Dave Rudden
About Author
Dave is a trained teacher and writer currently living in Dublin. He completed a Masters in Creative Writing from University College Dublin and is represented by Darley Anderson Literary Agency. He regularly performs as part of Dublin's spoken word scene and his first novel The Borrowed Dark will be published by Puffin in Spring 2016.
Interview
KNIGHTS OF THE BORROWED DARK
PUBLISHED BY PUFFIN
APRIL 2016
In KNIGHTS OF THE BORROWED DARK, orphaned Denizen discovers he is part of an ancient army of knights that protect the world by keeping shadows at bay. But keeping the evil Clockwork Three away from humans comes at a heavy cost for the Knights of the Borrowed Dark and Denizen must decide if it is a price he is willing to pay...
We spoke to author DAVE RUDDEN about his debut title that is making waves in the UK and abroad. He answered the following questions for us.
Q: You trained as a teacher, so what was your path into becoming a writer?
A: As a child I was obsessed with stories and I'd go and visit children in the younger classes and tell them stories. As a teenager, I was the only bookish person and considered a bit of a nerd because I liked sci fi and fantasy. I had red hair, glasses and I was on the portly side, and got bullied horribly so I spent a lot of time on my own. I wrote a lot of stories in my head and if we had a writing assignment, mine would always be six pages longer than anyone else's.
I trained as a teacher majoring in English and History but there was a lot of children's literature on the course, too. While I was at university I joined various writing forums and that became my first experience of meeting other writers who were trying to do something I was doing. We wrote a lot of fan fiction and I have enormous respect for anyone else doing that because it's hard to teach yourself plot and character but if you're writing fan fiction, it's like the furniture is already in the room and you just need to move it around a bit. I managed to write an 80,000 word novel but my computer died, with the novel in it.
When I was 25 I did a Master's in Creative Writing at UCD. It helped me with discipline and took me away from sticking too close to writing fantasy because you're persuaded to read other genres. And it helped me to find my own voice - I wrote the first chapter of Knights of the Borrowed Dark on that course, and it's remained virtually unchanged since I wrote it.
Q: What was your starting point for that chapter?
A: When I started it I wanted to address things that I really liked or didn't like about fantasy writing and children's books I'd read. One of the things I run up against is the automatically powerful reluctant hero; the one with a six-pack and lantern jaw, who never lets in self-doubt and who knows how physically capable they are.
I wanted to write more in the line of Buffy, where the heroes just want to be ordinary people but end up doing brave things. So Denizen, my main character, came from that; he is pulled into something and he doesn't know if he's capable of doing what's asked of him. When he does things that are brave or heroic, he's still terrified of what's happening.
Q: How did you go about building the world of the Knights of the Borrowed Dark?
A: On one side, the world was an awful lot of fun to create. As an author, you can just write the world you want to write. I wanted to write something that I'd have loved to have read aged 10 or 11. I wanted to have strong world-building and a magic system that made sense. So in this world, magic and technology don't mix. It also had to be realistic, so things are never as simple as light and dark; there must be shades of grey.
The Knights of the Borrowed Dark are called that for a reason; the darkness has come to them and the darkness is part of them, they are linked to this world. This is seen in the cost they pay for using their powers when they confront the monsters. Physically, it changes them and their skin begins to change to iron. How do you carry on dealing with normal people if you have iron blooming in your face?
Q: Has being Irish influenced what you write about?
A: The Irish have a really rich history of strange and magical creatures. I'm from a place called Cavan and it's very rural. Geographically there's lots of low rolling hills and ring forts left from the Stone Age as well as a tradition of faeries, although these are not benign creatures, they're eight feet tall and steal babies and bring them back 400 years later... We share our landscape and co-habit with other creatures; the Knights of the Borrowed Dark are like the border police between our world and theirs.
Q: In the story, you only have a few knights doing this work. Why have you kept their numbers small?
A: The idea of the knights is not so much that they are an army but a group of individuals; they have their own personalities and styles and even with the cants (magical chants), their own ways of delivering them. Vivian. the leader of this group, is a blunt instrument while Grey dances with his magic.
I wanted a cadre of people who have different skills as well as diversity and an equal gender divide. I also did a lot of research into knights in general from different countries. I didn't want to simply have a knight in armour like a typical Western image of a knight and every region on Earth seems to have its own variant on this idea.
Q: What about your monsters - do you have a favourite? (there are a few to choose from!)
A: Through Denizen, I wanted the reader to meet someone who isn't nice to children - the person who runs the orphanage - and then for them to meet even bigger monsters.
I really, really liked the Clockwork Three. I was bullied really badly as a child and they represent the three sorts of a bully. You just can't reason with the woman in white because you can't appeal to her humanity All three of them just despise everything. I am also terrified of glass and when one of the Clockwork Three, the woman in white, eats lightbulbs, for me that's a real 'yeuch' moment.
I wanted to write villains who are not geniuses or cool; evil doesn't have a flipside to good. They are petty and vicious, and they even hinder their own plans with their cruelty. One of them is redeemable, he still has some humanity and he suffers from their actions. So by doing these terrible things, they are hurting themselves.
Q: Which of the scenes in the book are you happiest with?
A: Emotionally, the scene I'm happiest with is the moment that Grey shoots one of the main characters. Grey is coming apart - literally - and you have Denizen's horror at what he sees is happening to Grey.
It's the part of the book when the characters come apart and then have to pull themselves together again, if they can. Denizen has been through hell but he has to confront what his happening to Grey and deal with it. Yes, he's on a daring rescue and it's full of adventure but it's also a war and in war, people die.
Q: What next for Knights of the Borrowed Dark?
A: Denizen's story is a trilogy. The second book will be called Knights of the Borrowed Dark: The Forever Court, and you can read the first chapter of that at the end of the first book. There are more knights, more monsters, more danger to come...
Q: Are you focused on writing now or do you still teach?
A: I now work as a writer and a storyteller in local schools and libraries. If I can tell a joke and make 100 teenagers laugh, then I tell myself I can cope with being a writer!
I'd love to be a nine to five kind of writer but honestly, I'm more like eleven to four. I try to write 1,000 words a day, five days a week. You find you create all these games to mark your achievements in getting the words down on paper. I also do my writing workshops and I prepare those when I need a break from writing.
I also listen to music while I write, sound tracks by people like James Horner, Hans Zimmer, Hugh Jackman - either very lyrical with no words or narrative heavy like the Mad Max sound track. It's got to be the right note to help me write that scene. I walk everywhere, listening to loud music and turning over plots and scenes in my head.
Q: What would be your dream 'writing shed'?
A: I do my writing in our house or occasionally, in a cafe. But my ideal place to write? An abandoned, renovated observatory on a cliff!
Q: What's your favourite way to relax?
A: I read a lot, it used to be just fantasy but now I read more genres, and I play a lot of computer games. I like games that have a strong story to them. I watch TV and movies, and when I'm feeling energetic I'll run.
Knights of the Borrowed Dark (Knights of the Borrowed Dark Book 1)
