Alex Woolf
About Author
Alex Woolf is a published author of over eighty books, both fiction and non-fiction, mostly for young adults.
His fiction writing credits include a time-warping science fiction trilogy, Chronosphere, and Aldo Moon and the Case of the Ghost at Gravewood Hall, about a teenage Victorian ghost-hunter, described by best-selling crime writer Peter James as 'a real delight, witty, ghostly and at times deliciously ghastly'.
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Interview
DREAD EAGLE
PUBLISHED BY SCRIBO
SEPTEMBER 2014
This story by Alex Woolf is set in a vivid, alternative nineteenth century where Napoleon did not lose the Battle of Waterloo and the French and the English continue to battle for global supremacy, aided by a vast array of steam-driven flying ships and weaponry. With Napoleon threatening a full-scale invasion, the British Secret Service is relying on a team of aerial spies known as the Sky Sisters to find out how they can thwart his plans. But no one could have predicted what the team will discover.....
We asked author Alex Woolf the following questions about his new steampunk adventure:
Q: Why did you decide to set your book in the past and why did you choose this era?
A: I love history and I love writing stories, so a story set in the past combines two of my favourite passions. I chose the 19th century because I find it a very exciting era. It was an age of industry and machines, of exploration and exciting new discoveries in science. The world shrank as the first forms of mass communication - the telegraph and, later, the telephone - arrived. It also lit up with advances in gas and then electric lighting.
It seemed to me the perfect setting for the kind of story I wanted to tell - though of course the 19th century of Iron Sky: Dread Eagle is not quite the same as the one you read about in your history books.
Q: From the books you have previously written, you seem to have a strong interest in history. Do you have a favourite period and why that one?
A: It's true, I am passionate about history, and have been ever since I was a little boy. Apart from the 19th century, my favourite era is classical Rome, especially the period from about 100 BC to 100 AD.
I love this period because some of the most dynamic, effective and diabolical people rose to power during these two centuries, including Pompey, Julius Caesar, Mark Antony, Augustus, Caligula, Claudius and Nero. I doubt there was ever a period of history when more brilliant and monstrous leaders flourished. It was an era of great changes for Rome: it changed from a Republic to an Empire. Rome acquired new colonies, including Britain, and the city at its heart grew into a fabulous metropolis.
Q: Why should young people learn about history?
A: They can learn the story of how we got to where we are now. We're all products of history.
I think the best way of appreciating the importance of history is to imagine what it would be like if such a subject didn't exist. We'd be left wondering about so much. For example, why do the British have a monarchy and the French don't? Why is there a border between England and Wales? Why do they speak English in the USA and Spanish in Mexico? Why is there fighting in the Middle East? Where did the Internet come from?
Virtually any question you might have about the world we live in can be answered by studying history. Besides simply satisfying our curiosity, history is also full of fantastic stories and characters and it enriches our lives to learn about them.
Q: Was the nineteenth century an era you had already studied? Where do you go to research the past?
A: I knew a fair bit before I started. I enjoy reading history books for pleasure as well as research. Also, I wrote a novel once called Aldo Moon and the Ghost of Gravewood Hall, all about a teenage ghost hunter and detective, and I did quite a bit of research for that book.
For Iron Sky: Dread Eagle, it was a bit different because I was creating a fictional 19th century. However, I wanted to retain certain aspects, such as styles of dress and modes of speech, to make it appear recognisably from that era. Also, although a lot of the technology is fantastical, I wanted to give it a genuinely Victorian look, with lots of brass and leather. Lighting is by gas and the machines are powered by steam.
Most of my research was visual: I studied lots of images of Victorian costumes and furnishings, as well as factories and street scenes. I read some Victorian novels to get a feel for the language.
Q: Why do you like to mix a realistic world with flashes of the fantastical, and where did your interest in steampunk begin?
A: I love the contrast of Victorian manners with high technology. One of the characters is an automaton (robot) called Miles, AKA the Logical Englishman, who is dressed in a frock coat and top hat and has impeccable manners, but is also possessed of a state-of-the-art analytical engine for a brain.
This mixing of the historical with the fantastical is what I love most of all about steampunk. To be honest, I was never a big steampunk fan before I wrote this series. But having set out to write the first book, I immersed myself in steampunk literature and have discovered some great books and graphic novels. It's an exciting, ever-evolving world and I'm a huge fan.
Q: There are some fabulously inventive flying machines in your story - were you interested in early flight before writing this book? Do you have a favourite invention from it?
A: Thank you. I have always admired the early aviators. They were so brave, going up into the air in those crazily fragile contraptions. They were learning as they went, inventing the rules of flight.
I've used some of that intrepid spirit in my creation of my heroine, Lady Arabella, who's constantly placing herself in life-threatening situations without giving it much thought.
As for a favourite aircraft, I would say it has to be the Dread Eagle itself. Imagine a huge, fire-breathing steam-powered bird of prey with hideously sharp beak and talons, powerful enough to rip apart an airship. You've got to respect something like that!
Q: Do you sketch your creations or keep them in your head? Why did you want illustrations in your book?
A: Sometimes I sketch out machines I'm creating just to fix them in my mind. Long before I started writing, I used to create 'graphic novels' (we're talking when I was eight or nine) I'd fill exercise books with drawings of the insides of spaceships, stuff like that.
Some of that urge to draw my adventures is still with me - although long ago I realised that I was a far better wordsmith than illustrator and that the best way of showing these creations was to describe them using words.
I didn't ask for illustrations in the book but I was very glad the publisher decided to include them. I have tremendous respect for Mark Bergin as an illustrator, and also for David Salariya who put together the annotations for the illustrations. Between them they've concocted some amazing pieces of art that really help to bring my words to life.
Q: How many books are you planning to write about Arabella and the Sky Sisters? Can you give us a glimpse into what happens in the next book?
A: There are currently three books planned for the Iron Sky series. Whether there end up being more after that will, I guess, depend on the success of the first books. I've nearly finished writing the second book, and I'm very excited about it. I won't say what happens in it, although at the end of Book 1, there are some fairly strong hints about where the adventure is heading next.
Q: What would you be if you weren't an author and how does being a writer compare with the other jobs you have done?
A: What would I be if I wasn't an author? Something creative I think. I'd love to design Dr Who monsters, or bake fantastical iced buns, or pilot an airship to the North Pole, or pull robotic rabbits out of hats at children's parties. Something weird or different anyway.
Being a writer is definitely the best job I've ever done and, actually, I wouldn't swap it for anything. Before I was a writer I was an editor, working on other people's work, and before that I was, very briefly, an accountant.
When I was an editor it definitely got in the way of being a writer, but I haven't edited anything for a few years now. These days I'm a full-time writer.
Q: When and where do you write?
I'm a lark rather than an owl. I love writing in the early mornings, fuelled by plenty of tea. I write in my study. It's a tiny room with floor-to-ceiling shelves lined with books books I've written or edited, books for research, books I've just read and loved. There are thousands of them in here. If the shelves ever collapsed I'd literally be buried in books. A fitting end for a writer, wouldn't you say?
Q: What's your favourite escape?
A: A long cycle ride, a summer evening game of tennis, a holiday in the New Forest, a book. Any of these.
Q: And finally, what are your top two tips for young writers?
A: Never forget your readers. Never use a long word when a short one will do.
