Ruth Warburton

Anna's life falls apart when she and her dad move to a tumble-down house in the country. Then she meets Seth, casts a spell, and discovers a strange power that brings unwanted attention.... Will the village and its people escape the forces she has unleashed?

Here, author Ruth Warburton talks about magic, romance and writing.



Q: This is your first published novel. Did you always want to be an author?

A: I always wrote but didn't really think about writing to be published, I have always liked making up stories though and they gradually got longer until I could make them into a book. I started working in publishing because I wanted to work in books and once I was in the industry, I realised how competitive it is - there is a lot of talent out there.



Q: Why did you write a romantic novel?

A: I started to explore the idea of romance after listening to a radio programme about writing romance. The main conundrum is how you keep the hero and heroine apart, otherwise they'd just fall into each other's arms and that would be that. For me, the thing keeping two people apart would be not knowing how the other one felt about you, which I remember asking in my teenage years - how does he really feel about me?

In my story, a girl casts a spell and gets the boy's love but the price she has to pay is, will she ever know how he really feels about her? Which is probably the case in a lot of relationships!



Q: Is any of this drawn from your own life and teenage years?

A: I have drawn from my own teenage years for the storyline, not so much for the romantic side as the friendships, parties and sleepovers!

Having said that, it was only when I'd finished the book that I realised I had also drawn on an event in my life for an episode that involves flooding. I grew up in a town called Lewes that was flooded really badly when I was a teenager. I remember looking at the water coming across the fields and wondering if it would reach us. I wasn't frightened at the time, it felt more like an adventure, but then I had a dry home to go to afterwards while lots of other people didn't.



Q: Is the village, Winter, based on a real place?

A: Winter in the book is quite strongly rooted in Lewes, where I grew up. It has a spooky ruined castle although the town is five or six miles inland rather than on the coast. But we grew up not far from the sea and there were lots of walks along the cliffs and on the Downs and the coastline was constantly being eroded and houses on the edge were tumbling into the sea. I was also inspired by places we had visited in Cornwall and Brittany as a child.



Q: How hard was it to write the book?

A: Once I had the idea of a girl casting a spell, the first book was very quick to write because one thing came after another quite logically. Once she had cast the spell she wanted to undo it and because she's not an experienced witch, it was likely that things would go wrong and by doing that, she attracted the attention of some other people, good and bad.



Q: How 'real' is the magic in the book?

A: I always loved reading about witches and magic when I was younger, books by Diana Wynne Jones for example, although I've not read much in the paranormal field.

The pieces I include about witchcraft in the story are partly made up and partly researched, especially the parts about casting spells which are based on real spells. For example Prue reads out a spell about putting blood in your husband's wine to make him love you, and that's an old vodoo spell. There's also one about putting a broomstick across the door to keep out evil spirits that is fairly well known about, and a reducing spell that I have based on an old Hebrew vanishing spell.

All the incantations are made up and I've used Old English words in these - I studied it at university and loved it. I realised that all the strongest and most powerful words in English have their roots in Old English so I used and adapted words from Old English poems like Beowulf.

I didn't want my magic to involve wands but to be more elemental and more about willpower; these witches do use spells but they can also influence things by just feeling strongly about them. The spells are like a ritual to help concentrate the mind; the spell itself has no power. It was more about the person and how much they wanted something rather than the words of the spell.



Q: Are you a superstitious person?

A: I'm not really the superstitious type but I remember when I was doing my university exams, I had to have an espresso coffee before the exam and a Worthings Original sweet in my pocket

I'm generally very practical though, things don't spook me and my husband is a scientist which matches my personality. But I don't take things for granted, I realise you can't be too sure of your own knowledge and point of view; there are other perceptions and ways of seeing things and there could always be a different version of around the corner.



Q: How many more books about Winter are you writing?

A: This is a trilogy, so two more to go. The second and third books have taken longer to write and are more twisty and turny with a lot of surprises to do with Anna's mum, who disappeared when she was little. Everything Anna thought about her mum turns out not to be true. Book two looks back into the past and tries to work out what her mother was trying to do and if she is really gone... There's also a great new baddie in book two!

Anna and Seth's relationship remains at the heart of the following books but their love doesn't run smoothly, as love seldom does. The issue in their relationship remains that Anna finds it hard to understand why Seth wants to be with her, which is something that harms a lot of relationships.

I am sure I will write another book for teenagers, I really enjoyed writing this one, but I also love my day job as a PR for a publisher so I am not sure if I will ever be a full time writer. I like going to work!