Marcus Sedgwick Q and A

This is the basis of Marcus Sedgwick’s new teen novel, Midwinterblood, a spine chillingly dark historical love story which spans lifetimes and centuries. The book hits the shelves tomorrow (Thursday 6 October).

The public are invited to join Sedgwick as he explores the twists and turns of this fast paced gothic tale at the Cambridge Festival of Ideas on Saturday 22 October.

Marcus Sedgwick is a critically acclaimed author of young adult fiction and has won, or been shortlisted for, over 30 awards including the Carnegie Medal and the Booktrust Teenage Book Award in his 17 year career in publishing. Now living in Cambridgeshire and writing full time, Marcus took time out of his busy schedule to answer some questions about his new book Midwinterblood, and how working in the children’s section of Cambridge bookshop Heffers inspired him to get in to writing teenage fiction.

Midwinterblood has a very complex tight-knit plot, where did the inspiration come from?

It came from several different places, the first being from an extraordinary painting that hangs in an art gallery in Sweden called Midvinterblot . It means ‘midwinter sacrifice’ in Swedish but blot and blood mean a very similar thing. It’s enormous. I combined this with inspiration from my growing obsession with the 1973 film the Wicker Man, one of the best British horror films. Finally I decided I wanted to set in it seven different times with the same characters meeting again and again, so the two big themes became sacrifice and love. I was then able to put in lots of different things I was interested in at the time to shape the seven different times - like the Icelandic Sagas and English folk ballads.

You worked in Heffers in Cambridge. Was this when you realised you wanted to get into kids publishing?

Yeah, that was the time when the children’s bookshop still existed and most people thought it was the best children’s bookshop in the country. I made lots of friends there who are now illustrators such as Thomas Tailor and Adrian Reynolds. It was just this incredible education into the world of children’s literature. I’d also thought about writing and I’d tried writing, but none of it made sense until I realised young adult fiction is really exciting; you can do anything. Whereas a lot of adult fiction was, and I think still is, so sort of introspective - it’s lacking in storytelling and lacking in characters you care about.

Was it a long and difficult process from working in the bookshop to having your own books on sale there? 

I worked in the bookshop for three years, and then I got a job as a sales rep for a children’s publisher. And alongside that I started to try and write as well. And then it took me about four years and I wrote another couple of unpublished books. It was the fifth book I wrote that was first published in 2000 (Floodland). I only gave up my day job three years ago because it is quite a hard thing; unless you write a book which is an instant bestseller, it is quite a long haul.

What is it about teen fiction, particularly suspense and horror, that most appeals to you?

I get asked this a lot but I’m not sure I have a very sensible answer. I think the first thing is that most teenagers I speak to seem to have some desire to explore horror a little bit, and I think it’s because when you become a teenager it’s the time you start worrying about all sorts of life and death and all these big issues. And I think that’s the role of horror books and films, they explore that stuff in a safe environment.

But I’ve always loved spooky stories, ghost stories, mystery stories. The stranger the better really. My very first memory is that I was being wheeled in my push-chair by my nanny through the church yard in the village where I grew up, a 12^th century church yard in Kent.  I remember the conkers falling because it was that time of year and the gravestones and the sunlight - even though it was cold - and I don’t know why but that memory always holds a fascination with me.

How much research goes in to each book?

I love research so I don’t find research hard. The amount depends on the book, and Midwinterblood was very light on research. Other books like Blood Red Snow White was a couple of years’ worth of going to libraries and archives and that was tough - but I still love it because actually it’s easier than doing the writing.

What do you think about events like the Cambridge Festival of Ideas and inspiring young people to think about careers in the arts and humanities?

To me, the arts are just so important. We could live without arts and music and all those things but we wouldn’t really be living very much. And what science gives us is the ability to give us a more comfortable life and a safer life and a more civilised life but what the arts gives us is a way of enjoying life. So you know I wouldn’t want to live in a world without either of those two things.

I think young people often feel that they can’t be a writer or musician or a composer because all those things are done by someone else. So the main reason for having events like this is to make kids think ‘I could do that’. If someone had come to my school when I was a teenager I might have started writing many, many years before.

You are very much into music. Do you think the music you listen to when you write influences the direction of your work and, if so, do your books have particular soundtracks?  

I’m always happy to talk about music – people don’t often pick up on it, but every single book I’ve written has had some reference to music in somewhere, and I’ve been making it more and more explicit, because I’ve noticed that people haven’t been spotting it! Each book does have a soundtrack, so Book of Dead Days,  I wrote listening to Muse’s first album, and My Swordhand is Singing - which is a vampire Transylvanian thing - I was listening to Jewish Transylvanian music constantly, because it was just really atmospheric stuff.  I like to have music playing and I choose music which has the same atmosphere as what I’m trying to create on the page, so I feel like it’s getting me half way there, and hopefully my brain’ll do the rest and get in on the paper.

For Midwinterblood, the main inspiration was Stravinksy’s Rite of Spring which is an extraordinary piece of music; really freaky and strange and unbelievable. Although I was imagining the painting for the very final bit of the book, I’m also playing The Rite of Spring very loud on my stereo – I’ve got a very soundproof writing shed, fortunately!

And do you have a favourite character from any of your books?

Oo, that’s really tough too, ‘cause there are so many. But, um, it’s probably still Valerian from The Book of Dead Days – antihero. (laughs)

Finally, what’s next on the horizon: do you have anything in mind?

We’re hoping to adapt My Swordhand is Singing into an immersive theatre production. So I’ve just started working on the adaptation of that – I’ve been planning that for a little while and I want to make it really cool and genuinely very scary. And I’m co-writing a screenplay with my brother. And, oh yes, a new series to replace The Raven Mysteries, but in that same kind of age and silliness. And then starting to work on new longer novel, too. And it all has to be done yesterday!

Marcus Sedgwick will be appearing at the Cambridge Festival of Ideas at 11am on Saturday 22^nd October 2011. The Festival runs from 19 – 30 October, and is a free festival celebrating the arts, humanities and social sciences. For the full programme and to book visit the Festival website, link right.