Hopes, dreams, and the alchemy of writing; Fiona Dixon interviewed
Joanne Owen interviews Fiona Dixon about her debut novel, Thief of Magic.
‘Dreams give people hope, inspiration and comfort. They can take away sadness and despair, or give people a taste of something that’s missing in their life.’ Therein lies one of the themes that underpins Fiona Dixon’s Thief of Magic debut, the first book in her Crow trilogy, which is itself a work that’s likely to give 9+-year olds an enduring sense of the hope that can come of dreams.
Set in a richly-imagined world in which a criminal underclass known as Reavers steal from the wealthy ruling class, Thief of Magic is driven by a high-stakes race against time, and themes that are woven into a thrilling adventure. The story centres on twelve-year-old Crow, a Reaver who resolves to escape his ‘street rat’ existence with his best friends, Sal and Jonas, on All Souls’ Eve. Always a magic-charged night, this year it coincides with the coming of a rare comet that has the power to amplify magic. While the trio had long talked about escaping the underworld (‘the only way for them to have a chance of a better life’), when their plan goes awry, Crow becomes apprentice to a sorcerer who sells dreams to the rich, and schools Crow in the art of dream magic, until a nightmare is unleashed, and the young apprentice faces the most difficult of dilemmas.
Such is the premise of a story that attests Fiona’s lifelong love of magical fantasy. For Fiona, ‘it all started with Narnia. I absolutely fell in love with The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. It had such an impact on me. I was forever in my dreams, trying to find my way to Narnia. My gran lived in Cumbria, and had this big house with an old mahogany wardrobe, which was full of old fur coats. So, whenever we went to visit her, I was always in that wardrobe with the fur coats trying to find a portal to another land. Sadly, I never found one, and that was when I started writing my own stories.’ Fiona also cites The Dark is Rising and His Dark Materials as being among her most re-read books.
After starting her first novel at the age of fifteen (a story that ‘switched between Terry Pratchett and high fantasy’), it was while studying for an MA in Professional Writing at Falmouth University that ‘the very earliest version of the book that would become Thief of Magic started.’ Fittingly, the idea ‘came from a dream. I had this vivid image of a scruffy, dark haired boy in a city in the snow, and this room full of magical dream bottles. I’ve always had really vivid dreams and that one was particularly memorable. So, I started writing to find out who this boy was.’
Running alongside the novel’s dream magic is a powerful sense of the universe beyond its Starsgard city setting, not least through the comet, Oros the Changebringer, that propels the narrative and intensifies the stakes: the story is structured as a countdown to the coming of the comet. ‘I’ve always been fascinated by the mythology behind stars,’ Fiona explains. ‘I wanted to think back to the way people would have thought when they looked up at the stars, and how stars and the planets and their alignment can have an effect on us.’
While that hints at fate, and how our lives might somehow be written in the stars, agency and change are among this novel’s powerful themes: ‘With the current state of the world, I wanted to show children that hope can change the world. While young readers’ situations and experiences might be very different from what Crow and his friends experience, I hope it’s something that will resonate with them. I hope they can take something from Crow’s journey and experiences and apply them to their life, and have an awareness that you may be able to make change through believing in the power of hope.’
Another powerful element of Thief of Dreams is its representation of social inequality, as experienced by Crow. When the sorcerer, Viktor, first speaks of dream magic, Crow’s background brings him to remark, ‘Dreams are for the rich. Just like everything else,’ which is something Fiona threads back to hope, and to ‘the thought that there can be a better way. We don’t have to accept things as they are. We have the power to try to make changes. And that’s very much Crow’s belief as well as mine. He’s holding up a mirror to the world and asking, “Why is this like this? And couldn’t we make it better?”’
Crow’s character is also defined by profound loyalty, as seen when he initially rejects Viktor’s invitation to become his apprentice: ‘I’d love to work for you, sir…But I can’t leave my friends behind. We’ve always looked out for each other,’ Crow tells the sorcerer. ‘Sal and Jonas are Crow’s family,’ Fiona shares. ‘It’s because they’ve always looked out for each other that they’ve survived. So, when Crow is offered the chance to find a way out, it doesn’t matter how much he might want to accept this position. He absolutely cannot leave his friends. That bond is so strong.’
When we move from talk of magic and friendship to discuss the nuts and bolts of writing, it’s a joy to discover that Fiona’s process chimes perfectly with the alchemical elements of Thief of Dreams: ‘I really admire people who can plan so far in advance, but for me, it’s much more exploratory. One of the things that amazes me about writing is when ideas suddenly connect. You have two very separate ideas and then all of a sudden something pops into your head that connects them. Sometimes you get these wonderful, unexpected things that just seem to come together, and it is very much a kind of magic.’ A magic much like Thief of Dreams: a special debut that will leave readers longing for (or should that be dreaming of?) Crow’s second magical adventure.
Joanne Owen is a writer, reviewer and workshop presenter. With a background in children’s publishing, she’s the author of several books for children and young adults, among them the Martha Mayhem series, the Carnegie Medal-nominated Puppet Master, and You Can Write Awesome Stories.
Crow Thief of Magic by Fiona Dixon is published by HarperCollins Children’s Books, 978-0008717360, £7.99 pbk.
