Interview with E.L. Norry – Fablehouse

1. A brilliant story of what friendship and loyalty means, Fablehouse is a children’s care home where magic and intrigue are around every corner. From your experience in care, can you tell us about your ideas for Fablehouse and the underlying story arcs of the characters within?

From growing up in care, I knew that a common theme for some children can be around trust, and balancing that with independence. I decided to give the clearest journey of learning to trust and open up to our main character, Heather. She learns throughout the story that she isn’t on her own. Growing up, although you need to learn to be independent, it is also good to accept that you can also rely on others too. When you grow up in care, you can have a rocky sense of your own identity and I wanted the roamers emotional journeys to focus on them all, in different ways, learning to appreciate their inherent gifts , and who they are. I wanted them to fully embrace that – to deeply realise, by the end of the story, that they are enough. I also wanted to let children know that even if they don’t have, or live with, their own biological family that there is the concept of found family’ — you can choose who you want as your family.

2. Illustrations are essential for all books; they add mystery and appeal to all those wandering around bookshops looking for their next read. Thy Bui is a phenomenal illustrator, what was your collaboration like when working on Fablehouse?

As the author, I was lucky enough to be consulted really early on about potential illustrators. I was shown early drafts of the cover and encouraged to offer my feedback, which was a fantastic privilege. And with this book, there are little symbols inserted into the chapter headings, and I actually doodled those!

3. King Arthur’s incredible legacy of loyal heroes is woven within the pages; did you have much research to do on the knights and how they fit into your story?

Pal is based on Palamedes, a Knight of King Arthur’s court, described as a Saracen (in the middle ages a Saracen referred to nomads of Arabian or Syrian descent) . This ensured that we could cast him as a Black Knight. Fablehouse is Storymix’s idea and Jasmine, (Storymix’s founder) pointed out how she’d never seen a Black Knight featured in a children’s book before. When I accepted the project, I wasn’t familiar with King Arthur or many myths and legends, but I enjoyed going down a rabbit hole of research.

I also knew from the story outline, and the fact that Fablehouse is based on the real history of Britain’s Brown Babies (a non-fiction book by Lucy Bland which describes how 1000 babies born after WW2 to Black GIs and white women were put into orphanges due to the US army laws at that time which forbade the GIs marrying their white girlfriends), that I had a lot of flexibility with how much I wanted to use from those sources.

4. The cairn is a pivotal object in Fablehouse, what was your process in setting out the world the children were in? Did you already see the house, surrounding land and magical world before drafting or did that come as your draft progressed?

Lucy Bland mentions Holnicote House which was a real place used as an orphanage in the 1950s to house some of the brown babies who weren’t cared for by their parents. I looked at photographs of the house — a National Trust property and surrounded by Exmoor. The house is now a hotel used by a company called HF Holidays so I went to stay there on a three-day walking holiday. It was fantastic to immerse myself in the landscape and atmosphere. Creating the magical world was difficult because I haven’t explored world-building in my writing before and I’m not a reader of fantasy, but after going on a forest-bathing session and researching different forests and swamps and giant leaves, I quickly found inspiration. I also spent a few years living in a tiny Suffolk village where I would often go off on ten mile bike rides armed with only books and a picnic; I loved exploring the outdoors when I was the roamers age — building dens, climbing trees, making up my own magical lands.

5. If you were one of The Roamers, what would be your magical power and what weapon of choice would you use? Or did you emulate yourself in one of the characters?

I created the roamers special powers by considering their natural abilities and personalities and then imagined how that might look if they were taken to the extreme. I’m naturally empathetic and also really curious. I’m not sure how those qualities might develop… perhaps the empathy would lead to mind-reading? Or shape-shifting? As for a weapon of choice… I was always quite fond of Wonder Woman’s lasso, so maybe something like that?

6. Fablehouse 2 is coming to a bookshelf near us next year, are there plans for more adventures after that? Shall we see Heather, Nat, Lloyd and Arlene once more?

Fablehouse was a two-book deal. Right now I’m enjoying editing the second book which opens a couple of months after the end of book one.

About the author:

E.L Norry (Emma) writes fiction and non-fiction for children. Her first book, a commission, Son of the Circus (Scholastic, 2019) is set in Victorian times with Pablo Fanque (the first black circus owner) as inspiration, and another historical book followed with My Story: Mary Prince (Scholastic August 2022).

Fablehouse, the first in a two book magical adventure series is due out 8 June 2023 (Bloomsbury). Find her on twitter at elnorry_writer or her website elnorry.com