Inspired by the most hated girl in EnidBlyton’s Malory Towers Series, Gwen fails at boarding school until shebefriends a ghost. 

Youmention having ADHD in your biography. How did your own experiences influenceGwen's feelings of being different and struggling in traditional academicsettings?

Myown feelings and experiences of having undiagnosed ADHD were a huge influenceon how I wrote Gwen’s experiences of school. I found secondary school muddling,scary and boring. I was anxious much of the time because of how huge I perceivedthe work load to be. I remember not being able to sleep because I was soworried about having to complete a project. All my classmates boasted about howmany pages they’d written and I worried that I couldn’t do it.

Ididn’t know I had ADHD when I was twelve years old (I only found out two yearsago at the age of 53!), and it was a huge help for me to receive the diagnosis.I finally understood why I find certain everyday things more challenging thanother seem to. It was very interesting for me to write about Gwen’s difficultiesat school as it helped me to understand my own ADHD. I was able to separate outthe ADHD traits from own personality. For example being late for class, losingthings, getting lost, needing space to be alone quiet, having trouble sleeping,finding comfort in animals. All of these aspects of myself (and Gwen) are dueto having ADHD.

Gweninitially feels "useless" at everything until she discovers herunique gift. How important was it to show that everyone has different types ofintelligence and abilities?

Ithink this is very important, especially for those of us who areneurodivergent. I received a lot criticism as a child due to my inability toorganise and prioritise tasks, my untidiness and lack of focus. However withADHD comes great pluses: I am creative, sensitive, good at art, can come upwith many ideas and see the big picture. The world is full of all sorts ofpeople. If we were all good at the same things there would be no variety. Ilove how some of us are good at doing things and others are better at coming upwith ideas or sensing things. It has taken a long time for me to appreciate mygifts, and I think it’s terrible important that we all do, even if (orespecially if) our gifts are different to the majority of people’s gifts. 

Theschool exists somewhat outside normal time and space. What drew you to create amagical educational setting rather than a purely realistic one?

Iam extremely interested in magical realism. It is far more interesting for meto write about a magical world alongside our real one. Ever since I was a childI was fascinated by fairy tales. To me they existed alongside the actual worldthat I lived in. I was terribly disappointed when I found out that fairy talesweren’t real. I had thought they were historical fact. The world became grey tome after that but when I began writing fiction I realised that I could createmagical worlds, just as others had created fairytales. For that reason Gwendoesn’t go to an ordinary boarding school. She needed to be somewhere special withan otherworldly element to it.  

I’malways fascinated by the different ways in which authors world build. The BellTower serves as a portal between worlds. How did you go about creating thisthin veil? 

Igrew up spending my childhood summers in Glendalough, a glacial valley inCounty Wicklow where monks lived hundreds of years ago. The ruins of theirmonastic site remain there today; there is a tall round tower, a rooflesschurch and small stone buildings.  It wasamongst the ruins, that I imagined monks praying over and over and causing theveil between this world and the next to fade. There is something very specialabout that place. I feel that their prayers changed the atmosphere, bringing uscloser to God and whoever is on the other side. I am drawn to such places andoften visit old monastic sites and graveyards. I imagine the lives of the monksand their devotion to a spiritual life.

The ending suggests Gwen will help other students communicate with spirits. Are youplanning to continue this series, or is this more about giving her a happyending? (Sometimes, the happiest endings are the ones in which we can see ourmuch-loved main character continuing on happily.)

Yes,I am planning to continue writing a series about Gwen. In fact I have begunwriting book two already. Gwen is haunted by the grandmother of her leastfavourite classmate, Delphine. She travels to France with Delphine to sort outa family mystery. I have planned three more books in the series in which Gwencommunicates with spirits connected to her classmates. Gwen is an interestingcharacter. She has lots more to learn and I don’t want to let go of her yet.

How did you approach writing the fire sequence and its aftermath? The way realityseems to shift and heal is quite complex.

Ididn’t plan the fire sequence or its aftermath. As I neared the end of thebook, the writing began flowing from me like a river rushing down amountainside. At the time I was on an artist’s retreat at the Tyrone GuthrieCentre in the midlands of Ireland. https://www.tyroneguthrie.ie/The retreat centre is an Anglo-Irish House that sits on a hill surrounded bytrees overlooking a lake. I have visited this centre many times and it was theinspiration for Gwen’s boarding school, Loughmoe Abbey.

I’dbeen staying at the retreat for about a week when the words began pouring ontothe page. I had no idea what was happening but I trusted the words would bringthe story in the right direction. It felt wonderful to feel the story gushingout of me and I am very pleased with how the book ended. The same happened whenI wrote the end of my previous novel for children, The House on HawthornRoad. I didn’t plan the ending, it came to me in a rush of inspiration as Iwas writing. The end of story revealed itself to me in an unexpected andmagical way. That is the most exciting thing to me about writing.

BookTwo in the series is coming next. In this novel Gwen is haunted by thegrandmother of her least favourite classmate, Delphine. The grandmother’sspirit won’t leave Gwen alone until Gwen helps Delphine to save their familychateaux in France.

Wherecan we find you?

Youcan find me at my website www.meganwynne.com

Instagram@meganwynnewrite

Facebook@meganwynnewrite

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