About the Author: Victoria M. Adams
What would you like readers to know about you?
I love writing children’s books – but I also read them, all the time. I’m reading ‘Hedgewitch’ by Skye McKenna at the moment. So much fun!
What music do you listen to (if any) when you write?
I don’t. The words have a music in them. I like to listen to how the sentences flow, how paragraphs build to a crescendo. Other music distracts. But that’s just me.
What books or authors inspired you to become a writer?
So many. When I was a child (and since), Ursula Le Guin’s ‘Earthsea’ was a favourite, as were Alan Garner’s ‘The Owl Service’ and ‘The Hobbit’ by J.R.R. Tolkien. Later on, I discovered Diana Wynne Jones – those gorgeous Chrestomanci books, and ‘Howl’s Moving Castle’ (because of Miyazaki). In terms of books aimed at an older readership, I’m a huge fan of ‘Piranesi’ by Susanna Clarke and just about anything by Kazuo Ishiguro.
About the Book: The House at the End of the Sea
What is your book about for those who haven’t read it?
At the start of the story, Saffi has arrived with her dad and brother Milo at her grandparents’ spooky old B&B, on the Yorkshire coast. After losing their mum to cancer, the children have to start again from scratch: a new home, a new life, new friends. Saffi isn’t thrilled but Milo is especially angry. He deals with losing his mum by lying and inventing tales.
Very soon, however, Saffi realises that some of the things he claims to see around the old house might be real. He talks about furniture and pictures changing, about eyes watching him from a mirror. When after a shaky start she makes friends with a local boy, Birdy, she starts to understand what might be going on at home. And it all centres around the mysterious guests who’ve just arrived at the B&B...
What has been your inspiration for writing it?
I’ve drawn on some classic folktales, such as ‘Tam Lin’, as well as twentieth-century classics like ‘Tom’s Midnight Garden’ or ‘the Owl Service’. I wanted that mix of the familiar and otherworldly you find in ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’, that sense of being an ordinary child without special powers who is dumped in the middle of an extraordinary situation and has to make the best of it. I also wanted to explore colonial legacies through a fairy tale medium.
What was your favorite scene or part of your book to write?
The magical creatures, definitely! Though I also adored evoking the old house by the sea. I’d live there in a heartbeat…
Where can your book be purchased?
In the UK: https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-house-at-the-end-of-the-sea/victoria-m-adams/9781839134234
US people can order at Blackwell’s or Amazon.
To the Future Writer:
What advice would you give to aspiring authors who want to write a book?
Read a great deal, both within the genre you intend to write in and outside it. Most of all, have fun! If you want to write your book and go back to it with joy, chances are someone will want to read it and go back to it with joy!
What’s next for you? Any events, upcoming pubs, etc.
I’m currently working on my WIP, so will be under a rock for a few months. But I can also be found on Instagram at odd hours looking at cat videos.
Where can we find you:
What’s on your TBR list?
Currently, aside from the ‘Hedgewitch’ series, I have a set of Paul Auster’s books which I’m looking forward to reading (the ‘New York’ trilogy.) Yes, eclectic, but good.
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