Mike Evers

http://www.trestlepresspublishing.com...

The Chaosifier (out November 2011 with Trestle Press):

The basic idea behind the story is that sometimes when we sneeze, it signifies a change in our fortunes. This was the original premise, and it's quite surprising where you can go with it.

The heroes in the book are a small team of magical creatures, whose day to day job is finding unfortunate people, making them sneeze and changing their luck for the better. At the start of the tale they go about their daily business in small-town Yorkshire doing fairly routine work. The creatures are very much like you or I - with personalities and issues you will easily recognise. It's fantasy (or perhaps real?) within a modern day setting and the locations expand throughout the different acts, leading us, eventually, to fairly dark places.

The villain of a book is a figure from central European legend, called Rubezahl. He is temperamental, mischievous, and has issues with the 'luck goblins'. Perhaps not entirely meaning to, he sets off a chain of disastrous events which eventually threaten the whole of mankind (which is no mean feat). Our heroes, of course, rise up to deal with the threat.

The influences behind the story are fairly mind-boggling at times - and are largely stuff I read when I was young. I guess I'm trying to bring back a sense of magic that I used to feel as a teenager and young adult. I've borrowed from The Hobbit, LOTR and Huckleberry Finn, the notion of a journey with trials and tribulations along the way. My characters and dialogue are influenced by Terry Pratchett, Douglas Adams, James Herriot (yes, the vet) and the TV show Red Dwarf, among others. You may even spot Tom Clancy-esque situations when military hardware is involved. Oh, and it's a rip-rollicking adventure and philosophical treatise on cause and effect too. I'd say the layers and complexity of the book lends itself to the older spectrum of young readers - teens and young adults.