Inspired by Greek mythology, grief and anxiety

This week, peek behind the curtain at the inspiration behind two very different books: middle-grade magical romp The Little Cottage at World’s End, by Miranda Barlow, and campy YA romantic comedy Once Upon a Time, Will Robinson, by Timothy Hughes.

The Little Cottage at World’s End, by Miranda Barlow

In this upper middle grade magical adventure, The Haunting of Avaline Jones meets Percy Jackson. 

Eleven-year-old Lucie’s life is falling apart. Her mum has vanished without a trace and she’s sent to live with Granny in her isolated cottage. The moment Lucie arrives, the house begins to change. Doors appear where they weren’t before, and the ceilings begin to crawl with watchful spiders. Then Granny disappears too. In a half-alive cottage, haunted by whispers, Lucie discovers the terrifying truth – Mum and Granny are Goddesses of Fate. Without them, the world will unravel and end. Lucie sets out to rescue them with the only person who can help her – Will – a teenage ghost who is as secretive as he is infuriating. 

But fate always comes in threes, and Lucie is about to learn that some doors should never be opened…

Miranda: My chief motivation for writing this book was grief and loss — exploring how it feels when someone important is no longer in your life (for whatever reason) and being filled with a desperate longing to get them back. That need led me to researching Greek myths. I asked myself what if you could change fate and bring back the person you’d lost. What would happen if you chose that rather than be sad? From there my main character, Lucie, popped into being.

Once Upon a Time, Will Robinson, by Timothy Hughes

What if happy-ever-after were accessorised with shoulder pads, sass, and sparkle? Once Upon a Time, Will Robinson is the unhinged love-child of Dynasty and Heartstopper, starring Will Robinson, a 16-year-old boy with anxiety and a Cinderella Complex, in a big-hearted romantic comedy with even bigger laughs, where queer joy and camp excess take centre stage. Brace yourselves -there’s never been a fairy godmother quite like Will’s Glamma.

Timothy: I feel like Madame Arcati from Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit when I tell you this, but… characters, like the spirits in that play, communicate with me! It’s usually at the most inconvenient moments, like when I can’t leave myself a voice note, or when I don’t have a pen. Will manifested, as it were, as I drove home from the supermarket about five years ago, and I’ve not had a moment’s peace since. I love it.

Everything evolves from the characters. I like to know who they are before I know what they’re going to do. The characters in Once Upon A Time, Will Robinson, are a bit like Marvel’s Avengers: everyone has a detailed backstory, everyone could lead their own story arc - but this one absolutely belongs to Will. I wish I could tell you the supporting characters politely accepted this decision once they’d finished “coming through” but one of them in particular is quite vocal (and magnificent).

I’m often led by negotiations. I’ll think I’ve had a stroke of pure genius (usually a scene idea or plot twist) only to receive what we’ll call “gentle guidance” from peers and mentors that my creativity has gone rogue, and I am being a little too bonkers, even for Will and me. Considering how nuts his world actually is, I’m rather proud that there are moments even I agreed were too much.

Will’s anxiety disorder has always been fundamental to his character, but I didn’t want it to define him. I originally hoped to write about how anxiety can be lived with comfortably, but that desire changed. I’d been challenged to make a choice between living comfortably with my anxiety, as I had for many years, or living in a way that makes my anxiety uncomfortable. It seemed only fair for Will to be given the same challenge. I’m pleased we’re sharing it together.