We chat with Ember Spark author Abi Elphinstone about her writing journey and how she picked the winners of our magical creature-design competition.

But first… what’s Ember Spark about?

Rusty Fizzbang, vet to magical beasts, needs an apprentice. His newest recruit is ten-year-old Ember Spark, from the sleepy village of Yawn in Scotland. Together with an unlikely friend called Arno, Ember is sent to help a baby dragon whose parents have gone missing.

But keeping magical beasts a secret isn’t an easy task, especially with arch-villain Jasper Hornswoggle hot on their heels…

Abi Elphinstone Q&A

How do you start writing a new story? Do you have a special routine or place where you like to write?

I start every story I write by drawing a map of the world I want to write about. For Ember Spark And The Thunder Of Dragons, I sketched the east coast of Scotland, marking up various points of interest: a seaside village, a harbour, an unexplored beach, a secret cave, a loch further inland.

Once I had the landscape drawn, I then added a wiggly line through it to mark my protagonist’s journey because it’s only when my main character starts moving from place to place that a plot unfolds in my mind. Then I just throw lots of exciting obstacles in my protagonist’s way (as the writer Vladimir Nabokov once said: ‘the writer’s job is to get the main character up a tree, and then once they are up there, throw rocks at them).

I invent perilous situations: an ambush on the beach, a kidnap by the loch, a chase over the moors. I include riddles to puzzle over, anagrams to solve and curses to beat. And all of this I set against a ticking clock to keep the tension high and the reader hooked. My favourite place to write is inside my writing shed in the garden.

What gave you the idea to write about a magical vet like Rusty Fizzbang and his apprentice Ember Spark?

My 2-year-old daughter… I thought I’d seen my fair share of wildness over the years – I’ve ridden with the Kazakh Eagle Hunters in Mongolia and I’ve been a whisker away from orcas in the Arctic – but then, in 2022, I gave birth to my daughter. I did not know wildness until I met my daughter. She has flame-red, untameable hair (there was a brush once but she hurled it off a cliff).

She naps in the dog basket instead of her cot because the puppy is the only member of the family who doesn’t tell her what to do. She hates baths but loves swimming in the ice-cold North Sea. She eats sand. There was only one thing to be done with her, I thought: write her into a story.

So, along came Ember Spark: a feisty, flame-haired, animal-loving girl who discovers a cave full of fantastical creatures on the east coast of Scotland and becomes an Apprentice Vet to Magical Beasts.

What’s your favourite part of writing a book?

Naming characters. In my book, Rumblestar, I named a heroine after a brand of butter. In The Dreamsnatcher, I pinched a character’s surname from a shower gel. And in Sky Song, I pilfered the name for a kingdom from a street signpost in London. I find character and place names everywhere and for Ember Spark & The Thunder of Dragons it was no different. I named a pet dog, Babaganoush, after passing the dip section in a supermarket. I named an elderly teacher, Mrs Rickety-Knees, after listening to an old lady in the doctor’s surgery complain about her dodgy knees.

I named the villain of the book, Jasper Hornswoggle, after playing with random letters on a Scrabble board. And I named the Vet to Magical Beasts, Rusty Fizzbang, after trying ice-cream from a company called Fizzbang. Put like that, it might sound like finding character and place names is entirely random. But there’s more to it than that. In fact, I think inventing names is a bit like baking a cake. You mix several ingredients together then you wait a while until you’re sure the finished product is ready. My list of ingredients include humour, onomatopoeia and connotations.

In other words, I’m on the hunt for words that will make the reader smile, that have a dramatic effect when said aloud and that create a certain picture in the reader’s mind. Then, once I’ve struck upon what I think might be a perfect name, I turn it over in my head for several days to ensure it feels right.

What tips would you give to kids looking to write their own stories or create their own characters?

1. Carry a notepad with you everywhere (as an author you are like a detective so watch the world fiercely for the things other people miss because often the very best stories are simply the ideas that nobody else has stumbled across yet).

2. Get outside: the natural world is full to the brim with wonder and stories!

3. Do not be afraid to fail (I had 96 rejection letters from literary agents before I got my first book deal).

Creative Competition – Results!

A few months ago, we challenged readers to dream up a magical creature for Ember and Rusty to help! Each entry had to include a drawing, the creature’s name, its magical abilities and what it needed help with.

After receiving so many amazing designs, author Abi Elphinstone herself selected the five most creative, unique and fun entries. Now, it’s time to meet the winners!

“I loved looking through the competition entries!” said Abi. “There were so many original ideas and brilliant illustrations. I picked the merorpian as the winner because I thought its Latin name ‘Praedo: destroyer’ was very clever and the idea of it munching on sailors’ brains made me chuckle.

As for the runners up, the piggon (a cross between a dragon and a pig) was very funny (and superbly illustrated). The leaf and fire dragons were beautifully drawn and so adorable I wanted them as pets. Well done everyone!”

Ember Spark is available from all good bookshops and online now.

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