Q&A With Paula Brackston

Hi everyone! I am doing my third Q&A with Paula Brackston. In case you didn’t know, she’s written many witches books and the famous New York Times Bestselling Series “The Little Shop of  Found Things.” Paula and her brother Trevor recently wrote the first book in a new trilogy called The White Shadow trilogy. The first book in the series is, “The Witches Knight.” The book will be published on April 19th though I was able to read a copy through email. 

Q: So Paula I finished reading “The Witches Knight,” last weekend because it was that good and I had to know what happened next. Which scenes did you and your brother Trevor have the most fun writing? Which scenes did you have the difficult task of writing? 

Trevor: I really enjoyed writing the fight scenes. I have a background of martial arts training, and loved choreographing those; they came easily to me. Paula stopped me making them too gory. I never suffered from writer’s block. In fact I had the opposite problem – so many ideas and things I wanted to get down on paper, and facing the challenge of pacing the story and capturing what was in my mind. 

Paula: I found the sex scenes a challenge! Not really something you ordinarily discuss with your brother! Apart from that, I loved building the world of the story, the setting, and getting the historical details right.

Q:  How did you and your brother Trevor come up with the idea for “The Witches Knight?” 

Trevor: The story was largely sparked by my life experiences, particularly as a cop, and the different places I’ve lived. I’ve always enjoyed storytelling, so my imagination kicked in, and took over.

Paula: I think our system of developing the story was similar to how tv series are written. This collaborative process is unusual for a novel, but it worked well for us. I think that is partly because we both write in a very filmic way, seeing scenes in our mind’s eye, and they writing them as they play out.

Q: If you can spoil a little what can we expect in book 2? What is the title?  

Paula: And the ink not yet dry on book one!

Trevor: Book Two will pick up where the story left off. In the historical sections, we will visit times from 15th to 19th centuries. The modern day story will continue, as the first one did, over a matter of weeks. 

Paula: I loved writing the first book in different time frames! Having the historical story move through hundreds of years while the present day one sped along in weeks kept me on my toes, challenging my techniques as a writer.

Q: Do you plan on writing anymore books in The Found Things Series or is book 4 the end? 

Paula: No plans for Book 5 yet, but never say never!

Q: Does Hollywood or any film studio in England plan on making your series into t.v. shows or film? I could see your series being great shows. We need more fantasy t.v. series out there. Your Found Things series reminds me of “Outlander,” a little. 

Trevor: We think The Witch’s Knight would make a great series!

Paula: There’s always room for more good TV and films. We live in hope! I do write screenplays and am always interested in possible adaptations of my books. Some lend themselves better than others. I’d be interested to hear how readers would cast our stories!

Q: Would you do more author collaborations in the future? I know you and Alison Weir are friends on Facebook. I think you two would write some amazing historical fiction novels whether it be about royals or about made up characters in that time period. 

Paula: I have a new series for St Martin’s to keep me busy for a few years yet, and Trevor and I hope to work on more of our trilogy, so I don’t see any other collaborations fitting in!