How different was it, writing for a younger market?
I don't really make those distinctions. My daughter never has, and because she was practically reading over my shoulder as I worked, she was the only person - apart from myself - that I felt I really needed to please. I'm still writing about what interests and preoccupies me - my adult readers will recognize this - and I don't feel that authors should have to compromise on theme or style just because they're dealing with a younger audience. As a result, anyone should be able to enjoy this book on whatever level they choose - after all, why should the kids have all the good stories?

Did you have to do a lot of research?
Well, I did most of my research when I was still at school, although I've been reading a great number of books about runes - as well as trying to learn Old Norse (I've always wanted to read Voluspá in the original). Purists will notice that I have taken some liberties with the original Icelandic texts. This is completely intentional, as are the occasional "anachronisms" in the writing. I didn't want to write a historical novel, which is why I've deliberately not set the story in a recognizable place, or at any specific time. 500 years after Ragnarók could be the year 1250 AD or even a post-apocalyptic future.

Sounds like hard work. How much background do I need to know?
None at all. Everything you need is right there in the book, although if you do have some background in Norse mythology, you may get some of the jokes more quickly.

Jokes? I thought this was serious!
Well, it is - in a way. But it's also a descendant of those comic-strips I used to write; surreal in places and often quite funny. Of course there was a lot of humour in the original myths - some of it wonderfully irreverent - and I've tried to hang onto that aspect of things. Norse gods are much more human than, say, the Egyptian or the Greek gods. They can frequently be petty, or vulgar, or cruel, or just plain chaotic - which is one of the reasons they attracted me in the first place. In Runemarks, I've taken it further; my gods have more than their share of human frailties, which ups the stakes for everyone and makes for a whole lot more suspense.

So what about the runes, then?
Well, runes are mysterious things. On one level, they're just letters of the alphabet. On another, they have had many occult uses, although no-one is entirely clear on quite how these worked. For the rune enthusiasts among you, I have used an Icelandic version of the Younger Futhark for my Elder Script, which means that the runes may not be quite as you know them. This, too, is intentional.

For the New Script I've used Old English runes from the Elder Futhark, and for the cantrips I've used scraps of the OE rune poem texts. Other technical terms are mostly Old Icelandic. None of the language of Inland or of Chaos is fictional, because I find it hard to take made-up languages seriously.

Have you ever used runes yourself?
All the time - it's the method I feel most comfortable with. I do pretty much what Maddy does - although she probably does it better.

This isn't the first time you've written about a conflict between magic and religion. Isn't this getting personal?
Not really; in this book I have deliberately kept away from giving a name to the Order's faith. It does bear some similarities to the early Church, just as the Good Book has some superficial parallels with the Old Testament, but in many ways it's very different. I want to encourage readers to focus on what the Order represents in terms of oppression and intolerance, rather than to see it as an attack on any particular form of belief. And of course the irony is that the Order, whilst condemning magic in all its forms, actually practices magic of a most powerful and destructive kind. I'm hoping that some of my more discerning readers will appreciate the parallels...

How close is your heroine, Maddy, to you?
She's a mixture of myself at fourteen and of my daughter as she is now. In fact we're pretty similar personalities. Perhaps that's why we both enjoyed this book so much.

What were your influences for Runemarks?
Gormenghast , by Mervyn Peake; Rosemary Sutcliff's The Eagle of the Ninth; all of Rider Haggard and Edgar Rice Burroughs; John Wyndham's The Chrysalids; Kevin Crossley-Holland's very good retelling of The Norse Myths; Jan Fries' excellent source book, Helrunar; Neil Gaiman's Sandman series; Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes; plus Dodie Smith's I Capture the Castle, Christina Rossetti's Goblin Market and seven years playing roleplaying games and drawing cartoons in my Latin book.