Every Friday, we meet a member of the BFS and peer deep into their soul (or, at least, a form they filled out). Want to be featured? Email us: online@britishfantasysociety.org
Name:
Ruth Frances Long (she/her); I also write as Jessica Thorne
Which region are you based in?
Ireland
If you write, which genre?
Fantasy
Are you drawn to any specific SFFH sub-genres?
Fantasy Romance, Historical Fantasy, Fantasy based on Folklore
Your influences
Tell us about the book/film/thing that got you into SFFH: What was it? How old were you? What impact did it have on you?
The Hobbit—so young I have no idea. My parents had an old recording of a dramatisation of it which I used to play over and over again until everything wore out and broke. Then along came the BBC radio dramatisation of The Lord of the Rings.
I was a voracious reader from a very young age; read everything in the two local junior libraries and eventually the adult library caved and gave me a reader’s ticket, mainly to stop me badgering them, I think.
I loved Diana Wynne Jones, Susan Cooper and Alan Garner.
From Diana, I got the sense of the magical in the everyday, and the every day in the magical.
From Susan, the weight of folklore in daily life.
And from Alan, to probably misquote him, “the rockness of rocks and the treeness of trees.”
(Pictured: Dianna Wynne Jones, source)
Mary Gentle’s Ash was also a huge influence. I had never read anything like it and I’m not entirely sure I have since either.
I’ve also been obsessed with musicals all my life and see them as another form of fantasy so there’s probably a lot of influence from that quarter as well.
How does that early influence show up for you (in life/writing/agenting/publishing/editing/reading) now?
In life—I think being able to stop and wonder every so often is an incredibly valuable thing. If I need to clear my head, especially when writing to deadline or feeling too much stress, I usually flee for a walk in the nearest forest, or head down to the sea.
In writing, I’m a deep believer in making fantasy as realistic as possible, through detailed research and really grounding the book in reality. If you can make a setting feel entirely real to the reader, the magical elements are only a small step further and don’t break suspension of disbelief.
Where do you draw your creative inspiration from?
History and folklore primarily. But there’s a deep well that we need to fill, so music and art are really important to me. Inspiration lies everywhere, so I think it’s more of a case of gathering all those snippets together until they start to spark off each other to create characters and stories. I’m always researching, always looking to learn something new, and always keen to see something new and fresh based on our oldest creative ideas.
(Pictured: the Plantin Bible with the book it inspired, The Book of Gold)
Who do you look to as a genre hero? Why?
Diana Wynne Jones—she gave us such a vast range of incredible stories and characters, delivered with heart and wit, with wild imaginative worlds that somehow feel totally believable and solid.
Your Work
You’re stuck in an elevator for 60 seconds with that hero, and they want you to describe your work. Give us the pitch.
Writing that travels through the weird and wonderful, rooted in history folklore and reality. I try to write the books I always wanted to read, and to have fun doing it.
What are you working on right now?
One of the many “books I’m not meant to be writing” while waiting for edits on Book 2 of the Feral Gods series. I get bored too easily, so I tend to play with ideas that entertain me in between contracted books. The Book of Gold started out as one such book, so it works. I think it’s a way of keeping the joy in writing.
Thinking about all the stories/work you’ve done, what sticks out most in your mind? Why?
That is a difficult question because there is something in every book, and I love them all. I think probably it’s various elements of research we did along the way. So for example in The Water Witch (Jessica Thorne) I had a research trip to Brittany and found the Pointe de Castelmeur (pictured)—which became the book’s main setting—and it was like stepping into somewhere utterly magical.
For The Book of Gold (Ruth Frances Long), it was the entire story of the Plantin Polyglott Bible which kicked off the whole thing for me. It was like being on a quest of my own writing that book, especially as it took so long before I finally knew what I needed to do with it, how the story was going to work, and then it just took off as if I had very little to do with writing it—that whole “following the characters and writing up the incident report” feeling…
Where and when do you create/are you at your most creative?
I have a part time day job, so mornings are out (they would be anyway, not a morning person). When my kids were little I had to grab at whatever free moment I could, and was frequently found writing in a notebook in the car or outside some club activity, waiting for them. Now I tend to spend the afternoon writing or doing writing-related things.
What’s the best advice you’ve received about creativity?
Do the thing you love.
What’s your writing soundtrack?
It changes for every book. I draw up playlists for each project, and characters have their own theme songs (in The Book of Gold, Lyta’s is Wrecking Ball, for example). I love music and have… um… eclectic tastes.
The Quickfire Round
Sci-fi, fantasy or horror?
Fantasy
Quiet or loud?
Loud
Dark or light?
Dark
Strict lines or genre blend?
Genre blending
Awards or bestseller?
Depends on the book
Fiction or non-fiction?
Fiction
Poetry or prose?
Prose
Plotter or pantser?
Plantser
(Pictured: Ruth’s shelfie)
Reading or listening?
Reading for information, listening for pleasure
Notebook or computer?
Notebook first, then computer
Favourite SFFH book of all time?
Mary Gentle’s Ash
Last book you read?
Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherland by Heather Fawcett
Any SFFH author on auto-buy?
Ben Aaronovitch
Favourite podcast?
Lore, Aaron Mahnke
The Home Stretch
What’s the best thing about being part of the SFFH community?
The community itself, being part of a group that loves something so passionately and gets such pleasure from it.
Time to plug your stuff! Where can we find you and your work? What have you got coming up? Consider this your advertising space.
Website: www.rflong.com
Latest Ruth Frances Long book: The Book of Gold, an alt-history renaissance fantasy heist featuring a disparate found-family group, a second chance romance, a magical book and a host of meddling gods.
Lates Jessica Thorne books: The Lost Queen trilogy (pictured – A Touch of Shadows, A Kiss of Flame, and A Crown of Darkness), a romantasy featuring witches and shadow magic, knights in shining armour and a fated love that may or may not be real.
