Q&A with children's author Claire Fayers

I interview my friend Claire Fayers on writing, mythology, faith and her new book 'Tapper Watson and the Quest for the Nemo Machine'

Hello dear readers! Between a new job, getting ready to move house to Pontypridd, the deadline on a magazine article, and speaking on Imaginative Discipleship at Oak Hill College in London last week, I’ve got a bit behind on the newsletter and podcast.

I’ve been rather busy these last few weeks settling into my new job as Digital Communications Officer with Media Cymru, part of the Centre for Creative Economy at Cardiff University, which funds and supports R&D in the Welsh creative industries. Why not check out the interview I conducted on AI and the Future of the Creative Industries for Media Cymru?

It doesn’t let up – this Friday, I’ll be at the book launch for the last book I edited for IVP, Rumours of a Better Country by Marsh Moyle, which will be livestreamed – find out more and watch online via the English L’Abri website, 8pm, Friday 20th October. More on that book soon, I hope.

But after some delays, I’m pleased to be at last sharing an interview with children’s author and long-time friend Claire Fayers on her new children’s novel, Tapper Watson and the Quest for the Nemo Machine, out now from Firefly Press.

Interview with Claire Fayers

Author Claire Fayers

Caleb: Tapper Watson and the Quest for the Nemo Machine has lots of big, fun ideas – travelling the multiverse via the river Lethe in submarines, lobster and octopod lifeforms. How did the different elements come together in inventing the story? 

Claire: With a great deal of work! The book actually took a long time to write and went through at least five major drafts before I felt it was ready. I was trying to capture the feel of classic sci-fi, (Jules Verne 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea is an obviously influence) but with lots of modern references.

Some parts came together naturally. The epic quest is a feature of many sci-fi shows. And I went through all the elements of Jason and the Argonauts, for example, and brainstormed sci-fi versions of them all.

The thing that pulled it all together in the end was my brilliant editor, Penny Thomas from Firefly, who ask a few pertinent questions about the rivers of Greek myth. That led to whole sections on octopod mythology and religion, which feel like such an integral part of the book now that it’s hard to believe they were late additions.

Several of your novels seem to play with the idea of the gap between stories and reality, from Tapper Watson’s love of the adventure stories of Isosceles, to the difference between dread pirate Cassie O’Pia’s reputation and reality in The Voyage to Magical North. Did you consciously set out to explore that as theme, and why do you think stories are so important to us as human beings?

This is very much a deliberate theme of mine. I’ve always been fascinated by the stories we tell, how they begin and grow, and how a person’s story can often become bigger than the reality. In The Voyage to Magical North, Cassie O’Pia rushes into reckless decisions because she’s trying to live up to her own legend, while Marfak West knows he’s been cast as the villain and uses that to manipulate people’s expectations. In Tapper Watson, Tapper’s idea of a hero is someone like the fictional Isosceles, who strides the galaxies, righting wrongs armed with a golden laser blaster and an inconceivable amount of luck. Because Tapper is nothing like that, he doesn’t think he can ever achieve anything worthwhile, and part of his story is learning what it means to be a hero.

I think stories are fundamental to us as people. We tell ourselves stories all the time – we can’t help ourselves. It’s how we understand the world and connect with other people. It’s vital that we’re aware of the stories we’re hearing, and the ones we tell, so we can seek out stories built on the truth, stories that will inspire us to live our best lives.

“Stories are how we understand the world and connect with other people.”

Tapper Watson visits Swansea on his adventures, and you wrote the Carnegie-nominated Welsh Fairy Tales, Myths and Legends, a collection of retellings. In what ways does Wales’s culture and landscape help fuel your imagination?

If you’d asked me this after my first book, I wouldn’t have been able to answer. I was born and brought up in Wales, I still live in Wales, and I speak some Welsh, but I didn’t think of myself as a Welsh author because I wasn’t writing about Wales. But after the publication of Voyage to Magical North, people kept calling me a Welsh author and asking how I drew inspiration from Wales and I embraced the story, if you like. I started studying Welsh myths and folklore and I loved the way the stories of Wales are often tied to the landscape.

That study led directly to Storm Hound, in which one of the storm god’s hunting hounds crashlands to Earth and ends up in Abergavenny. The mountains around the town are fundamental to the story, as are the stories of the realm of Annwn, the Wild Hunt, and Ceridwen the Sorceress. When I was asked to write Welsh Fairy Tales, Myths and Legends after that, I jumped at the chance.

I love the bizarre nature of Welsh myths. There’s a wonderful mash-up of dragons, giants, strange monsters and the Tylwyth Teg – the fairy folk who are hiding in every corner. The morality often strays into grey areas and Welsh heroes are flawed characters who often make bad decisions and suffer the consequences.

I’m currently working on another book of Welsh folklore, which will be published next year. This ones delves deeper into local folklore, the kinds of stories that are in danger of being forgotten, and I’m very excited about it.

We first met through church in Cardiff, and you’re also a Christian but not a ‘Christian writer’ in a narrow sense of writing for Christians or on Christian themes in particular.  Sometimes Christians who want to write can feel a sense of obligation to try to ‘be the next C S Lewis’. What would your advice be to aspiring writers and creatives who are Christians?

I’d start by quoting C S Lewis, from his essay on Christian Apologetics:

What we want is not more little books about Christianity, but more little books by Christians on other subjects--with their Christianity latent… You can see this most easily if you look at it the other way round. Our faith is not very likely to be shaken by any book on Hinduism. But if wherever we read an elementary book on Geology, botany, Politics, or Astronomy, we found that its implications were Hindu, that would shake us. It is not the books written in direct defense of materialism that make the modern man a materialist; it is the materialistic assumptions in all the other books. In the same way, it is not books on Christianity that will really trouble him. But he would be troubled if, whenever he wanted a cheap popular introduction to some science, the best work on the market was always by a Christian.

Some people will feel a calling to be a Christian writer. If that is you, please go for it with all your heart, mind and soul. But be sure that calling is coming from within you and not from external voices. The difficulty often comes, I think, because creative work is seen as a calling rather than a career choice (and our callings should be God-focussed), and because we have narrowed our definition of Christian art to things that are explicitly about faith.

You’ll know what things excite, amuse and amaze you. Write about those things. I believe we are made in the image of God, and God is an abundant and extravagant creator.

Do you think there are ways your faith informs your outlook and storytelling at a deeper level?

Absolutely.

In my storytelling, life is important, people’s individual stories matter, forgiveness is possible and even the worst villain in the world can become a hero.

In many of the Welsh stories, you have the sense of a bigger world, just out of sight, and sometimes the unseen world will touch our own and magic happens. I very much believe there is a bigger reality, out of sight but within touching distance, and whenever we reach out to God, or he reaches out to us, these worlds intersect.

What things most helped you on your journey to becoming a professional children's author? What advice would you give to your younger self if you could send a message back in time?

To my younger self I’d say, read constantly, pay attention to the things that excite you, seek out like-minded people, be disciplined in making time to write, but write first and foremost for the joy of making stuff up. Then look out for opportunities to share your work – submit stories to magazines, enter competitions. Be patient. develop a thick skin when it comes to criticism, and don’t give up.

Come to think of it, that’s pretty much what I did do.

Thanks so much to Claire for her generous and thoughtful answers!

Here’s one I made earlier…

On a different note, I had the pleasure of designing and building Claire’s author website, www.clairefayers.com, creating a custom WordPress theme, and have kept it updated with new designs to match her books over recent years.

Claire says:

I used Caleb's services to design my website from scratch, and more recently, to give it an update and refresh. I am delighted with the result. Caleb is professional, prompt and his design ideas were just what I needed for a fun, child-friendly site that is easy to update and maintain.

So if you need a freelance web designer for an author site or other project (animated tentacles optional!), please do contact me on hello@calebwoodbridge.com, or visit my website for details of my Digital services.

My capacity for freelance projects will be limited until our house move is complete (hopefully next month), but I expect to have room for new projects heading into 2024, so get in touch!