The Ash House Blog Tour

The Ash House is a creepy book that will grip you, scare you and unsettle you in equal measure, and it will keep you questioning so you’ll find it difficult to put the book down.  It's a chilling MG horror book about friendship, memory and control that will be a hit with readers aged 10+.  Read my full review here: https://kandobonkersaboutbooks.blogspot.com/2021/08/ash-house-angharad-walker.html

Today, I am delighted to welcome Angharad Walker to my blog as she explains why the setting is always the starting point for her books.

Why setting is always my starting point

When I first had the idea for The Ash House, it was no more than an idea for a compelling setting. I could see it very clearly in my mind’s eye, like I was a bird or drone, swooping over a winding driveway until I saw a place made of ash and smoke, hidden deep in countryside. I could see the dormitory where the children sleep: a decaying greenhouse, overrun with plants and shadows. I knew every step of the ancient woods and the shoreline of the small lake where the children go swimming. All of it gave me that feeling of excitement that authors live for. The voice that says: yes, let’s spend some time here.

Over the years, the rest of the story arrived on the page. The setting was my guiding light. To make it as vivid as possible, I tried to write with my senses. How would the house look and smell? How does it look in sunshine, snow and rain? If a speck of ash lands on the tongue, what does it taste like?

This often the way with most of the fiction I write, and it doesn’t surprise me. I’m drawn to stories that transport me, and what’s more transporting than a setting you wish you could teleport to?

When I first had the idea for The Ash House, I was in the middle of reading We Have Always Lived In The Castle by Shirley Jackson. It was my first time reading Jackson, and I have been bewitched by the menace, beauty and magic that populates the worlds she creates ever since. I’ve always been drawn to places in literature that feel like they have a role to play in the story: the mansion in The Haunting of Hill House, the Yorkshire moors in Wuthering Heights, the island in Lord of the Flies. In my book, the Ash House itself is just as an important presence as any of the characters who live there.

While to the rest of the world The Ash House is my first novel, it is really my third. I’ve been writing since I was a teenager. But I never stopped to ask myself why I write the way I do. Part of being published is that I now do interviews where readers ask me, so I have to slow down and think about it! And when I do, I realise that my obsession with setting makes a lot of sense.

I grew up in a military family, so we moved around a lot. To myself, all my family, and to our friends and neighbours, this was completely normal. I count myself incredibly lucky to have lived in interesting places in such a tight-knit community. But the result of moving a lot—across countries, over several generations—is that you don’t really have a hometown. You don’t have a school that everybody in your community attended. You can’t visit the streets where your parents and grandparents grew up. I am half Welsh, and still don’t know Wales as well as I would like. But the way to make up for all this is through story: the Welsh town my grandparents were born in, the army bases in Singapore, Malaysia, Belgium and Germany when my parents grew up, pets and schools and friends and houses all exist through anecdotes that are carefully passed on. These stories are a feeling of connection, a great gift.

I wonder if that’s what the Ash House is. A place I have spent a lot of time—although only in my mind—and now it’s time to pass it on.

The Ash House published on the 2nd September so why not head out and pick up your copy today?