Q&A with Katherine Rundell, Author of September/October Kids’ Indie Next List Top Pick “Impossible Creatures”

Bookselling This Week: In your acknowledgments, you said the idea of a flying girl occurred to you in 2016. How did the story develop from there?

Katherine Rundell: I knew that I wanted a world that would be huge enough for a flying girl to belong with ease: a world where huge, sweeping adventures could happen. So I started trying to conjure her a world — I wanted it to be an untouched, undestroyed version of ours, green and vivid, but with the added magic of the glimourie, and hoards of mythical creatures.   

BTW: Impossible Creatures has such an engaging cast of characters. Did you have one that was your favorite to write? (I’m partial to Nighthand and Naravirala.)

KR: I loved writing Nighthand — I loved the idea of someone who has no qualms about etiquette, who is unafraid of everything, up to and including insulting people. I was brought up with fairly strict rules around manners, so it was like hiring an assassin.

And I loved writing Jacques, the tiny belligerent jaculus dragon small enough to perch on the tip of your thumb.

BTW: I heard some research went into putting together this lineup of mythical creatures. What was your favorite thing you learned along the way? Was there anything fascinating that didn’t make it into this story?

KR: It was such a joy to do! Spending hours in libraries, reading old Latin manuscripts and the many brilliant encyclopaedias of mythical creatures: there are few things more wonderful.

There are so many creatures that I had to put off until book 2: gaganas, in particular. They’re wise birds with copper claws and iron beaks, but in my version, there is also a sub-species of royal gaganas with silver claws and golden beaks. 

BTW: Of our core adventurers, which do you feel you’re most like?

KR: I think I have Irian's love for scholarship — I’ve had a Fellowship at Oxford for the last fifteen years — and Gelifen the griffin’s immense love of food.

BTW: What are you working on next?

KR: I’m currently writing book two of Impossible Creatures, which will be called Impossible Creatures: The Poisoned King.

BTW: Would you tell us a little bit about the role of books and indie bookstores in your life?

KR: Indie bookstores have been absolutely critical to my career — without their support, my life would look very different! There’s nobody like an indie bookseller — they have such encyclopedic knowledge of story, and are able to match the right person to the right book like nobody else. I owe them so much, both as a writer and a reader.