Attended this event as part of Huddersfield Literature Festival 2014 (HLF2014) and was particularly interested as Joanne was discussing her latest YA fantasy novel The Gospel of Loki.
Joanne revealed that the M in her title for the YA books is a marker that it is fantasy, so that readers of her other works know to expect something different from these novels.
At age 7, Joanne was a proud member of Barnsley Library and she took her little pink card to the top floor of the Civic Hall Building to get out her very first book. The woman at the front desk was clearly there to keep her from books, even though there was a Children's Library, and the first book she borrowed was about Norse Mythology, Thunder of the Gods by Dorothy G Horsford. She could not get access to the adult library and was given a blue ticket once a month at the age of 10 (up to 16) that entitled her to one book a month. If she selected an unsuitable book it would be put back and she wouldn't get another one until the month after. Her mother wanted her to read books that improved her education and the librarian, suitable ones, so they (Norse pantheon of Gods stories) were accessible as in Yorkshire we have connections to Icelandic slang in common use and in nursery rhymes with the Danes.
These stories were popular in the 17th Century, the Victorian era and now, as these characters are very human and accessible, not especially wise, some are a bit stupid and they pay for their bad decisions and the cruel and practical jokes that they play on people. Modern heroes are flawed and morally ambivalent.
When her daughter was 8 or 9, she wanted her to read the book she read as a child but she could not find it at the Library, but it was available on Amazon and it must have been a good luck charm for her, because when the one she purchased arrived, it was the one she had borrowed from the library all those years ago and it still had her little pink library card in it.
Runemarks was written for her daughter and the sequel, and Joanne enjoyed writing YA. Younger readers are not familiar with Norse myths, only through Marvel, and she wanted to write a retelling of them and to tie in with the Rune books. So she recreated them and added some details. Three quarters are from the sagas and the remaining quarter are reinventions of hers.
Joanne then read from the book, a beginning section where Odin decides to take Loki from the chaos sphere into Asgard.
Joanne feels that all the chapters have lessons about trust, i.e. never trust a relative.
She feels she is a writer concerned with the village/small community under pressure and when she was a teacher at Leeds Grammar School, she wrote Chocolat. Asgard also seemed a fertile ground for the same themes that run throughout her novels, old men, young boys and the outsider wanting to bring down the Gods, whether they be literal or no. She writes from the perspective of the outsider and believes it has parallels with the real world, not just fantasy.
Joanne reads a lot of fantasy, sci-fi and horror and at the moment she is reading Jo Abercrombie as he had read her novels and she had not read his. She believes fantasy speaks directly to the human subconscious and it is a telling and retelling of stories. We look to stories for solutions to problems that life gives us, for example the fear of the monster, as we enjoy crisis so long as it is hidden in pages.
She feels that short stories are kinds of postcards coming out of a single incident, event or conversation and she can go anywhere in a short story quickly. She was in Dubai last week so she is writing a lot of stories about the desert. Short stories are a simple idea, but a novel is a series of ideas, themes and preoccupations that at some point have to become something. Even when she is writing them, she is not always sure where they will end.
When asked if there are any other themes/genres she wants to explore, Joanne revealed that she is not a fan of categorising, as it is all story. They all have similar themes as she believes they exist in human society and emotion.
Asked what her characters would think of her books, she thought that Loki would think she had not made him tall enough and that she had altered others. Her characters are different to Marvel, as were the Victorian heroes from the same tales, but you take whatever aspect you like of them as a writer. Loki thinks he is far superior, he is narcissistic, vain and delusional. All the old stories were once written in a contemporary voice and Thor would not approve of this book.
When asked about characters in her other books, she revealed that when she made the Priest the bad guy, large portions of middle America have still not forgiven her and she feels she is better at writing about food than making it. She believes taste and scent are expressions of sensuality.
Joanne revealed that if she ever felt like writing had become hard work, deadlines etc., she would go back to teaching. She does not do much social networking by enjoys #Storytime which she first started because her friend Ian Rankin said it would be a good thing and she likes that she can stay in touch with people she wishes she saw more of and is fascinated by the 140 character word limit. Risk taking in story is the most important motivating factor and she occasionally gets herself out of writers block or uses it to challenge herself, but feels the nature of stories is to find an audience.
The event finished with a book signing, where I purchased a signed copy of The Gospel of Loki and had a picture taken with Joanne.
#HLF2014 #JoanneHarris #JoanneMHarris #TheGospelOfLoki
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