Guest Post: John Connors on bringing things to life

Guest Post on Bringing things to life by John Connors

My children’s / young adults novel Elemental is set in a quiet English village and I felt it was important to base it on somewhere real. There is a small place just outside a large UK city with which I was familiar for a while and that became the model for Rooksbourne. To bring it to life though I needed to add things that are just not there in reality. So a large wood was added to one side of the village and also a school that sits on the top of a hill that’s in the middle of the woods. The school itself is based on the one I attended, hundreds of miles from the real village. The house in which the Allenbys live is the house I used to stay in and the reason Tom’s parents are doctors is because the person who lived in the real house was. 

So all of these things were brought together in my head and because I am so familiar with each of them I’ve never had to sketch a plan to remind me what they are like. Bringing the place to life was an essential part of writing the book and I don’t think I could have done it as well had I just invented a village. This was also the stepping stone for the key part of the story which is that the main character Tom Allenby is able to control natural and elemental things using an ancient igneous rock. I felt it was important that this rock was real in the sense that kids could see it and – if they go to London’s Natural History Museum- even buy a small version of it. I’m not guaranteeing it will enable them to control elements though! The rock is called snowflake obsidian. 

In thinking how this would work I wanted to try something that in narrative terms can be restrictive for me as an author. Tom is only able to use the stone defensively and in two ways. He can concentrate on something like running water or a vine and make it move to his command. Or he can throw the stone towards, say, a flame and it will instantly return to his hand with that element. This self imposed rule has made the book better I think and I imagine young readers will like the idea of throwing something, an act they’ll be familiar with. 

Hopefully these things have added a believability to the story even though it’s a fantasy because I feel the best fantasy always starts with reality.

 

 

Title: Elemental

Author: John Connors

Blurb: Somewhere in England is the village of Rooksbourne. It is so quiet you might not even notice it.

Yet this is the most important place in the world and the new home of Tom Allenby, an ordinary thirteen year old about to be flung into extraordinary adventures.

Thirteen year old Tom Allenby is plunged into the adventure of a lifetime when he moves to the village of Rooksbourne where nothing is what it seems. With the help of new friends and a mysterious stone that gives him new powers Tom battles deadly over-sized animals, plants and birds as he races to stop a plan that threatens the whole world.

Mixing fantasy, mystery and myth Elemental is the exciting first book in the Heart of the World series!

 

Elemental is available now from Amazon:

Paperback  /  Kindle US  /  Kindle UK

 

John Connors was born and lives in Liverpool and Elemental is his first novel. However it has been written several times so there is now no longer a talking worm! It is the first in a series of books called Heart of the World. For more information on Elemental and forthcoming books go to www.heartoftheworldbooks.co.uk.

In real life, he works for an IT related company in management information statistics. He also gardens at the weekend. He has written a lot of reviews and articles for amateur fanzines as well as editing his own, the latest of which can be found at www.thiswayupzine.blogspot.com

 

 

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