Q&A with Colm Field

We were so excited to ask author Colm Field about his new book and character, Kyan Green.  Check out our Q&A below!  Thank you Colm for the brilliant answers!

Can you tell us a bit about Kyan Green and the Infinity Racers?

Thanks for having me! Kyan Green is an epic sci-fi adventure about a boy who finds a toy racetrack in his loft. Big whoop, Kyan’s more concerned for his tablet time… until the track transports him to an actual race in another dimension, with prize money that could save his family’s rented flat!

Kyan and Celestine have a typical sibling relationship- ups, downs and battles in between. Are they based on family members at all?

I don’t tend to base characters on any one person in my life – we’ve got three kids ourselves for one – but I definitely drew from elements of our own family with the Greens; the laughs, the rows, and hopefully some of the love.

I should admit here an all – I’m a younger sibling myself, so I probably started writing each argument a bit biased towards Team Celestine. I could definitely sympathise with that whole thing of wanting somebody’s approval in a way they’ll never understand.

But then I’ve caught myself telling our eldest “Why did you let your sisters do that?!” for things THEY’VE done. You know, “Why did you let your sister climb that ladder?!”. And in digging out Kyan’s resentment of his sister’s relatively care-free existence, I did have a bit of an epiphany. Maybe, just maybe, when me and my elder sister fell out, there might’ve (MAYBE) been the chance that I (PERHAPS) wasn’t always (ALWAYS) the wronged martyr, and was instead being a right pain to somebody who had worries I couldn’t even wrap my knuckle head around right then.

Ahem, maybe. I didn’t say it was an easy thing to admit, alright?

Grandma is a brilliant character- tough, fair and one not to cross. Why did you choose to have a very prominent grandmother figure?

Ah, great, I’m really glad she comes across well in it. Again, she wasn’t based on one person entirely. I’ve been lucky enough to have a few people who could fit her bill in mine and my kids lives. Our kids are blessed with four grandparents who save our bacon on a daily.

Bu-ut, for a lot of reasons, my partner’s mum has been there more than anyone. I’m writing this on the bus to get two of the kids from school. Our middle child has been ill the past couple days, so of course she’s been with… her Grandma. Yesterday was a mish, both me and my partner had to work late, and so all three were picked up by… their Grandma. Our car was nicked last week and the washing machines broken, and so we’ve been getting lifts and laundry from… their Grandma.

So what I’m saying is, while I don’t base anyone on anyone per se, there has to be a reason that David Wilkerson (the excellent illustrator for this) somehow managed to capture some uncanny expressions for that one character in particular, without having met my partner’s Mum or seen a photo of her. ‘Cos when my kids first saw the book they found that picture and went running around shouting “It’s Grandma! It’s Grandma!”.

(I’m kind of hoping she doesn’t read this tbh, because if she sees it all written down what she does she’d have a good claim to be made for back pay.)

Where did your inspiration for this story come from?

Honestly, the first inspiration was playing toy cars with the kids, and hearing all the different worlds and escapades their toy cars were getting up to.

Although before anyone gets dewy eyed about my wonderful parenting, I was firmly counting the seconds till I could get back to the telly without hurting their feelings, and once the idea that the racetrack could be some kind of transporter popped into my head, I was transfixed with it, barely listening to a word they had to say. Condemn me if you like, but life is short and after an hour of “watch THIS crash Dad!” if feels a whole lot shorter still.

What would you hope young readers will take from this story?

For younger readers, I’d love for them to have those EPIC moments, that feeling you get watching Spirit, or reading Harry Potter, or playing Minecraft. I’d love them to go away and wish that they’d found a racetrack and transported to other dimensions.

That having been said, I was a bit flippant about where the idea for Kyan Green came from. It’s not that it’s not true, but the real heart of the story came from this:

See, I was quite down one day, as things weren’t working out, and it didn’t seem like they’d work out any time soon. We always seemed to be broke, and there were all these problems with the flat, and we were scared to tell the landlords in case they increased the rent. I was actually fixing one of these problems right then, and to be honest, I felt like I’d really messed up in life. I felt like a failure.

Then the kids came in. They wanted to “help” with what I was doing, and of course they weren’t a help, but they did manage to make me smile. My partner came in, and quite soon between the lot of them they made me laugh. It hit me later, how mad it was that I could have such a despondency based on money, and how that fear and shame could be wiped out just by these absolute lunatics that I love.

That feeling, that heart? That’s what I’d love for EVERYONE to get from Kyan Green.

Can we hope for more from Kyan Green? 

We certainly can! I’m proper excited for Kyan to zip across more dimensions and see strange new ‘verses from bizarre new perspectives! But these new places will ultimately teach him as much about the view he has of his own world…

Thanks again for the very interesting questions!

Kyan Green and the Infinity Racers is published by Bloomsbury and is available now!