Gillian Philip: Firebrand

Firebrand, the latest novel from the fantastic Young Adult author Gillian Philip is published later this month. We asked Gillian to tell us more about the book, which is Book One in the Rebel Angels series, or is it?...

I have a confession to make: Book One of my new series (Rebel Angels) isn’t Book One. Or at least it wasn’t Book One, not till it was written. It used to be Book Three, in fact. But it’s Book One now. Are you with me?

I’ll start at the beginning. (I’ve learned it’s a better idea.)

I spent twelve years as an idle and jobless expat, and my only half-reasonable excuse for not taking the chance to write several novels was that the landscape of my new home refused to talk to me. I did try, but all I ever managed were short stories and half-novels that were going nowhere, slowly.

Back in Scotland, though, in 2001, the landscape shouted stories at me the way it always had. I don’t just mean pretty landscapes – yes, the lochs-and-moors, but also bleak seaside towns in winter, the dankest and dreariest glens, broken-down main streets, deserted car parks... whatever. And a story began to form in my head, but it was a contemporary one: a faery fantasy moved onto the streets of modern Scotland.

So I wrote it. And it wasn’t very good. The best thing in it was the villain. Selfish, violent, frequently childish (and not in a good way), scheming, viciously sarcastic, bitter and twisted – blimey, I loved that man. He could wrap me round his rather attractive little finger, so he could, which is why he ended up elbowing several heroes and heroines out of the way and taking over both that story and its sequel (which was slightly better).

He wasn’t allowed to do that, so we reached a compromise. He would share the spotlight – grudgingly – in the first two books, so long as I wrote one especially for him. A prequel, if you like, all about when he was young. Trouble was, he was several hundred years old, which rather put the kibosh on my ‘contemporary’ story.

So I followed the brat back to the time of the Scottish witch trials at the end of the 16^th century, when life was nasty, brutish, and a lot shorter for the eccentric and the unlucky. Don’t worry, said my young villain-turned-antihero. You’ll be safe with me. I’ll show you why I turned out like I did.

Now, I tend to be horribly lazy about research. But the story of those times dragged me in, to the point where I was having to chop vast sections out of the novel because I’d got carried away. My antihero was true to his word and his story raced through my brain; if I got stuck, he was quick to point out where I’d gone wrong, or how he’d got out of that one.

And inevitably, he got his way. The story of Seth MacGregor, bastard son of a Sithe nobleman, reluctant fighter for his people, became the book that would dictate the rest – Book One. It stopped being an explanatory ‘prequel’ and became the start and heart of the story: FIREBRAND.

The other two books stay set in the present day, but after thorough rewrites in the light of Firebrand, they make a whole lot more sense, and suddenly they’re rattling along with the same pace and logic. Which is all very well and satisfying as I write them, but it doesn’t half make Seth smug. So I’m sending him out into the world when Firebrand is published by Strident in August. And maybe the modern world still holds a few shocks for him; I haven’t quite made up my mind about his fate...

He’ll have to be kept on his toes. It’s a little humiliating when your characters know better than their author.

Find out more about Gillian Philip on her website, by becoming her fan on Facebook or by following her on Twitter - @Gillian_Philip

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