Steve Voake is a hugely successful children’s author that was once coined as the next JK Rowling when his first book, The Dreamwalker’s Child started a bidding war between four publishers in 2005. Now twelve years later and with more than twenty books under his belt, I have had the chance to interview the man behind the creator of Daisy Dawson series and more recently the Hooey Higgins books.
Steve mentioned that even in his teenage years he wanted to be a writer. He imagined himself writing a great novel. He did start one when he was seventeen but after twenty thousand words he decided it was bad. He gave up and instead focused on his teaching career. This would lead to him becoming the head teacher of a small village school. Although he never envisioned himself as a children’s writer, a BBC competition for a children’s book caught his eye at the local post office, ‘I just wanted to write stories, He said. ‘I thought, well a children’s story is still a story. So I gave it a go.’ Steve wrote his story and sent it off in high hopes. Hopes that were dashed when no reply was received, not even a rejection letter.
Not to be beaten he decided that if he was going to write, he had to do it properly and started to read books on writing. The most influential of these books according to Steve was James Frey’s How to Write a Damn Good Novel. Steve mentioned that this book was so helpful that he got in contact with Frey and thanked him personally after The Dreamwalker’s Child was published.
The thing that struck me the most about Steve is that he is always able to see events from a different perspective. I would like to say through the eyes of a child, but I suspect that there is much more to it than that. He has the ability to let his mind run wild. To take a single incident such as seeing a horsefly attacking a wasp and the go on to create a whole new world where insects are piloted does feel like something that has been plucked from the mind of a child. Steve will be one of the first to admit that much of his inspiration comes from real life or at least a strange perspective of it. One of the books I picked out to discuss was one of his more recent creations, Hooey Higgins and the Storm. I explained that I found this a bit mad, children attempting to fly, accidently catapulting a pet dog out of the window and an illiterate school bully wielding a baseball bat. Steve though was delighted at my choice. ‘That actually happened,’ he said. He explained that during his time as a head teacher on a very windy day he noticed the children in the playground playing a rather peculiar game,’ they were opening their coats to make themselves as large as possible. They were then jumping into the wind only to be blown into the school fence.’ When he went to investigate this strange behaviour, he with met with, ‘look, Sir, were flying.’
I asked Steve about one of his character’s in this book, Basbo, the school bully. I wondered if he was picking on the stereotypical school bully surely making him a little bit stupid and having hardly any grasp on the English language was a statement into the nature of those that use force to gain the upper hand even if this eventually fails. Although Steve agreed it could be read this way he told me that he loves this character and in later books, he softens him a great deal. He mentioned once Emma Dodson had shown him the illustrations of his characters they became more alive to him.
I put it to him that he had been the darling of publishers since his first novel and asked him if he had had anything rejected or any rewrites had been demanded. He agreed he had been rather lucky regarding this. There had been one occasion when he had to do a re-write for the American market. In Daisy Dawson and the Secret Pool there contains what Steve describes as a mad squirrel that touches an electric fence only to be electrocuted and left rather frazzled. This was seen as a poor show and did not take into account US health and safety rules. Steve said he explained to the publisher that children in Somerset would come across electric fences often and would touch them just to see what would happen. His publisher replied with, ‘that explains why you all look so bewildered in Somerset.’
When asked if any of the books he read as a child had any influence on his writing he was not sure. He did say he had a particular love for The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S, Lewis. He said though that he did not enjoy The Horse and His Boy as much as the others. It was in these words that I understood his influences a little better. In The Chronicles of Narnia, we see evidence of the Carnival. The children travel to a strange world, have an adventure and return home without any time having passed. Just like we see in Hooey Higgins, Hooey has a wild adventure, maybe not to Narnia (although there is a wardrobe) and returns to the norm by the end of the tale. The Horse and his Boy though is constructed differently. The main character, Shasta is forever changed by his adventure; there can be no turning back. When it comes to Hooey and Basbo, they may learn from their adventures, but they are not changed by them.
I found Steve fascinating to talk to. His love for his characters shines through when he talks. It is as if they really are his children and I suppose in a way they are. For those of you not lucky enough to have met him, you can through his cheeky tales. Don’t worry about your children copying the antics of little Hooey Higgin’s the chances are when your back is turned they are up to no good already.
Seany Sloan 