The Making of Realm: An Introduction

My least-horror horror novel

After Torn Pages, there was a brief recess in the summer of 2018 as I contemplated what to write next. That summer had its highs and lows, but by autumn of that year, I still felt good enough to write a book I'd comfortably describe as TRIUMPHANT. Not in a smug way (despite the caps lock) but, looking back, more in a way of reassurance. "Don't worry, going, keep charging ahead"; that was the mood I was in writing this book. Torn Pages had its happy moments, but it was also a book of highs and lows. This book would be a sustained high, and I was going to feel great writing it. That was the plan.

You can see where I'm going with this, but I would say I've never really been depressed while writing. That's why I keep on writing. Even in the worst moments in my life, writing has always been this oasis where I've been able to block out everything else. That said, I do feel that the books I choose to write -- when I decide which idea I want to work on next -- reflect my mindset at the time. It's why during the winter of 2021 I was enamoured with haunted house stories, being trapped and surrounded by screaming monsters (we'll get there).

Despite the TRIUMPHANT nature of the story of Realm, it is set in a dark underwater fantasy world, where all those currents and fathoms are weighing on the shoulders of my main protagonist. The weather in Bristol where I was living at the time (and I am living now) was constantly muggy and wet. I wore my long blue wintercoat at the time, and constantly remember feeling wet and cold. Perfect! It was a great atmosphere to write the book. I was like the main character, Jenny, in my novel: in the dark and cold and shivering, sometimes, but self-assured and adventurous, carving out their own path

Realm was a fun novel to write: these pub-going girls making their constitution and creating their own country. The 18th century adventurism, that slightly strange way of looking at warfare, hovers all over Realm. I was obsessed with this Ken Burns documentary, The Roosevelts, which I had watched before writing this, and the Teddy Roosevelt side of that documentary really influenced this book. The surrealist imagery of Jenny riding an Orca Whale, holding a sword and wearing a cowboy hat, came straight out of the age of the Rough Riders.

There's a lot of politics in this book, and I think it reflects my own politics. Jenny has broadly progressive ideas, but the more progressive Maddy character is there to counteract her. Their disagreement of the evolution chain was meant to represent the disagreement between capitalism and socialism. The great white sharks represent the 1% whereas the krill and the other creatures represent the proletariat. I do think there's a fair Rooseveltian way to do capitalism, and I don't think the book shies away from the sometime evil the monsters in the system can commit, and overall I'm happy with the way the book reflects these beliefs.