Dive Into A Whole New World by A R Hetherington

 





Creative Adventures and Magical Quests for young readers, or the young at heart, looking to be entertained and inspired!

Adventurous And Magical Quests For Daring Readers

When did you start writing the stories for maggies adventures in the below the green series?



1

  I had moved into a new house and have a lovely view overlooking the cricket pitch and hills and woods beyond. One Summer afternoon I was sitting out enjoying the sunshine and it just popped into my mind how great it would be if there was a secret trap door on the Green which leads to another world.....I grabbed a notebook and started to write down some ideas. That was the beginning. I have always had quite an active imagination and my mind wanders a lot when I'm not thinking about anything in particular. I have always thought I could write a book and suddenly it seemed like it was time to have a go.

Did you intend to create a series of adventures and Magical Quests in the below the green books?



2

Initially, I had the idea for one book but very quickly realised that one book could not possibly contain all the adventures that my characters were bound to get caught up in. I liked the idea of them travelling to different countries and realms too. I wasn't sure how many books would be in the first series until I got to book 3 and then I had a better idea of how to manage 5 books and that seemed to be plenty to start off with.





Why did you choose a female lead character?



3

 I always planned to have strong roles for the girls and it was definitely deliberate that I chose Maggie to be the lead character. I come from a line of fairly feisty females and so it is within me to stick up for the girls. My mum brought my sister and me up to be as independent as possible. She wanted us to be able to manage whatever life threw at us so she encouraged us to pay attention from a young age. Whether it was our education or managing our money, belongings or travel plans she taught us to be mindful of our responsibilities but also our opportunities  I think that was an important lesson and one which I try to instil in my own children and in my classroom.





Is introducing strong female characters to younger readers, both boys and girls help break down equal opportunities barriers in children stories?





4

My daughter and niece are strong young women having been brought up in a generation where they can take many more equal opportunities and have their voices heard. I see young women now having a much better platform; they can shape their futures much better than in the past. I think this is important to represent in fiction so that our boys and girls can have awareness and respect for equal opportunities. That is not to say that the boys are sidelined at all, they have a range of roles too from those with leadership skills or action roles to the more thoughtful and introvert characters.







 Was attending boarding school in the U.K, and your childhood memories of living abroad and travelling helpful when thinking up the ideas for the portal worlds? 



5
 The idea's for portal worlds didn't just come from one specific country or situation, more of a blend of experiences. I really didn't like my boarding school at all so spent a lot of time fantasising about escaping. I actually did escape a couple of times but that is another story! I  read a lot whilst at school and in Africa so my imagination was constantly fed with ideas from all sorts of books. I also just love the idea of time travel, this was influenced by lots of shows on tv like Dr Who or the animation series Time Warp Trio. I just think it would be amazing if portals and time travel were really real. So much fun!







Were you as adventurous as Maggie as a child?



6
 Sometimes, when I travelled with my sister, our plane journeys would have unexpected stopovers and we would stay in hotels. We were under the supervision of an air company but we did sneak out of our rooms and jump in the lift to go exploring all over the hotels. It seemed very daring and exciting at the time.





The Snatcher is the super bad guy of the adventures and hails from the realm of Grimms,


7
The Snatcher is a very sinister character and would have given me nightmares as a child I think. 

Is the land of Grimms really that bad?
7b
The Land of the Grimms is indeed quite a dark and wild place compared to the Earthlie Realm but I think meeting Vince and the Snug of alpacas lightens the mood and adds humour too. Later in the series, there are some other sinister realms which the friends have to travel to such as the Shanty Realm and the Sky Realm.



Who are the Scholar in maggie and James adventures? 



8 
Scholars are Earthlie children who have now turned 8 and know which school they will train in. Each Earthlie child has skills in different areas which are revealed in a special 'colour ceremony' on their 8th birthday. They get the chance to develop these skills with like-minded children. There are several 'schools' eg The Defendfors, the School of Nature and Nurture, The School of the Keeper's of Knowledge, the School of Magic and Marvel and the School of Noble Beasts. The colour aspect is that all scholars in each school have coloured streaks in their hair which indicates to all their skills. These appear during the colour ceremony with a bit of fanfare. Will Maggie and James be included?



Below the green is  Narrated by Karen Ascoe, was it hard to find the right voice for your first audiobook?

10 
 I will be the first to say that I really was in luck when Karen Ascoe was recommended to me through a contact of my sound engineer. I absolutely loved her voice from the get goes. She hadn't done an audiobook before and so it was a learning experience for us both. I supplied Karen with the manuscript and she sent me some sample sound files over. I played them to my husband and daughter and we were all mesmerised by her voice. We chatted on the phone about accents and characterisation but I gave her free reign to exercise her own creative interpretation too. I did want most of the accents to be British, including regionalisms, but it was down to Karen that Vince has a Yorkshire accent and I think it is genius! She has just finished the second audiobook and my sound engineer, Tim Benson from Opus Studios, is my amazing tech guy who gets it all sounding good and to the appropriate standards for acx Audible. Karen really loves my adventures and I think that is absolutely essential, plus as my lead character is female it made sense that I had a female narrator too.



When will the further adventures of the Below the green series be released on audiobook?



11
 The second audiobook, Scholars to the Rescue, is in its final stages so hopefully, it will be released in November this year. Book 3 and 4 will be in 2021 and maybe book 5. We shall see!



Whos been your favourite Grimm character? 



 12
 Favourite Grimm character? - it has to be Vince, I just love an alpaca with a bit of sass and attitude but he is so lovable and kind too. He is often overconfident which is quite funny and messes things up from time to time too. Quite a few readers really love Imari, my vervet monkey and I must say he comes across brilliantly in the audiobook. Karen gives him the most gorgeous, soft South African lilt. I do also like Tyra, the leader of the Wild Bandits, nothing like a baddy out to make money and out for what she can get! But she is fearless and organised which I think are good attributes and I quite admire her in many ways.





 When will book 4 of below the green be released?



13
 Book 4 is written but needs more editing and I would like to add illustrations and an original cover, I think realistically it will be 2021 before it is out. Book 5 is the last in series 1 and I am on the last few chapters of the first draft. So 2021 for that too, fingers crossed!

 Will you have illustrations in future released books of the below the green series? 





14
 Yes, this took me quite a long time to think about and choose an illustrator who I thought could really represent the atmosphere I wanted to create in the different realms. I searched through a lot of illustrator's work online and came across 1 zero 7 illustrations. I gave Ema the seemingly impossible task of creating a map of interconnecting realms that I could use in all the books. I have also commissioned her to do character sketches and original covers so I think we will be working together for many months to come. It does feel a bit scary as you can't be sure how it will go but I have just received some of the early drafts and it is so exciting to see it coming to life. Another creative genius in the process, I can't wait to see my books fully illustrated!

The Below the green book series has a great soundtrack, with a pretty original music score that helps dramatise the adventures was the music specially commissioned for the below the green series? 





15
 My sound engineer is also a musician and I commissioned him to write and record the original music for the series. My brief was to have a modern Celtic vibe, I really love it!





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