Bec’s hands and I had the perfect shot! Then it took a lot of hours of online tutorials and a great deal of patience with a well-known photo editing suite to get it looking the way I wanted it to.
Tell me about Michael Ware and how you developed his character.
When we meet Michael the most he has to worry about is how he’ll survive the move to his new school. He’s of that age when everything is full of wonder and the horrors of life aren’t something he should be thinking about, but often does.
Since I’ve been teaching, I’ve heard conversations that would raise a lot of eyebrows in many circles. Young adults aren’t just talking about football (both kinds), games and relationships. They’re talking about politics, pregnancy, marriage, education, economy and immigration. They might not entirely understand those issues, but they’re giving them some serious thought. One or two reviews have mentioned that Michael and his friends seem older than the age I’ve put them at, and it’s true to a certain extent. But I wanted to give them the credit that the people I teach often don’t receive.
I didn’t want ‘Inquisitor’ to be a rags-to-riches story, so I made the Wares a middle-class family. To be fair, most of the young people I teach now come from the same kinds of families, with a few exceptions up or down the ladder. I was also definite that I wanted Michael’s family to be alive and as loving as any other. I think it makes him more relatable, especially considering what he’s going to go through in the future. But above all, I wanted him to be the average person, even after his talents are discovered because I find overtly brave or sensitive characters unrealistic.
During his character development, I tried to give Michael an emotional range that would make him an accessible character for both male and female readers. In one scene, we see him break down on Tamara’s shoulder after a heated argument with his best friend. In another, he’s about to profess his love but is stopped before he can. A lot of adult readers will read that last passage in particular and feel that those emotions are too advanced for a twelve-year-old, but young adults are more open about their feelings now than they were when we were their age (with each other at any rate).
Unlike your average teenagers, however, Michael and his friends will have adulthood and responsibility thrust upon them, and their later development will depend on just how vindictive I’m feeling at the time.
Can you tell me a little about how your characters are influenced by their setting?
Certainly. Day to day, Michael, Tamara and their friends are surrounded by wealth and power but are treated very much as outcasts by the rest of the school. Even the staff of other houses at the school look down on Solaris, mainly because the Braxton Foundation pays for the education of all of Solaris’s members. Even Rupert, who comes from a very wealthy family, is bullied for being a Solaris student.
Michael’s personality changes quite dramatically from location to location in the book, but it also depends on the company he’s keeping at the time. At home, he’s as relaxed as you’d expect him to be. He even takes the book out to his best friend’s house in his backpack – something he wouldn’t dare do at school. He’s very secretive about what goes on at the academy, however, but mostly because he and Tamara have agreed that knowledge of the Inquisition could have dire consequences for their families. And you have to wonder whether it’s something they’ve been taught at school, or whether it’s a conclusion they’ve drawn on their own.
Most of us indulge in our need for melodrama from time to time, especially when we’re caught up in the moment. Young people have a knack for seeing wonder around every corner, so I didn’t need to make the academy buildings as special as, say, another recently well-known school for gifted children. We also need to remember that they’re not gifted until they reach the academy. So, instead of the immediate wonder of … the other place, I gave them every luxury. Hopefully, it reinforces the sense of obligation that Solaris’s students feel towards the Inquisition. ‘There’s no such thing as a free lunch’, as they say.
In the Peer Court scene, we get the impression that duty and honour are highly prized at that academy. After all, it’s Michael’s sense of duty that lands him there in the first place, or perhaps it’s the other student’s attitudes towards Michael and his friends that encourage them to look out for each other so fiercely. In the end, though, the academy forces our best friends to grow up prematurely.
When I was editing Inquisitor, one of my biggest concerns was that chapter where Michael visits his sister’s high school. It wasn’t until I’d read the whole book back that I realised how important the chapter was to the rest of the story. We get a glimpse of what could have been – the normality (or perhaps the futility) that would have resulted from his time as a regular teen; even his father’s comments about having to stay late at the office or miss holidays with the family hint to it.
Now, you might think that all of these things have nothing in common. But they make the academy the mysterious, magical place that it is, without giving it paranormal paraphernalia. And ultimately, if we as readers feel that way about the academy, it’s no wonder Michael and his friends do too.
What is an example of Michael and Tamara’s education at the academy?
On the surface, Michael and Tamara’s timetable is like any other school timetable – Math, Science, English etc. But they also have lessons in Lore.
Lore mainly covers talent development. For example, in Inquisitor, Mr Steele (their Lore master) demonstrates his own particular talents – telepathy and telekinesis. But as each pupil’s abilities lie in any of three main disciplines, they are separated according to their strengths for physical training.
Michael and Tamara learn to use their telekinetic abilities in combat, for the most part, learning how to disarm, disable and ultimately dispatch their opponents with the minimum effort- a lot like a martial art. But it isn’t all about the fighting.
In one of my favourite passages of the book, Michael, Tamara and their friends learn about the history of the Inquisition and how their powers came to be. We also learn how Aladdin’s genie was imprisoned in the lamp and how the war began. Most of their information comes from updated versions of Grimm’s Modern Lore, which also helps us as readers to understand more about Michael and Tamara’s world and the magic that exists in it.
Who is Mr. Catchpole?
That’s the million-dollar question! All I can say is that he’s not your usual villain. If anything, I would describe him as chaotically good – or willing to do whatever he thinks is right to achieve peace. His story unfolds throughout the series, and I hope that the more you learn about Catchpole, the more interesting he’ll become.
In fact, he is probably the character I find the most difficult to write. I often find his dialog and sometimes his actions getting away from me, and I have to rein him in again. On the days I struggle to get 500 words onto the page it’s usually because I’m writing Catchpole. It’s like a game of chess. I have to be thinking so far ahead of the story for him while keeping his back story in mind at the same time.
For now, Catchpole’s most important role is to be our anchor to the views of the Inquisition. Without him, I couldn’t tell their side of the story.