Tell us about your new novel, Sister Wake. For 300 years the wild island of Croí has been subject to the Empire of the Answering. Clans subjugated, their language outlawed, their religion reduced to the whisper of fugitive priests. Sounds familiar!
Sister Wake is an epic fantasy drawing on both Irish myth and the Nine Years War to talk about how colonisation and resistance shape a culture.
Did growing up near the Border influence your writing? Did you have a desire to learn more about your heritage?
The Border’s in all my work, consciously and unconsciously – my earliest memory is passing the checkpoint near Derrylin to visit my grandmother, at once fascinated and terrified by the soldiers and the lights and the tension separating one branch of our family from the other.
Writers from abroad such as Sarah J Maas and Rebecca Yarros are using Irish mythology in their books. Did you want to create something more authentic?
Irish myth has been a pic’n’mix for fantasy for decades but myth is a product of culture and history. Taking one without the other leaves the most human and interesting elements behind.
You made your name with the award-winning Knights of the Borrowed Dark YA trilogy. Tell us about it
An anxious 13-year-old is drafted into an ancient war against the inhabitants of a mysterious otherworld and must navigate not just the immediate dangers but his own side’s prejudices. I think I’d written the entire first draft before realising just how strongly the Border ran through it.
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[ Dave Rudden: ‘I tell kids darkness can be beaten’Opens in new window ]
Tell us about your Tales of Darkisle series for children, launched last year with Conn of the Dead
Tales of Darkisle has a very simple concept – short standalone comedy-horrors with a sharp kid, an obscure Celtic monster and a cool Irish location. Conn is set in the National Folklore Collection; the upcoming Nell on Earth in Trim. Maybe the Irish Times offices should be next?
You’ve written several works in the Doctor Who universe. What is its enduring appeal?
A Doctor Who episode can be anything. Horror, fantasy, high-concept sci-fi, historical, character drama – as the Doctor says, “all of time and space, everything that ever was or will be, where do you want to start?”
Your first horror feature script, Help, is in development with Wild Atlantic Pictures. What’s the plot?
An Irish maid working in a Big House during the Famine must decide whether to help her employers or the spirit of vengeance haunting them.
Your partner, Sarah Davis-Goff, is also a writer and a publisher. Is she your first reader?
Having an editor like SDG on your side is like having access to a tactical nuke, or the Gáe Bulg – I deploy her only once per book, at a time of great need, and seeing her at work is both enchanting and terrifying.
Which projects are you working on?
The sequel to Sister Wake, and, in a wild departure, my first contemporary YA verse novel.
Have you ever made a literary pilgrimage?
Many! My most recent was a Tolkien trip that took in Oxford, Bath and many of the locations that inspired Lord of the Rings, such as Cheddar Gorge (Helm’s Deep) and Glastonbury Tor (Weathertop). Sadly, the pub that inspired the Prancing Pony is now a trendy bistro with a pretty mid lasagne.
What is the best writing advice you have heard?
“Touch your work every day” – Fonda Lee. Writing marathons are a luxury. Constant, short sprints will get the job done too.
Who do you admire the most?
Sarah Monaghan, activist and We-Consent manager at the Rape Crisis Centre. Her CV and achievements are too long to list here, but we’re a better country for having her.
You are supreme ruler for a day. Which law do you pass or abolish?
Whatever it takes to end homelessness, particularly child homelessness. It simply should not be acceptable in a modern society that a child does not have a place of safety.
Which current book, film and podcast would you recommend?
If Books Could Kill – an incisive, hilarious podcast dissecting the lies behind nonfiction bestsellers and scam literature like Freakonomics and The Art of the Deal.
The most remarkable place you have visited?
Venice in winter. It has the nonsensical architecture of a dream.
Your most treasured possession?
The letters and fan-art I get from young readers. As someone who started writing in fan-fiction, it’s the highest compliment you can get.
What is the most beautiful book that you own?
My teenage collection of Pratchett novels with the original Josh Kirby covers.
Which writers, living or dead, would you invite to your dream dinner party?
Patricia Forde, Terry Pratchett, Clark Ashton Smith and Diana Wynne Jones, with Paddy Donnelly drawing along.
The best and worst things about where you live?
We just moved, so this is easy. Best – my new office with tons of space for painting Warhammer. Worst – flushing the loo floods the kitchen (it’s a work in progress).
What is your favourite quotation?
“We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings.” – Ursula K Le Guin.
[ Meet the Irish author who is reinventing Doctor WhoOpens in new window ]
Who is your favourite fictional character?
The Doctor.
A book to make me laugh?
Spirit Level by Richy Craven.
A book that might move me to tears?
The Fifth Season by NK Jemisin.
Sister Wake is published by Hodderscape
