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Hazel Marshall

Troublesome Angels - publicity bookmark  Hazel MarshallM@x  Meet Hazel Marshall, author of Troublesome Angels and Flying Machines. If you like adventure stories with a good smattering of history then this is the book for you!

I caught up with Hazel and asked her a few questions on behalf of all you budding authors out there.

M@x Have you always wanted to be a writer?

Hazel Marshall Yes, I have. I wrote my first stories when I was five and my first book when I was twelve. Even though I have always had another job, I have always thought of myself first and foremost as a writer.

M@x Is there any one children's book from the last few years you have read and really wished you'd written yourself?

Hazel Marshall I would have love to have written Northern Lights by Philip Pullman. I think that Lyra is an amazing character. I would also have happily written his Sally Lockhart books (and anyone who has read the His Dark Materials trilogy and enjoyed it should read the Sally Lockhart books too - they’re very different but great fun). I like the way he plays with history, fantasy, character and imagination in his writing.

M@x The second Troublesome Angels book is out in September, isn't it? Are you planning to write lots more books featuring Blanco Polo or would you like to do something different?

Hazel Marshall Troublesome Angels and the Red Island Pirates will indeed be out in September. There will be a third book, which will be out in 2006 featuring Blanco Polo and Eva but I think that will be the last. With that one the story is definitely complete. I do plan to keep on writing though and already have lots of ideas for my next set of books.

M@x Where did the idea for Troublesome Angels and Flying Machines come from?

Hazel Marshall It came from reading history and particularly from reading about Marco Polo. I thought it must have been amazing to have seen countries and things for the first time. Now we can see faraway places on the internet or on tv but then you really had to just go and find out for yourself. My favourite ever author, Robertson Davies, described the medieval period as a ‘world of wonder’ because things couldn’t be explained and therefore they were both more dangerous and more exciting and that is what attracted me to writing about that period.

M@x If you had one piece of advice for anyone wishing to be a children's writer, what would it be?

Hazel Marshall Read a lot and read widely. I always read anything and everything and I think having that wide base helped me to decide what I wanted to write and also gave me a love for all different kinds of books.

M@x Do you write in a favourite place or maybe at a particular time of day like some other writers?

Hazel Marshall I don’t have a favourite place although I do like to go away when I’m researching a book to get a sense of the place that I’m writing about. I love to write in the morning - my brain seems to work best then!

If you would like to read Hazel's books there's a couple of ways you can do this.

BORROW - check my Dogalogue and reserve your copy today - it's FREE!
BUY - if you've enough pocket money, why not dash out to your local bookshop and buy one to keep.