I’m thrilled to welcome author Gatlin Perrin to Scope for Imagination with a guest post about the importance of “home”.
I don’t know a single person who doesn’t have mixed feelings about ‘home’, including myself. At first I was excited to leave my small Welsh hometown where you’re as likely to see a bus arrive on time as you are to see the real life dragon from the flag, but one week in London and I was crying over the severe lack of bara brith.
Home for Dirk Jones isn’t a particularly nice place to begin with; the people there don’t accept them for who they are. My home situation was a little similar, except I didn’t end up being kidnapped by secret agents or attacked by demons. I’m luckier than Dirk.
I never thought I’d make my hometown a setting for a sci-fi fantasy. My home country, yes – North Wales is the epicentre of wild magic (how many castles can you see from your kitchen window?). But Llandudno, famous for goats and having a hard to pronounce name? The most fantastical thing I experienced there was passing my A Levels (absolute divine intervention). I could say that I used this setting for literary reasons, that it sets the stage for the plot to get bigger and more exciting. The actual reason is that I thought it was funny to make places I used to work at get knocked down by sci-fi monsters.
I have lots of homes now – Wales, London, my best friends’ couch. Home isn’t always a steady thing, so it’s nice to have a few spares. Poor Dirk’s home goes from being an uncomfortable house to a bunker beneath Ynys Mon, where they’re constantly in the way of people holding the line between good and evil. Fortunately, Dirk’s new unconventional neighbours help them carve out something as close to what a home is as they can. It’s not a comfortable experience and not everyone gets along all the time (and there’s still the problem of bloodthirsty monsters), but no home is without its hiccups.
I hope Dirk’s adventure reminds you of home, in a good way.
Dirk Jones is NOT the Chosen One is available now from Firefly Press.
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