The Next Big Thing

Lillian Francis tagged me to do this meme, saying that as I’d already done one for The Glass Floor, maybe I could do it for one of my other books. Actually, she tagged me ages ago, but things have been somewhat dire over the new year and I’ve only just started catching up. So here’s proof that I wasn’t ignoring you, Lillian! I was just flailing.

As I’ve done one for The Glass Floor, here’s one for the Under the Hill books instead. So it’s more a case of The Last Big Thing.

A Rural Fantasy with elves and WWII bombers

 What is the title of your book? Under the Hill: Bomber’s Moon & Under the Hill: Dogfighters

How did you come by the idea? I had just finished writing Shining in the Sun and thought I would cleanse my palate with a short fantasy novella before starting to do another long historical novel about WWII. I was listening to Steeleye Span, I think, and thought it would be easy to do a gay version of the story of Tam Lin. Then, when I started to write it, it just kept growing, and before I knew it I had such an enormous novel on my hands that it needed to be split in half to be printed economically.

What genre does your book fall under? Contemporary Fantasy? Magic realism? It’s not High Fantasy, is it, because that’s always set in a different world. It’s certainly a sub-genre of Fantasy, but that’s as far as I can go with certainty.

Which actors would you choose to play your characters if it were a movie? Do they have to be still alive? If not, Tom Hardy for Chris, Rik Makarem for Ben, Errol Flynn for Geoff.

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book? The elves at the bottom of the garden are coming back – with an army.

Will your book be self-published or traditional? Published by Samhain Publishing.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript? It’s hard to tell. I didn’t make a note of it, and there were holidays and edits for other things in the middle of it. Maybe 9 months? Something like that.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre? There are a lot of similarities to Violetta Vane and Heidi Belleau’s The Druid Stone, without them being at all alike.

Who or What inspired you to write this book? It wouldn’t have been the book it is if I had not been inspired by the heroism of the Lancaster bomber crews I was reading about for an entirely different project. That project may never actually see the light of day, but UtH would be poorer without it.

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest? Amusing amateur ghostbusters! Battling Faerie Queens! Dragons fighting WWII planes! Morris dancers versus elves! The vicar wears red Doc Martins. It’s all very English and stiff upper lip 🙂