I’m thrilled to welcome Victoria M. Adams to the blog today as part of her blog tour to celebrate the release of her new novel The House at the End of the Sea.

The beautiful cover art is by Sharon King-Chai.

Blurb

Saffi doesn’t want her new life, living with her dad, little brother and old-fashioned grandparents in their B&B by the sea. She is grieving for her mum and longs for things to go back to normal.

But this new home is anything but normal: the walls change colour, a face appears in the mirror, and the pantry is suddenly filled with fancy food. When a party of extraordinary visitors arrive at midnight, Saffi begins to realise that her family has a dark, magical secret. It will take all her bravery to discover the truth and find a way into another world…

For this tour I am doing an author interview.

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Tell us your inspiration for The House at the End of the Sea.

There are two origin stories for The House at the End of the Sea. One is a lifelong love of all things legend and fairy tale. Bits and bobs of existing medieval ballads found their way into this book, from Tam Lin to Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. I also took inspiration from children’s stories like The Dark is Rising or Tom’s Midnight Garden. But the immediate genesis was the gift given me by a friend, part of her grandmother’s Victorian ornament collection, a small silver bowl with a Persian Qajar-era coin mounted in the base. I thought to myself, ‘How did a coin from nineteenth century Persia find its way into an ornament collection of a woman living in Wales?’ No one knew. So this story began.

What are the underlying themes of The House at the End of the Sea?

If I had to sum it up: ‘Stay uncomfortable.’ The book looks at grief and loss on a personal level, but also colonial histories. The main character, Saffi, has a mixed heritage, Iranian on her mother’s side and British on her father’s. Her British side includes the added complexity of shady family dealings. She has to confront this truth, which other members of the family would rather avoid through denial or shrugging off responsibility. The story asks: ‘Would you rather live with your eyes shut or face the truth, however difficult?’

What is your schedule like when you are writing a book?

I fit writing around a few other activities – teaching, translation work, script work. So really there’s no set schedule – I write when I can. Sometimes a couple of months will go by before I have time to go back to the novel. I always miss it by then!

How did you develop your characters and hone their voices so children can identify with them?

Usually, I’ll think of real people to serve as a template for a character. Sometimes I make an amalgam of people, or put in bits of my own experience. For the main characters in this book, I used some of my own experience for Saffi and based her brother Milo on a little boy I used to know. Birdy is also a mix of two people, though getting his ‘voice’ in dialogue required separate research into accents and speech patterns in East Yorkshire. It’s a particular regional accent, soft compared to some accents in Leeds or Sheffield. I love it.

Are you a plotter or a pantser?

Pants all the way. It’s absolute mayhem. If I have to write an outline it quickly falls apart.

The House at the End of the Sea pulls at your heart strings. What is the first book that made you cry?

Thank you for saying so! I grew up on the books of Paul Gallico, who managed to traumatise me with books like Jennie, about the world’s most excellent cat (spoiler, it ends sadly), and Love of seven Dolls. DO NOT GIVE THESE BOOKS TO YOUR IMPRESSIONABLE EIGHT YEAR OLD. The scars, ye gods. Oh, and Watership Down. RABBITS DIE.

Is there anything else you would like to tell readers about The House at the End of the Sea?

While the story is self-contained, there is space for a sequel and more explorations of the fairy realms. I really do hope I may visit again.

What are your social media links where can people find out about you and your books?

On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/victoriamadams1/

On Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/victoriamadams.bsky.social

Where is the best place for people to buy your book?

Waterstones: https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-house-at-the-end-of-the-sea/victoria-m-adams/9781839134234

Blackwells also does free shipping: https://blackwells.co.uk/bookshop/product/The-House-at-the-End-of-the-Sea-by-Victoria-M-Adams/9781839134234

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About the Author

Victoria M. Adams spent her childhood bouncing between Cyprus, Canada and the US with her Iranian mother, trying to achieve first place in the ‘Most Visas Acquired Before Age Eighteen’ sweepstakes.

As an adult, she carried on the nomadic family tradition by adding France and New Zealand to the mix, where she worked as an animator, copywriter, tutor and story coach, in no particular order. Somewhere along the way, she acquired a BA in Film and an MA in Creative Writing from Birkbeck College. She currently teaches Creative Writing at City Lit and shares her London home with two humans and a feckless cat.

You can discover more about Victoria M. Adams and her books on her instagram @victoriamadams1

I would like to thank Bee from Kaleidoscopic Tours for inviting me to take part in this tour. Thank you.

To follow the rest of the tour take a look at the tour schedule below: