To celebrate the release of Conn of the Dead, we caught up with its author, Dave Rudden.
TPP: What inspired you to write a story combining everyday life and Irish folklore?
DR: A trip to the National Folklore Collection – this incredible trove of stories in UCD – made me realise just how many cool stories are hidden around us.
TPP: Which character did you find the most challenging to write?
DR: Myself and Conn are very similar, with our sparky, ADHD brains. That made writing him easy, but it was tough to revisit how I felt at that age when the whole world wanted me to sit still. Making him the hero was very satisfying!
TPP: Which character would you most like to be friends with?
DR: It’s got to be the dangerously cool Aunt Doireann.
TPP: When you write, do you start with the characters or the plot first?
DR: Plot is important, but like a rollercoaster, without people it’s just a set of twists and curves. Character is what makes the scary parts scary and the funny parts funny, because it’s happening to someone. That’s what makes it real.
TPP: What is the best thing about being a children’s author?
DR: The kids! They’re a hard audience to impress, so when you crack up a whole room, or get a kid inspired to read, you really feel like you’ve won.
TPP: Do you have any words of advice for aspiring writers?
DR: Writing isn’t about talent. It’s about persistence. Be the person who keeps going, and you’ll be the one standing at the finishing line.
TPP: Did you always want to be an author?
DR: Honestly, as a kid, I didn’t even know it was an option! Authors were fancy people who lived in big cities or were the kids of authors, and it just didn’t seem like an option available to kids like me growing up in rural Ireland.
Now, I know different, and that all you need is a good story and the determination to tell it. That’s one of the reasons I travel to so many schools talking about writing. I want people to see that writers aren’t special or magical, and that absolutely anybody can do it.
As for storytelling, that is something I’ve done all my life. Apparently as a four-year-old I used to gather other kids around in the playground and tell them stories full of monsters and aliens and other non-appropriate things, and I basically have never stopped. I just never really knew it could be a job until I was an adult!
TPP: Why do you think reading is so important?
DR: Every method of telling stories has something different to recommend it. Video games make you the main character – it’s your choices, your desire to explore, that keeps the story moving. Movies mix colour and action and sound into a story, letting you see and hear the action.
But writing puts you right on the main character’s shoulder, slotted neatly in between one thought and the next. It’s the most natural thing in the world to hear their fear and bravery and compassion and selfishness like it’s your own, and because of that, it gives you the tools to explain your own emotions much easier.
And you don’t need a big budget or lots of tech to do it either. Creating a dragon battle above a burning glacier is I think quite expensive in a movie (dragons won’t work for nothing) but creating one on the page is staggeringly simple, which I love, because it lets everybody have a go, and that’s how you get great art.
TPP: Was it easy to become a published author?
DR: It wasn’t easy for me, at least, and it certainly wasn’t quick. Writing for yourself is easy – you only have yourself to please. Being published is about looking critically at your story and imagining its perfect reader, and what you need to do to make sure they are having a good time.
Your best friend here is editing – going back over your stories again and again, stripping out anything that’s clunky or off-topic or cliched. This is actually the part I love, because it feels like a test in school, except that you’re allowed look things up and you get as many goes as you like.
I started small with my publishing journey. I looked for competitions and contests to send my short stories, and every ‘no’ felt a bit like a badge of honour. It made me want to push harder, edit sharper, be more ambitious. It’s actually great practice for anybody of any age looking to be an author, because you build up a bit of a thick skin.
And then when you get your first ‘yes,’ it really blows all those rejections out of the water. I’ve been chasing that feeling ever since!
TPP: What is your favourite children’s book?
DR: There are far too many to mention, especially in Ireland, where there are so many fantastic children’s writers. My favourite children’s book when I was a child was either Matilda or the Lemony Snicket books, because they were all about kids being sharp and questioning the world around them.
If I had to pick one from the last couple of years, I’d go for THE SWIFTS by Beth Lincoln – it is jammed full of wit, peril, fantastic characters and a ton of humour. Everything I love in a book!
TPP: As an author, what is a typical day like for you?
DR: My favourite thing about being a writer is that every day looks different. I have ADHD, and it really works for my sparky brain that, depending on the day, I could be rushing off to yell about books in front of seven hundred kids, or meeting a production company about a movie script, or sat at the desk blaring the Hollow Knight soundtrack and writing a fight scene.
But if I had to sketch out a typical day, it would be something like this:
7.30am – school run
8.30am – at the desk, headphones on (right now, that means K-Pop Demon Hunters)
12pm – a walk to brainstorm next steps and get some fresh air
1pm – back at the desk, but switched to a different project (I usually have two or three on the go, just so I don’t get bored or frustrated)
3pm – cheeky video game break (I’m only human)
4pm – emails, admin, all the boring stuff now that my writing brain is tapped out
5pm – school run.
I used to write really late, but now that I’m old and boring, it is actually beneficial to take the evenings off and focus on recharging my batteries for the next day!
TPP: What is your favourite part of the writing process?
DR: Definitely the editing, weirdly enough. A lot of writers hate it, but I love the chance to catch flaws and mistakes and boring bits before anyone else gets to point them out.
It’s a little like winning an argument before you have it!
I try and get to the end of the project before I allow myself to go back and edit, because by then I really know the book and what it is I’m trying to do, and I can pour that confidence into a second draft.
It’s my third draft then that I share with my riotously clever cabal of writer friends and beta readers, who catch all the nonsense I didn’t realise I was writing. Then we sit around and discuss it and look for solutions, whether it’s changing a character, dissecting a battle, or plugging a plot hole. I do it for them, and they do it for me, and it’s a lovely way to make writing feel a bit like a club or an office – I thoroughly recommend it for all those aspiring authors out there!
