Amy Alward
About Author
Amy Alward is a Canadian author and freelance editor who divides her time between the UK and Canada.
In 2013, she was listed as one of The Bookseller's Rising Stars. Her debut fantasy adventure novel, The Oathbreaker's Shadow, was published in 2013 under the name Amy McCulloch and was longlisted for the 2014 Branford Boase Award for best UK debut children's book. Her first book written as Amy Alward, The Potion Diaries, was an international success.
She is currently travelling the world, researching more extraordinary settings and intriguing potions for the third book in the series.
Interview
THE POTION DIARIES: ROYAL TOUR
SIMON & SCHUSTER
AUGUST 2016
AMY ALWARD is back with the sequel to her bestselling The Potion Diaries, in which Sam helped to save Princess Evelyn from the potion that had made the princess fall in love - with herself.
Now Sam faces new challenges that threaten to overwhelm her family's business, while the life of her much loved grandfather and mentor is also in danger. Add to this an imminent Royal Tour, an incredible boyfriend who Sam has no time to date, and the return of an old foe, and Sam will be kept on her toes!
We were thrilled to be able to put our questions to Amy Alward about THE POTION DIARIES: ROYAL TOUR.
Q: You've taken a 'gap year' to travel. How is it going? Which of the places you've been would you most want to revisit?
A: My travels are going very well! Still have a few more weeks, visiting some bucket list places in Europe like Venice and Pompeii. I would love to go back to the Galapagos: it was absolute paradise.
Q: And which place is definitely going to make its way into future books...?
A: One of the most amazing, rewarding and challenging places I visited was the active volcano Villarica in Pucon, Chile. I think there might be a volcano making an appearance in book three!
Q: Have you been writing future Potion Diaries books as you've travelled?
A: I have! I edited Royal Tour (while on my own tour!), and I wrote the majority of Going Viral.
Q: Were you always going to be a writer? Are you still working as an editor, too?
A: I've wanted to be a writer since I was 15, but I was worried about pursuing it as my only career. Working as an editor seemed like a natural move - and I loved it! I am a full time writer now, but I do a bit of freelance editing on the side.
Q: What would you advise writing teenagers who want to pursue their writing as a career?
A: Always keep writing. It might not be your first book that launches your career (it was my third finished book!) but every word is helping you improve for when you are ready.
Q: When do you do your best writing? How has being an editor of people like Zoe Sugg helped develop your own writing?
A: I do my best writing in the evenings - I don't know why! I think I'm still hardwired to do my creative work after my day job. Being an editor means I'm constantly reading amazing writing, and that's always inspiring.
Q: How did The Potion Diaries come about and what inspired the first book?
A: I was inspired to write The Potion Diaries from Twitter, back in 2010. Someone I follow on Twitter posted a 'word of the day' that was Philtre: a love potion. It's an old English word and I was really intrigued. Immediately I thought about putting a medieval potion into a modern world and I had my two main characters: a young alchemist struggling to find her place in a world that had moved on to new technology and a powerful Princess poisoned by a faulty love potion.
Q: When you started writing The Potion Diaries, did you have the whole series planned?
A: I had ideas for the next two books in the series, but I wanted each book to have a (mostly) completed storyline.
Q: The books really focus on the years that Sam and Princess Evelyn are focused on figuring out who they want to be. Were those the years of your life that stand out the most for you?
A: They were! I spent a lot of time in high school wondering what I was going to be when I 'grew up' and thinking I needed to have it all figured out when I was 16.
Q: There's a lot of focus in the stories on female friendships. How important were your friendships to you when teenaged or, like Sam, were you really focused on developing your skills?
A: Friendships were so important to me - but I was also very focused on school and making sure I could get into the university of my choice. Boys came a very distant third!
Q: The Potion Diaries: Royal Tour takes Sam on a differing 'hunt'. Will her search for a new potion drive each of the Potion Diary books?
A: Yes, each book centres around a particular potion and Sam's quest to find it - or its antidote.
Q: What was it like revisiting your earlier characters in the new adventure, and how did the writing process for this book differ from the first?
A: In many ways, it was like greeting old friends. I've lived with these characters for a very long time so their actions and conversations come naturally to me. That made the writing process for the second book slightly easier, as I didn't have to figure out who the characters were. But they still have the ability to surprise me and sometimes end up making decisions I didn't expect them to!
Q: How do you see Sam developing as a character and why did you decide to write this book solely from her perspective while book one was her and Princess Evelyn?
A: These books are really Sam's story, as she tries to balance many things: old world and new, family and friends, love and ambition. Evelyn's point of view does make a return in the third book though!
Q: We love the old world / modern world balance you have in these books - what is your favourite old world / modern world moment in this story?
A: Oh, thank you! I think my favourite moment is when Sam uses the hashtag #TalentedProblems. I can just see that showing up in the Novaen version of Twitter.
Q: Sam gets to 'meet' centaurs and dragons in this story - which was your favourite to create, and what other mythical creatures haven't we seen yet that you really want to include?
A: I loved writing about dragons, and you'll see plenty more mythical creatures in book three. A little hint, there will definitely be a phoenix making an appearance...
Q: Sam is really ambitious as a alchemist, will you push her hard on this as her skills develop?
A: Oh yes, definitely. She's already achieved a pretty high standard - being the youngest Grand Master Alchemist - but now she has to prove she can handle the pressure of being a full-fledged alchemist, and whether she can reconcile her new position with the modern synth technologies that she's so fascinated by.
Q: What have you got planned next for Sam in book three and where are you in terms of writing / planning the series? Do you know how many books there will be?
A: I'm afraid I can't give too much away! But I can say that Sam will be learning more about her family history while trying to figure out what's happened to the Princess... there's a bit of a cliffhanger at the end of book two but all will become clear in book three. At the moment, The Potion Diaries series is just three books, but there is plenty to explore in this world!
Q: If you could have your own potion in real life, what would it be?
A: I'm not sure about a potion but I would definitely like to have a Transport panel - one that would enable me to travel anywhere in the world in an instant.
Q: What's your favourite way to relax? Can you describe your perfect day?
A: Relax? I've never heard of it! Even when I'm sitting by a pool I'm liking to be found scribbling notes on my stories. But I guess my perfect day would include the following things: a cup of coffee, a pain au chocolat, lots of sunshine, a long walk along mountains and lakes and of course, all with my favourite fellow adventurer, my husband.
The Potion Diaries: Royal Tour
The Potion Diaries
