The process of writing Neon’s Secret Universe was a bit strange because I started writing it during lockdown in 2020. Everything felt very quiet and static and uninspiring, along with all the worries that came with the rolling news about the spiralling Covid situation. In many ways the Uni-verse, the world Neon opens a portal to, was an escape for me! The Covid lockdown experiecnce really shaped the world in many ways – for example there are so many rodents in the book; Neon’s family café, Ratty’s “the café that celebrates rodents!”, Suzette the squirrel made of sprinkles, who lives in the Uni-verse and owns Glittervoles, a café famous for Volefizz, a drink that comes with a little vole swimming around inside the glass. I live in London and during lockdown we were allowed one walk a day and so the streets were uncharacteristically quiet, and as a result all the rodents came out, no doubt thinking we’d all left. Every day, on every walk, I’d see rats, just hanging out on street corners or strolling down the street. I often don’t realise the inspiration for something until after I’ve written it, but I think the excessive rodent references in Neon’s Secret Universe are because of that surreal experience.
I also decided to set it in the 90s, the era when I was Neon’s age. I think a lot of that was probably escapism as well, but also an excellent opportunity to revisit jelly shoes and lava lamps and the Spice Girls. Oh, that’s another rodent reference, in the Uni-verse they have the Mice Gurls and their hit song is If You Wanna Be My Cheese. There are so many rodent references.
I’ve always wanted to write some sort of twist on unicorns – I played around with the concept of witches in Witch Wars, mermaids in Bad Mermaids and elves in Tinsel and unicorns have always appealed (I went to school in Scotland where the unicorn is the national animal!). I was always trying to think of a good twist, but it needed to be strong as unicorns are such a big trend and have many iterations both in literature and beyond. It’s something that was simmering away for years, and then I thought wouldn’t it be funny if unicorns weren’t actually horses with horns at all. Instead they look like humans and are the most magical beings on the planet, hidden in a secret world called the Uni-verse. It’s the world’s biggest magical secret –and they are magical beings humans don’t even know about. The whole horse with a horn thing was just something real unicorns invented to distract humans and keep their world hidden. It made me laugh thinking of a scene in which a real unicorn suggests a horse with a horn character as a potential distraction – the others would cry, “what a ridiculous idea Greg!”. But of course Greg’s idea wasn’t ridiculous and it worked, because unicorns are everywhere in the human world now and humans are obsessed with them. I loved that it was a concept that acknowledged the fact unicorn content is plentiful and played on that as part of the book’s joke. There’s a line when a character in the Uni-verse explains to Neon that the horse character is made up and humans are now obsessed with them – they say unicorns are everywhere in the human world, ‘they have unicorn hairbands, unicorns cakes, even unicorn books.’ I like that the book is very self referential in its jokes.
Some of my characters have been inspired by real people. I think it’s impossible not to be influenced by people in your life, consciously and subconsciously. So many of the crazy adventures and the kindness in my books comes from my childhood spent in Dublin with my family. It’s my favourite place in the world and I try to visit as often as I can– I just visited recently after having not been for two years because of Covid and it was so magical to be back. The whole city was a huge influence on me, and especially Sandymount where my mum grew up. There was Maypothers the newsagents and Mrs Maypother was so funny and kind – she would give me free chocolate and let me sit and read the magazines like the place was a library. My granddad was the most fun of them all and my grandparents’ house was a revolving door of hilarious characters. My granddad called his kettle Agnes and would shout “Agnes!” when he got up to make a cup of tea. I think seeing adults having so much fun and being so kind to one another and really not taking themselves too seriously had such a huge impact on me. I think that’s really seeped deep into my writing, into the characters, the worlds, everything.
I don’t really suffer from writer’s block but one thing I found myself getting stuck on every now an again was the goo in the book. In the Uni-verse all magic is done with goo and there is a goo for everything, from normal things like hair goos and outfit goos, food goos and Mystery Pet goos, to really surreal and weird themed goos, some with transporting properties, like Haunted House goo and Skeleton Ballet goo. Because everthing is done with goo, thinking up all the goos and what they did took time. Deciding who sold what and why, and which goos were unwieldy, what the side effects were when they went off, etc etc, was a long process and sometimes I would be working on it for so long I would find it impossible to think of another goo example, even though the goo could be absolutely anything. Swimming Pool of Doom goo always popped into my head in those moments and I’ve put it in the book, though no character uses it. I still don’t know if a character ever will, maybe I’ll leave it up to the reader to imagine what happens when you open as jar of Swimming Pool of Doom goo.
In book one, the Unicorn Hunters (UHs) are seeded. They are humans born to sniff out and destroy unicorns and their world. They’re the only humans in the world who know what unicorns really are and they have kept the truth alive by passing it down through the generations, but of course no one believes them. Neon’s neighbour, Priscialla Knackerman, is a UH, and at the end of book one she finds out Neon has the last remaining portal opener – the very thing UHs have been hunting for for years. Priscilla and the UHs feature very heavily in book two, and we get to see why unicorns fear them so much…
If you are keen to write, then just be yourself and find a writing style and story details that feel very natural to you. Don’t worry too much about whether something fits (like if you’re writing a unicorn book and all your ideas come back to rodents), just go with it and see where it leads. I try to stop myself from questioning details too much in the first draft. All the small, strange, seemingly unconnected ideas often come together in the end.
(c) Sibéal Pounder
About Neon’s Secret Universe:
Unicorns are NOT horse creatures with horns.
In fact, they are the most powerful magical beings on the planet and they look just like you and me. They live in a secret realm known as the Universe, and the horse with a horn thing was just something a unicorn called Greg made up to distract the humans – and it really worked!
But a young human girl called Neon Gallup is about to find the last remaining Universe portal opener (an old, battered green lipstick) and step into a zany world where magic is made with goo and the possibilities are endless!
Unfortunately, if there was one person you wouldn’t want keeping the greatest magical secret of all time, it would be Neon Gallup …
Order your copy online here.
