Steve Feasey: Changeling

On Friday 26th March we were lucky enough to have Steve Feasey come along to the Glasgow Film Theatre to speak to nearly 400 pupils. Everyone in the audience had a fantastic time hearing all about the history of horror's most notorious creatures and listening to Steve read some of his work. How did Steve find it? We asked him to tell us more about his visit to Scotland...

“If you had to be a horror creature, which one would it be?”

I think this was my favourite question from the recent book event I did in front of nearly 400 students at the Glasgow Film Theatre. It’s a tricky one, isn’t it? The obvious answer would be vampire (hey, they’re the ultimate bad boys), but becoming a fully paid up member of the vamp club has its drawbacks (being a living corpse is the most obvious) , so I had to go for werewolf – at least you get a 28 day break before you become a rabid, murderous beast again.

The event, organised by the wonderful people at Scottish Book Trust, was great fun. The venue is a glorious old art deco style building, and it was amazing to stand in the main auditorium and look up at the ranks of students sitting up in the cinema seats. They were a really engaging crowd, and it was fun to run up and down the cinema aisles to speak to individuals as they answered my questions and asked some of their own. They seemed to really love the horror-themed talk, and the boys in particular seemed to revel in the more bloodthirsty aspects of the presentation.

The GFT event was the final ‘gig’ in a whistlestop tour of Scotland which had me visiting schools and bookshops in Edinburgh one day, and whizzing across to Glasgow the next. I have to say a special thank you to the staff and students of Fettes School in Edinburgh. I visited them on the day before they broke up for their Easter break, and could not have asked to meet a more enthusiastic and energised group of readers.

While I was in Edinburgh I had some amazing ‘horror weather’. The ‘haar’ - a cold, dense fog  - descended on the city, blanketing everything, so in the evening I decided to leave my hotel and head off to the graveyard of an old church next door. I turned my i-pod off and walked among the old graves and mausoleums in the gloom. It was just like a scene in an old horror movie, and it will be one of my lasting memories of the place.

I’m visiting Edinburgh again for the book festival in August, hopefully the haar will not be in residence then, but I will be talking about my new forthcoming book, the fourth in the series, Changeling: Demon Games. I’ve just finished the book and sent it off to my publishers, and I’m very excited about it. It’s slightly different from the first three books, in that it’s set entirely in the Netherworld, and it’s been a nightmare (no pun intended) to write. Having said that, I think it’s going to be the best book yet, and I’m looking forward to seeing what the Changeling fans make of it.

Look out for Steve at the EIBF this summer, but in the mean time find out more at www.stevefeasey.com

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