Wednesday 11 March 2015

blog link up, beautiful people, sparrow jones


PAPERFURY




Say hello to Sparrow Jones, the nine year old leader of the Glory Brats. Sparrow lives in Garden City - a bright, idyllic, leafy place, where children can walk home safely from school, and hardly anyone gets sick. But then Sparrow's mum gets suddenly re-called to Central, war breaks out, and her dad goes missing from his job on the construction site. She and her little sister Tekla run away from the authorities, and accidentally get left behind when the city is evacuated. They meet up with another group of abandoned kids, and at first they have fun exploring the empty city. But the war catches up with them, and they need to take to the road to find a place of safety...

1. What is their secret desire?

Secretly, she wants to be a little kid again. She's fed up of being the leader but won't let anyone know because she feels that being in charge is the only thing she has left.

2. What is the best and brightest moment they experience during the story?

Just before the Glory Brats have to leave Garden City - they've got a massive bonfire, have raided the abandoned depot for the quarantined food, and everyone is wrapped up in blankets and eiderdowns, just sitting around talking and laughing, and picking at the remains of the food. Sparrow feels that they have all they need, and life is good, for the moment.

3. What are the emotional places your characters are afraid to go to?

Sparrow doesn't think about her mum or dad, and doesn't like it when her little sister Tekla talks about them.

4. Is there a place/city/room where they will never go? Why?

There's a strip of forest surrounding Garden City, and no one ever goes there. Ostensibly the trees were planted to improve the air quality, but urban legend says that there's a dark secret involving underground bunkers and skeletons. But that's just kids' tales, right?

5. If they were permanently leaving town, what would they easily throw out? What would they refuse to part with? (Why?)

She gets rid of all her 'trophies' collected from the abandoned apartments - toys, forks (she just likes forks, OK?), books. But she keeps her scrap book of all the identity photos, because it's her only way of remembering EVERYONE who got taken away.

6. What do they want (consciously and tangibly)?

She wants the Glory Brats to stick together, so that they can get to a safe place where they can do whatever they want. More immediately, she wants medicine from the clinic in Exchange to make Tekla better. And she wants Kayzee to stop crying right now.

7. On the other hand: what do they need (on the emotional, subconscious level)?

A feeling of security. To be able to play, without having to worry about how to feed the others and look after them all the time.

8. If they could change one thing about themselves, what would it be?

When she was at school before the evacuation started, it would have been to change her status from Red to Green. Now she'd like to be bigger and older, so that people would give her more respect.

9. What is the most humiliating event of their life?

Life before the evacuation? When everyone else in her class got their green badges presented after their second blood tests, but she had to stay in her seat in front of the whole school because her test came back positive for infection. As a Glory Brat - when they all get transferred to Central, and put in quarantine lock-down. All her clothes are burnt, and she has to wear a hospital tunic, and they cut her hair really short.

10. What things do they turn to when they need a bit of hope?

Sparrow doesn't really have hope, but she gets a kind of comfort from two things: Fire, and books. Two completely contrasting things - but Sparrow is made up of contradictions. Fire makes her feel warm, and safe, and powerful. She's the only one of the Glory Brats that is allowed to keep and use the fire-starter. Books - she's the only one of the Glory Brats who can read, so it's a power thing again, but also she's only ever come across factual books before, so she's fascinated by the idea of story books, and reads them whenever she feels the need to escape.

17 comments:

  1. Sounds like a very apocalyptic story... so Sparrow is kind of infected by some kind of virus and get's transfered to a special city? I think I didn't get it exactly... :P

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ha - not exactly. I've added an outline of the story at the top of the questions. Basically, Sparrow's world is recovering from a (decades old) devastating biological war, and they have lots of vaccinations, and blood tests to make sure that inherited strains of infection aren't passed on. If there's any threat, then essential citizens are evacuated and the city is quarantined until the danger has passed. The cities are safe, but the outside world isn't. I suppose you could say it's a post-post apocalyptic story... Thanks for commenting!

      Delete
    2. A post-post-apocalyptic world until it's again apocalyptic... sounds interesting. I only skimmed the information in the introduction and went right on to the questions :P Sparrow reminds me of a lot of historical orphan stories, where they grow up much too fast...

      Delete
  2. This reminds me a little of the Boxcar Children, except in a totally different environment. And just from reading the answers to your questions, I feel like you know Sparrow really well (*thumbs up*) and have a good grasp on what her narrative voice would sound like. I love her name; it feels very appropriate for the story. And I liked your answers to #s 2, 5, 10... and my reaction to #9 was "poor girl." :(

    Just curious about one thing. You mentioned that Sparrow is 9 years old. What audience / age group are you targeting for your story?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank-you for your thoughtful comment! I've never read the Boxcar Children, but it sounds a bit like The Secret Island by Enid Blyton. As for your question - I'm not targeting any audience or age group, I'm just writing for myself and it's not intended for publication. :)

      Delete
  3. Wow, sounds fascinating! I'd love to read this someday, if you'd allow it. She sounds very well-developed as a character, and it makes me curious about the other kids. Good work! :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks visiting and leaving a comment! I'm glad you find it intriguing. I have some snippets available to read on my blog - just click on the 'glory brats' label at the bottom of the post or on the sidebar and scroll down. Or if you like pinterest then there's a link to my Glory Brats board at the top of the page. Thanks again!

      Delete
  4. I'm glad I can find out more about the Glory Brats! I love your board on Pinterest for them, it's always very inspiring! I'm going to have to fill out one of these for Danny or one of the SoK crew!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks! I'll be sure to check out your answers when you're done x

      Delete
  5. Woah o.0 I totally, totally want to read this. I love this. Gah.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank-you! I really appreciate it when people take the time to leave comments. This month's BP link-up has been very useful in getting me back into writing again.

      Delete
  6. Sparrow is such a pretty name. And she's only NINE? Hopeless nine-year-olds make me cry.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank-you! The year Sparrow was born there was a fashion for 'nature' inspired names, so all the kids in her class are called things like Minnow, Finch, Mica and so on. By the time Sparrow's little sister came along, the fashion was for outlandish names such as Tekla.

      Delete
  7. I looove that name. SPARROW JONES. That is incredible. And she seems so awesome, with woah, such a tough backstory. THIS BOOK SOUNDS AMAZING.

    Thanks for linking up with us too!! :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks! I figured that with a first name like Sparrow, she'd better have a fairly plain family name - and 'Sparrow Jones' sounds better than 'Sparrow Smith'. And yeah - mwuhahah....poor Sparrow, she does have it pretty bad. But she can take it! She's a tough little brat.

      Delete
  8. Wow! I really wish there was a book like this...adore the name by the way <3

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you for commenting - glad you like the name!

      Delete