I really enjoyed reading Emma's debut novel - Blackbrooke - Book 1 of her trilogy of Young Adult Horrors which surprised me since I'm generally a scaredy cat!
I confess, though, that the second book is still on my TBR kindle pile. I must sort that out soon because Emma is here to tell us about Book 3 which launches next week on the 14th October!
Emma's got some information to share with us about how her novels came to be written. So, over to you, Emma...
Building
Blackbrooke
I get asked a lot about the location of Blackbrooke.
The truth is, I’ve no idea.
It’s set in the north of England, but that’s as near to an
answer anyone gets.
I’m currently working on a new novel set in a very specific
place and it requires a lot of research, along with maps and pinned locations.
Nancy says: I know how that works, Emma and it takes time and patience to get it right.
Blackbrooke was different. I wrote it for myself but it just
so happened other people liked it too. As the trilogy progressed, I did toy
with the idea of going into specifics about the location and dialect of the
characters.
It’s the north after all, surely they have an accent?
In the end, I decided it wasn’t important. Not to me anyway.
It’s partly because I want the focus to be on the story.
This is a town humans share with creatures, so to drill down on accurate
locations seemed a tad pointless. Plus, I like the idea of readers imagining a
place they know. Perhaps there’s a quirky little town nearby that reminds them
of Blackbrooke.
It’s anywhere you want it to be. The north of England is a
pretty big place! If you’re really curious, I didn’t imagine the characters
with accents. The only time a northern accent crept in was when I thought of
Denzil or Noah, but everyone else was a blank canvas.
My inspiration came from growing up in a suburban town with
some surrounding woodland. Near to my house was a bizarre area we dubbed Dead
Dog Woods. It apparently got the name because a disease killed all of the trees
and, although they still stood, no leaves ever grew. It drew us in as young teenagers
and someone in our group would always run out screaming and claiming to have
spotted some kind of creature, or that they were chased by the ‘dead dogs’.
After the first book was released, my mum moved to a gated
community in America called Seabrook Island. No one is allowed into Seabrook
unless they’ve been cleared beforehand and get halted at the gates if they try.
The idea for Blackbrooke was already formed and published by then, but visiting
Seabrook really helped me with communicating the feeling of seclusion.
It’s been fun to create something completely fictional. For
three glorious books, I’ve been able to do what I want and I’ll certainly miss
that.
I especially miss it now that a full wall in my bedroom is
taken up with the map of a very famous city…
Blackbrooke III: King of Queens
is released 14th October, courtesy of Crooked Cat Publishing.
Thank you for visiting today, Emma, it's a pleasure to have you visit anytime.
Check out Emma's Amazon page for Buying books 1 and 2.
You can follow Emma on Twitter @emma_silver
or head to her
blog http://emmasilverauthor.blogspot.co.uk.
Emma was born and raised in Manchester, England.
Blackbrooke is her debut young adult horror novel after spending many years honing her skills drafting short stories and devouring horror through the ages from R.L. Stine's Goosebumps collection through to Stephen King. It forms part one of the explosive Blackbrooke Trilogy.
She gets most of her ideas and is inspired by music and also the fighting spirit of young people who aren't afraid to challenge the norm and stand up for what they believe in. This fleeting 'moment' in life is what she tries to capture in her writing.
Emma has sent along these fabulous promotional images for Blackbrooke III. I thought it would be a pity for you to miss any of them so I've included them all!
I wonder which one you like best? I know my favourite.
Please pop an answer in the comments box and tell Emma which you like best!
Have a lovely Thursday.
Slainthe!
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