Today I have a very exciting post because I have the fabulous Anna Day on my blog and if you don't know her then you're about to get to know her very well! Anna is the genius behind The Fandom which was released in January, and is beyond amazing -you can check out my full review here.
This post was made possible by The Northern YA Literary Festival which will be taking place March 24th and The Northern Book Bloggers (featured in the above photo) will be taking over... More information about the event will be at the end of the post so make sure you read to the end!
Here we go!
Hi Anna! Welcome to This Booky Place, I’m sure you already know from Twitter how much I loved The Fandom, if you haven’t clicked yet - I LOVED THE FANDOM. I’m very excited to have you on my blog today because we’re going to be talking all things fandom-y in what is basically going to be The Fandom Tag!
Hi Rebecca, thank you SO much for all your support with The Fandom. I’m just so pleased you enjoyed it, and over the moon you made a fandom candle. It is seriously the best thing I have ever smelt!
(cheeky plug but you can get your very own We're Not In Cosplay Anymore candle by going to my Etsy shop OR you can purchase the candle at the event in March where I will have a stall <3)
First up, can you please tell my readers a little bit about The Fandom so they know to go and read it if they haven’t already?
The Fandom is a genre-flipping YA adventure. Violet and her friends attend Comic-con dressed up as their favourite characters from the book and movie franchise, The Gallows Dance. A mysterious accident transports them into the world of The Gallows Dance, for real, and almost as soon as they arrive, they throw the story of track and cause the death of the heroine, Rose. Violet soon learns she has to take Rose’s place and act out the canon just as it was written in order to save her friends and return home.
So, the four main characters, Violet, Alice, Katie and Nate (the comic con four), start their adventure by going to comic con to meet an actor from their favourite film, The Gallows Dance. Is there an actor/actress who you would have a fangirl moment over, at a convention? I almost burst into tears meeting Andrew Lincoln, for example.
Well, Matt Haig followed me on Twitter and I nearly passed out! I also got very excited when I saw Dean Cain at Comic-Con, my sixteen-year-old self nearly died. I would also love to meet Zac Efron, and obviously, burst into song Disney style!
If you could be transported to any fictional world like your characters, which would it be and why? Bearing in mind the mortality rate in some of our favourites…
I know everyone’s going to say this, but Harry Potter. I would hide for all the scary bits, cos I’m not in the least bit brave, but I would love to go to Hogwarts and play Quidditch and hang in the Slytherin common room.
And in that world (or any other) are there any characters in that you would like to get to have conversations with? Or go full Violet and fall for… There is a certain Slytherin boy that I would jump at the chance to meet.
I fell in love with Peeta from The Hunger Games, though he’s way too young for me. It was never a question of Gale or Peeta for me, it was always OMG KATNISS ARE YOU MAD? PEETA IS THE BEST. I must confess I love a good love triangle. Not in real life, obviously!
I was very excited to learn that you are a fellow Slytherin, clearly the best house. But can you sort the Comic Con four (maybe some other characters too) into their Hogwarts houses?
Ooh I actually did a post on this a while back. I found it so hard to sort Violet that I signed into Pottermore and took the test as her. She is officially Hufflepuff, and so is Katie. Alice is easy to sort, she’s definitely Slytherin, and Nate is a Ravenclaw, cos he’s so clever.
And the characters I didn’t sort previously, I’ll try and do now! Ash is Gryffindor cos he’s so brave and true. Thorn is Slytherin, I think, though I don’t want to fall into the trap of saying all baddies are Slytherin … we are both Slytherins, Rebecca, and we are definitely not baddies! Baba I think is Ravenclaw, though she’s a toughy, she may be Gryffindor … Let me know what you think!
I think you've nailed it, I'm okay with having the baddies, the dark and twisty characters are my faves. I am jealous that Gryffindor gets Ash though.
Did you take any inspiration from other characters in books/film for your characters? If so, who? I’m especially curious about where Ash came from, he was a personal favourite.
Thorn is based on Morpheus from The Matrix. It’s one of my favourite films, and I just loved the idea of a beautiful Morpheus type who is broken by a personal tragedy. Baba is named after Baba Yaga, one of my favourite folk tales, and some of her strangeness and ambiguity is inspired by Baba Yaga.
Ash isn’t really based on anyone. I think the fact he’s a midwife’s son, and helps women with childbirth, is my unconscious attempt to create a man who respects women so completely, he embraces them at their most animal and vulnerable. As a single mother, this is hugely important to me for obvious reasons. Ash, in my mind, is the ultimate feminist. A man who respects and supports women in all their roles. He’s the perfect man. Can someone build him for me please?
Following the same lines as the last question, is there a fictional character that you would say inspires you? Or someone who you wish you could be more like? I’m not going to lie, I would give everything to be Buffy Summers.
OMG me too, I would love to be Buffy. I would also add, Erin Brockovich. She’s a single mum like me, but she’s sassy and beautiful and fights for what’s right. Maybe we could combine Buffy and Erin and create a vampire slaying, human rights advocate.
The Fandom is a contemporary/fantasy style novel. Was this a fun genre to write? I know as a reader it’s sometimes harder to be immersed in a fantasy world than it is a familiar one, but your book literally had the best of both worlds.
I absolutely loved writing The Fandom. It was so much fun imagining how I would react if I was transported into my favourite book. Also, I really enjoyed the slight parody element I could bring in, with the contemporary characters being aware of the story and genre they were in. Humour is very important to me, I love to laugh and crack jokes, and I really enjoyed letting this side come out a little bit more.
Lastly, are you working on anything right now that we should all be watching and waiting for? Any sneaky details you can give us?
I’m sworn to secrecy I’m afraid. I can tell you I’m working on something though, and I’m really hoping fans of The Fandom will enjoy it just as much. I'm sure we will!
Thank you so much for agreeing to do this Q&A. I’m excited to talk all things The Fandom with you. Thanks again, Rebecca xx
Thank YOU xxxx
It was a pleasure to have Anna on my blog today, if you haven't picked up The Fandom yet you can get your copy here.
As I said at the start of the post, I am very lucky to be working with the lovely people who are hosting the Northern YA Literary Festival, which you can find out more information about here. The event itself is hosted by the University of Lancashire's BA in Publishing programme and it's shaping up to be a really exciting event. It will feature not only Anna day but also Holly Black, Katherine Webber, Terri Terry and more!
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