Frequently Asked Questions
S A Chandler on From the Beyond World, Book One: A War With No Last Chapter
Beyond World started as a roleplay game you played at fifteen, over twenty years ago. How much of teenage Samo's work made it into the finished book, and how much was quietly taken out behind the barn?
It's come a long way from the silly roleplays on MSN Messenger in the early 2000s. Every time I've dipped back into this world, a bit more of my own growing up has gone into it. The characters grew with me, from fifteen- and sixteen-year-olds into people in their twenties, thirties and forties, and I'd like to think the writing and humour have matured too. Less teenage silliness, though hopefully not too much less. I want the jokes to land whether you're nineteen or ninety.
Your hero is called Samo. You are called Samo. Is there something you'd like to tell us? Should readers assume it's all autobiographical, including the very long lie-in?
Short version: the character was called Samo before I was. When I changed my own name, I had no idea I'd ever come back to these books, and by the time I decided to publish, renaming him felt wrong. It would be like deciding on your son's tenth birthday that Max is now Cuthbert. So Samo stayed, along with plenty of other original names. I've tried to put some distance between us, but I'm sure a few of my traits have crept in. And no, I barely find time to sleep, but some of the occasional big catch-up naps I end up needing have risked becoming close to a few decades long.
The book is billed as dark comedy fantasy. How do you decide when a scene needs a death and when it needs a teddy bear with strong opinions on the pickled-onion market?
There's something very British about "keep calm and carry on", and the book takes that and warps it into "Someone died? Oh no... anyway!" It's also a bit of a mirror. We see death and carnage on the news every night, and unless it's on our doorstep, most of us manage to feel slightly removed from it. So some characters stop and mourn the people closest to them, and other times grief has to wait. It doesn't go away, though. It circles back later, as grief does.
Being a millennial helps. I grew up on The Animals of Farthing Wood (practically a death an episode), Atreyu losing Artax in The NeverEnding Story and Littlefoot losing his mother in The Land Before Time. Every one of those characters had to pick themselves up and carry on with the mission. That's the tone I was after.
Beyond World has a Peckham Beach, a Rumfurd City, the grey plains of Essyx and a desert called Phrance. Is this a fantasy world, a very bad map of ours, or a personal grudge against the Home Counties?
The place names started life as their real-world sound-alikes, spelled exactly the same. As the books grew, the names drifted, partly to keep things legally tidy and partly because I wanted them to feel familiar but still be places in their own right. And before anyone starts building theories: no, this isn't a ruined future Earth. Beyond World is its own world, just with a few echoes. Residents of Romford need not panic.
You worked in television post-production and now teach film. Has editing pictures changed the way you write? And is there a director's cut hidden away somewhere?
I write very visually. The third-person narrator, cutting between characters, places and timelines: that's years in the edit suite talking. I'm always seeing scenes as shots, and that drives a lot of the pace and tension. Beyond World has nearly made it to screen before, albeit the small, internet-only screen. I adapted an older manuscript as an episodic series and started an audio drama that got as far as concept art for an animation. Sadly none of them came to be. So in a way, the book is the director's cut.
In Beyond World, Ords are people who share the traits of an animal. If you went through the ritual yourself, which animal would you pick, and which one would you be secretly terrified of getting?
I'd have to be a bit boring and say a panda, mostly because I'd be terrified of waking up with insect parts, like Jeff Goldblum in The Fly. The worst would be a fish. Either you'd end up like a mermaid, unable to do bugger all on land, or a reverse mermaid, fish parts up top, sending people screaming for the hills. I'm sure one of the books will settle the question of insect and fish Ords. But a Panda'Ord it is: fumbling sluggishly through life and startled by every sound, even my own cub's sneeze.
Which character would you most like to go for a pint with, and which one would you never, under any circumstances, let drive you home?
It's got to be the pirates. They make the best drinking buddies, though I wouldn't trust any drink handed to me by Purple Beard. Seth would be a reliable designated driver. Just never let Master Tefaloom anywhere near the wheel.
Which books, films and Saturday-morning cartoons got into the water supply while you were building this world?
So many influences have fed into Beyond World that I'd rather leave most of them for readers to find. The obvious ones are C S Lewis's Narnia books, Terry Pratchett's Discworld and Alice in Wonderland. The subtler nods go to Power Rangers, Stephen King's The Dark Tower and Beaver Towers by Nigel Hinton, one of the first books I read on my own as a child.
Some things in the book are deliberately never explained. Do you know all the answers, or are you hoping readers will write in and tell you?
There always have to be a few surprises, sometimes even for me, but I know where most of the threads lead. I'd love to hear where readers think the story is going, if only to check it isn't too obvious so I can rewrite everything before the next book comes out. Kidding. Or maybe...
This is Book One of a planned four, and it's called A War With No Last Chapter. Is that a promise to the reader or a warning to yourself?
The title is the seed for the whole series. Whether the war ends, whether there's ever a "last chapter" or what either of those really means, you'll just have to be patient. Promise or warning? Possibly both.
Who is the book for? Is it safe to give to my twelve-year-old nephew?
I wrote it for everyone, though I'd say it best suits readers sixteen and over. There's swearing, a fair amount of death and some dark humour that younger readers might not get on with. It's not quite Goosebumps or Animorphs, but it's by no means Finnegans Wake either.
Why did you self-publish, and why launch on your birthday?
Mostly impatience. I wanted to get the first book out into the world, see what audience it finds and work out where to go from there. I'm always open to hearing from publishers or agents who enjoy it and want to take on the series. As for the birthday, I needed a launch date, and the first day of the last year of my thirties seemed as good as any.