We have a character interview with a difference today, as the amazing Byrony Pearce interviews her characters from Angel's Fury... I can tell you now: it's awesome!! And, slightly off-topic, how gorgeous is the cover?! Anyway, I'll hand you over to Byrony, and the characters of her book...
Angel's Fury Character Interview
Harmon Times
The local paper
Mount Hermon,
the Manor House cum hospital run by the elusive Doctor Ashworth has been a
source of both curiosity and controversy for our readers since it was taken
over by the private trust in 1956. Since
the terrible drowning of the young Catherine Moss on the edge of the grounds a
mere eighteen months ago, locals have been clamouring for more openness, in
particular surrounding the nature of the treatments that take place behind its
walls.
Following a
number of requests of behalf of the paper, I was finally allowed into the Manor
for two hours one murky Monday morning.
The lowering
clouds seemed to follow my car as I drove along the crunching gravel drive. Once inside the Manor I did not see the
Doctor herself, but was introduced to three of the patients by an orderly who
sat at the next table and watched me like a hawk, as if concerned that I was
going to steal the cutlery.
These teenagers
sat in the Dining Hall nursing cups of coffee.
As I entered they glanced at me from under lowered brows, as if daring
me to comment on their caffeine habit.
I was permitted
to interview them, under supervision for only half an hour. The remainder of my time was spent on a tour
of the facilities which really are impressive, including tennis courts, a
swimming pool and a half completed shooting range.
If I hadn’t
known that Mount Hermon was a hospital, I would have assumed it was some kind
of private retreat for celebrities, along the lines of the Hitchin Priory.
The teenagers
that I met could best be described as lethargic. Their exhaustion was apparent and as I
progressed through the interview I could see why. Part of me was overcome with sympathy for
their plight, but it was also hard to comprehend why they were so very
traumatised. The children at the Manor
suffer from nightmares, but doesn’t everyone?
One of the teens I interviewed had been interred in the Manor for over a
year. Why does something as simple as a
nightmare require isolation in such a place?
How can it take so long to clear up such a malady? Why, in short, are these children not in
school?
Perhaps this
really is the life of the wealthy – to send your children to a posh retreat for
the most minor of issues.
Was my sympathy
for their mental ‘illness’, or for the fact that their parents had so patently
shipped them away?
In order to
protect their privacy I could not use the childens’ full names, so they will be
known as CF (who was a skinny teenaged girl with long brown hair), SA (an older
boy, also with long brown hair) and PL (another teenaged girl, this time with
short blonde hair and a number of piercings).
My interview with
these children is transcribed below.
So, how long
have you three been at Mount Hermon?
CF: I’m new here
- I arrived less than two weeks ago.
PL: But you feel
like you’ve been here forever, right?
CF: Yes, somehow
I really do.
SA: I’ve been
here three months now.
PL: Three months
too long!
SA: Whatever P.
PL: I’ve been
here for 14 months.
Fourteen months
is a long time – has anyone been here longer than you?
PL: The Doctor?
So this is kind
of a home for you?
PL: Better than
home, really.
SA: You might
say she’s on a scholarship.
PL: Shut up S,
And do you feel
as if your treatment is progressing well? I’d have thought 14 months would be more than
enough time to cure your … problem.
PL: What would you
know about our problem?
(At this point I
noticed the younger girl looking disturbed).
You seem to
think fourteen months is a long time too?
CF: I – I assumed
I’d be out in a few weeks.
PL:
(sniggering) No chance C.
You’re a serious case plus The Doctor loves you. You’ll be here at least as long as me.
CF: But … what
about school … my parents?
PL: Isn’t it
more important to get cured?
CF: Well …
yes.
(the boy put his
hand over hers’)
SA: Everyone’s different
C.
Ignore her.
So, have you
known anyone leave the Manor? What is
the average time to discharge?
SA: I – I don’t
know. P, you must have been here when someone was sent home?
PL: No. I don’t think so.
SA: You can’t
have been first in.
PL: No, but … I
guess the Doctor was having a lull when I arrived.
SA: And now
there are eight of us.
How old is the
youngest of you?
SA: L, he’s ten.
And you all
suffer from the same thing?
(The children nod)
And what is it,
exactly, that you have been diagnosed with?
(There is a
pause while the children look at one another and then the orderly)
SA: We … suffer
from nightmares.
Well, don’t we
all have nightmares from time to time?
PL: Yeah, sure, you have nightmares. What - do you have to stand in front of your
editor naked? Maybe you’re taking an
exam and haven’t done the revision? Or
you’re at a dinner party and you’ve run out of whine (this isn’t a typo, her pronunciation definitely implied this
spelling!).
Hey now …
PL: So you wake
up a little sweaty once every couple of months, think ‘phew it was only a
dream’, roll over and go back to sleep?
CF: He doesn’t
understand P. How can he?
So can you
explain it to me?
(It takes a
minute of thought, but then the boy takes over)
SA: Have you
ever had that lovely warm feeling where you wake up from a good dream and you
don’t ever want to get out of bed because you feel so safe and happy?
Well, yes of
course.
SA: I
haven’t.
(the girls shake
their heads in agreement).
Well, that can’t
be true …
SA: It’s
true. You know that feeling where you
wake up from a good night’s sleep feeling refreshed and ready to start the day.
Yes …
SA: I
don’t.
CF: I’d do
anything to have that feeling …
SA: Almost
anything. Imagine your worst nightmare
and multiply it a hundred times …
PL: No S, that won’t do it. (She leans forward). Do you watch horror films?
Occasionally. I’m not a big fan.
PL: Can you
bring to mind the worst, most terrifying, most violent horror film you
know? Imagine that you’re living it, not
just watching it. Now imagine that you
go through that every single time you go to sleep. EVERY SINGLE TIME.
You think we’re
whiney teenagers. I can tell. You think we should suck it up and go back to
our lives.
Not at all,
SA: Imagine what
kind of life you’d have if you never, ever, ever slept. How would you get through a class at
school? What would your grades be like? How would you make friends? Have a social life?
Come on, my
wife’s had a baby, I know what sleeplessness is like …
SA: For a few
months maybe. Maybe a year or two if you
were unlucky. Try and picture that for
your whole life.
CF: You’d be a
zombie.
You’re saying
you’re a zombie?
CF: I might as
well be. I’m the living dead …
PL: Shut up C!
(C giggles with
a kind of hysterical note and ducks her head back into her coffee).
There are
rumours that the Doctor is a specialist.
PL: Yeah, so?
In past lives …
PL: She’s a
world expert, yeah.
And is that why
you’re here - do you think you have … lived before? ( I look back at the younger girl). Do you think you’re the … living dead?
I’ll admit that
the tone my voice may have offended them.
The boy became quite protective at this point and the orderly stood up
to end the interview.
I left Mount
Hermon with one clear image in my mind, the eyes of the young girl who thinks
she’s one of the living dead. That is
what is at the end of our village dear readers.
Make of it what you will …
---
https://twitter.com/#!/BryonyPearce @BryonyPearce
Thank you so much for this, Bryony! This was such an awesome guest post - and so original!! I hope you guys loved it as much as I did!!
Everyone, if you liked this post, make sure you follow all the FoG
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---
By Bryony Peace,
author of Angel’s Fury.
Angel’s Fury was published by Egmont in July
2011. The book is about a group of
teenagers who have lived before, whose lives are being manipulated by a fallen
angel trying to destroy mankind. Angel’s Fury is long-listed for the
Branford Boase and short-listed for the Leeds Book Award. Bryony lives in a village on the edge of the
Peak District with her husband, two children and an aristocratic cat who likes
to sit on the laptop and thinks she is better than all of us.
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