Theodore Singer Author Interview

Jabberwocky: A Novella follows Astreus, heir to the House of the Jabberwock as he embarks on a quest to slay the Jabberwock. There is obvious inspiration from Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, but what was the inspiration for the epic journey that Astreus undertakes?

I have always loved stories of quests, and became fascinated with the idea of a quest stripped down to its bare essentials – a journey by a lone hero through a series of landscapes and events. I also got the idea of writing a novel inspired by the Lewis Carroll poem Jabberwocky, and eventually put the two together. This worked particularly well for me, because the poem says almost nothing about the events of the quest, just its beginning and end. It’s all reduced to a single line: “Long time the manxome foe he sought”. It was the perfect empty space where I could place my quest story.

Astreus leaves his cozy privileged life behind for the sake of the quest. What do you think drives Astreus to the quest rather than being safe at home?

Apart from youthful restlessness and a wandering heart, it’s the sense that life could be more. As I say in the novella, it’s the idea of enlarged possibilities. It’s the feeling that you don’t have to accept the life that has been laid out for you – instead, you can create your own life. Ultimately, it’s about personal freedom. That’s why people have always admired people like pirates and gangsters. Despite their grievous shortcomings, for people crushed by their circumstances, they seem like heroes for rebelling against those circumstances.

There is a city in your story where psychic cats live with their human servants. I find this setup endlessly entertaining. How did this idea start and develop as you wrote?

I have a certain fascination with chess, despite being a terrible player. Once I was sitting on the floor at home, playing through a grandmaster game from a book, when my cat came and sat opposite me and stared intently at the board and pieces. It looked exactly like she was playing a game against me. This gave me the idea of a city where cats played chess against each other to determine status, instead of physically fighting the way cats usually do. It followed that they would need human servants to move the pieces for them. I started with that when my hero came to the city, and the finer details suggested themselves to me quite naturally as I progressed.

What is the next story that you’re writing and when will it be published?

I’m writing a full-length novel about a strange world, based on a single strange concept. I can’t say more than that, but it should be finished in about a year.

Author Links: Website | GoodReads

The winner in the Novella category of the 2016 Next Generation Indie Book Awards, and a finalist in the Young Adult category! Inspired by the Lewis Carroll poem, this is a dreamlike fantasy quest through strange landscapes, where the hero gradually grows into an understanding of himself and the true nature of the quest.