C.M. Gray is here at the book club today to talk about his new young adult fantasy
The Flight of the Griffin!
More about C.M. Griffin:
Born in England, C.M. Gray spent most of his youth growing up in the
Essex countryside. A beautiful part of England, close to the Suffolk
border, but he was born with the need to expand his horizons, so as soon
as he could get a passport at the age of just seventeen he packed a
backpack and went exploring!
A slightly risky decision, and one his parents were not too taken
with, yet a number of years later he is still traveling…. but with a
slightly larger bag. Over the years, C.M.Gray has been lucky enough to
live and travel in many many parts of the world, met some incredible
people and experienced some amazing places. In fact, he has now lived
for more years outside of England than he ever spent living there – It
is, after all, a very big and exciting world!
During his journey he worked and trained as a carpenter and a house
restorer… picked more types of fruit over the years than he knew existed
– from grapes in France to avocados in Israel. After living in Israel
for a year, he was lucky enough to be invited to travel with the Bedouin
in the Sanai desert for several months and then moved on travelled
around India and then called a Buddhist monastery in the Himalayan
Mountains home. A short while later he had changed tact, bought a suit
and did a stint as a stock broker in the clamor of central Hong Kong.
To celebrate the millennium he traveled back to Europe, then found
and restored an old farmhouse in deep rural Burgundy, France… but then
looked to the open road and spent an number of years in Amsterdam… but
the winters were cold so he went south again in search of the sun.
Always vowing to return and sink some roots back in English soil… he
hasn’t quite got there yet, but maybe someday, it seems there are just
too many interesting places out there to see first! He does, however,
live a little closer to England now, just outside of Barcelona in
Northern Spain, in the middle of the forest with his dogs and two
wonderful children, he claims the Pyrenean mountains and forests of
northern Spain are a great place to write and let his mind do the
traveling.
As you will have noticed, his writing is mostly fantasy and he says
that many of his experiences in Asia, India, Africa and the Middle East
come to life in his writing. He has seen and done some pretty strange
things on his travels, and bumped into some amazing characters, so
writing fantasy is almost like writing fact for him… you just wouldn’t
believe it if he presented it as fact – there are people and things out
there in this world of ours that would simply amaze you!
His latest book is the mystery/thriller
The Flight of the Griffin.
To explore his life and writing more, please visit his webpage and blog at
https://author-cmgray.blogspot.com
About The Flight of the Griffin:
The Kingdom is dying…
The Darkness is coming… the balance between Order and Chaos is rapidly
shifting and the world is falling towards evil and horror, and all misery that
Chaos will bring.
But there is hope…
Pardigan’s had enough, he’s only 12, but he’s breaking into the home of
one of Freya's richest merchants... and he’s doing it tonight…
A burglary that will change their lives forever sets four friends upon a
quest, a race against time, to locate three magical objects and complete an
ancient and desperate spell.
Sailing their boat The Griffin, the crew are quickly pursued by The
Hawk, an evil bounty hunter and master of dark sorcery, and Belial, King of
Demons and champion of Chaos who seeks to rule the world of man… yet first he
must capture the crew of The Griffin and end their quest…
Thanks for coming to the book club today,
Chris! Before we begin the interview, I have to ask. Who made that
beautiful cover?
Chris: It really is awesome isn’t it! I’m
thrilled, it really completes all the hard work it took to write and edit the
story. The wonderful cover for The Flight of the Griffin was made by a
very good friend of mine, a very talented graphic designer, Adriana Haganu. I
struggled for ages trying to find a good cover and came up with several on my
own, but they just didn’t scream PICK ME UP AND READ ME… which is what a good
cover is meant to do! I looked around the web and saw some good designers, but
they were either far too expensive for this poor old indie author, or they all
seemed to specialise in the Romance genre. Covers with beautiful girls or young
men naked to the chest! Adriana came up with this fantastic fantasy cover that
has elements
from the story and is an amazing work of art, I absolutely love
it, I hope you do too!
How did you get into the YA genre and do you
think writing for young adults as a male adult has any drawbacks?
Chris: Okay, well firstly, I think there is a
whole world of confusion with the genre YA. For so many people now YA means
young love, eyes meeting across a room and moments filled with passionate embraces,
but that of course is romance. I don’t write romance, I write fantasy books set
in fantastical times. Adventures where clues are followed and demons walk the
pages. I’m found in the Young Adult genre because The Flight of the Griffin
doesn’t contain graphic violence, no steamy sex scenes and my characters don’t
scream profanities at each other! The Flight of the Griffin is a great
read for all ages. Young Adults as old as seventy read my books, and I know
that because I get emails from readers of all ages, right up to seventy years
old so far!
Being a male writer offering stories to younger
readers? Why no, it’s great. My readers aren’t going to read about smouldering
looks and heartfelt love, but they will read of smouldering dragons and burning
ships! There are amazing male writers that, like me, offer stories to all ages.
It hasn’t been a problem for Daniel Handler (Lemony Snicket) Rick Riordan with
his Golden Compass Trilogy or Phillip Pullman and his Percy Jackson books!
Who is your main character and would you like to
tell us more about him/her?
Chris: The main characters, for there are four
of them, are the crew of the small sailing ship The Griffin. Pardigan is
twelve and he’s the one that gets them all into trouble all the time. He has, as
we say in the UK, sticky fingers… he’s a thief! Tarent and Quint are both
fifteen, they do all the sailing of the boat and try to keep them all from
starving, and the youngest member of the crew is Loras. Loras is the studious
member one the group and can always be found with his nose in a book or gazing
up at the stars. In the early part of the book a little magic takes place and
transforms them as they set out on their quest. The other protagonist on the
side of The Griffin crew is a girl called Mahra… she is a little older
than the boys, just a bit, and acts as their guide on their quest, Mahra has
some really interesting talents. So many girls that read The Flight of the
Griffin and email me saying they love Mahra! My daughter, aged eight, has
already requested the part should it ever get put into film!
What about secondary
characters? Would you like to introduce them?
Chris: The antagonists in The Flight of the
Griffin centre around just a few unsavoury characters. Our story begins
when Pardigan decides to break into the house of one of the cities wealthiest
merchants, Bartholomew Bask. Bartholomew, a rather rotund and older gentleman,
and I use the term gentlemen rather lightly, and he is, of course, justifiably
furious that his valuables have been pilfered. He hires a very nasty bounty
hunter, Matheus Hawk (The Hawk) and together they take off in pursuit of the
thieves. The characters of Bartholomew and Matheus are a joy to write and are
in some of the best parts of the book, I love writing their parts. They are
truly awful people and view the world in totally self-centred ways - you are
going to love hating them!
Every book of fiction has a pivotal point for
the reader that they can’t forget. What do you think is one of the
pivotal points in your book?
Chris: Okay, well without giving too much away,
the story is set about the crew’s quest to unite three magical objects. The
second of these objects is supposed to be somewhere on an Island called
Minster. After sailing there and leaving their boat in the harbour, they travel
inland and visit an isolated race of people in search of their item. As they
later try to leave the island, the antagonists are closing in. A host of demons
have already made one vicious attack and are closing in again, whilst
unbeknownst to the crew, Bartholomew Bask and Matheus Hawk are awaiting them
close to their boat back in the harbour. The way ahead for the crew is unclear
and the reader just cannot see how they will be able to move on in search of
the third and final item, our pivotal moment comes as they make their attempt
at escape.
Is there anything else you’d like to tell your
readers?
Chris: I would like to thank you for reading
this interview and thanks so much to you, Dorothy for having me here today. I
would also like to say whether you are a reader or a writer, stretch the limits
of your passion, search the winds of your mind for the edges of your
imagination and enjoy the enchanted worlds authors of every genre try to
create; reading and writing are awesome. Oh, and I hope you will join the crew
of The Griffin on their quest, they are going to need all the help they
can get!
