A Q&A with Ian Eagleton!

Posted on 9 October 2024

We spoke to author Ian Eagleton about his new book, The Boy Who Cried Ghost.

The highly anticipated new book from the author of Glitter Boy!

Could you tell us a bit about The Boy Who Cried Ghost?

The Boy Who Cried Ghost is a heartwarming, spooky, thrilling story which explores what it’s like to live with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and anxiety.

It follows Richard as he begins a new life with his mum in his grandma’s old house. One night Richard hears strange noises coming from his wardrobe and realises there is something ancient and evil trapped in there. The wardrobe is accidentally opened one day and a terrifying ghost is released. It’s up to Richard to convince his family and friends that his house is haunted and that he desperately needs help to defeat the ghost.

It’s an own-voices novel about mental health, family, friendship, confronting fear and accepting change.

What inspired you to write the book?

A few things inspired this story! The first was my older brother. When I was little he played a prank on me and convinced me that there was a ghost at the bottom of the garden! He hid behind the trees and made loud wailing noises and threw tennis balls at me – I was terrified! I thought our garden and house were haunted for years!

The other thing that inspired this story is my own experiences of OCD. I was diagnosed with OCD when I was seventeen and I really wanted to draw on my own memories and experiences of living with this mental health disorder in order to create an authentic exploration of what OCD is, and isn’t.

Which was your favourite character to write?

This changes daily! Sometimes it’s Quinn – I love all their jokes and puns, their enthusiasm, and the fact that they crown themselves the expert on all things ghosts, just because they’ve read the Goosebumps books!

It was wonderful to write the character of Tony too, who is based on my dad. Before my dad died, I asked him if he could tell me his favourite ‘dad jokes’ and I promised I’d include them in this book.

Overall, though, my favourite character to write was Mei. She’s rude, feisty, snarky, sassy and completely self-obsessed. She also has a very kind and gentle side to her which was lovely to slowly reveal over the course of the story. She was inspired by Gale Weathers from the Scream movies, who’s one of my favourite characters ever!

Who would you recommend the book to?

This book is perfect for fans of Elle McNicoll, Jennifer Killick, Lisa Thompson’s The Goldfish Boy and Phil Hickes’s The Haunting of Aveline Jones. If you like your stories with lots of mysteries and action, then this is for you. If you like your stories with chapters ending on a cliffhanger, then this is for you. If you like your stories with cameos from Miss Piggy and cats called Clawdia, then this is definitely for you!

Can you tell us more about your writing process?

My writing process doesn’t actually involve a huge amount of writing. I usually sit with my characters for about five or six months and just chat to them in my head.

I imagine what they look like, things they might say, how they behave around other characters and so on. I think about what TV shows they might like and which books they might read. Who do they talk to in the playground? What do they do at break time?

This means that when I come to write the first draft of my story, I know the characters really well. I then try and write my first draft very, very quickly. I usually aim to get 60,000 words written in ten weeks. From there I take a long, long time to edit, which usually involves reading the entire story out loud to hear what it sounds like and what it might sound like in a classroom if a teacher was reading it to their kids.

What do you hope readers will take away from the story?

First and foremost, I hope readers are completely gripped by the story and can’t put the book down. I hope they feel the need to read it late at night, under their duvet with a torch! I also hope that young (and old) readers take away a better understanding of OCD and anxiety and how it affects children.

What do you like to read, and what were your favourite books as a child?

As an adult, I love reading crime thrillers and mysteries. As a child of about eleven, I adored all the Goosebumps books, especially The Ghost Next Door and The Scarecrow Walks at Midnight. I’ve recently had my love of ghost stories reignited and have enjoyed reading Seven Ghosts by Chris Priestley and Ravencave by Marcus Sedgwick. As a teenager I adored every single one of Paula Danziger’s stories and read her book The Cat Ate My Gymsuit hundreds of times! I’m currently reading A Ship in the Dark by Yarrow Townsend, which is thrilling, lyrical and beautiful.