Exclusive Interview With Joss Stirling: Bookish Secrets Shared

Author Joss Stirling reveals the secrets behind her writing and the novel Finding Sky (2011).

Joss recently released the last book to her fictional, fantasy series, Finding Sky called Summer Shadows (2016) on 7^th July, much to the sadness of her fans.

The Finding Sky series follows the Benedict family, all of whom are savants – people with supernatural powers who are able to communicate through telepathy, each having a soulmate somewhere around the world – so to celebrate the release of this magnificent book, I asked Joss Stirling a series of questions to share with you amazing fans.

Characters are unusual people, all of which are hugely relatable in Joss’s novels, but to create such diverse and complex characters, inspiration must strike somewhere, right? “Sometimes the seed for a character starts with something I notice or find out about a person” Joss began, “but it always develops away from them and becomes a new creation. If it didn’t, I think I’d find it too restrictive. Story and character are bound together, the one changing the other, so they have to grow together.”

What had been puzzling me though, is where did this idea of savants come from? “I enjoy paranormal elements in a plot but wanted to write something that wasn’t so extreme.” Joss explained. “Once you give people powers you have to make it a secret or reality changes too much. That meant a secret society and hence the savants were born as a concept.”

Now, with Joss’s powerfully romantic stories, I obviously had to ask a question about the Benedict boys and that was, will there be another short story coming out? In answer to our question, that would be a yes! For any lovers of the comical, cutie Xavier, Joss revealed that once the story has gone through the editing process the book shall hopefully be out in Autumn.

We must not forget the action packed series Struck (2014) about the Young Detectives Agency – students trained up to be spies, going out on missions to bring down the bad guys – and I found out some interesting news. Next year we will be seeing the final book in the series released, currently called Scorched. I am burning to get my hands on this fiery final novel!

Being an author obviously has its perks, so I just had to ask Joss about travelling. Has she travelled a lot to gain inspiration for her books? “More often the ideas come after the travelling for work or pleasure. Only occasionally do I make research trips purely for writing purposes. Most notable was a trip to Venice for Seeking Crystal (2012) (it’s a tough life!).”

Of course, we must not forget how Joss Stirling also writes under two other pen names, Julia Golding and Eve Edwards, depending on the genre or target audience of the book she is writing. The first ever book she got published, was The Diamond of Drury Lane (2006) under the name Julia Golding, but Joss has been writing “all the time as a child and as a hobby through teen and young adult years” and has always known she wanted to be an author.