Awaiting audience
On Sunday 9th September 2012 I went with my mother, the author Sophia Bennett, to the “Derek Landy Event” at the village hall in Dulwich, organised by Village Books.
We arrived to find the team led by Hazel setting up the books to sell during the event. We waited for Derek Landy in the hall and as soon as he arrived we were whisked away to interview him back stage.
Derek Landy, the author of Skulduggery Pleasant, is one of my favourite authors so I was very pleased to have the opportunity to talk to him in person. He is currently on tour promoting his new book “Kingdom of the Wicked” the latest on the best-selling multinational series which stars Skulduggery, the skeleton detective, and his teenage colleague Valkerie. I started by asking Derek:
Derek with a fan
Was Skulduggery your first idea for a book?
No, originally I wrote screen-plays so most of my ideas lent themselves to movies, whenever I would think about writing books I always assumed I would write the kind of books that I read, which were crime novels, but I would usually get to about page 30 and then my enthusiasm would run out or I would have a better idea and so Skulduggery was my first idea for a book that I actually finished.
Have you created yourself as a character in this world, because I know I certainly have…
I will be making cameo appearance in the books, with my taken name that I’m not going to tell you, and when you’re reading you won’t know it’s me but I’ll know that it’s me. So I’ll be interacting with all these characters and I’ll know that’s the character is me and no-one else will know. Just a hint to spotting me, I’ll probably be like the best at everything, you know everyone loves him.
Derek on stage
What are you doing to do after the 9th book, after the trilogy of trilogies?
Probably cry… I’m not going to stop writing, but after Skulduggery I’m going to go straight into another book or another series but I’m not really sure.
Will it be based in the same world as Skulduggery?
No, my publishers want me to do a Prequel or Spin-off series, but my problem with a Prequel is that if you know how the world is going to turn out and how the characters are going to turn out then there’s no drama, you’re just giving the reader information and that’s not interesting. My problem with a Spin-off series is I don’t know who’s going to be alive at the end of the 9th book, they all could be dead.
After the interview we thanked Derek and then we rushed out and prepared to watch the talk. Derek spoke for 45 minutes about his life and about Skulduggery and Valkerie, while also throwing in jokes along the way. By the end we were all reduced to tears of laughter, but we all managed to get in the signing queue in less than 30 seconds. Derek spent a long time chatting to each of us and so we all felt that we had got to know him better.
I would like to thank Village Books for the wonderful event and the chance to interview him,
LONG LIVE SKULDUGGERY!
