Source of Inspiration
What Shapes A Book?
My Spook's books are shaped by many things. Let's use the fifth book in the series, 'The Spook's Mistake', as an example of the process.
Firstly, there is the original idea - often just the choice of location. For example, setting 'The Spook's Mistake' north of Lancaster, on the edge of Morecambe Bay and the southern Lake District, created an environment in which it was natural to introduce water witches. Additionally I used to visit a pub in Lancaster and sit on the canal bank on a warm summer's day. It's called 'The Water Witch' so that idea had been simmering in my imagination for quite some time.
Also, if possible, I like to introduce a new character into each new book in the series. Bill Arkwright had been mentioned in previous books as a spook who could continue Tom Ward's training if anything happened to John Gregory. So I decided to use him and had Tom seconded to him for six months.
I develop characters through dialogue, from the way they 'speak to me', so it came as a surprise to find that Arkwright, rather than being the nervous wreck of a man I had planned, turned out to be an aggressive bully with several problems ranging from the supernatural to an extreme liking for alcohol. So that's another thing that shapes the books - I am open to change and I'm flexible and 'discover' each story rather than plotting it in detail before writing.
I also like to maintain an on-going narrative, developing the back-story over the whole series. By the end of the book I had become aware of Alice's true identity and decided on a shock revelation close to the end of the story.
Editors also shape a book. They advise on what's good and bad about a work in progress and try to 'prod' the writer into producing better work. My first editor, Charlie Sheppard, took a close look at my progress and on reading the third draft, told me she would like a significant change.
There was a chapter where Tom and the Spook had an adventure underground in a system of mines. 'You're always going underground!" she complained. "Try something different. I know! Set that part of the book on an island in the lake!"
I didn't really want to do that. What could happen on a small island with just a few trees? The location didn't seem promising. But, pressured by Charlie, I decided to try. The result was the folly built on the island; two towers linked by an underwater passage. I added to that some exploration where Tom could try out his newly learned swimming skills and an encounter with water witches. It was better than the original adventure underground. So that's an example of how an editor can shape and improve a book.
Dreams often shape my books and I include my nightmares. One example is the haunted house in 'The Spook's Apprentice'. But I have to confess that none of my dreams feature in 'The Spook's Sacrifice'. That makes it somewhat unusual.
Now, we come to the title of the book. That is usually only decided as I reach the final draft but, once decided, it helps in shaping the narrative one more time. The 'mistake' in this book had to be foregrounded and made clear to the reader. Then, if possible, it had to be expanded so that there was more than one mistake made by more than one spook. That done it was time to send the book to the copyeditor for a final check.
Joseph Delaney.
Creativity & Writing Process
The Jake Hope Interview
Jake Hope is a freelance consultant and expert on children's literature. He interviewed me in the summer of 2007 and edited my answers for inclusion in the 'Achuka' and 'Writeaway' websites.
I have taken the raw answers that I gave to Jake's questions and made minor changes in order to bring certain things (such as the situation regarding the film) up to date.
JH 'The Spook's Sacrifice' is the sixth book told in the first person by Thomas Ward. What limitations, challenges and opportunities has this extended narratorial viewpoint held for you?
A first person narration helps to create a feeling of authenticity as if Tom is a real person telling his own story. It is also accessible for children making for a relatively easy read. At one point Tom says that he writes as he speaks. This is true because he will never use any fanciful and imaginative metaphors and similes; he speaks plainly and keeps to the point.
One limitation is that the reader can only know what Tom sees, hears, feels and deduces. We will never be able to get inside the head of one of Tom's foes and see things directly from their perspective. The challenge and opportunity of an extended narration is to keep continuity of voice yet allow Tom to grow slightly more knowledgeable and sophisticated as he ages. In part, the series is a narrative of 'education'; Tom is learning the ways of the fictional world of which he is a part and, in order to survive, may have to change and not necessarily for the better.
JH The roles of prophecy and predestination are highly important to the novels. How much do you yourself believe in these and to what extent - if any - have these influenced your writing?
I've always been fascinated by prophecy and predestination. I like to encounter it in other fictions and have made it an important part of the Wardstone Chronicles Series. I do think that some things that happen in our lives are meant to be. It may only be a trick of the mind; sometimes, retrospectively we think that things could only have happened in that way. But I can think of occasions in my own life that I feel very strongly that something was meant to happen; where I made a sudden decision and it did change my life. But I was free to choose - or was I?
With reference to the books it seems to me that I was always meant to write the series. I moved house to the village of Stalmine which has its own boggart and wrote that in my notebook. Over seventeen years later, looking for a story idea, I came across that jotting and the story of Tom Ward began. I was also an apprentice but wasn't taught how to deal with the supernatural; I learnt how to repair machinery. That also helped to shape the books.
JH Book Four, 'The Spook's Battle', sees a polarization of the battle between good and evil with the rising of 'Nick'. This places the books amongst the discourse of many established classics of the fantasy genre. Has this been a deliberate manouevre and what do you feel your contributions are to this?
Yes, it was deliberate and it is very much a piece of fantasy genre writing. Every genre writer takes things from the repertoire and then adds to it placing new ideas (or permutations of existing ideas) into the public domain. Any originality probably lies in the sense of place (Lancashire but always referred to as the County) and the fact that a spook does not use magic but follows a trade and keeps notebooks, learning from the past. There are other slight touches of originality too but you can never be sure that someone somewhere hasn't used them previously: for example lamia witches which I evolved from the lamias of Greek mythology and also ghasts.
As for polarization, that is very much part of the genre but good and evil also struggle within the minds and hearts of each character. Alice was trained as a witch but is neither totally good nor totally bad. She is like each one of us.
JH Knowledge and learning play a key part in Thomas's apprenticeship and you make astute references to the process of learning both experientially and through books. Which books have been important and seminal to you as a writer and also to your own life per se?
Tolkien's 'Lord of the Rings' and Frank Herbert's 'Dune' Series have both influenced me strongly. Both created different worlds into which I could escape; both stimulated my imagination; both made me want to become a writer. Barry Hines' 'A Kestrel for a Knave' taught me the importance of dialogue and creating fiction that works well when read aloud. Finally, Scott Fitzgerald's 'The Great Gatsby' is just about the best first person narration written in English.
JH How important to the story is the sense of detachment and enigma that surrounds the Spook? You revealed a little of his story in 'The Spook's Secret', is there more that you plan to reveal?
I can't give too much away but, yes, there are more secrets and background to come. There are also big revelations about Alice and Mam in books Five and Six.
JH A great sense of impending doom - like banks of clouds building before a storm - have pervaded the later books. Do you have an overall plan as to the overarching story and how many sequences or books will there be within this?
Again, sorry I can't say too much, but I do have a general idea of where the books are going. But I'm very much a writer who discovers the story as he goes along. There will be at least nine in the series (I have a contract for that number) but see a definite need for a Book Ten when things will come to a head.
JH Folk lore and legend are interwoven and resurrected through the books. Do you have a sense that you are keeping alive old local myths and how important do you feel this to be?
I think it is very important to keep alive local myths. Until this question, I had never really considered the possibility that my books were doing so. For one thing I tend to change things to suit the fictional narrative. There are, additionally, many collections of myths and folk tales already in print. I think people are really interested in such stories.
JH In 'The Spook's Secret' we learn a little about the Lamia witches and in 'The Spook's Battle' we discover more still about these. Was this world established prior to the books, or has it arisen organically through the writing process?
I do not have a full story arc, only a vague sense of the direction I'm heading towards so creatures such as the lamia witches have certainly arisen organically through the writing process. I 'discover' such things through dreams, sudden flashes of inspiration and hours spent jotting down possibilities on pieces of paper.
JH The books are grounded in legend and lore. How much research have you had to do for this?
I do little direct research but I have accumulated much material by reading over many long years. I don't have the sharp memory that allows instant recall of things I need but items seep to the surface of my mind when I'm looking for something. I do research when necessary.
When writing 'The Spook's Battle', where Tom and his master go east to struggle against the power of the Pendle witches, I did quite a lot of research. I read accounts of the events of 1612 plus novels such as Robert Neill's 'MistOver Pendle'. Having done that, it was a case of deciding what to leave out. I left out a lot leaving history behind to let imagination be my guide.
JH One of the strengths of the books is the method via which the landscape has been appropriated to fit the locality of individual readers. What do you feel makes the landscape so universal?
I try to visit a new section of the County in each book. I think that choosing a new area helps to make each book in the series fresh and distinct from the preceding ones. Although based on Lancashire, Tom dwells in the 'County'. It is a mythical Lancashire not set in any precise historical period and that, I think, is what gives it universality. It's been sold in translation to over twenty-five different countries now (China, Japan, France, Romania, USA, Italy, Spain, Norway, Denmark etc ) and maybe in each place some readers might think it is located 'here where I live'. It suggests the rural landscape of our common mythical past. We all share that heritage. I didn't set out to do that. I just drifted into it. Much happened by chance and whim and I got lucky making correct early decisions that shaped the books.
JH You explore a great deal about genetic inheritance and thereby negotiate ideas of free will .
These are deep philosophical problems of the kind that make your head hurt if you think about them too much. I'm a dreamer, not an intellectual. We are all shaped by our genes, upbringing and past experiences and they help to form the decisions we make in life. However, it is possible to make a choice that is far different than one based upon those determinants might have been predicted. As a writer I'm trying to present the reader with surprises.
JH Religion is ever-present through the books but is disempowered. What are your feelings on religion in modernity?
I'll let the Spook speak for me. This is what he says to Tom in 'The Spook's Secret':
'To my mind it doesn't matter which one of them {religion} you follow. Or even if you walk alone and take your own path through life. As long as you live your life right and respect other's beliefs, as your dad taught you, then you won't go far wrong.'
Tolerance is what we need. With more tolerance of other beliefs, the world would be a far better place.
JH Are the books metaphorically representing modern struggles that are applicable to young people?
I just write stories and the story always comes first. In my fictional world, I'd change the shape of Pendle Hill if that better served the narrative. Lots of things can be read into the books and readers are at liberty to do so but I'm not consciously doing the above. But Tom is a young person and his struggle to grow up and find his own place in the world is still applicable in our modern age.
JH Parts of the book are quite horrific. How important is this to the credibility of the stories you tell? Does the age of your audience cause you to moderate your writing style in any ways and has the graphic nature of some scenes ever caused question at the editing stage?
I suppose I have an instinct for what is acceptable. My eldest grandchild, James, was eight when he read the first book. But children vary tremendously in terms of what they can cope with. I rely on my editor Charlie Sheppard, to moderate what I write if it proves necessary. After all, she knows the audience better than I do and has experience over years of judging the suitability or otherwise of graphic episodes.
In 'The Spook's Curse' a priest's leg is about to be amputated. I had a choice. Should Tom be witness to this or be sent away? The doctor rests his saw against the leg and then sends Tom away. The readers go with him and are spared that. It was my decision at first-draft stage but I'm sure that, had I put in the amputation, my editor would have asked me to remove it from the book.
JH Amanda Craig in the Times has compared you very favourably to J.K. Rowling. Have you read any of 'The Harry Potter Books' and in what ways do you feel the comparison likely or otherwise.
I have read 'The Goblet of Fire'. I think J. K Rowling's importance lies in the fact that the great success of her books has opened up children's publishing to many writers and got many children reading who wouldn't otherwise have read fiction for enjoyment at all. My books are in the same genre but I feel are very different. Amanda Craig wrote: 'Ideal for the reader who has outgrown Harry Potter'. Everyone must make up their own mind about that but I do think the Spook's books have a harder edge. And, of course, although Tom and the Spook face dark magic they don't use it themselves; they have a trade.
JH What stage is the film at presently?
Kevin Lima who directed 'Enchanted' is still the official director of the film. But he has spent well over a year in pre-production and there is still no sign of the film getting made. My intuition tells me that soon the producers will appoint another director. If so, that director will then develop a new script. The process goes on and on and takes a great deal of time. However, I do feel it will be made one day, hopefully in 2011. The option has just been renewed; that means that the producers have paid for the right to work on the film's development for a further eighteen months.
JH You write in a very visual sense. Has your background in teaching Media and Film Studies influenced your writing in any ways?
It must have. Years of analyzing shots and watching films over and over again with different groups of students must have shaped my writing in some ways. It's probably had a better effect than my previous years teaching English and analyzing literary classics. Film has to communicate efficiently and instantly. I used to teach something called 'The Hollywood Narrative Method'. When I first started to work with my editor I quickly realized that she was using something very similar to that in order to get the story across more dramatically and efficiently.
JH Family ties and vocational necessity are played against one another. Is there any redemption for the family or must family and relationships be cast aside as a Spook?
That's what Tom's master, John Gregory seems to believe and what he teaches his apprentice. A spook is like a priest and a girl or woman is a distraction. But Tom has different views. If he lives to become the next Spook he will live a very different life to that of his master.
JH Concern has been raised by a minority of critics that the representation of women is misogynistic. Are you conscious of the gender of your characters as you are writing and in what ways do modern values constrain or challenge the writing of a realistic book?
The Spook says: 'Never trust a woman!". This is not my view - it is that of a fictional character. Aware that people might be offended, I almost cut that line. How glad I am that I didn't! It forced me to consider the character of John Gregory and why a man I was shaping as a hero would say that to an apprentice in his very first lesson. The Spook's misogynistic views are shaped by his past experiences. He is flawed; not perfect. In uttering that controversial line he gave me Book Three, 'The Spook's Secret'. There we find out why he thinks in that way.
Some of the representation of women in the series is very positive indeed. Mam is a strong character and so too is Alice in her own way. It's not just a book for boys. At present, in addition to the development of Book Eight, I am also writing a book that tells the tale of Alice in the years before she met Tom.
JH Do you receive much fan mail?
It's gradually increasing. Under the guidance of a teacher, sometimes a whole class will write to me. I try to reply to every letter but it takes time and there is always a delay before I get round to it..
JH If there is one question you would love to be asked, what would that be and how would you respond?
When being interviewed for teaching posts, the opening I dreaded was 'Tell me about yourself .."
It was just too open-ended and I never knew where to begin. With reference to my books my feelings are completely different. My favourite question would be: 'What are the books about?" It's a question I'm rarely asked because I usually begin my talks with the answer to that anyway! It gives me my chance to get to the heart of the books and explain what the series is all about.
JH You yourself have had a tutelage not dissimilar to Tom's as a writer. Are parts of the books allegorical to your own background as a writer?
I worked as an apprentice fitter at the Courtauld's factory north of Preston, Lancashire. I carried a tradesman's tools about and even had a notebook to make sketches of machinery we'd taken apart. So the influence on the Spook's series is clear. I lived in a house very similar to the haunted one Tom faces in 'The Spook's Apprentice' and had a recurrent nightmare there. I lived almost in the shadow of St Walburge's steeple, Preston; that church became Priestown Cathedral in 'The Spook's Curse'. So it's all there in my early childhood almost as if I was being readied to write the series. Choice? Or predestination? You decide!
Best wishes,
Joseph Delaney
Lancashire & County
The Haunted House
The Spook takes all his apprentices to a haunted house in Horshaw and tells them to go down to the cellar at midnight and face what's lurking there. Some run shrieking into the night, others like Tom Ward pass the test and begin their apprenticeship.
The haunted house is based on the one in Preston where I lived until I was eleven years old - Number 1 Water Lane. It had two small rooms down stairs, two bedrooms and an attic which we never used. For some reason the door was nailed shut. As far as I know the house wasn't haunted but it is where I had the recurrent nightmares that are featured in both 'The Spook's Apprentice' and 'The Spook's Tale'. It didn't have a cellar (I added that to make the story more interesting) but it had a dark space under the stairs in the kitchen - what we called the 'coal-hole'. Cobs of coal would be delivered by horse and cart and the coalman would carry his bags through our small front room filling it with coal dust.
It was a house originally built for mill workers and Water Lane even had its own 'knocker-up', a lady who would walk down the street early in the morning and rap on the upstairs windows with a long stick to wake you up for the early shift.
The picture below is of me sitting on the front-step of that house. I'm either four or five years of age and it must be Easter because I'm guarding a chocolate egg.
I didn't realize how small those houses were until I went back to revisit the location in the summer of 2006.
Those vehicles are parked on what's left of the foundations of two whole terraced streets of back to back dwellings. The trees in the background mark the route of what was once a section of the Preston to Lancaster Canal.
Priestown Cathedral
If you stepped across the road towards the canal and looked back towards the house you could see beyond it St Walburge's Church Steeple. At almost 310 feet, it's the third highest spire in England and the tallest steeple of any English parish church.
It's an icon of Preston and as a young child I attended the church school, 'Talbot Road Boys'. In 'The Spook's curse' I transformed St Walburge's into 'Priestown Cathedral' and imagined a labyrinth beneath it, a system of tunnels where the daemonic Bane was confined behind a silver gate.
The next picture is of the main entrance to the church. Unfortunately there is no gargoyle over the door, depicting the Bane in its true form.
The Stone Graves at Heysham
The stone graves are featured in Book Two, 'The Spook's Curse', and they are small enough to be the coffins of children (that's where I got the idea for the 'little people'). People probably were smaller in those days but one theory is that each grave was an ossuary, containing bone fragments rather than full skeletons.
At one time each had a stone lid but they are missing now and they fill with water after rain. They are very old and it is difficult to estimate a date for their construction. The ruin of St Patrick's Chapel nearby (also used in the 'Curse' narrative) dates from about 600 AD. In the 1970's an archaeological dig by Lancaster University found 85 sets of bones in the area of the chapel. They dated from around 11200 AD.
Chipping
In the books 'Chipping' is known as 'Chipenden' and it's where the Spook, John Gregory, has his summer house with its garden where he binds witches and boggarts. The picture below is looking up the main street towards the 'Sun Inn'.
Hidden from view at the top of the hill is the church. There is more than one version of the following story and in one the chambermaid at the inn was a local witch.
In another story, the young woman in question was engaged to be married. She glanced out of her window one morning and happened to see her intended young man walking from the parish church with a new bride on his arm.
Distraught, she decided to hang herself. As a suicide she would not be allowed a churchyard burial, so she first wrote a note expressing her wish to be buried under the path leading up to the church. In that way she got a revenge of sorts. For the rest of his life her betrayer would have to walk over her grave on his way to the Sunday service.
Pendle
I did a lot of research before beginning 'The Spook's Battle'. I read various fictions such as 'Mist over Pendle' and accounts of the real trial of the Lancashire Witches. Then I threw it all away. Otherwise I would have been a prisoner of the dates and facts and would have had to weave my story through them, being almost certain to get it wrong and thus be open to criticism. As it was that book proved the easiest of all to write and managed to pull a powerful witch out of my imagination - Grimalkin the witch-assassin of the Malkin Clan.
The two pictures that follow show the eastern side of Pendle Hill which plays an important part in the book: at its summit a battle takes place between the Spook, Alice, Tom and the three main witch clans.
Photo Gallery
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