Sheila O'Flanagan
About Author
Sheila is an ex-bond dealer and financial journalist whose novels have all been immediate No 1 Irish bestsellers. Sheila also writes a weekly column for the Irish Times. Her books have been described 'as necessary to women as chocolate, and just as addictive!'
Her last three novels have sold in excess of 1,000,000 copies in their British editions. With each publication she breaks her record of weeks at No 1. She was the recipient of the prestigious Irish Tatler Literary Woman of the Year award in 2003.
Her first move into YA fiction was with The Crystal Run published by Hodder Children's Books.
Interview
THE CRYSTAL RUN
HODDER CHILDREN'S BOOKS
MAY 2016
Bestselling Irish author Sheila O'Flanagan, whose adult books include Someone Special and Yours, Faithfully, has written her first novel for younger readers, an intriguing and pacey YA fantasy called The Crystal Run.
The novel begins with Joe being chased by school bullies when he suddenly finds himself transported to a different place and time. He is in Carcassia, in a camp for teenagers training to be 'Runners'. The Runners' job is to take 'power crystals' out of Carcassia and to place them in secret locations outside the city. This, they are told, will retain the shield that keeps Carcassia protected - but as Joe and the Runner Kaia discover, deception is at play. For Joe, desperate to find a way home, it could also mean he is stranded in this strange land forever.
We spoke to author SHEILA O'FLANAGAN about THE CRYSTAL RUN and writing fantasy for a younger audience.
Q: What has brought you into writing for a teenaged readership, albeit a book that many adults will also enjoy?
A: For me, it was just about the story. The story came, and it happened to be for a different market. I wasn't thinking particularly of writing for children but as the idea developed, and before I put words on paper, I suddenly realised that the story would have better momentum if the protagonists were younger. I wanted the story to be an adventure and writing for a younger audience gave me the freedom to do that.
Q: What kinds of freedoms did you find in writing for younger readers?
A: There were fewer constraints because I was making up an entirely new world, so I could create anything. Also, when your protagonists are younger they've not been exposed to as much in life and so they approach things in a different, more open, way.
Q: So was the process of writing for and about teenagers very different from writing about adult characters?
A: With my adult novels, I like to put people into situations that they're not comfortable with and they have to deal with it. I think there's nothing more difficult than being a teenager and that is reflected in the situation they are in where they have to deal with completely new environments and people.
In some respects, writing for teenagers is just like writing about adult characters who are under pressure and struggling; they have to discover what inner resources they have to cope with the situation.
Kaia, one of the two main characters, has learned some things but doesn't really know what she's facing so although she feels prepared, she suddenly finds she's not. Like moving into adult life, she has to decide who and what she can trust, and whether she can trust all the things she's been told, which is something we all struggle with as teenagers. Joe is also in a situation that is very new, very different, and he has to draw on resources that he didn't have before. I didn't want him to become a 'super hero' but I wanted him to find an inner strength that he didn't have before.
Q: The Crystal Run is also your first fantasy novel, did you find writing fantasy liberating or did it bring different problems?
A: Writing fantasy is about 180 degrees from what I do in my adult books. Regardless of whether you're reading as an adult or a younger person, what you want to find is characters you can believe in, and regardless of the backdrop and situation, the important thing is the characters and how the reader relates to them and if they care about them. That's the most important thing for me and I hope that the readers will feel that.
Q: As this is such a different idea from your other novels, what inspired you to write it?
A: I suppose the idea or concept for the novel came to me when I was visiting the Alhambra Palace in Granada, Spain, a huge and beautiful Moorish palace. While I was there I kept seeing these people walking around the courtyard but in my head they were in somewhere else, an entirely different time and world. Taking them to a different planet allowed my imagination to go wild and to create a different concept of society and a completely different environment.
I don't read a lot of sci-fi or fantasy but I like the concept of other worlds and other people and lives being lived in different ways, so it was a creative journey for me, a real treat, and I enjoyed that process.
Q: How did you approach creating that other environment, the world of Carcassia?
A: I had vague ideas about the world before I started the novel and as I wrote, those ideas solidified. There were road blocks that got in the way but I still find you're better off writing things down than spending too long creating something and then trying to fit your writing into that idea.
I suppose in creating this world I have drawn on elements of what goes on in our world and our lives today. There are different ways of living and societies move in different ways, but one society will think its way is the right way and will be suspicious of its neighbours, just as they are of it. That is reflected in the polarisation of our world at the moment, where people take up very different views and everyone is very 'black or white' about what they think - just look at the US presidential election.
So I wanted, in this story, to make two different cultures that believe they are opposed to each other but, when you look more closely, what you see is the similarities between them.
Q: What are your plans for follow-up books to The Crystal Run?
A: My original plan was to have just this book but as I wrote, it just got longer. I wasn't thinking about it being published, I just wanted to write the story and when I spoke to my agent and editor, they both agreed it needed to keep to a certain length and that if it went over that, it would need to be a sequel.
So, although I hadn't planned it, there will be a sequel and I'm working on that at the moment. In the second book, we find out that the Crystal Run in itself isn't all that the runners think it is and there is a certain construct that will be revealed. It begins with Kaia having been experimented on so Joe must find out if he can rescue her; can they escape, and can she be the person she was before?
So there will certainly be one more book, and maybe even a third book, after The Crystal Run.
Q: Do you think you will write more YA books after this series?
A: I suppose I didn't really think about the age I was writing for, for me the main thing is the story. When I wrote my first book in the 1990s the characters were just out of their teens and my publisher told me, 'No one reads books in that category' so I was encouraged to write for older readers; so maybe I was just pushed out of my natural 'home' and I'm now rediscovering it?
Q: Where do you do your writing?
A: I'm in Spain at the moment doing some writing. When I was very young and dreaming of being a writer I always wanted to find somewhere else where I could divide my time between home and that place. And now I do, between Spain and Ireland. So I start my novels in Dublin and I finish them off here; I just feel under less pressure while I'm in Spain. Being here also helps inspire my settings. I love travelling and every new country and setting I see will spark new ideas for me.
