Abi Elphinstone's last Dreamsnatcher book

THE NIGHT SPINNER is the final book in the Dreamsnatcher trilogy by ABI ELPHINSTONE, charting feisty heroine Moll Pecksniff's battle against darkness and the shadowmasks.

In the final book, Moll and her friends travel to the vast 'Northern Wilderness' to confront the last remaining shadowmasks and, Moll hopes, to rescue their missing friend Alfie. But evil has already visited the region and they are soon battling witches and trolls, while the final battle looms. We asked author ABI ELPHINSTONE to tell us more about what inspired the final Dreamsnatcher book, and what she's planning next: Q: Why did you decide to take Moll's final quest to the 'Northern Wilderness'? A: Having written about a deep, tangled forest in The Dreamsnatcher and a coastline puckered with caves and secret waterfalls in The Shadow Keeper, I knew I wanted to focus a new setting for the final book in the trilogy - somewhere wilder and more remote than what had come before. When I sit down to write a book, the first thing I do is draw a map because it is only when my characters start moving from place to place that a plot unfolds. And for The Night Spinner, I found myself drawing a railway line leading to a huddle of houses at the foot of a glen. Then I sketched a river splitting a forest of silver birches. I doodled a castle further north, and a cluster of islands beyond that, then a ring of snow-capped peaks rising into the clouds. I named this fictional setting the Northern Wilderness but as I looked at it, I realised this world was only partly invented. Because I have walked through The North Door, I have run over the Rambling Moors, I have climbed The Barbed Peaks and I have swum between the Lost Isles. This was a map of my childhood and every place listed was somewhere in Scotland that I had explored as a young girl. Q: Where are your favourite Highlands haunts, and are there places in the book that children could visit? A: I grew up just outside a village called Edzell, in Angus, and though I couldn't possibly know that I was going to re-invent this landscape in a book years later, I did have a feeling that there was something magical about where I lived, and about one walk that I used to do with family, in particular... After you leave Edzell, you cross an old stone bridge and then, on your left, there is a little blue door. You could miss it if you didn't know it was there but my parents knew about it and they pushed it open. And what lay beyond could well have been Narnia. On the left, thundering through a steep gorge, the North Esk River, and on the right, above the gorge, a little path that wove alongside rhododendron bushes, silver birches, beech trees and a long-forgotten folly. I watched salmon leap from the waterfalls, I read books tucked inside the folly there and I listened to my father's stories about trolls beneath the curved roots of an old beech tree. That world beyond the Blue Door was a haven - a place where I felt magic might be possible after all - and I suppose it was only a matter of time before I borrowed it for one of my own stories. In The Night Spinner, Edzell becomes Glendrummie, the village Moll and her Tribe come across after stealing onto a train north as stowaways. The Blue Door becomes The North Door, the gateway to the northern wilderness which the Tribe must pass through to continue their quest. And the river beyond becomes the Clattering Gorge, home to a coven of terrifying witches. Children could absolutely do the Blue Door Walk or visit Loch Lee and the surrounding moors. Q: Moll has a lot of challenges in this story but her main one is confronting her fears, why did you make that such a pivotal point in this story? A: I wanted to explore various types of bravery in this book. Moll, for the most part, is obviously brave - she tackles fights head on and she's quick to load her catapult. Siddy, on the other hand, is far more reticent: 'up against the giants he had fainted and on the train north he'd nearly buckled'. But his courage is unconquerable when it really matters and when Moll's fears finally do slip out, she sees her friend's bravery clearly: 'in the face of the crushing of their hopes and dreams and a sun that might never rise - Siddy was brave. There was a sureness to his words, a grit, and it counted for more than any weapon ever could'. With Moll, I wanted to show that however tough and ostensibly brave you are, you still feel fear deep down and it doesn't mean you're any the less brave for acknowledging that you are scared. To do something brave when you are terrified is real courage. Q: Apart from the main group of characters, there are some wonderful supporting characters in this story like Murk from the lake and Kittlerumpit the goblin - but who was your favourite to create? A: Thank you! I adore creating secondary characters and giving them humorous quirks. One of my favourites is Petal, the foul-tempered giant 'bent on absolute brutality' and her sidekick, Wallop. But I also loved creating my goblin, Kittlerumpit. Whuppity Cairns is a mound of stones in The Night Spinner that acts as a gateway into a labyrinth of tunnels beneath the moors and the name came from reading a Scottish fairytale by John Rhys, called Whuppity Stoorie. It follows the Rumpelstiltskin motif where a woman from Kittlerumpit must guess the name of a trickster fairy, Whuppity Stoorie, if she is to keep her 'bonny wee tyke'. I pocketed 'whuppity' as soon as I heard it, and I took 'Kittlerumpit' with me, too, because what else would a trickster goblin beneath the moors be called? Q: Do you find it hard to write characters that are so black at heart, like the Shadowmasks? A: Worryingly, no! Dark characters are often easier to write than good ones. You can reach right back to the fears you had at 10 years old and add deliciously sinister idiosyncrasies. Orbrot, with his cobwebbed mask, really does give me the creeps in this book though... Q: Were the giants - or any other characters - brought to life from local legends you might have heard as a child? Q: The loch monster, Murk, is loosely based on C.S. Lewis' Puddleglum - but also, more predictably, on the Loch Ness Monster. My little brother gave me a wonderful painting of Loch Ness by a polish artist, Matylda Konecka, which shows the monster lurking beneath the surface of the water so I drew on that to create Murk. Q: Which of the magical charms that Moll has used in the three books would you want to have in your backpack ready for emergencies? A: In her book Rooftoppers, Katherine Rundell says: 'String is the only thing that is never, never boring. String, and birds'. And I have to agree with that - you can use it to lasso things, tie annoying people up, as a tightrope across a ravine... The possibilities are endless. So based on that, I'd have to say 'the last note of the witches' song' would be the magical charm I'd stash in my backpack. Q: Was it difficult to bring together all the threads from the previous two books, such as what happened to Alfie, and the part the last two shadowmasks have played, in this final story? A: Yes, very! I wanted to include a twist with Alfie so working that into the story took a while. But I was never in doubt as to how things would end for him, or Moll. I did struggle with deciding what the last amulet would be though. That changed many times because it was so hard to see any of my characters go on to the Otherworld. Q: How did you feel when you completed the final book - and will this be the last we see of Moll and Gryff? A: I only ever set out to write one book so to finish a trilogy felt like a huge achievement. It only really sunk in though when I went back to the manuscript and wrote the celebratory feast scene in. That didn't exist originally (though now I can't imagine the story without it). It not only helped the book's ending structurally but it also brought together all the characters that had helped Moll and her Tribe on their journey - and as writer, to see all your characters in one place after everything they (and you!) have been through, was really special. At the moment this is the last you'll see of Moll and Gryff though Moll is too headstrong to stay quiet forever - so, who knows what might happen in the future... Q: What are you writing now? A: Drawing on my time living with the Kazakh Eagle Hunters in Mongolia and my adventures dog-sledding across the Arctic, I've just finished the first draft of my fourth book - a standalone set up in the frozen north. This is a story about an eagle huntress, an inventor and an organ made of icicles. But it is also a story about belonging, even at the very edges of the world. Q: What are your top tips to keen child writers? A: Carry a notebook with you everywhere. Live a life filled with adventure. And never be afraid to fail. Oh, and in the words of Christopher Robin: 'You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think'. Q: You often talk about your travel adventures - so where are you planning your next escape or research trip? A: I'd love to explore New Zealand at some stage - and Alaska - but I have an adventure of a different sort unfolding at the moment: I'm hoping to become a mother in August.