Sean Ferrell is the author of the new middle grade novel The Sinister Secrets of the Fabulous Nothings. It's a sequel to his book The Sinister Secrets of Singe. He lives in Brooklyn.
Q: The Sinister Secrets of the Fabulous Nothings is the second in your Sinister Secrets series--has your character Noah changed from one book to the next?
A: Yes, he has! Book 1 (Sinister Secrets of Singe) is very much about the hesitation a kid feels about entering the adult world. Secrets have been kept, family history has been hidden, and Noah doesn’t really know how he’s supposed to fit in. He starts book 1 isolated and uncertain.
In Fabulous Nothings Noah starts off with a found-family and close group of friends. He’s been on a life-changing adventure, and he’s not sure how to maintain the relationships he’s forged. Book 2 finds Noah struggling in a different way with growing up. He’s no longer afraid to try to fly, but he is uncertain about where to go.
Q: What inspired the plot of this new book?
A: There are two wildly different (to my mind) sources of inspiration. First, I was inspired by memories of growing up and trying to break free of parental control. These memories were largely triggered by my adult experiences in parenting my son.
While Fabulous Nothings is full of adventure, the heart of the book is the tension between characters who love one another but don’t always know how to accept one another, and that tension between people who are all rooting for one another but finding themselves in conflict with one another was the main current of energy I chased after while writing.
The second inspiration came from a wildly different source: the music of David Bowie. His sometimes ethereal, futuristic and emotionally impactful music is a bedrock for much of my writing.
Q: What do you think Graham Carter’s illustrations add to the story?
A: I love Graham’s illustrations so much that I find myself wondering how my text adds to his illustrations. Graham’s work is like a shorthand for the reader, a window into the images that were in my head as I wrote.
This was true of book one (he rendered the robots beautifully) but there are a couple of images in Fabulous Nothings (the mind-controlled army and Aunt Annabelle in particular) that will serve as anchors for readers. They capture moments in the book so perfectly that they are worth the reader’s time to study closely.
Q: What do you hope readers take away from the book?
A: I hope young readers know it’s okay to be upset with some of the actions and decisions made by the parents and adults in their life. I hope they understand that it’s okay to look for help in communicating that upset.
I hope readers of every age might see that sometimes not knowing how to let someone you care about be themselves is understandable, and that making a conscious choice to let someone be themselves–even if that doesn’t fit our hope for them–is usually the most loving choice we can make.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I’ve got a project for younger readers and a separate project for adults that are taking turns fighting for my attention. Both have horror elements, so they’re not only competing with one another, but feeding one another.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: The book has robots in it, so it’s not just for kids, but for robots. Er, I mean… it’s for anyone that loves robots!
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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