About The Author: J.S.Watts is a British writer
who lives and writes in the flatlands of East Anglia in the UK. Her poetry,
short stories and reviews appear in a diversity of publications in Britain,
Canada, Australia and the States. Her poetry collection, “Cats and Other
Myths”, and subsequent multi-award nominated poetry pamphlet, “Songs of
Steelyard Sue”, are published by Lapwing Publications. Her dark fiction novel,
“A Darker Moon”, is published in the UK and the US by Vagabondage Press. Her
second novel, “Witchlight” (ISBN 978-0692406908), comes out in paperback and
e-book formats from Vagabondage on 19th May. You can find her website
at www.jswatts.co.uk
She's dropped in to talk about "a moment of change"
A Moment of
Change
I was
about to write that there are two things which fascinate me, but that would be
wrong. Many, many things fascinate me and find their way into my writing, but
for the purposes of this post there are two things I am going to focus on: the
way life can change (for better or worse) in a moment (a blink of an eye, a
beat of a heart, the ring of a phone, the ping of an email) and how the things
that fascinate me in life invariably end up in my writing, even though my life
is pretty mundane and I frequently write about fantasy, science fiction and
horror.
So there
I was today, working away at something I had planned to do (I have quite a lot
on my to do list at present. My new paranormal novel Witchlight comes out in paperback and e-book formats on 19th
May) and suddenly my email pings and there is a message from my publisher
saying there’s a last minute opportunity to do a guest post to help with the
promotion of Witchlight. Will I
respond to it? Of course I will. I’ve committed months of my life and untold
emotion to the creation of my new book and I want to do right by it and the
characters I have created: see it, and them, on their way out into the big bad
and uncertain world as best I can. Then I realise that the deadline is very,
very close. The piece has to be submitted before 1st May and today
is the last day of April and it’s already almost 5pm. I have less than seven
hours in which to write this piece and submit it, cook and eat some dinner, go
to Thursday band practice (I’m a French Horn player and no, don’t ask), finish
what I am currently working on, sort out the cat, prepare for tomorrow’s three
back to back events and go to bed at a reasonable time because I’m up early
tomorrow morning.
So here
I now am, at my keyboard, original work on hold, this evening’s plans
interestingly shaken up in the cocktail mixer of life (and no, I doubt that
I’ll have time for a real cocktail when 6pm comes round) typing away at this
piece. Half a day of plans thrown up in the air at the ping of an email.
Life was
ever thus. I’ve always worked in environments where plans can change in a
moment and have long recognised that life itself can change dramatically when
the phone rings with good (or bad) news, you make eye contact with someone you
did not expect to, your number comes up (in the lottery or in a not so good
way).
I
guess it is not surprising, therefore, that the lead character in Witchlight finds herself in a not
dissimilar position, albeit on a much grander and dramatic scale. In Holly’s
case it is thirty-eight years of relatively mundane life that get thrown in the
air following an unexpected arrival. Not surprisingly, Holly has
been mortal all her life. Then, without portent or announcement, her previously
unknown fairy godfather arrives in a puff of turquoise light to tell her she’s
a witch, and suddenly she's having to come to terms with the uncertainties of
an alarmingly magic-fuelled world, as well as track down the unknown
birth-mother who passed on the witchlight that flows in Holly’s veins.
During the course of the novel Holly also gets to make
eye contact with someone who might change her life and the phone rings, on more
than one occasion, with further life changing news. Magic, it turns out, is not
like it is in the books and films, and Holly starts to doubt whether her fairy
godfather, Partridge Mayflower, is the fey, avuncular charmer he appears. When
appearances are magically deceptive, Holly has to learn the hard way that she cannot
afford to trust those closest to her, Including herself. Accidents
start to happen, people die, Old Magic is on the hunt, but in the age-old game
of cat and mouse, just who is the feline and who is the rodent?
I guess it puts my last minute change of plans into
perspective, or perhaps it is into the shade, because Witchlight is a mixture of both light and dark: life’s fun and its
tragedies can change in a moment.
***
J.S Watt's previous books "A Darker Moon", "Cats and other myths" and "Songs of Steelyard Sue" are also available, see the website for details
Many thanks to her for the interesting post!
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