IN BRIEF
Q&A Vashti Hardy
I’m thinking about how I can keep pushing the storytelling, the world- building, the characters and relationships, the inventions and the underlying questions
my natural interests and curiosities. I was a child full of questions—I once got told off by a teacher for asking too many! I love tales of real- life explorers and adven- turers, their person- alities and journeys are endlessly fascinating, so the Brightstorm series grew from this. I also love science, technology and invention, and will always champion females in STEM [science, technology, engineer- ing and mathematics] through my stories, choosing to imagine and create worlds where gender has never been a barrier to achievement in the STEM subjects.
I also love ghost stories, so
Six questions for... Vashti Hardy Author
Questions Caroline Carpenter
01 Congratulations on winning the Blue Peter Book Award
2020 [Best Story Category] for Wildspark—how does it feel? Thank you so much! I’m hugely honoured and it feels incredible to join such an esteemed list of winners, especially because it’s the 20th year of the award. Like many, I grew up with “Blue Peter” as a part of my childhood and I longed to be a presenter—second as an ambition to becoming an author, of course!
02 You have had great success with your first two books.
Has this surprised you? Booksellers and readers have been incredible with their support and I feel very lucky, and grateful. The stories seem to cross over well to older readers, and have especially been embraced by teachers, who have come up with the most brilliant and creative ways of using them in the classroom. It’s been a joy to see the amazing learning that has come from
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them. I love doing events in schools, where I get to meet the readers and see what they have created and how they have connected with the worlds.
03 Your third book, Darkwhispers, a follow-up
to your début Brightstorm, was just released last month. Can you tell us a little about it? Darkwhispers picks up after the crew have returned from their expe- dition to South Polaris. An eminent explorer, Ermitage Wrigglesworth, has disappeared somewhere in the tropical east of the Wide. Nobody knows what he was looking for, what he may have found, and why he has vanished. The crew of the “Aurora“ set off to find him, but their nemesis Eudora Vane is up to her old tricks and the crew soon discover there are more secrets, cover-ups and dastardly deeds afoot, as well as some amazing new sapient creatures, inventions, and surprising twists! The reception to Darkwhispers has
been great so far; I feel very lucky. I think for Brightstorm fans it’s been like revisiting old friends but embark- ing on something fresh and unknown. I love that readers feel as though they are part of the crew; an extra member. Now I’m thinking about how I can keep pushing the storytelling, the world-building, the characters and relationships, the inventions and the underlying questions, so that it
all keeps building. I have a long-term plan for where the series is heading.
04 You were a primary school teacher for many years. How
did it influence on your writing? When I was a teacher, the most magical part was seeing the sparkle in children’s eyes at story-time, when they were so involved that they would hang off every word. I always try to remember that and bring the “wonder” in my writing. I think it also gives an instinct for how stories can work creatively in the classroom, not that I ever do it didactically, because then I think you risk losing the magic. Stories always need to come from the heart.
05 Where do you get the inspi- ration for your books from?
My inspirations are always driven by
Wildspark grew from me wondering what would happen if I combined my love of STEM and ghost stories. What world could grow from that? What would the issues and big questions be within that world? From there I had the idea of bringing back ghosts in advanced life-like robots, and then decided that Prue Haywood’s story and the loss of her brother was the right story to tell in that world.
06 And what are you working on next?
I have just finished a book with Barrington Stoke, which will be published in September, and I’m working on a story called Harley Hitch and the Iron Forest for Scholastic—it’s a quirky, fun, inven- tive, STEM-filled world for seven to nine-year-olds, which will be illus- trated by the talented George Ermos. I’m also currently working on a new book for eight to 12-year-olds, also with Scholastic, which I’m hugely excited about. I can’t say too much as Scholastic hasn’t announced it yet, but there is plenty of high-invention, mystery and more mind-bending questions… Then hopefully I’ll be back to more
adventures in the world of Wildspark and Brightstorm, because I’m bursting to tell them! So many stories to tell… being a writer really is the best job in the world!
Vashti Hardy’s second novel, Wildspark, was issued in paperback by Scholastic in May 2019, (9781407191553, £6.99). Her latest, Darkwhispers, also from Scholastic (9781407197265, £6.99), is out now.
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