Interview with Karen McMillan

Karen has some exciting news, as she has a new book out.

Tell us about your latest novel.

Elastic Island Adventures: Jewel Lagoon is the first in an action-adventure series for children, set in the South Pacific.

Four children, Kiri, Jed, and twins Emma and Ethan, discover an ‘elastic’ island that can send them pinging across the ocean to a variety of tropical island destinations. Landing at Jewel Lagoon on Trinity Island, the children quickly find themselves in trouble. But even with help from the colourful creatures they meet – Pangali the Platypus, Olaf the Giant, and Big Wig and Wee Wig Knockulous – will they be able to return home safely?

Just before Christmas, I decided I wanted to work on some children’s books that I could enjoy with my husband’s granddaughter who is ten years old. I dusted off an old manuscript and started on book two with Milla’s input. It’s been a huge amount of fun getting her to help name some of the characters, and other age-appropriate things. My fun family project is now more than I would have imagined, with books published in New Zealand and Australia soon, a second book out later in the year, and the movie rights have been optioned. So it’s been a very frantic start to 2018 with all the deadlines, but very exciting!

You shouldn’t judge a book by the cover. What inspired your cover? Who did your covers? Was the process to get them right difficult?

The cover of Elastic Island Adventures depicts the crazy ‘Elastic Island’ that is the mode of transport to transport my characters to far-flung destinations. It also shows Mr Jollybowler and his parrot, who run the service, along with the four children – Kiri, Jed, Emma and Ethan.

The publisher has an illustrator, Dmitry Chizhov, who they regularly use who did the cover illustration, and the talented Craig Violich from www.cvdgraphics.nz did the cover design. Working with such talented professionals the cover was done in no time – and Craig has designed a fabulous logo for Elastic Island Adventures which will be used for the series. The illustrator and designer understood perfectly the brief the publisher gave them.

If you could speak to any author living or dead what would you ask them?

Wouldn’t it be great to get to talk to Shakespeare, or the Bronte sisters and ask them questions about their work? As for living authors, I get to work with so many fabulous authors, so I regularly get to ask them questions about their books, which is a huge privilege. Either way, I’m interested in asking questions about their craft. I’m not really interested in what they might eat for breakfast, or their favourite colour.

Is there a book which surprised you or made you cry?

Books are always making me cry, much to my husband’s amusement. As a child, I used to blubber reading the Narnia books or Watership Down. These days any book can set me off if I’m emotionally engaged. Recently it’s been Dear Mrs Bird by AJ Pearce, The Burning Chambers by Kate Mosse and all the recent Jojo Moyes books have turned me into a wreck!

Writing to market, the bane of writing or just clever marketing?

I don’t think when you write you should think of the market. Copying trends is never a good idea. I think the best thing to do is write about what you are passionate about, and while you sometimes might have to wait a little before the book’s time has come, the book will be much better.

Elastic Island Adventures is a fitting example of this, when I think of it. I wrote the first manuscript a few years ago and it has been just sitting around on my computer. The time to publish it wasn’t right then – but now there is a real synergy going on around the series!

If you could go back to before you started writing and tell yourself something what would it be?

This is a tricky question, as I’ve been writing since I was a child, with my stories being published in the children’s pages of a Sunday newspaper. They weren’t good, of course, but it didn’t matter as I was having so much fun, and I was getting paid for my work! But I guess if I could advise my 20-year-old self, it would be to have more confidence in myself and my ideas, whereas for so long in my twenties I was very unconfident.

Has the way you write ever changed?

I believe the writing ‘voice’ I have is the same, but I must adapt my writing from fiction to non-fiction to children’s. As a general rule non-fiction needs to be very considered and you need to make sure your facts are correct, while fiction has much freer reign.

It’s been fun writing Elastic Island Adventures, as I’m allowing my ten-year-old self to be in control creatively, although it is my adult self who is writing the book. So I’ll look at the book through younger eyes, and then it’s easy to go, ‘that’s too adult, take it out,’ or ‘that’s fun, let’s do more!’

What classics or bestselling authors are not your cup of tea?

I don’t want to name authors or titles, but I don’t like any books that are graphically violent, and I abhor reading about sexual abuse of women. That doesn’t mean I won’t read books with violence or abuse in them, but they need to be sensitively written and respect that the reader has their own imagination, so we don’t need every detail. And I don’t believe we should be sensationalising these subjects in literature.

Are any of your characters based on real people and has this ever gotten you into trouble?

Celina, from my historical novel The Paris of the East, is based on a real-life person, Wanda, a survivor of the Ravensbruck Concentration Camp. But I wrote this character with Wanda’s permission – and her real-life story has been fictionalised. But it is important with fiction and non-fiction to be very careful when including real people in any way, shape or form.

Is writing art or work or a bit of both?

Definitely both. Writing is a craft you need to develop, which takes many hours – and it’s this satisfying blend of imagination and daring, and hard graft.

Is there any darling scene you wish you could have kept in your books that had to be cut?

I’m always cutting scenes from my work, but it’s always to make the book better so I have no problem with doing that. I’m never so attached to a scene that I can’t ditch it. I always write with the reader in mind, and what will be best for them. Of course, the process is subjective!

Do you ever Google yourself?

Very rarely. Just sometimes if someone mentions they have seen something online about my work and it’s not immediately obvious where to find it.

Would you consider yourself an extrovert or an introvert?

I am an introvert. I’m the classic book-nerd and daydreamer; I’m happiest when I am working on another book project or reading a book. But I surprise myself when I do media interviews and reviews or events, and a more outgoing side of my personality, fortunately, comes out.

Do you research before or during the writing process?

I always do research before writing, but I also research when I am writing. In my historical novels, The Paris of the East and The Paris of the West, there was an enormous amount of research to do. There is much less research involved in a children’s book where many things are made up, but I’ve had a lot of fun involving Milla, who has been helping me with the research that is needed for Elastic Island Adventures.

Dedications or not? Do you dedicate your books to anyone?

I think dedications are a lovely thing – something special for the people around you. I have dedicated books to my husband, my parents, my sister, Milla, and numerous other people who I hold personally dear. Writing can be a solitary process, so the people in a writer’s life deserve some recognition for all the time you spend stuck in your head!

What is your favourite part of book signings?

Meeting people who read my books! It’s so lovely to chat with them, and often they give wonderful feedback and suggestions

What is your next project? Do you have one thing planned or many books planned?

I’ve just delivered the second manuscript to the editor for Elastic Island Adventures #2, and have made some notes about book three. I also have another novel for adults at the research stage. This one will be historical again, so it will be a while before I’m ready to start writing. I’m very excited about both projects!

What is the greatest thing you have overcome to be where you are now?

Physically it would be my battle with cancer a few years ago, as although I’m well again, I don’t have the same energy that I once had. I used to get up at 5 am to write before going to my day job, whereas now I get too tired to do that. So I have had to overcome the challenge of limited time to work on my books.

I’ve also had to overcome the challenge of working in the publishing industry. I know that sounds a strange thing to say, but it plays with your confidence when you are working with the world’s best authors, dealing with the business end of things. There is a real sense of ‘who am I even to try this?’, and it squashes your creativity. But after battling cancer, I’ve thrown my inhabitations out the window, and now I’m just embracing the joy of writing.

Thank you for sharing some of your story and good luck with your next project.