Welcome to the return of Owl's Eye View at Starting the Next Chapter! Today I have for you an interview with the author of one of my favorite book series, Kersten Hamilton. Kersten is the author of The Goblin Wars, a truly magical series of books that swept me along from the first. I hope you enjoy this interview with Kersten as much as I did.
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Kersten: It is good to be here, Marla! I am not good at the 140 character thing. How about this: The books are my heart, poured out on paper. That won’t coax or inspire anyone to read the books, of course. But it does explain why they were so hard to write.
Marla: We all have our quirks and little surprises. What would your readers be most surprised to learn about you?
Kersten: After a long day of listening to my own ‘voice’ while I write, I chillax with a good Korean drama. I don’t understand Korean (I watch with subtitles) but the language works like music on my tired brain. I really enjoy the stories as well, because I am not as familiar with the Eastern mythology. I can pretty much predict what will happen in stories from my own culture. One of my favorite characters in Arang and the Magistrate (Spoiler Alert!) was reincarnated as a beloved Heavenly goat. I did NOT see that coming!
Marla: Who or what was your biggest inspiration while writing The Goblin Wars series?
Kersten: A writer named George MacDonald, who’s books have ‘baptized the imaginations’ of much greater writers than I will ever be.
Philip Pullman deserves a mention as well. I was reading Pullman’s Dark Materials series when I realized that I disagree with his worldview so deeply and completely that I just had to write a fantasy trilogy of my own.
Marla: You have some truly amazing characters throughout your series. What are your favorite aspects of Teagan and Finn?
Kersten: Thank you for saying so, Marla! My characters are like family to me. One of my favorite aspects of Finn is how he embodies love. Teagan is more of a thinker; but what I love best about her is that Teagan never gives up. Ever.
Marla: What is your most recent read and how would you describe it in a sentence?
Kersten: Faith, Hope and Poetry by Malcolm Guite. I don’t need a whole sentence. A phrase will do: Literary awesomesauce!
Marla: What are your top 3 favorite books?
Kersten: Gah. How could I choose? As I type this, there are about 1,200 books on the shelves around me looking over my shoulder. Probably a third of them have been my favorite at one time or another; I have felt at least a sincere attachment to the others. A couple hundred of my favorite favorites are waiting quietly upstairs in my office.
Since I don’t want to offend my printed friends, I’ll just talk about the ones I am reading right now.
My morning book is: A Preface to Paradise Lost, by C.S. Lewis (brilliant!); my afternoon book is: Blake, by Peter Ackroyd (sobering and sad, for sure), and my bedtime book,: The Mind of the Maker by Dorothy Sayers.
These are the kinds of books I read when I need courage and inspiration. Last night, they seems to have inspired and all–night–long dream fight with the Dynamation cyclops from the seventh voyage of Sinbad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a77pycC78Q0
The cyclops did not win. I take courage from this.
Marla: Which of your characters do you most identify with?
Kersten: There are actually two characters that I identify greatly with in The Goblin Wars: Finn, and Mamieo Ida. They both have large chunks of my soul in them. I do loan little bits of soul to my good guys. I steal the souls of wicked dogcatchers to animate my bad guys, though. I’m not lending anything to a bad guy.
Marla: Any advice for aspiring authors out there?
Kersten: Read old books. I mean really old books, the more the better. Read books from other cultures, the more the better.
Also, if you write fantasy, read some Tolkien. Specifically, read The Return of the Shadow https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15351 which is about the writing of The Lord of the Rings. It shows just how difficult the making of great books is – even for a brilliant writer.
Marla: One last questions, just for fun: You suddenly look up to find yourself in Mag Mell. Who or where would you most like to visit there, and who or what do you most want to avoid?
Kersten: I sincerely believe that we all look up at one point or another and find ourselves in Mag Mell, or something very similar to it: a world much bigger than the one we think we are living in; the real world. I like the way George MacDonald describes it in his novel Phantastes: A Faerie Romance for Men and Women, which is about a young man named Anodos who stumbles into the world I am talking about. This is from the final pages of MacDonald’s book:
“I had lain down under the shadow of a great, ancient beech-tree, that stood on the edge of the field. As I lay, with my eyes closed, I began to listen to the sound of the leaves overhead. At first, they made sweet inarticulate music alone; but, by-and-by, the sound seemed to begin to take shape, and to be gradually moulding itself into words; till, at last, I seemed able to distinguish these, half-dissolved in a little ocean of circumfluent tones: "A great good is coming—is coming—is coming to thee, Anodos;" and so over and over again. I fancied that the sound reminded me of the voice of the ancient woman, in the cottage that was four-square. I opened my eyes, and, for a moment, almost believed that I saw her face, with its many wrinkles and its young eyes, looking at me from between two hoary branches of the beech overhead. But when I looked more keenly, I saw only twigs and leaves, and the infinite sky, in tiny spots, gazing through between. Yet I know that good is coming to me—that good is always coming; though few have at all times the simplicity and the courage to believe it….”
Thank you for having me on Starting the Next Chapter today, Marla!
Thank you, Kersten! If you are unfamiliar with these wonderful books, check out this link to see the list.
About the Author
See all of Kersten's books HERE.
Follow her on TWITTER.
