Today we talk to Carys Jones!
Carys Jones loves nothing more than to write and create stories which ignite the reader’s imagination. Based in Shropshire, England, Carys lives with her husband, two guinea pigs and her adored canine companion Rollo. When she’s not writing, Carys likes to indulge her inner geek by watching science- fiction films or playing video games. She lists John Green, Jodi Picoult and Virginia Andrews as her favourite authors and draws inspiration for her own work from anything and everything. To Carys, there is no greater feeling then when you lose yourself in a great story. We couldn’t agree more! And it is that feeling of ultimate escapism which she tries to bring to her books.
Name three things on your Christmas list this year! The Lego Disney Castle, Cogs
worth and Lumiere Pop! Figures and Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys. Though I’m pretty sure I won’t be getting the castle even though I’ve been very good this year!!
Christmas is a time of family traditions – what are your best (or worst!) family traditions? Every Christmas Eve I have a nest day. I put on my onesie, sit by the lights of my tree and watch Christmas films from breakfast until bedtime whilst drinking far too much hot chocolate. It’s easily my favourite day of the whole year!
(That sounds like a great way to spend the day!)
There are wonderful stories shared at Christmas time. What is your favourite story to read at Christmas? When I was little my Mum would always read The Night Before Christmas to me just before I went to sleep on Christmas Eve and even now when I hear those famous opening lines I can’t help but be filled with a magical sense of excitement! I also love to read Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol during December.
If you could have Christmas dinner with anyone (alive today or person from history) who would it be? Leonardo DiCaprio. Sadly I think my reasons are pretty obvious. I’ve adored him since I was twelve and if I was able to invite anyone to my Christmas dinner I wouldn’t be able to pass up the opportunity of getting to meet him!
In The Paper Princess, Tilly is constantly living in her imagination. What would her ideal Christmas be like? As much as Tilly would definitely get swept up in the magic of the season I think her ideal Christmas would be spent with her family. Her parents would spend the day smiling and for once her sisters wouldn’t squabble. They’d all just come together and I know that Tilly would love to just bask in the glow of that kind of family closeness.
Lots of people have work Christmas parties. If you could have a festive celebration with any of the book characters you’ve created who would it be and why? I feel like I’d want all my characters there so that no one would feel left out! We’d play charades, eat too many party rings and pull crackers it’d be awesome! But I’d have to mediate between some characters who I just know wouldn’t get along!
Reader’s question from the children at Inkpots Writers’ Hut: where do you get your inspiration from? Absolutely anywhere. Sometimes I have a really vivid dream and when I wake up I have to scribble it down first thing. Other times I’m walking through the woods with my dog, Rollo, and I get an idea or I could be taking a bath. I find that I do my best thinking when I let my mind wander, when I’m out walking my dog, having a bath or sat on a train for a long journey. I highly recommend letting your mind wander as you never know where it might go!
Turkey or goose? Turkey. I’ve never eaten goose!
Real or fake tree? Fake. I’ve been put off real trees since one fell on me.
Mince pies or Christmas pudding? Neither. I’m allergic to cinnamon so have to avoid lots of traditional Christmas treats. On Christmas Day I tend to go for cupcakes or ice cream instead.
Stockings – end of the bed or over the fireplace? End of the bed. There was always something so wonderful about waking up to a stocking stuffed full of gifts first thing on Christmas morning.
Christmas Eve or New Year’s Eve? Hands down Christmas Eve. There’s so much magical anticipation in the air. It’s my favourite day of the year and I can’t wait for it to arrive!
We hope you have a lovely Christmas; thank you for participating!
For more information about Carys please visit www.carys-jones.com or follow her on Twitter @tiny_dancer85
Jamie Thomson has been a writer of books and computer games for many years. He is now the minion and slave of the Dark Lord, Dirk Lloyd. He lives in the dungeons below his Master’s Iron Tower, chained to a desk, where he spends every day writing for his overlord. Or else. The Dark Lord is a comedic fantasy about a Dark Lord trapped in the body of a human boy here in modern day earth. The first in the series, won the Roald Dahl Funny Prize, 2012 and also made the top 100 kids books of the last ten years in the Sunday Times. Jamie has also written a series of comedy adventures in space, The Wrong Side of the Galaxy and A Galaxy Too Far. Jamie does fantastic workshops in schools and at festivals. He recently took part in the inaugural 
household.
e a dragon as Evie’s magical companion? The Bone Dragon is very much about the line between truth and fiction… and there’s such a rich history of Dragons in fiction, it gave me a lot to play with: referencing other books and stories helped me keep the reader guessing about what sort of dragon Evie’s Dragon is… I purposefully wanted to keep the ground shifting, one minute making it seem like the Dragon falls under the mentor archetype, then ‘revealing’ it as more ‘shadow-like, then confusing everything so the only conclusion seems that the Dragon plays a ‘shapeshifter’ role. But I can’t lie – if I could have a magical companion, it would probably be a Dragon. The ‘able to breath fire’ thing is a major selling point.
Reader’s question from students at Warden Park Secondary Academy: what do you do if you get stuck when you’re writing? First, I try to figure out why I’m stuck. Sometimes it’s because I need a break… but usually it’s because I don’t know what happens next: maybe I know what follows plot-wise but somehow I don’t know what little steps and pieces of dialogue take the story from where it is to the ‘next big step forwards’. The answer almost always lies with the characters: maybe I’ve made someone act out of character so it all feels wrong… or maybe I’ve got an idea that just won’t work because the character would never do the thing I want him/her to do next. The solution is to go back to who the characters are and what motivates them… and then figure out how to change the context and situation so that it is not just believable but inevitable for them to carry out the plot I’ve got in mind. So when I’m struck I try to recognise that it’s my way of telling myself I need to think a bit more carefully, plan a little more, and respect who my characters are as if they were real people.
Today we’re featuring the wonderful Patricia Forde, who lives in Galway, in the west of Ireland. She has published three Picture Books, lots of Easy Readers, and in May 2015 she published her first novel The Wordsmith with Little Island. Patricia has written plays and television dramas for children and teenagers as well as writing on both English and Irish language soap operas. She was a primary school teacher and the artistic director of Galway Arts Festival. She lives with her husband, two teenagers,and a dog called Ben. In her spare time, she collects vintage children’s books and reads them late at night.
mily. I always imagine that we will be like a scene from the Waltons – all peace and harmony. It always ends in civil war. Usually, because I am the only one who wants classy ornaments…and a little more dignity. Everyone else wants tinsel.
What is your favourite story to read at Christmas? ‘Twas The Night Before Christmas (which may or may not have been written by Clement Clarke Moore) is a tradition in our house. It calms people down after the Christmas Tree row. (See 3). The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S Lewis – because of the snow. I intend to add Katherine Rundell’s Wolfwilder this year because of the wolves and well… the snow.
Your novel The Wordsmith is set in a dystopian world. What would a dystopian Christmas look like to you? It would look very frugal. There would be beetroot, of course and apples. Also carrots. I’m thinking beetroot crumble with an apple and carrot salsa. Dystopian worlds suffer a lot from bad weather, so there would be snow, which might brighten the thing.
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