5 Minutes With R.J. Anderson

5 Minutes With R.J. Anderson

I recently had the chance to spend five minutes with debut author, R.J. Anderson. The first installment of her Faery Rebels series will be released by Orchard in the UK under the title Knife on January 7th, and in the US by Harper Collins Children’s Books as Spell Hunter on April 28th.

You’re luckier than most debut authors- you get two premieres, two titles, and two covers! What’s it like to get to see so many different visions of a book that’s been your singular vision for so long?

Frankly, it’s been amazing. I hardly dared to hope that I would get not one, but TWO fantastic covers, by two such talented artists. The UK design for KNIFE, by Brian! Froud! (sorry, I can’t type his name without exclamation marks — comes of having seen LABYRINTH and THE DARK CRYSTAL about a zillion times as a kid) really emphasizes my heroine’s feisty, aggressive side and hints at darkness and drama, yet with a touch of humor.

The US design, for FAERY REBELS: SPELL HUNTER, is a beautiful digital painting by Melanie Delon which portrays Knife in a more realistic way and at a quieter moment — I think it’s good for showing there’s a mysterious, romantic, thoughtful side to the book and that it’s not just all action! action! action!

In short, I love them both and couldn’t be happier with the way things have turned out. Knowing that KNIFE will be out four months earlier than SPELL HUNTER is pretty nerve-wracking — what if it bombs in the UK and gets terrible reviews that put people off buying the book here?! But it’s exciting, too.

You have an interesting story about how Knife‘s story, and specifically how your character Paul came to be; would you like to share that with us?

Well, as a young teen I discovered and adored Madeleine L’Engle’s Time Trilogy (as it was then, anyway — it’s a quintet now), but I was unhappy about the fate of a particular character in her third book, A SWIFTLY TILTING PLANET. Matthew Maddox was brilliant, articulate, sensitive, and in love with the girl who claimed him as her best friend, but he could never tell her how he felt because he was crippled. When I re-read the book in my late teens I felt a burning sense of injustice about that section of the book, because Matthew was my favorite character.

And then I thought about all the other male characters I’d read about who were disabled, and I realized that they always seemed to be tragic figures, or malevolent ones, or some sort of super-brainy sidekick. Why not the action hero? Why not the romantic lead? And lo, Paul McCormick was born. Or rather adapted: I’d originally thought of him as a much younger boy who was deaf-mute, but once I made him around the same age as Knife and put him in a wheelchair, a lot of other aspects of the story fell into place.

Even though you’re writing about faeries, your books are still very grounded in the real world. How much research goes into one of your novels?

The funny thing is, I don’t really enjoy doing research, and yet I’m enough of a perfectionist and a stickler for detail that I feel I HAVE to do it. So for this book, I studied plants and wildflowers, herbal medicine, the habits of crows, Regency England, treatment and rehabilitation after spinal cord injuries, rowing techniques, pioneer methods for everything from making candles to tanning leather and dyeing fabric, and of course bits and pieces of faery folklore. Plus a lot of other things that didn’t make it into the book. So I guess the short answer is: a lot. My mother said when she read the ARC that she was surprised my story was so informative!

We’ll shortly have Knife/Spell Hunter in our hot little hands, and you’re working on the next in the series, Wayfarer. Will we have more Oakenwyld adventures to look forward to after this?

It’s certainly possible! Both KNIFE and WAYFARER can be read on their own, but I’ve left loose threads that could easily be woven into another story. And perhaps some of the secondary characters will want to step into the spotlight to tell their own stories, who knows?

Finally, the most important question- which is harder, getting toddlers to sit still for dinner time Scripture study or writing a book?

Both are tough, but my book doesn’t start singing “I like to move it, move it” unexpectedly in the middle, so I think I might have to give my toddler the edge…