Dec 09

First Come, Second Served – Interview with Gillian Shields – Author of Immortal Series

 

I would like to thank Gillian Shields for the interview. I’m extremely thrilled Gillian’s taken part in the first week of First Come, Second Served — from the wonderful four signed book giveaway to her input on the Fantasy Movie Cast to tomorrow’s Book Playlist!



Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Pub. Date: Hardcover (8/4/09), Paperback (6/29/10)
Formats: Hardcover, Paperback, Electronic, Audio
Pages: 368
Age Group: Young Adult + 



Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Pub. Date: August 2010
Format: Hardcover, Electronic, Audio
Pages: 359
Age Group: Young Adult +

 

Love found. Love lost. Love fulfilled.  Sorry that’s three!

From the beginning it was hoped that there would be four books. The idea of a quartet appealed as there are four friends – Evie, Agnes, Helen and Sarah – and four power elements of Water, Fire, Air and Earth. So that seemed right. I also wanted to have the time and space to tell Sarah and Helen’s stories. The first two books concentrate on Evie, Sebastian and Agnes. The third book ETERNAL is narrated by Sarah and the final one, DESTINY is told from Helen’s point of view. 

It’s so hard to say that, like choosing between your children or best friends.  Almost impossible. They are all really important to me, but at the moment, as I am writing DESTINY I am very involved with Helen and the boy she meets . . . but I can’t say any more about him yet! I enjoyed creating both Miss Scratton and Mrs Hartle, two women with totally opposing views of life.

Good question!  But everything we need to know about them is in the books – I hope! I don’t like the notion of inventing stuff about them that is not relevant, like what they eat for breakfast or what games they played as a child. I’m not the kind of writer who makes lists of ‘back story’ or ‘likes and dislikes’ for my characters. Instead I have a relationship with them in my imagination, if that doesn’t sound too weird, and part of them remains secret and unknown, just as it does in a real life relationship, however close you are to someone. The really important things, how they feel, think, relate to the world around them, should be in the stories.

That was definitely an influence. It’s a great school and I enjoyed working with the lovely students there. It certainly reminded me about how teenage girls relate to each other. The building itself, though not as gloomy as Wyldcliffe, was a an old Victorian mansion with a rabbit warren of corridors and passageways and dorms up in the attic. I was always getting lost!  Originally there had been nuns teaching at the school and the atmosphere of the past was very prevalent. There were black and white photographs on display of the students from a hundred years ago, and a beautiful chapel (not ruined) and it was easy to feel that the original Victorian inhabitants of the house where still present if we could only catch a glimpse of them. All this filtered through into the books.

That anything can happen. In my books for young children I can write about a goldfish who wants to be a dog (DOGFISH) or a teddy bear who learns how to love (THE PERFECT BEAR) or group of mermaid friends who are on a mission to save the environment (MERMAID SOS).  You are only limited by the boundaries of your imagination.

I love to write for teens/young adults as I think the experience of being 16, 17 or 18 years old is so important. It’s the turning point from childhood to adulthood and is going to affect the rest of your life. Also at that time of life anything is possible; finding out the person you want to be, falling in love for the first time, making your path in life. I think that’s what the IMMORTAL series is really about – four friends discovering what is important to them in life.


In many ways it is much harder to keep the momentum going and to make sure that all the loose ends tie up in the end. You have to be really interested in your characters to keep going over several books. But on the other hand it’s great to have the time and space to develop things, for instance something that was mentioned almost casually in IMMORTAL is going to prove to be very important in DESTINY, and we also learn a lot about Helen in the last book that we didn’t know in the first books.


Although I am writing romance at the moment I love humor. My first novel THE ACTUAL REALITY OF JENNIFER JAMES was a comedy about reality TV and I had such fun writing it. So I am going to choose a funny series – the Georgia Nicolson books by Louise Rennison.


Yes, definitely. I was always drawn the creative arts such as drama, painting and writing.


When my daughter was 10 she played Alice in a play about Lewis Carrol and Alice in Wonderland called ‘Alice’s Adventures Underground’ at the Royal National Theatre in London. So that was very special to me.

Gosh you make it sound more than it is! I support SIGHTSAVERS INTERNATIONAL and CANCER RESEARCH and THE PASSAGE for homeless people in London, also THE STARLIGHT FOUNDATION for children born with cleft palate/hair lip. And my husband has adopted a guide dog for the blind. We try to get involved in things at our local church too, such as organizing a traditional English afternoon tea party for elderly people. But I feel we should do more, there are so many good causes out there. . . .

YAY! I am really pleased for them. I loved Princess Diana, and the Royal Family has been through difficult times so it’s great to have some happy news. I really hope William and Kate will have a happy marriage and as normal a life as possible.  

This interview is part of’:

 

Visit Down the Rabbit Hole for more information!

Don’t forget to enter my special giveaway!




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2 Responses to “First Come, Second Served – Interview with Gillian Shields – Author of Immortal Series”

  1. Juju at Tales of Whi says:
    December 9, 2010 at 9:44 am

    This sounds reallly good :) I gotta gotta get book one.

    Reply
  2. Amber says:
    December 9, 2010 at 12:24 pm

    Awesome interview. I loved the bonus question! That Alice Underground sounds amazing. I bet it was a really cool play.

    Reply