I don’t write big books, clever books, books with an important message or books that will change the world. But I do write entertaining books, the type I would have enjoyed reading as a child.
James Love
As a child of the 1980’s, I was fortunate enough to grow up on a rich diet of science fiction and fantasy. Star Wars was in the cinema (the original trilogy, not the rubbish later ones!) and The Transformers cartoon was on in the mornings whilst I got ready for school. Little did I know it at the time, but the seeds for my love of sci-fi and middle grade fiction were already being sown.
I was a voracious reader of anything and everything, and it might not be very fashionable to admit it now, but Enid Blyton was a particular favourite. The Famous Five, The Secret Seven – they could all be found resting on top of my bedside cabinet, their pages marked with big greasy fingerprints as I hungrily devoured them over breakfast. In fact, my very first literary effort at the tender age of eight was based on Blyton’s The Magic Faraway Tree – now thankfully lost to the mists of time!
From there, I progressed on to Roald Dahl, and I can still remember my mum’s impression of the Grand High Witch as she read The Witches to me before I went to sleep – fortunately, there were no nightmares! Roger Lancelyn Green’s Greek Myths and Legends was another favourite, as was Douglas Hill’s Galactic Warlord series, probably my first proper introduction to ‘literary’ science fiction (unless you include my Return of the Jedi annual!) And it would be remiss of me not to mention Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone’s Fighting Fantasy series of books in which you ‘choose your own adventure’. Warlock of Firetop Mountain, anyone?
And comics, lots and lots of comics! The Dandy, The Beano, Whizzer and Chips. OK, they might not be very high-brow, and if I’m honest I’ve never been one for what you might call the great literary ‘classics’, but they all helped in fostering my love of reading and in making me the writer I am today. Book snobs beware!
But then life took over, and I found myself reading less and less. Realising a career as a secret agent wasn’t in the offing, I studied Media Arts at Royal Holloway University and, for a while at least, began reading once more. Several soulless sales jobs followed. I knew I had a creative streak, and wanted to do something with it, but what? It wasn’t until I started teaching in a primary school, that things finally began to fall into place.
In the rare moments of downtime, I’d find myself flicking through my student’s reading books, gravitating towards what I now know to be middle grade fiction – books specifically aimed at 8-12 year olds. More grown up than chapter books, but without the introspective teen angst of Young Adult, they reintroduced me to worlds I had long forgotten; worlds in which you are limited only by your own imagination.
And so I began to write. After all, how hard can it be to write a kid’s book? Well, for the record, it’s hard, in some ways even harder than writing adult fiction. Children take no prisoners, and if there’s a gaping plot hole or something that doesn’t make sense, they’ll be the first to point it out! But I persevered, targeting my lifelong love of science fiction to a middle grade audience. Its taken time, and as any writer knows – procrastination is your greatest enemy – but I’m now ready to see where this self publishing journey takes me.
JamesLovesMGLit 