10 debut authors share where the ideas for their first novels came from

Esther is Now Following You Tanya Sweeney

Tanya Sweeny, author of Esther is Now Following You

I worked in the music industry early in my career and came up against a lot of the artists’ superfans at various events. I was always fascinated by their tenacity and cunning. Later, when I became a journalist, I marvelled at the online communities of fans who would almost ‘claim’ a star as their own.

I think we’ve all had the kind of all-consuming crush that would see us hop on a plane to make it happen. I began to wonder about what that might look like, pursuing a crush in the most extreme way possible.

Into the Midnight Wood Alexandra McCollum

Alexandra McCollum, author of Into the Midnight Wood

I get inspiration from more places than I can count! Part of the inspiration for the book’s concept was a line from Duran Duran’s ‘The Chauffeur’, ‘what glass splinters lie so deep in your mind?’. Part was also from finally reading the book of The Neverending Story right around the same time I decided to write something in a surreal, anything-goes setting. I wanted to create something in the same vein as shows like The Venture Bros and The Mighty Boosh, somehow combining features of both.

Details from real life also ended up in the book in one way or another, like my next-door neighbour’s angry-at-the-world Chihuahua, and a coworker’s name that I misheard over the phone.

The Book of Blood and Roses Annie Summerlee

Annie Summerlee, author of The Book of Blood and Roses

I was watching What We Do In the Shadows with my girlfriend, and after a certain character – a vampire’s familiar – discovers he is also the descendant of a famous vampire hunter, the idea for The Book of Blood and Roses popped into my head.

The Bloody Branch Brigid Lowe

Brigid Lowe, author of The Bloody Branch

I grew up surrounded by legends of the sorrows and triumphs of the epic heroines who once haunted the wild landscapes that I loved. There have been many wonderful retellings of classical mythology, but they often have to conjure women’s perspectives on stories of men’s wars from almost nothing.

In the Celtic tradition we have tales just as thrilling which have always centred women and nature. Our lovely island’s own oldest stories are so good the whole world deserves to hear them.

Lost Lambs Madeline Cash

Madeline Cash, author of Lost Lambs

The idea came piecemeal, from current events, from my own family and from great novels I admire. Novels, like charity, generally start at home, which is where I began Lost Lambs. My childhood bedroom got me in touch with the teenage girl spirit, surrounded by relics from high school, rereading old diaries, screaming ‘MOM’ from the kitchen.

This, My Second Life Patrick Charnley

Patrick Charnley, author of This, My Second Life

My novel ultimately came from a hallucination I had after having a cardiac arrest and sustaining a brain injury. In it, I was in a very small hospital in Dublin, Ireland, similar to the one in the village in that we lived in when I was very little. I don’t know how I knew it was Dublin, I just knew. I also knew that it was some time in the past.

I felt so looked after, like nothing could possibly hurt me. It was cosy and completely safe.

There are two main threads to my novel. The first is the main character, Jago, learning to live with a brain injury under the watchful care of his uncle Jacob on his small coastal farm in West Cornwall. This is based on the true story of my own cardiac arrest and brain injury. Everything that happens to Jago happened to me.

This story was also influenced by a childhood love of books like The Famous Five, Secret Seven and the Hardy Boys. I am drawn to the innocence of those stories, which I felt was completely in keeping with the feeling from the hallucination that I was trying to capture, so I brought the two together.

A Stage Set for Villains Shannon J. Spann

Shannon J. Spann, author of A Stage Set for Villains

The first inkling I remember is waking up to a voice in my ear. It whispered, ‘The theatre is not a place one merely visits. In fact, some of us never left.’

I’m sure I must have been half-asleep or dreaming – there was, of course, no one in the room! I wrote the words down in my Notes app where they took to haunting my phone. The ‘twist’ idea (which I won’t spoil!) followed not long after, and I began writing.

It was one of those stories that felt like it would cling onto me until I wrote it all out.

A Bad, Bad Place Frances Crawford

Frances Crawford, author of A Bad, Bad Place

I have always been fascinated by characters on the margins of the crime genre: the witnesses who see it happen, the dog walker who finds the corpse. What happens next? Are their lives destroyed by chance?

Godfall Van Jensen

Van Jensen, author of Godfall

I had the flu, and in a fugue state I saw a vision of a giant alien landing next to my hometown of Lewellen, Nebraska – population 150. I woke up and immediately knew I had the start of a book.

Beth Is Dead Katie Bernet

Katie Bernet, author of Beth is Dead

As the oldest of three sisters, I’ve always had a deep love and admiration for Little Women. At the same time, I really enjoy reading mysteries and thrillers – the kind of stories you simply can’t put down. It occurred to me that reimagining Little Women as a mystery could be fun but also meaningful, because it would give me an opportunity to explore the tension in Beth March’s death – a death that she, herself, seemed to accept but that has been breaking hearts for more than a century.