EJ Tett is the author of The Kingdom of Malinas and coauthor of Casting Shadows. She has .JPG)
been writing stories since primary school, focusing first on anthropomorphic animal tales then moving on to fantasy novels. She loves strong female characters and stories with action and emotion. She currently resides in the United Kingdom.
Your young adult trilogy begins with the Kingdom of Malinas and you’ve managed to create a new world with vivid, charming characters. Where did the concept behind this mystical world come from?
I have a poster on my wall that I’ve had for years. It shows a castle with the sun rising behind it, and a dragon perched on a rock archway in front of it. There are two tiny people in the picture, a wizard and a young boy. The Kingdom of Malinas was influenced by the poster, definitely. I decided to lose the wizard and change the guy for a girl!
Have you developed the plot for the next two novels in the trilogy, or do you develop as you write?
The Empress Graves is already written and is in the process of going through a re-write, as it was originally written many years ago now and hopefully my writing has improved since then! Usually I make things up as I go along, although I do have a plot of sorts for the final book in the trilogy.
Without spoiling the Kingdom of Malinas, can you tell us about the next two in the trilogy?
The next book is going to be a lot darker. Something happens to Sorrel that she can’t quite cope with and it sends her over the edge a little. She’s quite an angry character! The third book is going to focus on the Sarkany a little more, I think, I’m hoping to have a lot of dragons in it!
What are your hopes for the trilogy?
It sounds quite boring but I just hope that people enjoy it! Obviously I want the books to do well too, but I love just hearing people say that they couldn’t put the book down.
When did you realize you wanted to become a writer?
Primary school. (The school before High school... I’m not sure what the American equivalent is!) We used to write stories in primary school and I loved it.
You write poetry and fiction. Which do you find most challenging?
I want to say poetry... I haven’t been writing poetry for very long. At first I didn’t understand it at all, what the rules were, how it was all supposed to be laid out, so I asked a writer friend and she helped answer all my questions. But at the moment I can’t seem to sit down and write anything longer.jpg)
than a short story. So right now, fiction is definitely more challenging!
Your characters in the Kingdom of Malinas are realistic and relatable. Are you inspired by people around you, or is every character trait completely made up?
Thanks! Everyone seems to be enjoying my characters so far and I love characterisation, it’s possibly my favourite thing about writing. I think writers tend to use aspects of their own personalities in their characters. There is a lot of me in Sorrel! Especially when I was her age.
What is your writing style? Do you outline and plan ahead or simply sit down and write?
I just sit down and write. Sometimes with a pen and paper, sometimes on the laptop. Sometimes when I go to write something I don’t even know what the story’s going to be. I’ll start with a sentence and see where it goes, if it’s a good sentence it’s easy, if it’s a bad sentence then I usually delete it or scribble it out and go off and do something else!
Obviously, with longer works there is a little planning involved. But I usually work quite haphazardly. Sometimes I’ll write a scene for something way in the future, which a lot of the time I won’t even end up using.
What authors have inspired you?
When I was younger it was Brian Jacques, author of the Redwall books. I loved the whole talking animal thing! But now it’s Neil Gaiman. I wrote my first short story after reading a Neil Gaiman book, and I sent it off and it was accepted first time. So Neil Gaiman is definitely a big inspiration.
What are your thoughts on being an Independent Author? Did you first attempt the traditional route?
I did try approaching agents and publishers when I first wrote The Kingdom of Malinas, but as I was quite young at the time I didn’t really know what I was doing. I self-published because I just wanted other people to read my story, and I wanted to see what my manuscript looked like as a book!
I think it’s difficult to get any recognition as an Independent Author. A lot of the time people presume that you’ve chosen to self-publish because you’re not good enough to have been picked up by a traditional publisher. I want to show people that I can write and am quite good at it!
What advice would you give to an aspiring writer?
Read lots! That’s the best advice really, read and see how other people are writing. Then start writing and keep writing, even if it’s just a scene or a short piece or a poem. Join some writers’ forums for feedback on your work, keep trying to improve. There are plenty of good books for writers too. At the moment I’m reading ‘Eats, Shoots and Leaves’ by Lynne Truss, which is a grammar book... it’s also really funny, if you’re a grammar obsessed loon like I am!
For more EJ Tett, visit her website at www.the-kingdom-of-malinas.co.uk/
and blog here www.emmy-j.blogspot.com/
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