If you know our shop, you most likely have an impeccable taste in books, and you most likely are in search of another unique and thrilling read. In this blog post, we sit down with R.E. Brooker, author of Will Worthington and the Black Rainbow, where she talks about her book, her journey and what’s coming next.
When you see me working the counter at Swish and Flick, you will also see an open book in front of me. I am a big reader and it’s evident in what we sell in the shop: Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings and even Agatha Christie.
This is why we were very excited to meet R. E. Brooker. Rachel is a local author (and Swish and Flick customer) who has just published her debut novel Will Worthington and the Black Rainbow, a charming middle grade about Will Worthington, a thirteen-year-old boy pulled into the mad world of Austassa and tasked with slaying the monstrous Black Rainbow. It’s Lemony Snicket’s wit mixed with the suspense of Alex Rider. It’s quirky and creepy, perfectly blending humour with deep conflicts (with a delicious side of pineapples).
After reading the book in one sitting and having to return to the real world from Austassa, I was desperate to learn more about Will, his world, and the journey that brought this book to our shop. Rachel was kind enough to pour me some pineapple juice and answer these for me.
This blog post is spoiler-free, so if you haven’t read Will Worthington and the Black Rainbow yet (and you should) don’t worry, you’ll still get to feel the effects of all the twists this book holds. If you have read Will Worthington’s adventure, stay tuned for Easter Eggs, bonus info and a taste of what’s to come.
The Road to Austassa
First of all, where did this all start? How did you realise you wanted to be an author and what was the journey to this point like?
I’ve been writing since I could pick up a pen, really. My dad would read to me a lot. He introduced me to reading and my mum loved writing.
When I got older, I started experimenting with fan fiction. I have to admit I once wrote a Riverdale x Emmerdale, and it worked! I uploaded 50 stories to harrypotterfanfiction.com over 10 years. I mean, I did go to uni to do creative writing and I got a 2:1, but I think that experience with the fan fiction was the real teaching because I just wrote nonstop. I wrote to Darren Shan in 2004 and asked for his best writing advice, and he said, “Write every day and you’ll get better.” Which is true.
In 2016 I was accepted into the Golden Egg Academy, which is championed by Barry Cunningham (the Harry Potter publisher), which was phenomenal. That’s also where I learned my craft because we had a lot of editorial workshops. Someone from my past actually told me to do something else, just drop this book and start another one. That fuelled me even more, and in the end, they just said we can’t do anything else for you. I spent the whole day in bed crying, then I thought: right, I’ve had my tears, now I’m just going to go for it again because I believe in this book, more than anything I’ve ever believed in before.
And I don’t know, I’ve always been so determined. I think that’s the reason I finally got to this point, because I wasn’t going to give up. This book such a part of me.
I was faced with hundreds of literary agent rejections over so many years. I thought I must be rubbish, then and I had this idea that if I just kept going somebody would say yes. But they never did, and it took me a while to accept that actually that wasn’t a bad thing it was just a different thing.
The more I do this, the more I think self-publishing was definitely the way I was meant to do this. I joined Twitter in 2015 just to talk about writing and share excerpts of Will Worthington. I have 31000 followers on there from just talking about writing. I managed to communicate with Darren Shan, and Anthony Horowitz, I even tagged Simon Mayo in a tweet and he liked it. I feel a little bit like Slughorn.
Alright, break for pineapple juice.
This is a great story for young readers. Did you always want to write a middle-grade book and what did you take into consideration when writing for that age group?
There’s a great quote. “I don’t write for children, I write for me and hope children like it.” Or is it, “I write and someone says that’s for children.” Either way, it’s very true. I didn’t go into this thinking I was going to write a children’s book, even though subconsciously as soon as I started I knew this was a children’s book. I went with the idea that I’m going to write a book that I would love to read and hopefully you can tell the passion that I have for it.
I just wanted everything that I loved to read when I was younger. Personal conflict, quirkiness and gadgets. My favourite thing is narrative misdirection, which you see a lot of in the book. But what I always find really fascinating is I can come up with all that but I can’t remember to bring my towel downstairs.
From the minute I saw the cover, I was hooked. You’ve shown some of your reactions to the final product, but what was going through your head? What was it like when all that work became real?
Wow, to be honest, when I first saw it I thought, it’s puny! 16 years and it looks puny! But I also wasn’t sure about it at first. In the first half an hour I was sceptical because I wanted it to be absolutely perfect, then I got used to it and I just fell in love. I can’t describe it. I got over the shock.
I read it the other day, the proof copy, and I’m hooked! It’s just new every single time.
You can read more about Will Worthington’s beautiful cover and the journey to designing it in this blog post by Rachel herself!
Exploring the World of Will Worthington
My favourite part of the book was Austassa. The world that you created really sucked me in and I loved being shocked by the different quirks on every page. So, what were your key inspirations and - most importantly - why pineapples?
Pineapples. I wanted a hotel in this book and I knew I wanted a quirky hotel, and I thought: I’ll have a quirky fruit-themed hotel and I want… a pineapple-themed hotel! I later discovered too that pineapples are a symbol of wealth, and Pineapple Palace has a nice ring to it.
I could have had a dragonfruit hotel, but it wouldn’t have had the same pizzazz.
People can create whatever they want in their heads, but I know the truth and I know exactly what every character sounds like, and acts like. Like Amanda Holloway (in an American accent), she’s a bit of a tomboy and she’s Amanda Bynes from What a Girl Wants. She’s exactly that, and that’s where I get my characters. I see actors from certain movies and I go, “omg that’s him” or “That’s her yes!”
Also, the owner of Pineapple Palace. Do you watch Pointless?
A lot.
Not Richard Osman.
Alexander Armstrong!
Yes! Can you see it? Giant pineapple and green silk dressing gown?
I can see all the details in the world and characters, and Will himself is a brilliant protagonist. How did Will come to be - the character and his story?
I find this really funny to say but when I was at uni there was a day of inspiration. I remember going on the coach and thinking, yeah right. I’m not going to be inspired by an arboretum. We walked around an arboretum - I don’t even know how to pronounce the word - and I just kind of stopped. It sounds stupid but it is like lightning hit me and I was like, huh.
I started writing it and the first draft was awful. I read it out in the chapel at university in 2007. It’s just so bizarre to think that was so long ago, but that’s where it came from. Then having watched Stormbreaker (2008) and having thought Alex Pettyfer was awesome, I thought right, he’s Will.
The book was so different back then. Will had a sister called Leona, and originally it was called The Mountains of Austassa. Then it went to The Black Rainbow Slayer. Then Will Worthington and the Black Rainbow. The Orange Rainbow wouldn’t have had the same effect. The Black Rainbow sounds menacing.
The standout moments in the book are between Will and our villain Kazamir Kirrolivitch. What to you makes a good villain?
Personal conflict, but reasons for that conflict. You know how superheroes are like ah he is the bad guy and there is no reason he is totally 2D. I started writing a book called Before The Dark and it was about Kazamir when he was little. He loved his parents, he wanted to be a pianist, and he used to go around the next-door neighbours and have cups of tea. Then Will entered his life. Seeing the difference between the boy that he was and the older boy that he becomes is actually quite chilling. So, I think having depth but don’t get confused with this because I hate it. When a villain redeems pass me the sick bucket.
I feel like there’s two sides to me. There’s the side that likes watching Dexter and there’s a side that watches Teen Beach Movie. And I love them both, so I don’t know what that says about me.
Also with Kazamir, it’s the power that he holds over Will. He has a lot of power and he uses it to his advantage in terms of manipulating him. I knew I needed to create a villain like Count Olaf mixed with Draco Malfoy mixed with Iago from Othello. I love the villains that are charming, but then you remove the mask and there’s something really ugly underneath. Then the moment when you feel like they’re gonna snap, but they don’t, because they preserve it all because they know if they wait, everything will be so much better.
The whole book is packed with action, emotions, gadgets and craziness. What was the hardest part to write, your favourite part to write, and which part do you think will be the reader’s favourite?
I can tell you what the worst scene was to write. The worst scene was Will climbing the bloody tree. It took me about 5 years. I even tried to climb a tree to get the feeling of climbing a tree. I got 5cm off the ground. I was like, ugh how many times have I been over this? He just needs to get up the tree! So that was the worst.
I think one of my favourite bits is when Will is in Kazamir’s manor because I know there’s more confrontation to come and I know we’ve had the quirkiness and the darkness is always my favourite part.
You’ve got to have shades of light and dark throughout a book otherwise it doesn’t hit. I also hate when a sentence doesn’t sound right. It doesn’t have the right rhythm. To me there has to be an invisible music to writing.
And the part that I think will impact readers is right at the end, and that was also one of my most fun bits to write in terms of the teasing.
Austassa in the Real World
With all these brilliant moments, Will is at the centre of them. He goes through a lot in this book. What would you most like a young reader to take away from reading this book?
I experience anxiety a lot. I had grief over losing my mum four years ago, so that’s why it’s dedicated to my mum because she supported me with Will from the very beginning. There were times when I felt very low about the whole thing and she would just say, you love the book, just go with it. Because there were dark times when I didn’t want to write it at all and that was hideous. That was one of the worst feelings ever because I am a writer. I don’t do writing I am a writer.
It sounds very corny, but I think knowing that even if you feel alone and you have grief and you have anxiety as long as you’ve got people who care around you, it makes everything worth it.
What can you tell us about the future of Will Worthington? Is there a sequel in the works? Are we going to see Will again?
Oh yeah. I can’t imagine him not being in my life now. I think about pineapples as much as I do about Potter. It’s like 50/50, although pineapples are winning at the moment.
You can expect the same things: revenge, hatred, gadgets, whacky inventors. You get to see other characters’ houses that you haven’t seen in the first one and other locations like a theme park.
Rachel has also revealed to me the title of book 2. Want to know what it is? Come into Swish and Flick and ask for Pineapple Juice to learn the title and get a free Will Worthington bookmark!
That’s the last of the pineapple juice for now. You can purchase Will Worthington and the Black Rainbow from Swish and Flick, Archway Bookshop and Lyme Regis Bookshop. You can also pre-order the book from major online booksellers. Will Worthington is officially out on 31st October 2024.
Rachel will be doing a reading from Will Worthington and the Black Rainbow on 2nd November 2024 at Swish and Flick for our November Theme Day. Stay tuned for more info!
And, one last note from Rachel:
I just really hope you enjoy the book because a lot of love and hard work has gone in to this and don’t get too scared. I really hope that you want to read the next one, and I promise to be quicker.
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