Gabriela Houston
About Author
Gabriela Houston's debut middle grade novel, The Wind Child, draws on her Slavic roots to create a magical story of ice and wonder.
Gabriela was born in Poland and raised in a book-loving household on the nourishing diet of mythologies, classics and graphic novels. She had spent much of her early school years holed up in the library and came to the UK at 19 to follow her passion for literature. She completed her undergraduate and Masters degrees at Royal Holloway, University of London.
After her studies she worked in publishing for a few years. She now lives with her family in London, where she pursues her life-long passion for making stuff up.
Interview
The Wind Child (UCLAN)
February 2022
Gods and monsters roam the pages of Gabriela Houston's extraordinary debut, The Wind Child, which takes us an icy landscape where we find Mara, the granddaughter of the god of the winds, and follow her quest to save her human father.
Read a chapter extract from The Wind Child
Enter our Competition to win a copy
Enjoy a reading from The Wind Child with author Gabriela Houston and find out how the Slavic landscapes and mythology have helped inspire her debut novel:
Q&A with Gabriela Houston
1. Have you always wanted to write? How did you begin writing for children?
As a young child I would write poetry, comics scripts and (mostly) the beginnings of great big novels. Finishing writing novels is a skill I have only mastered as an adult, however.
I always knew I wanted to write for all age groups. Funnily enough, I don't set out to write a novel for adults or children, specifically. I start with an idea for a story and work from there.
2. Can you tell us about your children's debut, The Wind Child? How did you plan and write it?
The Wind Child is a Slavic-mythology-inspired novel about Mara, the granddaughter of the God of Winter Winds, who sets out on an epic journey to bring her beloved father back from the dead. It's about loss, friendship, found families, and coming to terms with the families you do have.
I write without planning out the novel in advance. I like to go on the journey of exploration with the readers! Along the way, ideas slot into place and the story arcs reveal themselves.
3. What inspired this story of ancient gods and a quest?
I love the elemental spirits, and the concept of duality. I started with this idea of a child born to two different worlds, who struggles with her identity, and with a lack of belonging. Mara's attachment to her human father is so profound, especially when contrasted with how distant her god side of the family is.
I wanted to explore how a child like that might react to the loss of the one person who gives them that sense of security, of belonging. Mara, though she has no powers of her own, feels that thanks to that other, non-human part inside her, she has access to the invisible spirit world, which might in turn allow her to do the impossible: to bring her father back to life.
4. How much research did you need to do into folklore about these gods before you could start writing The Wind Child?
I read a fair amount on Slavic mythology, and, having grown up in a Slavic country, I have already had a bit of a background that would allow me to create this world that Mara occupies. At the very least I knew what I didn't know, which makes research easier.
5. Who is your favourite from the range of Slavic gods and folklore characters mentioned in The Wind Child?
I have a soft spot for Gamayun, the half-woman, half-eagle. She serves the fates, but she has (in The Wind Child) another role: the guardian of the half-things. She understands Mara's feelings of being unmoored, of not belonging. Unlike many of the gods in the book, she has a real kindness to her.
6. Why did you make your hero, Mara, related to the wind gods?
Winds are changeable, and unreliable. A child needs stability and people who act predictably, and so Mara's god relatives perfectly highlight everything she craves in a family, and they make the loss of her human father even more devastating.
Mara has to learn how to trust, and how to depend on others, and a lot of her journey is about growing to rely on Torniv, who, unlike her mother's family, is endlessly loyal.
7. Mara faces a series of challenges on her quest - did any stand out for you as you wrote the book?
I wanted each challenge and adventure to show us something about Mara and Torniv, and I picked the creatures they face with that in mind. For example, Kania, a shapeshifting demon they meet along the way, targets lost children, and she prays on that need to belong, to be found. That is maybe even especially relevant to Torniv, who is forced to come to terms with how much he really desires to be "found", to belong.
8. Through Mara's journey, you explore grief and bereavement. Why did you want to focus on loss for the novel?
I think loss is an inevitable part of life, and, in the West at least, we don't tend to talk about that much, especially not with our children. But so many children go through the grief of losing their loved ones, whether it's their grandparents or parents. I feel it's important to not gloss over that aspect of life.
In many children's books the heroes are orphans, but their journeys tend to begin after the point of coming to terms with the loss, or those emotions never being touched on. The Wind Child centres that journey because I don't want to ignore Mara's pain, or the enormity of her loss. I want to give it the dignity and the honesty it deserves.
9. Can you tell us a little about the soul's journey towards death that you mention in your chapter headings through the book, which is also a process of grieving?
In some interpretations of the ancient Slavic beliefs, humans have two souls, one mortal, which needs to rest, and one immortal, which longs to be returned to the world. And so, after death, the soul journeys for forty days to Navia, the Slavic afterlife.
In writing the little poems detailing the soul's journey at the beginning of the chapters, I imagined them as a part of some great ancient epic, focusing on the soul's own journey of grief, of letting go.
10. Other than a great story, what would you like your readers to take from The Wind Child?
If all they take from it is that it's a great story, I'm winning already! Asking for more feels greedy!
But really, the greatest hope I have is that people are moved by Mara's and Torniv's journey. I can talk about themes and inspirations, but I don't like dictating to the readers how they should experience the book. I don't feel that's my place. I know what I felt writing it. But I have no real influence over how people interpret it.
11. Will you return to Mara and Torniv's adventures?
I have another book, and another story planned, but I can't say much more than that. I have more to tell about Mara and Torniv, for sure.
12. Will you be returning to these folklore stories for future books? What are you writing at the moment?
I'm definitely not done with Slavic mythologies and folklore. It's my heritage and it has a richness to it that I'm keen to share with the world. At the moment I'm writing an as-yet-unannounced adult fantasy novel, but I'm not allowed to say more just yet!
13. What are your writing hours like? What do you enjoy doing when you're not at your desk?
I have two small kids so I write whenever I can really, mostly when they're at school, but often in the evenings also. I like writing in cafes, as I get bored of working in the same place.
I love nature, and I will happily spend hours walking in the countryside. I also draw and have recently been trying to learn some piano. I'm not particularly musical, but it gives me joy, and that's really the point, isn't it?
The Wind Child
