A Q&A interview with author Lucy Edwards

Ella Jones, star of Lucy Edwards’ mythology-inspired fantasy series is blind, as is Lucy herself. Dr Rebecca Butler, BfK’s disability expert, is a fan of the series and conducted this Q&A interview with Lucy.

Can you tell us a little bit about the inspiration behind the character of Ella?

Me! She’s everything that I would have wanted to be as a blind 12-year-old, with all the confidence I have now. I want to show the ability in disability and that we can have female heroes with disabilities in adventure books.

⁠Is there anything you particularly wanted both sighted readers and visually impaired readers to take from Ella’s story? If so, what and why?

That you can do anything you want to in life, it might just take more planning. That everyone, no matter if you have a disability or not faces challenges but we can still have fun and that strong friendships can get you through the toughest of times.

Is there anything about sight loss that you wish you could have included in your novels and didn’t. If so, what?

I guess the more negative aspects – I get way more guide dog rejections than Ella ever has; A lot of ableism – most people who interact with Ella are understanding and treat her equally – that’s not my experience generally.

Which of River’s gadgets would you most like to be real, and why?

The spy goggles that see through walls, that way anyone who’s with me, guiding me, always knows what’s up ahead so I get bumped less!

Katy Birchall is your collaborator on this series. What is it like having a co-author? And can you tell me a little about your dual creative process?

It’s amazing! Me and Katy are a dream team! We work collaboratively on a document, have many zoom calls where we outline the plot and what’s happening in every chapter. We flesh out the details and when we’re going through the document together, we write little comments back and forth to each other. She’s so sweet and I couldn’t have done it without her.

Did you have input into the illustrations in your books and was the fact they were in black and white deliberate?

There were certain scenes I wanted illustrated and the team at Scholastic did an amazing job at audio describing them to me. My husband acted as my eyes as always, checking for any details I might want changed – like Homodos’s expression. We went with black and white for dramatic effect! It also has plenty of contrast which is great if you can’t see very well.

Can you tell us a little about your acquisition of knowledge and research of mythology?

My husband is a massive mythology nerd and I’ve picked up quite a lot as he’s so passionate in telling me about it! When I originally came up with the idea of Ella Jones Vs The Sun Stealer – the first in this series – it was originally a sci-fi but we couldn’t figure out how to have Maisie see when the world went dark so we switched it to fantasy. I’ve always wanted the world to be plunged into darkness in a book for readers 10+ years and we finally made that happen.

On other matters, what did it feel like to be the inspiration behind the creation of the first blind Barbie? Can you tell me about the process for that? What message were you trying to send to young children?

We deserve representation. That children, blind or not, need to see disability represented so they can play with toys that look like them so we can get rid of negative stereotypes of disability.

⁠If you could make one thing, or process, more accessible for blind and visually impaired people, what would it be and why?

Makeup! This might be happening hehe – Etia coming soon!

What’s next for Ella? Are you planning more adventures?

I have many in my head, ready to go!

Ella Jones vs the Battle Noise and Ella Jones vs the Sun Stealer are published by Scholastic, £7.99 pbk each.