Rob Lloyd Jones Talks Black Terror!

As you know guys know, one of my fave reads last year was Wild Boy by Rob Lloyd Jones. And I am very excited about the second Wild Boy adventure, Wild Boy and the Black Terror. I don't have my copy yet *wails unhappily* (but seriously, I am planning to go hunting for this book as I NEED to know what happens next in this world!), I am thrilled beyond words that the author, Rob Lloyd Jones, agreed to answer some questions about Wild Boy and the Black Terror while in the midst of writing, house moving and generally being human.

So, without futher ado (apart from me thanking Rob - THANK YOU!!!), I shall hand you over to the Q&A!

What inspired Wild Boy?

Wild Boy really began in the pages of Seventy Years a Showman - the memoir of a 19^th century circus owner called Lord George Sanger. I loved Sanger’s descriptions of travelling fairs, and of the freaks shows. I imagined one of the performers – a boy covered in hair – watching the crowds and dreaming of being ‘normal’. I realised that he would learn to read their lives from tiny details about their faces and clothes...He would be a detective.

When writing Wild Boy, how much research did you have to do?

I got addicted to research - newspaper reports, and writings of journalists such as Charles Dickens or Henry Mayhew, who described their city in incredible detail. I lived in London, so walked around a lot and hung out in the story’s locations. I even acted out some of the scenes, to make sense of the events – but only when no one was watching.

What was the journey from coming up with the idea of Wild Boy to publication like for you?

It was one big effort to stay confident. I convinced myself that the book would get published – I had to or I’d never have finished the draft. Going into it thinking ‘Will anyone want to read this?’ is too negative. Instead I told myself that everyone wanted to. That helped me get it written, and settled my nerves as I waited to find out if any publishers really did like it.

What is your "typical" writing day?

I wish there was a typical writing day. I envy people with a set routine. I’d love my life to happen around writing, but really it’s the other way round. I just fit it in whenever I can – on the train to work (I have a long commute to my job as a children’s book editor), a early morning if I feel awake. But the story and characters are always there, in my mind, demanding attention.

Wild Boy has elements of murder mysteries novels (such as Poirot and Sherlock Holmes). Are you fan of crime/mystery stories as a whole or do you like elements within them?

I love some detective books – especially Sherlock Holmes stories, which are tight, clever and packed with great characters. But others, especially those from the 1920s and 30s, are all about the puzzle, and not the characters. The puzzle is important of course – the mystery that must be solved – but I wanted to write a story that began with a character, and then worked outwards.

          

Were you surprised by readers reactions to Wild Boy?

I am, always. I said I was confident it would get published, but that was just a way to silence my inner critic. When it actually did get published, and then people liked it and it won awards, I was gobsmacked and delighted and grateful. It charged me up again to write the next story.

Were they any characters that surprised you while writing the sequel, Wild Boy and the Black Terror?

Clarissa, Wild Boy’s foul-mouthed acrobat best friend, always surprises me. Black Terror turned out to be her story as much as Wild Boy’s. I didn’t realize at first how angry she was about the dark things that happened in the first book. That rage became a big part of the story.

I, personally, think Wild Boy would be great as a family drama on TV, radio or film. Do you think the story would translate well onto either of these medias or would you prefer the book to remain a book?

Thanks for saying that. There’s a Wild Boy film in the works, which is very exciting. I’ve read the screenplay, and love it. I think the production company – Warp Films – is getting a director attached at the moment. Fingers crossed…

[Edit: this BETTER happen!]

Ok, without spoiling us (OK, me. Without spoiling me!), what can you tell us about Wild Boy's second adventure, Wild Boy and the Black Terror?

Black Terror picks up Wild Boy and Clarissa’s story a few months after the first book, as they use their skills – freak show detective and circus acrobat – to solve a new case. Someone is poisoning members of London’s high society, a supposed demon that makes you see your darkest memories before you die. Wild Boy and Clarissa’s hunt for the killer forces them to confront their own dark pasts and their worst fears. Whereas the first story was set in London’s seamy underworld, Black Terror takes place among the city’s palaces and grand townhouses, where even darker things lurk. 

One final question: are you planning any more adventures with Wild Boy?

I don’t think that Wild Boy and Clarissa’s story is finished, so hopefully! My next book for Walker though will be an adventure tale, partly set in the 19^th century and party today, and packed with adventure, tombs and giant snakes. I love giant snakes. 

Wild Boy Blog Tour - Not Another Story Set Of Victorian London?!

Hello! Today is the third stop on the Wild Boy blog tour and I am super excited to take part of this tour. My review should be up either yesterday or tomorrow (I still need to decide so by the time you read it, you shall know what am planning!). So, today, Robert Lloyd Jones, author of Wild Boy, takes over and chats about why he wrote Wild Boy in Victorian London. So, I must thank Rob for writing this and allowing me to put it up on the blog, and thank you Hannah from Walker Books for offering me a copy to read and asking if I wanted to be involved in this tour. So, now I got all the thank yous out of the way, let me hand it over to Rob...!

Not Another Story Set In Victorian London?!

            Hello, and thanks for having me on The Pewter Wolf.

            First off – an apology. Yes, I’ve written another story set in Victorian London. I know I know, far better writers than me have been there already – Joan Aiken’s wonderfully creepy Wolves of Willoughby Chase, Philip Pullman’s gripping Sally Lockhart thrillers…Oh, and some bloke called Dickens.

            But I didn’t have a choice. My hero – Wild Boy – is a performer on a freak show, covered in hair since birth, and those grim ‘monster museums’ didn’t really exist after the 1860s (or, at least, not so openly). I wanted Wild Boy’s story to end at the biggest, rowdiest fair of them all – Bartholemew’s Fair in the heart of London. So that was where my story had to go. Only, I realised, I’d bloomin’ well better have something new to say.

            As I read about Wild Boy’s time (the 1840s), I grew to understand why the Victorian world has excited so many authors’ imaginations. I think, partly, it’s because it feels close. We share the Victorian’s houses, parks and hospitals. Yet, at the same time, it’s a foreign place. I recognise some of their buildings, but not all of them. I know some that landmark, but those signs and vehicles are strange to me. It feels like a fantasy reality – a world I want to explore.

            Victorian London was also a very unpleasant place, and there’s nothing writers love more than very unpleasant places. How can you not want to write about a city where public entertainment included bare-knuckle boxing, animal baiting, and hangings? And the reek and the roar of it all! The clop of hooves, the rattle of iron-rimmed wheels. The curses from drivers and the cracks from their whips. The stink of animal dung and the stench from the industries along the riverfront – the breweries, tanneries, knackers’ yards and bladder blowers. And, of course, from the Thames itself, that giant sewer, toxic with waste from a million homes.

           Another odd thing about children’s writers is that, while we love our characters dearly, we try to make their lives as tough as possible. And few places were tougher for children than London in the early nineteenth century. Boys and girls as young as five worked in factories. Others lived by their wits on the streets, eking out livings as crossing sweepers, rat catchers, or pure collectors (who collected dog and pigeon poo to sell to tanners).

            These were desperately hard lives.

            But all of this was normal. 

            What fascinated me was this: What if someone was not normal? What if this person was born different – a freak covered in hair, forced to perform on a travelling show? How much harder would his life be and how much tougher would that make him?

            But let’s make it even worse. What if this boy was framed for murder, on the run, hunted for a reward on his head? Only then was I sure that I had a new story to tell in this creepily familiar place. But I couldn’t leave him there helpless. So I gave him a tool, another thing that’s not normal about him. You see, Wild Boy is not just a freak. He is also the greatest detective of his time.

GoodRead - Wild Boy

When Hannah from Walker Books asked if I wanted to read this, it took me a few minutes of reading what the story was about before I emailed her back, saying yes and waited for the perfect time to read it. That came a few weeks ago and now, I feel like I can talk about it because of the Wild Boy blog tour.

Set in Victorian London, in a travelling freak show, there is a boy completely covered in hair. Wild Boy. But while people see him as a freak, he watches them and develops a knack for observation and detection that is almost Sherlock Holmes-like. And then a murder happens and the fingers begin to point to him, Wild Boy has to go on the run. With red-haired acrobat Clarissa Everett, the pair must put their differences aside and join forces to find the real murder. But with a price on their heads, it might be harder than they think... Roll up, roll up, the circus is in town...

I'm going to admit something very quickly: this is a tad younger than my normal reads. It's not as meaty, as dark or as sinister as most of my reads.

But I loved it. I completely fell under Wild Boy's charm and would always find myself smiling within a few pages of reading. It was one of those stories that sucked me in, even though it was "light" compare to my other reads. I just loved the characters, the story, the mystery, the twists...

Now, I've read some reviews and most seem to get who the mysterious hooded figure aka the killer was. I didn't. I honestly thought it was someone completely different so when it was revealed in an almost Agatha Christie style, I read the line again. And again. And then went "WHAT?!" on Twitter.

I know I should be negative, but I can't. This was a great read and I want/need a sequel. There better be a sequel, Rob. Because I don't want to let Wild Boy go yet...

PS - when I finished Wild Boy, all I thought was this line from Doctor Who. It just fits the story so perfectly!