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Can you tell me a little about yourself and how you got into writing?I currently live in Dublin and have three teenage boys who keep me on my toes. I suppose I’ve always been involved in the writing industry. For about seven years I was a science writer - mainly educational stuff and scripts for promotional films. Then I turned my hand to travel writing, as travel has always been a bit of an obsession with me. In fact I was on a tiny island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean writing for a magazine when I got the idea for my series of children’s books called The Cryptid Files. About three years after that I found another fantastic island – Little Island – my publisher.
Can you tell us a little about your series The Cryptid Files?
It’s an adventure series for 8-12 year olds and it explores the world of cryptozoology – the study of elusive creatures such as the Loch Ness Monster, the Yeti, the Chupacabra – for which there are plenty of extraordinary eye witness accounts by reliable people but no actual scientific evidence. The books combine this real life information with the fictional story of Vanessa Day, who has an ability to find trouble wherever in the world she goes. She’s a feisty, imaginative twelve year old, who has a deeper more instinctive understanding of the world than she realises and is very good as solving mysteries.In the first book you take on the mystery of The Loch Ness and in the second book you take us on the mystery of the Mexican Devil, what can we except from the third book coming out this Autumn?
As you can see these books are set all over the world - the first in Scotland, the second in Mexico and the third which is called Pacific Giants is in British Columbia on the west coast of Canada. The research for this one was fantastic fun, as I got to meet a real cryptozoologist myself this time. In this book as well as researching another well documented cryptid called Cadborosaurus, I have Vanessa getting tangled up with criminals involved in illegal whale hunting which helps highlight these kind of environmental issues for younger kids.
In the series the main protagonist wants to become a cryptozoologist like her mother. What exactly is a cryptozoologist?
Not a common term I’ll admit. The word cryptid comes from the greek ‘krytpos’ meaning hidden and ‘zoology’ refers to the study of animals. So a cryptozoologist is someone who studies creatures like the Loch Ness Monster whose existence has never been proved and so exist in the world between science and mythology. What I find amazing is that many real scientists have devoted years of their lives to cryptozooology research, despite ridicule from others
Why should we pick your series in one sentence?
My favourite review by writer Conor Kostick says it best and means I don’t have to boast –The Cryptid Files ‘grabs you right from the shocking prologue and keeps you immersed in a wonderful atmosphere of mystery, magic and monsters’.
Stalk the author:
Jean Flitcroft Website
The Cryptid Files Website
Little Island Facebook page
Buy the books:
You can buy the books via www.amazon.com or www.bookdepository.co.uk
You can also get the books straight from Little Island publishers here! You can get the first two books on special deal for only 12 Euros!
Book Excerpt from Pacific Giants by Jean Flitcroft!
Prologue
The creature rose out of the water just in front of her, as though commanded by her thoughts. Vanessa froze, too terrified to swim. She clutched the red and white lifesaving
ring and prayed feverishly that the beast wouldn’t notice her.
But the large, ugly head pivoted on its long neck. Its eyes bulged, its jaw dropped open and then the snake-like coils appeared – huge, heavy and powerful.
Oh, God! Please help me, Mum,
Vanessa pleaded silently. Make it go away.
She watched it sink slowly down into the water again. But that didn’t help. It was bad enough seeing a sea serpent above the water, but how much worse to imagine it swimming beneath her at that very moment!
Vanessa felt a current of water rush past her legs and saw it well up around her in a smooth, circular pattern. She gave a strangled cry, let go of the ring and swam for her life. The cold had crept into her bones and her teeth rattled in her head like boiled sweets in a jar. With each stroke she got a little weaker.
The beach wasn’t all that far. Surely she could make it.
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Great interview. I love finding new Irish authors (Im in Tipp). My two oldest boys really like the sound of these so Ill definitely have to look them up :)
ReplyDeleteHaving missed the first 2 in the series I am now very tempted to seek out both these and this one for my nephew who loves fantasy books - it's very hard getting kids to read so I encourage him to read anything that stretches his imagination and makes him think and question things - I think this series may be the one for him xx
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