I've always been a fan of fantasy, and it's pretty much the only genre I read. I love how anything goes, there are no boundaries, or, at least, there could be no boundaries, but there are, in most cases, and they're the ones that are set out by a non communicative vote. Things like, everyone being impossible beautiful, or incredible fighters with little training, or really strong in magic. If done well, it's great, but sometimes I just thought, "hmmm, really?"
My mother has said to me numerous times that writers write what they want to read. I'm not sure how valid this is for most of them, but for me, it's true. I've found that I'm most comfortable writing comedy, dark stuff, and most of all, magical stuff. I grew up reading Terry Pratchett, Phillip Pullman, Neil Gaiman, Diana Wynne Jones and various others, so it makes sense.
Charlie came about as an idea, just a small one that I had in 2009 and wrote down. It only said something like "Girl, beautiful and smart, been kidnapped and is stuck in an inn, making sarcastic comments."
Then she sat on my hard drive for a year, until I was reading through my work, and thought about putting her into this scenario I had bobbing about in my head. It worked and from then on I couldn't stop writing. That scene was cataclysmic for the development of the story. I wrote about 240,000 words in ten months, and that's with losing between 18,000 and 25,000 words when my hard drive broke (moral of the story, always back up).
Through various people, including my mother and the people at Warrington Wire Writers Group, I decided that it would be better if I split it in half. There was a natural break after about 100,000 words, and I'd thought to finish the book there when I was writing it, but had carried on. I'd always planned on writing two books, but now there might be three.
When writing I didn't really think about themes or what I was trying to say with this book. I just wrote. Now, having time to analyse it, and look at other materials I've written, I suppose there is a consistent theme about domination, especially over women. But at the time of writing, I was mostly, and crudely, thinking, "hur hur, big penis"...I know, I'm very sophisticated.
I didn't want this to fall into a typical fantasy book, because although I love them, I also hate them. I sort of wanted this book to acknowledge them, but put its own twist on things. It's always pointed out to me that I'm contrary. I can't help it.
I know that I love my book, and I love reading it. I hope other people do too.
