Author Vashti Hardy discusses 5 years of Brightstorm

Posted on 31 March 2023

5 years ago, the phenomenal Brightstorm series set sail and an adventure like no other began. We’re celebrating 5 years of Brightstorm with a Q&A with award-winning author, Vashti Hardy. Find out more about what inspired the series, the challenges of writing it, and what’s coming next from Vashti.

1. How did you get the idea for Brightstorm?

I was reading a book about real life explorers, which has long been a fascination of mine, and happened across the advert Ernest Shackleton had apparently put in the newspaper to find his crew for the famous fated trip to Antartica over a hundred years ago. It reads:

‘MEN WANTED for hazardous journey, small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness. Safe return doubtful, honour an recognition in case of success.’

It drew me in instantly as a fabulous call to adventure and I began to consider what sort of person would reply to such an advert. What if two children, a boy and a girl, replied? They would need an extremely compelling reason. Then Arthur and Maudie Brightstorm arrived in my imagination and I started building their story and the situation with their explorer father and the history of their mother. I decided on a fantasy world with similarities to our own, yet with many more places waiting to be discovered, populated by humans and creatures just as intelligent called sapients. The world of the Wide was born.

2. Which is your favourite Brightstorm book – if you can pick one? Which was the hardest to write?

The first book will always hold a special place for me, and I love the big secrets revealed at the end. It’s a delicious feeling as an author to know you’re saving up a twist for the readers! But if pressed, I think I’d actually pick the second book in the series, Darkwhispers, because it holds an even bigger secret behind the endless bank of fog to the east of Vornatania. Not only the darkwhispers themselves, great sapients with an ominous gift for feeding on human memory, but the secret land and people beyond. The inventions and technology of that story were thrilling to create and it was fun to separate the twins for a while and develop their characters. Also, just when you think Eudora Vane couldn’t be more despicable she manages to raise her game in Darkwhispers!

3. How have you developed as a writer since first writing Brightstorm?

I feel I’m evolving with every story I create and am more able to extend and push the boundaries of what I do. I am always aware of the camera placement when I write, and as the Brightstorm chronicles continue I have the confidence to push into the depths and crevices of the world, moving between key characters and points of view to give the readers an increasingly thrilling and satisfying experience. My aim has always been for readers to feel like they are secret stowaways between the pages, like the characters are their close and trusted companions, that they want to defend truth and defeat the cruelty in the world as much as Arthur, Maudie and Gan. I want to keep pushing myself creatively in everything I do and write the best stories I can.

4. Serpent of the Sands, a Brightstorm book, is out in May. Could you tell us a bit about it?

Serpent of the Sands launches a new chapter in the Brightstorm chronicles and begins a year after the explosive finale of Firesong. Princess Ganzorig was a young character in Firesong, niece of the Nadvaaryn Citadel kings, and unlikely princess who would much rather be exploring than tending to her official duties. In Serpent of the Sands, Gan takes centre stage. As the rumours of more ‘super’ sapients arise, the Wide is split in two: those who wish to protect them and those who see them as a threat to human superiority. One such super sapient is proving illusive in Nadvaaryn and when Gan’s uncle falls deathly ill, Gan’s only option is to track the sapient down and find the cure it allegedly protects. But the clock is ticking and humans are disappearing amid rumours that sapients are responsible. The stakes are rising and events are about to escalate. There are some huge surprises ahead for readers, plus some absorbing new settings and characters. I can’t wait for readers to join Gan!

Readers could enter the series at Serpent of the Sands having not read the other books. I think part of the beauty of the series is that each book follows an individual expedition so can be read as an adventure in its own right. But there is also a wider story permeating and escalating throughout the chronicles, so if readers went back and read the first three books it would also deepen their experience, and perhaps set up more to come…

5. What was it like writing a Brightstorm book not focused on the twins?

It was equally exciting and sad. Arthur and Maudie have been my trusted companions and have grown into young adults by the end of Firesong, but I’ve loved delving into another aspect of the world. One of the thrilling thing about creating a fantasy world is that there are any number of possible stories to be told in any number of locations and points in time. But I do have a couple of surprises waiting in Serpent for fans of the twins. As friends of Ganzorig they will remain in contact via letter, plus you may receive an appearance from one of the twins as a treat at the end!

6. What’s been your favourite thing about being an author?

There are so many things I adore about my job. I pinch myself every day that I get to use my imagination and work creatively to do the thing I love most. But above all, I love meeting readers who have connected to the Brightstorm world and characters. There’s something magical about knowing they have travelled beside the crew in their imaginations and that they’ve been on a wave of emotions from delight to sorrow, exhilaration, shock, joy and wonder, and then perhaps come away a little braver, or more thoughtful, more imaginative, or simply felt like they’ve had the most thrilling adventure. I believe the books we read as children, the ones that fill us with wonder and truly enchant us, stay with us forever — to be part of that process is the most glorious feeling in the world.

Discover more books by Vashti Hardy