The Making of Torn Pages: An Introduction

A New Beginning

The book you see at the front of this website -- and indeed, my logo -- is the one I'm most proud of. I am proud of In Bloom ( though, mostly, because it was attacked and completely misunderstood) but Torn Pages is definitely my favourite. What's more, it's currently my most reviewed book on Amazon.

This was a book I spent a year's work on, and it was a real labour of love and passion when it came to deciding which different books the characters would visit. I eventually settled on a structure where, as the story progressed, the books would get more pretentious: you start with a kids' fantasy and end up with Shakespeare.

Writing the book was intense. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. I had the highest highs and the lowest lows writing this book ( Fall 2017- May 2018). The intensity between the incredible fantastical highs and the gloomiest lows I think added to how the book played out. You have these bright spots of light -- the literary worlds -- but surrounding them is the darkness of the wilderness, the Unimagined. One motif I kept coming back to was Christmas lights in the darkness; this electric, almost overly pretty light amidst this crushing despair. It was pretty heavy.

That's not say I was entirely unhappy when writing this book. Like I said, some of the best nights of my life were had writing this book. Unlike the periods writing The Pixies, The Falls, Masquerade, this book had these really bright, powerful sweet spots.

Coming up with the monstrous trees was great fun. I loved giving them animal characteristics and making them like beasts. There was an unintentional global warming metaphor I sussed and leaned on hard in the edits.

David Flint was modelled on David Bowie, but like Bowie he was meant to malleable and able to warp into what anyone desired. Unlike Bowie, this made him quite boring in the end. I even considered giving him traits of our former Prime Minister, Theresa May, making him robotic and the lack of personality being the personality. I toyed with the idea of him being like a "Davebot" but eventually got rid of the idea.

I was desperate not to have Alice be a manic pixie dream girl, so that's why I gave her villainous characteristics and tried to make her as complex as possible. In the sequel Alice will be the main character and she will have a girlfriend.

I'm in two minds about what parodies to include in the sequel. I'd like to more female authors and authors of colour, but I don't want to copy the work of people from different backgrounds. I'll try and find a balance, paying tribute while being respectful.