Book three of youth fantasy released

Kim Thompson, who has her roots here in Yorkton, has just released the third book in her ‘Eldritch Manor Series’.

Eldritch Manor is a retirement home for some very strange beings indeed. All have stories to tell – and petty grievances with one another and the world at large.

And from those stories three books have grown.

“I was getting tired of the television grind and really wanted to write something on my own terms,” said Thompson who lived in Yorkton from about age five until she graduated and left for university. “There are a lot of bosses looking over your shoulder when you work in TV! I felt very comfortable writing for kids since I’d been doing that for years, so I just had to shift my style from script to book-mode.”

Thompson, who attended Columbia, the Composite Jr. High (when it was still called that) and then YRHS, said writing for her came out of a love of reading.

“As a child I was always a voracious reader and I was always interested in being a writer, but didn’t make much progress in that direction until much later,” she said. “My only formal training took place when I was attending film school and took screenwriting. I spent many years writing scripts for cartoons before making the move to novels.”

As for the Eldritch series, the idea has long percolated.

“I think a tiny germ of the idea began years and years ago, it’s hard to say exactly when,” said Thompson. “I do know that as a child I was a little obsessed with apartment buildings, and the thought that there could be anything at all behind each of those identical doors.

“Then I had the idea of mythological creatures living there. (I loved reading about Greek, Roman and Norse mythology when I was in grade school.) The apartment building slowly disappeared from the scenario, my characters live in a big rambly house instead, but that’s how it all began.”

While clearly residing in fantasy Thompson said she still works to create the proper feel and details in her stories.

“I did a lot of research before I began writing, reading about different mythologies around the world and some of the more obscure magical creatures and monsters,” she offered. “Some of those stories would spark an idea for a character.

“Once I thought of making them all retired, it just became fun to imagine what an elderly mermaid would be like, or an old man-centaur.

“The setting grew out of the needs of the story - I just wanted a town that was really ordinary, small enough to be a little boring, with a suburban kind of feel, and that was located near the ocean.”

When it comes to writing, the muse can call the tune, but when needed, Thompson follows a regime to keep a book progressing.

“It’s great to sit down as soon as an idea hits you, but the realities of life don’t always permit it,” she said. “I write whenever I can manage to carve a few uninterrupted hours out of my day.

“For the first book (simply-titled Eldritch Manor), I didn’t have a deadline, so I could sit down whenever I had a chance and work away at it.

“For volumes two and three I had deadlines from my publisher, so I had to exercise a lot more self-discipline.

“Being a parent and working at home provides endless distractions but I’m getting better at sitting down and putting in the hours when I need to.”

And there are always the hurdles of writing a book which pop up.

“This third book has an awful lot going on,” said Thompson. “I knew I needed to reveal more about the feud between Willa’s mom and Belle: what happened in the past and why they are so angry.

“And it was about time that Willa had to face what it means to be part mermaid. I wanted her to uncover family secrets and learn something surprising about herself.

“So I had a few big issues to tackle, plus I always make things harder for myself by overpopulating my books. They’re turning into Robert Altman movies.

“In book two I introduced a troop of dwarves, and in this book three new characters move into the house - one complete with an entourage - and each brings their own unique weirdness to the mix.

“It’s fun to come up with new characters, but it also means you have to keep them all occupied. It makes for a very complex plot; I had charts and diagrams and mapping and calendars to keep track of everyone over the time span of the story.”

So as the author, what pleases Thompson the most in her latest release?

“That is such a hard question to answer,” she said. “I like the characters. They are all such terrific personalities I feel like I could write a whole book on each one.

“And I appreciate how when I give them a trying situation they all react in amusing ways. ‘Eldritch Manor’ would totally work as a sitcom. And the book is pretty funny, I think, in between the scary and the weird. At least I find it funny, fingers crossed that others do too.”

The result is a book Thompson likes herself.

“I am pretty satisfied, yes. Willa has gone on quite a journey from the first book to the end of the third, and yet it really doesn’t feel finished,” she said.

“I didn’t want my characters to solve every problem, and they sure haven’t. There are always more questions to be answered.

“In terms of the strength of the series, I tried to make the characters unusual and complex. I tried to make my heroine realistic and flawed, and I tried to avoid as many fantasy story clichés as I could. Willa is going through all the standard adolescent issues, but with a supernatural twist.”

And readers have certainly been supportive of the series.

“Yes, they’ve really been wonderful,” said Thompson. “Whenever I give workshops or school talks I have kids come up to tell me how much they liked my books.

“After the first book, before we’d decided to continue with more, I went to the Festival of Trees in Toronto (an Ontario Library Association extravaganza) because ‘Eldritch Manor’ had been nominated for an award, and so many kids insisted, nay, demanded sequels! I couldn’t really say no.”

But will there be a book four in the series?

Thompson isn’t sure, but admits to the possibility.

“At the moment I’m actually working on a nonfiction project, for a change of pace,” she said.

“I don’t have an immediate plan for an Eldritch book four, but the possibility is always there …”

Check out the author and latest book at www.kimthompsonauthor.com