Ask the Author – July 2020

Ask the Author – July 2020

Something a little different for this month’s blog – I offered the kind folks following my Facebook Page The Realm of Katherine Vick – Author the chance to ask me any burning questions they had about The Disposable and its world, which I have then endeavoured to answer. The results can be found below:

Our first question comes from Chriss Corkscrew: “I've got one that's been bugging me. Clearly your characters know how to read, but is there a culture of reading for pleasure?”

Hmmm. That’s a tricky one to answer. My feeling is the answer is probably “only if you’re Dullard.” Reading is vitally important to the Realm so everyone is literate but reading is more a part of the job than something that is done for fun.  Books exist but are more set dressing than anything else. I suspect that plenty of material is written by bored folks on the sidelines, which is how the books come to be – take Doom the Dark Lord and his plays for the AFCs for example – but probably not a great deal of others come along and read them afterwards. The trouble is, I’d think most books are to be found in the Magnificent City and are only available to the Royal and Noble families – who, again with the exception of Dullard, are the least likely to avail themselves of them! They have more important things to do like wafting and strutting and gazing into mirrors...;p

Our second, third and fourth questions all come from Megan Walker and I shall take them one at a time: “The individuals in the universe of the Realm have a culture completely subservient to the narrative. It has always been that way for generations. However, do they have a beginnings myth on how the Taskmaster and their universe came to be? If this will be a spoiler, will we be told all in future books?”

I have to admit the very beginning is a little hazy in a number of respects. Though I can’t recall if I’ve said this as yet or whether it comes up in the next two books (hence I shall be slightly cagey), there are individuals alive in the Realm who have been there from the very start and seen all of the Quests so it would be hard to mythologise something you could just go and ask about! The early days are going to come into things in one specific sense but I can say no more for now...

Megan’s second question: “What sparked the genesis of writing a behind the scenes of “The Narrative” story? A childhood book/daydream? Or perhaps something definitive in college spurred you toward this idea?”

I honestly can’t remember exactly what it was – it is fifteen years or more since I first came up with these ideas after all, so please forgive my vagueness!  I think the initial idea came out of the story I wrote at university, which involved a character taking control of the story from the author, born out of my own experience of writing a character who refused to behave and I suspect that it came from there, a different way of doing the same thing. I think I liked the idea of a behind the scenes world.  Out of curiosity, I dug through my old notes and found the first ever handwritten scribble I made about this specific story from an old notebook, which I now offer typed up as an apology for having such a poor memory: “FANTASY NOVEL IDEA - A character who jumps from book to book always being the guard killed by the hero but longing for a bigger part – eventually rebels! – goes off page and kidnaps the princess so the story goes awry and everything goes into chaos and characters must fend for themselves – hero useless without prompting! Hang about when off stage in unused sets.” It was all very basic but the genesis was there. ;)

And Megan’s third question: “Also, I don’t mean to push you..... but when will book two arrive.... I am waiting eagerly for it....”

I’m afraid I don’t have the answer to that as yet! It’s written and complete so no worries there but as to when it will come out – it depends on the sales of The Disposable really! Rest assured - you’ll know when I do. :)

Thanks to all who submitted questions and hopefully we can do this again some time. :)