I am absolutely delighted to share a guest post from the amazing Bryony Pearce. I loved the author's debut and I was excited to see them delve into dark themes again. They're honestly amazing at it.
Raising Hell by Bryony Pearce is out tomorrow and trust me, you need it in your life. It's dark and complicated and such a fun read. My release day review is coming tomorrow, but today I'm sharing a guest post from Bryony on why they wrote Raising Hell.
Why I Wrote Raising Hell by Bryony Pearce
When I wrote Raising Hell the world seemed to literally be going to hell. Donald Trump was in power and it was looking like he might win another election. BLM protests were on the increase. Brexit seemed to have spear-headed a rise in Fascism in our own country and the global pandemic had put us on lockdown. My children were having to wear masks to school, friends were getting covid, it seemed almost apocalyptic.
I had just finished writing ‘a very serious novel’. A historical YA fiction that has not in fact sold to publishers. This novel took me six months of solid research and a year to write. It was ‘very important’. I wanted, no I needed, a break. To write something that would not require much in the way of research and that was pure solid fun.
Ivy’s voice came to me one day; she had her talking cat and her machete, and I knew that it would be nothing but fun to write about her.
Obviously, I did have to do research, but it wasn’t about how they cleaned chimneys in 1634, it was about occult symbols for protection and magic spells that I could rearrange and make into my own. See – fun!
It being me, there is a serious side to Raising Hell. Inevitably the political situation impacted on the story, enter the British Republican Party (BRP) who seek to use the chaos caused by Ivy’s mistake to take power in the UK and ‘Make Britain Great Again!’.
Raising Hell is also about grief and how we deal with loss. The way that the BRP and their stooges manipulate the teen witches is to use their own personal losses to encourage them to cast spells that they think will reanimate their dead (obviously this does not end well).
Ivy too is dealing with loss – the death of her boyfriend, the loss of her childhood, her family and her friends. This has made her the person she is in the story; hard and untrusting.
As the story circles back to the correction of Ivy’s original mistake, it helps her journey back to trust and love and a better way of dealing with her losses.
Ivy’s story was cathartic for me to write. It is honestly fun. There is a lot of humour. Ivy has a smart mouth and a talking cat. But it is also serious. It helped me deal with a very hard year and I hope that it provides some escapism and fun for you too!
Much love
Bryony
This is a great post. I always love hearing writers talk about why they wrote their books. I loved the political elements to Raising Hell
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading this post. I love it when authors talk about their inspiration for a book and how it unfolded into the finished version.
ReplyDeleteOooh I had to read this post after reading your review of this book! I think it sounds great and this has made me want to pick it up even more!
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