Ten Terrifying Questions with Jessica Townsend!

Jessica Townsend lives on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland. Her pet fascinations include public transport, ancient cities, hotels, opera singers, Halloween, secret societies and gigantic cats – all of which have weaselled their way into Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow, her award-winning first novel released in 2017. Hollowpox: The Hunt for Morrigan Crow, the third in her Nevermoor series, has just been released.

Today, Jessica Townsend is on the blog to answer our Ten Terrifying Questions! Read on …

Jessica Townsend (Photo by Emma Nayler).

1. To begin with why don’t you tell us a little bit about yourself – where were you born? Raised? Schooled?

I was born in New South Wales, but my family moved to the Sunshine Coast in Queensland when I was two. That’s where I grew up and where I still live about half the time.

The Sunshine Coast is a beautiful, very calming and easy place to live, and I’ve definitely come to have a kind of nostalgia about it when I’m away from it, but as a kid I found it pretty boring. I found a lovely little circle of friends there among the theatre nerds and book lovers, but what I really wanted was to be somewhere that celebrated and prioritised those things, instead of just sport. Moving to London at 22 was a big joy, an insta-love I don’t think I’ll ever get over.

2. What did you want to be when you were twelve, eighteen and thirty? And why?

An author, an author and an author. I was pretty set on the idea from about the age of seven, when I learned what an author was, and that you could actually BE ONE as a job. There was something really empowering to me about the idea of writing whatever you want to write and having other people read it, that transferral of data straight from your imagination to theirs.

As a job, it’s more or less as wonderful as I thought it would be, just with a lot more admin. I feel ridiculously, over-the-top lucky to do the thing I love for a living. I love it even on the days I hate it.

3. What strongly held belief did you have when you were younger that you do not have now?

I’ve cast off a lot of beliefs I had when I was younger, thank goodness, but the one that comes to mind – and one I think is a constant, conscious battle to reject – is that real life begins somewhere else, in some other place or at some distant future point. That my life is a thing I’m moving towards, not a thing I’m living right now. I’m starting to be more present instead of always reaching for the next thing, the next goal, the far-off dream.

4. What are three works of art – book or painting or piece of music, etc – that you can now say had a great effect on you and influenced your own development as a writer?

Doctor Who. A show that’s never afraid to be extremely silly, extremely sinister, and deeply emotionally affecting, often all in one episode.

I couldn’t say if it had a direct influence on my own work, but I was introduced to the poetry of Robert Frost by my high school English teacher, and his words have lodged permanently in my heart. My favourites are probably “Birches” and “After Apple-Picking”. I suppose there’s something there about the intersection of nostalgia, mortality and the end of childhood.

And “The Raven”, of course … but specifically The Simpsons’ “Treehouse of Horror” adaptation, which was my first absolutely thrilling introduction to Poe at age seven. What a debt I owe to Matt Groening.

5. What made you choose to write a children’s book?

I don’t remember ever consciously thinking about it or making the decision to do so. I have lots of different ideas for books all the time, for all different ages, but this was the most compelling idea and Morrigan was the most compelling character I’d come up with at the time, and I loved spending time just plotting out and thinking about this world, so I guess by the time I realised I was writing a children’s book, I was already swimming in it.

But I love writing for children. They’re the most brutal and unforgiving audience. You can’t ever drop the ball or let the pace slacken. And when they love something, they love it hard, and they’re not afraid to shout about it and share that enthusiasm with others.

6. Please tell us about your latest book!

Hollowpox is the third in the Nevermoor series. It kicks off at the end of Morrigan’s first year as a member of the Wundrous Society and leads into her second which is when she starts to learn more of the Society’s secrets, and more about herself and her own abilities.

But meanwhile, there is a whole new problem to deal with: a dangerous disease called the Hollowpox is sweeping through Nevermoor’s Wunimal population, turning them into mindless unnimals on the prowl. Morrigan finds that it might be up to her to find a cure for the Hollowpox … but this could put her and her friends and all of Nevermoor in more danger than ever.

Read our Hollowpox review!

7. What do you hope kids will take away with them after reading your book?

More than anything I hope they’ll take away a feeling of comfort and belonging in the world I’ve built. I’d love for my readers to feel as Morrigan does, that Nevermoor is a place created just for them, and that the characters found in these pages are their friends.

8. Who do you most admire in the realm of writing and why?

I have a vast and fearful admiration for anyone who can write a book in less than six months. Plenty of writers can do it. I am regrettably not one of them.

9. Many artists set themselves very ambitious goals. What are yours?

I realised before I’d even finished writing Nevermoor that it would be the first in a series of nine books, and I fully intend to carry out that plan … so I guess that’s kind of ambitious? I’d also like to write for television and theatre someday.

I think ultimately my goal is to just keep getting better. I want to be a better writer next year than I am this year, and better again the year after that.

10. What advice do you have for aspiring writers?

Start before you’re ready. Keep going until you’re done. Don’t model your process on other writers; find a process that works for you and accept that what works for you will change.

Finishing is important and can even be euphoric, but truly the work is the thing. If you can love it even on the days you hate it, you’re doing fine.

Thank you for playing!

Thank YOU 🙂

—Hollowpox: The Hunt for Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend (Hachette Books Australia) is out now.

Hollowpox: The Hunt for Morrigan Crow

Nevermoor: Book 3

by Jessica Townsend

Strange things are happening in Nevermoor...

Morrigan Crow and her friends have survived their first year as proud scholars of the elite Wundrous Society, helped bring down the nefarious Ghastly Market, and proven themselves loyal to Unit 919. Now Morrigan faces a new, exciting challenge: to master the mysterious Wretched Arts of the Accomplished Wundersmith, and control the power that threatens to consume her. But a strange and frightening illness has taken hold of Nevermoor, turning infected...

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