Guest Post: Roy Gill - The Daemon Parallel - (Kelpies)



The original idea for The Daemon Parallel came to me in a dream… 
I saw a boy who was staying with his Gran in Edinburgh – as I had sometimes done when I was small. She sent him out to buy something, but the world beyond her front door was all twisted and strange – both like the city I knew, and very different. When he’d made his way home, and successfully dodged several scary monsters, she didn’t seem that pleased to see him. In fact, she seemed a little cold.

When I woke up, I wanted to know why the boy had to live with this odd old woman, and what had happened to the city. It all went into a notebook, and lurked there for a while. One day I sat down and wrote - ‘It was over coffee and biscuits that Grandma Ives offered to return Cameron’s father from the dead’ - and the whole mad, creepy story unfolded from there… 

I guess I had always wanted to be a writer. Growing up, I was usually scribbling away on some story, or trying to draw a comic strip (badly), or plotting how to make my own episode of Doctor Who if I could ever get my hands on a camera.

I went to university to study English and Film – and stayed there a very long time! I mainly wrote academically for a while, trying to discover how and why people fell in love with certain stories. In an odd way, I became a little sidetracked from my original goal. When I was about to hit 30 – one of those milestones where you take stock of your achievements – I realised it was time to get back to my first love of writing fiction.

The Daemon Parallel is my first novel. It sometimes feels like my second and third as well, because it took a lot of drafts to reach the final version! In 2011, it was submitted for the Kelpies Prize for new children’s fiction, and made the shortlist. I was delighted when Floris said they would like to publish it.

It’s got twists and turns, thrills and monsters, and hopefully quite a few laughs along the way. You definitely don’t need to know Edinburgh to enjoy it – although those who have visited this gothic city might start to see it differently. You’ll certainly never look at the shadow on a crumpled curtain, a rundown cinema, or a rambling department store in quite the same way again… 

Welcome to The Daemon Parallel!

If that post doesn't have you hooked and chomping at the bit to read it, then I think you might need your head testing! The Daemon Parallel is due to be published on the 22nd of March by Kelpies (great little Scottish publisher). So don't wait and get your order in now. 


Many thanks to Roy for taking the time to write such an insightful post into his debut book and for giving us a taste about the man himself.

Comments

Kate Madigan said…
Can't wait to get my hands on a copy! Why aren't more fantasy novels set in Edinburgh? It's the best spooky setting you could wish for!