Author Interview
Hi Wallace, tell the
reader a bit about yourself and where you come from.
Born in 1943,
yes! A bit ancient by current day standards. I am happily married to a girl who
I first met at the age of eleven, walking home from our separate schools.
My early years were experienced in and around the northern historic Durham City,
never living more than five miles distance from the Cathedral. Married in 1964
at the age of twenty-one, Pat and I spent many happy years in the North East
before employment almost took us off to emigrate to Jo'berg, South Africa but
plans were changed in the final weeks and instead the company moved our family to
Sussex in southern England.
Moving to where the work was I took the family to Hampshire for a decade before
employment was again responsible for our last move to beautiful rural
Lancashire, where we still reside.
The Amazing Adventures of Jimmy Crikey is a genre-crossing novel
with elements of fantasy, science fiction, and adventure as well. Did you start
writing with this in mind, or did this happen organically as you were writing?
In
reality, the story came about because of necessity - to entertain four or five
children in the approximate age range 4 - 7 yrs. They had struck up a
friendship with my son on the beach, on a family holiday to Great Yarmouth,
almost 50 years ago. The five boisterous children were forced to seek shelter
in our beach tent during a heavy shower. Not surprisingly they were quite loud.
"For goodness sake," my wife, Pat, said. "Do something to
quieten them down. Read them a story, or
something."
As there were no storybooks to
hand, I had to make up a story, “on the hoof”, as they say. I had never before made up a story
although I always read to my children every bedtime
I knew I needed a bit of magic to get their
attention, so I created a witch. It seemed obvious that they needed adventure
and a hero.
Jimmy is an
interesting and well-developed character. What were some driving ideals behind
his character development?
Observation
of the small "playgroup" dynamics of the children playing on the
beach, highlighted that there was an underdog in their group, who just happened
to have ginger hair. It wasn’t that he was being overtly bullied but he was the
one who ‘had to’ bring fetch and carry for the others. The idea blossomed, of a
bullied child, who looked different, despite which he overcame - and so Jimmy
Crikey was borne to illustrate that it is possible to overcome apparent
disadvantages and achieve great things. Otherwise, the adventures that Jimmy
embarked upon were designed as pure escapism to keep their minds engaged for a
while during the following several wet afternoons.
Jimmy has to overcome many obstacles
throughout the story. What were some themes that guided the development of the
novel?
The main theme I tried to get across to
my young readers is that with perseverance all problems can be overcome and
that being different does not define the person you are.
Furthermore, outright violence is
rarely necessary to achieve a peaceful outcome to a dispute. With a bit of
thought almost all conflict can be resolved, you just have to uncover the common
ground
What
is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?
Another
Jimmy Crikey story is well underway. It will involve enlisting the help of the
four witches, to assist the inhabitants of the islands in the sky. I would hope
it might be completed before the middle of 2021 but the promotion required to
bring The Amazing Adventures of Jimmy Crikey to market has been extremely time
consuming and in the meanwhile, I am the primary carer of my disabled
wife/friend/companion and loved one – Pat. She is my priority when needed.
And I’m
also attempting to complete other stories in my portfolio, including a memoir
and a more advanced YA fantasy adventure.
Have
you published other stories?
Romney
Hole is a 20,000-word fantasy about two early teen siblings,
Zac and Rachel) young people who discover a lost alien probe beneath the North
Yorkshire Moors. http://amazon.co.uk/dp/1540516954
The Last
Footsies
is a short story about a boy living in a Border’s village, who is attempting to
save the last living Footsies from extinction. http://amazon.co.uk/dp.1539803309
And the Cow is a short
children’s story (1020wc) about a little girl facing the recovery of her mother
from Cancer. It received a 5* review on The Short Story Site and is available
free at my WEB site www.wallaceebriggs.com
a Rafflecopter giveaway
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