Another Chat With R. E. Brooker: Revenge, Duck Poo, and Life as a Full Time Author
- Echo Millay
- 1 day ago
- 10 min read
Two years ago, I was fortunate enough to sit down with R. E. Brooker for an interview to promote her debut novel Will Worthington and the Black Rainbow. In this blog post, Will is back! Let’s sit back down with R. E. Brooker to discuss Will’s next adventure and how authorhood has changed her life.
A lot has changed over the past two years at Swish and Flick. We’ve expanded our ranges to include more items for book lovers, and started stocking books by local authors. This chain of events all started when we agreed to sell R. E. Brooker’s debut novel: Will Worthington and the Black Rainbow.
For those who do not know, Rachel is a local author(and Swish and Flick customer) who self-published her debut novel Will Worthington and the Black Rainbow in October 2024. Now it’s official: Will is returning to readers this year in the long-awaited sequel Will Worthington and the Revenge of Kazimir Kirrolovitch. Just like the first, book two promises more adventure as Will must prove his innocence and regain the trust of his friends and the citizens of Austassa, all served with a side of pineapples.
So, I met with Rachel (and her cat Milo) for tea and chocolate biscuits to get some answers to my burning questions about this upcoming sequel.
Before reading this post, I recommend reading my first interview if you have not already. This post is spoiler-free for book 2, but may give away some of what happened in book one. Stay tuned for sneak peeks, Easter eggs, and more about Rachel herself!
The Life of an Author
How has Will changed your life?
Well, he’s changed my life for the better because I am no longer doing a boring Muggle job that I don’t like! I wake up every morning, and I want to pinch myself because I can’t believe this is actually happening, but I’ve worked very hard for it. I never thought I’d be a full-time author, and if I never came up with that idea, I don’t know what I’d be doing. I really don't. It feels very surreal.
Self-publishing your first book was such an incredible achievement. Since it came out, have you had an “I made it” moment?
The other day I met this little girl who came up to me and said, “It’s a real author!”
She was so happy, and she wanted to study creative writing. It was such a full-circle moment for me because I remember being her. She said, and I’ll never forget this: “You are who I aspire to be.”
I can tell when I meet people whether they write or not, and it’s to do with the light in their faces.
Are you excited to relive the emotions that come with publishing a book this time around?
When I was just starting, all I wanted was for my book to be published and for someone to like it. Now I’ve got slightly greedier. There’s always something else to aspire to. I never thought I’d be in a position to say I’m worried people aren’t going to enjoy book 2.
The feeling of, "oh my god it’s going to be in my hands again!" is still as exciting as ever. I have an incredible cover designer, Katie Birks, and we spent 6 months planning the next cover. I sent her dissertations and about 40 images in the first application so she would know exactly what I was going for. She sent me concepts, and there’s always one that pulls me towards it.
The flame on the cover might be relevant, might not. We’ll see.
The Return to Austassa
You gave our readers a sneak peek at book two way back in our first interview. Not only did you have the title decided back then, but you promised us “revenge, hatred, gadgets, wacky inventors” and even a theme park! How much of this book was planned and how much has changed?
I think probably about six years ago I’d been drawing out maps, but it was quite recently that I came across the massive heart of book two.
AI inspires a lot of it. I feel that kids should know the dangers of AI, and that you should not trust what you see or hear without actual proof. But in the book, it’s all Austassian science. This is why I write fantasy. I love making up my own rules.
This is your first time writing a sequel. How did writing a sequel differ from writing the original, and what did you have to take into consideration that you may not have expected?
The difference was that everything was set up. I give a four-sentence summary of book one because I learned that’s a good thing to do. So I say something like, “It had been five months since Will defeated bla bla bla in the quirky floating land”, so yeah, it doesn’t take long.
There was a responsibility towards my characters, like they could not act out of character once. If I slipped up, then I would have to change it, and I always know if a character is meant to say something or isn’t meant to say something, because they’ve been with me for so many years. So even certain words that they use. That’s been interesting to learn, I suppose. It’s almost like I’ve known them for years.
I did feel this huge pressure with book two, because I realised it had nearly been two years and I felt like I had to get this out, but I was also absolutely knackered. And then I went through a very bad patch, and that actually enabled me to write more. Trying to focus on something else instead of the anxiety, I managed to write 20k words in two weeks. I don’t know how I did that.
Because I suffer from anxiety and intrusive thoughts, things seeped out into book two. I think it was sort of me dealing with things. Writing is a kind of therapy for me.
The tagline for book two is “Who can you trust when the enemy is everywhere?” What one word would you use to describe this book?
Explosive. Not just in terms of literal, but metaphorical as well.
And has the story matured with Will and the readers?
I will be interested to hear what people think. I think it is darker because the anger that Kazamir has is terrifying.
I had a lucid dream where I thought, "I’m going to make Kazamir come out of that door," and I was petrified. But that means I’ve done a good job, right?
Hints and Clues
There were plenty of emotional moments in the first book, and the summary of book two promises perhaps a darker story with the same quirky charm. Without spoilers: which chapter is going to make people laugh the most, and which one is going to be the scariest?
It was really important for me to have that balance of the dark and the light. If you had it all dark all the time, you wouldn’t have that much of an impact when the darkness was coming. I learned that from my best friend from school. She said to me: less is more.
I used to write Harry Potter fanfiction and used to have Draco coming after Harry. I didn’t care about the other chapters, but I needed the interactions to build the tension.
With Kazamir, there’s always that ominous presence. I definitely have that in book two, but you see more of Kazamir this time, and he’s just as manipulative and cruel and calculating as ever, which I love.
The chapter that will get everyone laughing the most might be The Mystery of Duck Poo and Feelings, because everyone likes poo. The humour, I mean.
There are quite a few scary chapters actually. I think the ones with Kazamir are the scariest, but this is scary in a way that is hopefully really surprising and will send a shiver down your spine. It’s called The Black Skeleton, but it’s not what you expect.
Will has touched the lives of so many readers, and so has Kazamir, who takes on a bigger role in this book. Can you tell us about how Will and Kazamir have changed in this book, and what might be in store for their tenuous relationship?
I’m not one of these writers who will redeem a villain. Kazamir has changed in the sense that he has become more powerful. I think he has learnt how to deal with things in certain ways that will enable him to stretch out Will’s torture, because he doesn’t want to kill him straight away. He wants to destroy him first. So it is harrowing in places, but I know that kids can take it. It’s "Potter Dark."
For me, I find the tensions and the feeling of something happening in the background, the suspense, more scary than any graphic violence would be. It’s that waiting; that’s where fear lives, I think.
Will has definitely learnt not to trust people so much because in the first one he was very naive, and I like to think he’s kind of developed a bit more in that. However, because he is Will, he can also go the other way, but that’s him learning about trust, which I think is really important. He's changed in ways he doesn’t understand, and that makes it very funny because he’s sort of freaked out by what’s happening around him and often focusing on other things to distract himself.
What’s in store? Even more hatred. Even more malice. Will has a good heart. That’s the difference. If Kazamir ever had a good heart, it was before Will entered his life, so we’re talking when he was three or four. Will entered Kazamir's life, and he felt ostracised, and that ostracisation led to his choices in the first book. And Amelia, Kazamir’s mum, passed away from the stress and the strain of adopting Will; Kazamir blames Will again for that. It’s all deep-rooted, which was really important to me. If there’s no reason, it’s not that scary.
The Real World of Will
You’ve been on just as big an adventure as Will with the changes in your career. What are three key pieces of advice you would give to someone looking to become an author?
Don’t think that traditional publication is the only way forward. I’ve learned over the years that actually self-publishing is just as rewarding, if not more so. You’re your own boss. You have control over your cover, your title, your release date. You have control over your marketing strategies. You have control over where you go every day. My book would look so different if it were traditionally published.
Get a good cover. You need to have a look at the market and see where your book would fit alongside other books. People will not take you seriously, especially with an AI cover. I'm very pleased with my cover, and I was very lucky to find Katie. Katie is incredibly versatile, and I want her for life now.
If you were to pursue traditional publication, more than 100 rejections is completely normal. It’s through experience I learned that. I knew I would get tonnes of rejections. I honestly thought I would get there and be traditionally published, but I’m glad I didn’t.
Don’t ever call them rejections as well. Call them stepping stones. I told myself when I got accepted by a Literary Agent I could buy myself the Firebolt broomstick. That never happened. In the end, it was more about me selling loads of books, and I bought it from Swish and Flick. Rejection is not failure. It just opens you up for new opportunities.
I never thought in a million years I would want to be self-published. Now, I’m really glad life turned out that way because it’s given me freedom.
The world has changed a lot between the releases of your books, in particular the integration of AI into our society. You’ve spoken out online against AI in writing, cover design, and art in general. What advice would you give to people instead of using AI, and how has it influenced this book?
Use your brain! If writing is your passion, it shouldn’t feel like a chore unless you need a break. Don’t mistake exhaustion for lack of passion.
Grammar checking is fine. Use the resources available to you, but use them as a crutch, not a walking stick.
You have to realise that generative AI is theft. Understand it. Learn about it. And the more you learn about it, you’ll realise why people get so angry.
AI is terrifying. When something is done really well. At the moment, we’re on the cusp where we can tell, but Austassian science has evolved majorly. In Austassa, it’s terrifyingly real.
I don’t like AI. It takes the fun out of it.
I am so excited for book two, but I have to ask: are we going to get a book three? How long will Will’s series be?
Yes, you are getting book three. I’m hoping again in another two years.
I’m doing three and leaving it open. I want lots of things wrapped up, but I won’t be doing a nineteen-years-later ending. In book three, everything comes together, but there’s always room for more adventures. If I want to do four and five and six in the future, I will, but I don’t want to overegg the pudding.
Are there any other projects you would like to write, and would you consider writing for adults?
Yes. The Hologram Project. That one will be about lucid dreaming. I’ve always been fascinated by it. I think the first bit of it will be someone dreaming they’re inside the fridge with loads of chocolate bars. I will take a lot of what I’ve experienced through dreams.
I have another one planned. The book is called Topsy Turvey, and all the rules of this world are opposite. If you’re late for work, you get a bonus. If you’re really late for work, you get promoted. I just found that really funny. The character is called Robert Smilealot, who doesn’t smile a lot, and there will be a villain who opposes imagination and creativity and wants to stamp it out.
I don’t think I could write for adults, because I’ve never been an adult.
I wrote a book in 2002, and it was me working out what I was meant to do, and then I knew middle grade was more my thing. Adult fiction is not an area of interest for me, but maybe an adult thriller. I have tried writing a thriller, but I got bored.
And now the biscuit plate is empty, and we've had the last dregs of our tea.
You can pre-order Will Worthington and the Revenge of Kazamir Kirrolovitch from 31st July 2026. The book will be released on 31st October 2026. There will be a signing at Lyme Regis Bookshop.
Will Worthington and the Black Rainbow is available to buy in store at Swish and Flick, Archway Bookshop, Lyme Regis Bookshop, Waterstones and Amazon.
