Please introduce yourself, who are you and what do you do?
I’m Misha Herwin. I’m a writing addict who’s been writing ever since I could first hold a pen. I write fantasy books for kids of all ages, though publishers would probably say that my “Dragonfire Trilogy is targeted at the 8-12 age range. I’ve also written short stories for adults and plays.
What first inspired you to start writing?
I don’t think there was any one thing or incident. All I know is that I’ve been telling stories for as long as I can remember. When I was little and shared a bedroom with my sister I made up a pair of dragons who lived under our beds and every night I’d tell her story about their exploits. All my childhood play involved imaginary worlds or people. I had a herd of unicorns that lived in the front garden and I regularly slipped between centuries in my games.
And what attracted you to fantasy?
The fact that it was so different from the rather mundane and demanding world in which I lived. I felt under a lot of pressure to do well at school and succeed so that it was very liberating to read and write about worlds where the hero, or more positively, the heroine could control their own destiny by using supernatural or magical powers. Also I’ve always been fascinated by concepts of time and one of my favorite genres is the time slip novel.
Which author do you most admire?
Ursula le Guin.
If you could spend a day with anyone from history, who would it be and why?
Sarah Guppy, the woman who designed the rivets that hold up Clifton Suspension Bridge. No one knows about her and yet her work was vital to one of the iconic images of my favourite city. I’d love to know more about her life and work, what it was like to live in a male dominated society and how she felt about being totally ignored by historians and presumably the men she worked with too.
What is your favourite song lyric?
“I walk this empty street
On the Boulevard of Broken Dreams
When the city sleeps
And I’m the only one and I walk alone.”
Where is your happy place?
A small area of open space not far from where I live in Newcastle-under-Lyme. Not quite a park it’s where a house once used to stand and whenever I walk across it I always feel uplifted. Maybe, to go back to my fascination with the fluidity of time this is something to do with the people who once lived in the long demolished house. Who knows?
What are you working on at the moment?
Currently I’m writing a YA fantasy about a world where water is so scarce that it is more valuable than gold. I’d finished the first draft when I realized that the first third of the book simply wasn’t working, so I’ve had to go back and completely re-write it. It’s now coming together and is much darker and more like my original concept.
Tell us about your latest work and how we can find out more.
Currently I am editing my YA vampire novel “Dark Angel”. Vampires are supposed to be passé but I love them and judging by my target readership there are lots of other people out there that share my passion.
I’ve put the book up on Wattpad http://www.wattpad.com/user/dragonmish for comment before letting it loose on the world as an e book. Votes at this stage would be really helpful, but failing that any feedback would be appreciated.
Books by Misha Herwin:
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