Campfire Chats with Amie Jordan

In the lead up to Camp YA we’re chatting to some wonderful authors about their books, life and Camp spirit! Today we’re excited to visit the author of the All the Hidden Monsters series, Amie Jordan, in an otherworldly Manchester, to chat about hidden tunnels and magical enforcement jobs.

All the Hidden Monsters series is a slow-burn enemies-to-lovers romance, with twisty crime, and a supernatural detective gang in a unique urban fantasy setting under the city of Manchester.

We love that this trilogy was born from writing practice, what is your writing style like (I LOVE lists too) and has it changed going into Book 2?

Although there are many more professional terms or processes to use, I personally simply describe my writing style as ‘chaotic’. It’s all over the place – frankly, some days, it’s a bit of a mess!

The problem is, I have two major neurodivergences warring with each other at all times.

My OCD doesn’t let me plot properly because then those bullet points become a list, and once a list is written it’s set in stone as far as my OCD is concerned. Once something is in list order, its very hard for me to then move things about. This makes editing really hard later when things do naturally have to be swapped about for things like flow and pacing. So… I just can’t plot. I can have ideas in my head, but I can’t jot them down. This usually means that once I get the idea I have to write the scene. And this goes in a random doc with no heading or chapter title, and then this, for some reason, is allowed to be moved around and placed wherever I need it to be later. I know it’s confusing and nonsensical.

Then there’s the ADHD, which I have actually only been diagnosed with this year. But now makes a lot of other things make sense. I didn’t realise that the majority of people went through life without a constant stream of a minimum 5-6 completely separate thought processes or ideas happening simultaneously. I just thought the rest of you were just better at processing it all. Only more recently have I realised this is a raging undiagnosed and unmedicated second neurodivergence.  So imagine all those different thoughts and ideas all going on at once, alongside the OCD that doesn’t let me write anything down in note form.

So yeah… chaos is the only way I can describe how I write, or perhaps more accurate to say that I don’t have a particular writing style. I just have to word vomit and hope for the best.

I would say though that the process has still gotten easier with book 2 than book 1, and now as I work on book 3. In the sense that All the above is still happening, but as with anything, experience builds as you learn. It’s not that the above is more under control, but I am less anxious about it now I know it’s possible to be like me and it all still work out. Plus when you have the kind of editor I have that is both understanding and excellent at her job… it gives you more confidence.

You had a really interesting journey into publishing, how has that shaped you as a writer and what advice would you give yourself if you could jump back in time. (now I just have a mental image of future you time hopping and appearing to past you with a book in hand like ‘hey, guess what’)?

Entering publishing through a competition rather than the traditional querying agents method has left me feeling both incredibly lucky and grateful – especially now I understand the industry better and realise just how bloody lucky I was. It very much feels like ‘right place, right time’ that could’ve just as easily not worked out had I entered that competition in a different year. Publishing is an ever evolving cycle of new trends, and if you don’t have the right ideas at the right time then it’s just not gonna work in your favour. BUT, the bonus to that is knowing that you can store that idea away and pull it back out when the time is right for it.

How I got where I am today also absolutely terrifies me. Because I am consciously aware every single day just how small this industry is, and just how many super, super, super talented writers there are out there just waiting, because there is limited space here in this world. That many talented authors right now have slogged away for years in the query trenches to get where they are today. And spending years getting to the point of publication doesn’t make them any less amazingly talented – it actually just shows their perseverance and passion. For me to enter my first competition on a whim, not even win, but still end up a published author anyway, all within a year or two? Some days the guilt and embarrassment and niggling suspicion that I don’t deserve to be here as much as others absolutely cripples me. So I guess the advice I would offer myself if I could step back in time is actually just to remind myself to keep in mind what my mum says to me every so often: it doesn’t matter how you get somewhere, you wouldn’t get there if you didn’t deserve it, or have the talent to back it up. You’ve just got to believe in yourself a little bit more.

Did you always have the fully conceived idea for both books (and future books) or did anything in book 2 surprise you?

I don’t ever go into anything with a full plan, I actually don’t plan at all other than whatever vague ideas are in my head. I definitely don’t plot anything down on paper or in spreadsheets or anything. I usually just have an end goal and I actually kinda just work backwards. ‘This is where I want my characters to end up, with this resolution, so how do we get here from where they were last left off?’

So yeah, of course, when writing like this little things do end up surprising you. I think the biggest surprises though actually come when the first people (usually my editor and best friend) read the early drafts, and their thoughts on what they expected to happen, or suggestions for changes. It’s fascinating to see other people’s relationships with my characters, and how they interpret them, their thoughts or how they expect that they would act. Sometimes their suggestions are taken into account when we come to the next draft. Sometimes they aren’t!

Tell us more about the forgotten tunnels under Manchester!!

Haha this memory still makes me laugh. Know that even here in Manchester they are not well known about! The first time I found out they existed was when I went on this weird date with a guy on a tour down there. It was led by a guy that was dressed as a rat in an old-fashioned red circus performer outfit for reasons I still can’t entirely fathom as it wasn’t really brought up or relevant in anyway else that was discussed that day.

He took us into these tunnels, told us facts about the age of some of them (spoiler, very, very old) how some had been utilised for different purposes over the years including bunkers in the world war and storing bodies during the plague when they couldn’t be buried quickly enough! Then Rat Guy tried to make us do a Ouija board and look at our reflections in a mirror with a candle under our chins to see if our faces changed.

I noped out of that and did not see that guy again.

If you were to live in a hidden magical world, what would it be as, and what would your job be?

I always say that when I die I want to be a poltergeist so I can haunt and scare the people that have done me wrong in life – yes I am aware that’s sinister, but that’s just kinda my vibe. But also like, to do this I have to die first and I don’t really fancy doing that prematurely so maybe I will do the poltergeist thing in the end but not initially?

Otherwise, my second dream in life is to be a witch. When I’m cooking in the kitchen and sprinkling spices into the pan it feels all witchy potion brewing, and honestly, if I could wear a cape as a fashion statement and get away with it, I totally would.

So for now I reckon I would be a witch, and as we know, the Downside witches do run an underground drugs ring so I guess I’d be making the potions they sell as tonics to get people high (not sure if I’m supposed to be saying this, hahaha! Let’s see if it makes the cut!) And then when witchy me gets old I’ll die and become a poltergeist and go round scaring people.

If you could work in any department at the Arcanum what would it be and why?

100% I’d be out doing fieldwork. No offence to Berion and Hozier but I’m not sitting down in archives or their version of forensics. Let me in that crime scene! Let me look at blood spatter! I’m too nosey not to get in on the action.

How do you approach a new genre, like crime, when writing?

Honestly, I don’t even know. I know this is a terrible answer. I only tried it out to purposely force myself into writing something different to my usual classic fantasy. But I only picked crime because it’s the other genre I really enjoy just as much as fantasy, in terms of literature and film/tv, therefore I kinda assumed it would be the easiest to try and ease myself into when I have the most inspiration to draw on, and the best understanding of how the structure of the genre generally works. Does that make sense?

I do admit that I was very lucky that I pulled it off quite easily, and found myself naturally quite quick at being able to build a mystery and scatter clues to pull it all together later. In fact, nobody was more surprised than I was.

What were your first forays into reading fantasy? Do you have one book that sticks out to you?

I’ve always been a reader, since as long as I can remember. And I come from an era when one particular fantasy series just took the world by storm and I was a classic superfan. Queuing up at midnight for the new books and having it read by morning kinda kid, and I guess that’s where my love for fantasy and magic started. But I have moved on from that story, that author and those characters.

Instead I often like to suggest a different boy wizard who I also loved as a child, and that’s Septimus Heap. The fantasy world created by Angie Sage is truly spectacular, and most importantly of all: it completely makes sense. Those books were absolutely pivotal in my childhood aspirations to become an author, and there’s a reason my main character is called Sage.

Getting a tattoo is such a fascinating way to celebrate a milestone, how do you decide, do you have a favourite and what’s the next one you’re getting? (maybe a lil campfire)

Just to clarify before I tell you some of my milestone tattoos, if anyone hasn’t seen me physically then know that I am almost entirely covered in tattoos. The idea of silly little tattoos horrify plenty of  the tattooless and 50+ers because ‘but you’ll have them forever?!’ but know that once you get to my level of coverage the idea of them having to be super meaningful and dignified because they’ll be there for the rest of your life kinda goes out of the window. They all just blend together.

Here is a small selection of writing journey related milestone tattoos I’ve had over the last few years, and most are self-explanatory if you’ve read the books and know the characters.

• Entering the competition that eventually led me here: A small crescent moon on my left hand little finger.
• Getting shortlisted in said competition: the monas hieroglyphica symbol Sage and P find on a statue on the back of my right leg.
• Not winning the competition but being offered a deal anyway: a trad style wolf howling at a crescent moon on the side of my right leg.
• Officially signing contracts with my agent and publishers: Mountains with three stars above, one on each knee for each contract. These are, of course, reference to Rhysand, for any ACOTAR fans. But also, above one and beside the stars, is also Tolkien’s original sketch of Smaug the dragon, in reference to The Misty Mountains from The Hobbit. This was the first tattoo that was a milestone related to my own writing journey but not referencing my own books, since this milestone was about more than just this one series I was working on. I chose to tattoo instead two series that have defined my love of fantasy at different stages of my life. In my early teens I fell in love with LOTR, in my later teens and young adult era, I discovered TOG. Therefore I referenced two other authors whose careers I hoped to one day emulate instead.
• Signing contract for book 2 in this series: A Baba Yaga Hut on my left arm
• Signing contact for book 3 in this series: is a spoiler I can’t actually tell you yet!
• Handing in final draft of book 1 and signing off: A ghost holding a teapot and a china teacup under my right elbow
• Publication Day of book 1: Another trad style wolf head on the side of my right knee
• Handing in final draft and book 2 and signing off: A witch head with a scroll under her saying CURSED at the top of my left arm
• Publication Day of Book 2 in this series: A Mothman with the phrase BYE BITCHES beside it on the top inside of my right arm
• I have one other I can’t really tell you about yet either, both because the reason I had it tattooed isn’t public knowledge yet, plus the tattoo itself is a bit of a spoiler!

If you could travel to any fictional magical world, which would it be and what would you do there?

Obviously I’m going to Middle Earth to swoon over Aragorn II, son of Arathorn, King Elessar, High King of the Dúnedain, King of Gondor and Arnor, Lord of the Westlands, and chieftain of the Dúnedain.

If you could (creating a multiverse here) cross over your book with another fantasy/crime book where the characters would all mingle which would it be?

Actually, I have another series that I’ve been working on for years – the one I actually took a step back from to work on this series! And I’ve already very subtly laid down some clues in these books, and referenced certain names/monsters that would leave me to be able to create a crossover multiverse in the future if I wanted to!

Who are some of your favourite Werewolves in pop culture?

Well, I was peak teen target audience in the Twilight age, so I do have a soft spot for Jacob, obviously. Although I laugh all the time at what my editor would say if I handed her a manuscript with some of the twilight plot details in now. If I handed her anything like that whole thing with Jacob imprinting on baby Renesmee I think she would probably try to stage an intervention and have me sectioned.

What can you tell us about Book 3?

Absolutely nothing 😉

Other than I promise readers you’ll get what you want. And I think you’ll be happy for P too.

All the Hidden Monsters and All the Lost Souls are published by Chicken House in the UK.

Thank you to Amie Jordan for answering our questions!