Thank you for joining
us on Readers Want To Know! Please introduce yourself and your
book.
Hi! My name’s Nick
Green, and my latest book is The Storm Bottle. It’s an adventure set in Bermuda
and its surrounding ocean, and the cast of characters includes both humans and
dolphins, and possibly a whale or two. I usually say it’s for readers aged 9
and older – though most of its readers have been a lot older. That’s the thing about ebooks I guess.
My other books make
up The Cat Kin trilogy, published by Strident: The Cat Kin, Cat’s Paw and Cat’s
Cradle. These are dark action
adventures set in London, and book 1 has been made into a BBC audiobook.
Nick, tell us, if you were stranded on a desert isle with a
character from your book, which one would you choose and why?
I’d choose Hal, the
seventeen-year-old fisherman who usually gets roped into being Bibi’s
accomplice. He’d be useful as he can fish, and sail, and also has a boat – as
we’re stranded here I’m assuming that something is wrong with the boat, but
maybe he can help me build a raft or something. He’d certainly be better at
finding his way home than I would. Bermuda, where he lives, is effectively a
desert island itself (there’s no groundwater – all drinking water has to come
from the rain).
Hal is also good
company, he’s funny, can tell a good story and is very good natured. A bit too
good natured for his own good, maybe. People do tend to take advantage of him…
If you could live
through one scene from your book, which would it be?
Most of the
underwater action would be pretty special to see if you were just a landlubbing
human being. The dolphin characters in the book are constantly chasing,
hunting, squaring off against each other and fighting battles – they have
highly dramatic lives. I wanted my dolphins to be as real as possible, so
almost everything they do in the book, wild bottlenose dolphins really do. They
form complex alliances, they call each other by name, and they repay their
debts and settle scores. They’ve even been observed making long, unexplained
voyages from Bermuda into the middle of the Atlantic. I wondered, where are
they going, and why? The book imagines an answer to that mystery.
But the scene I’d
most like to witness is one that’s so extraordinary, so unique, that it leaves
even the dolphins slack-jawed with wonder, because they’ve never seen anything
like it in the ocean before.
Which is your
favorite supporting character from your book and why?
Jill the dolphin is a
lot of people’s favourite, and mine too. At first she seems like quite a
helpless case, because her tail has been mangled by a fishing line, leaving her
effectively crippled. But what she lacks in speed and agility, she more than
makes up for in the size of her brain – and her heart. She’s Michael’s most
loyal and resourceful friend, and he’d almost certainly end up dead in the
water without her.
The police just
showed up at your main character’s door. Why?
They’re looking for
Bibi, but Bibi’s not in. She’s run away from home and taken her step-brother
Michael, who is apparently suffering from brain damage after a near-drowning.
What no-one but Bibi knows is that Michael is really not Michael anymore – his
body is now inhabited by the mind of a dolphin named Rodrigo. Which is why he’s
acting, shall we say, a little odd.
Your main character is caught outside in a sudden rainstorm are
they mad, happy or indifferent? Why?
Bibi is a real
outdoors person, so she’s not bothered in the least. Bermuda rain is warm,
anyway, and maybe she needs to refill her bottles of drinking water. However,
even she has her limits – and these are sorely tested towards the end of the
book. There’s weather, and then there’s weather.
About the book:
The Storm Bottle
Swimming with dolphins
is said to be the number one thing to do before you die. For 12-year-old
Michael, it very nearly is. A secret boat trip has gone tragically wrong, and
now he lies unconscious in hospital.
But when Michael finally wakes up, he seems different. His step sister Bibi is soon convinced that he is not who he appears to be. Meanwhile, in the ocean beyond Bermuda’s reefs, a group of bottlenose dolphins are astonished to discover a stranger in their midst – a boy lost and desperate to return home.
Bermuda is a place of mysteries. Some believe its seas are enchanted, and the sun-drenched islands conceal a darker past, haunted with tales of lost ships. Now Bibi and Michael are finding themselves in the most extraordinary tale of all.
But when Michael finally wakes up, he seems different. His step sister Bibi is soon convinced that he is not who he appears to be. Meanwhile, in the ocean beyond Bermuda’s reefs, a group of bottlenose dolphins are astonished to discover a stranger in their midst – a boy lost and desperate to return home.
Bermuda is a place of mysteries. Some believe its seas are enchanted, and the sun-drenched islands conceal a darker past, haunted with tales of lost ships. Now Bibi and Michael are finding themselves in the most extraordinary tale of all.
Amazon.com: http://amzn.to/VQ1vg0
About the author:
You can follow me on
Twitter at @nickgreen90125 if it takes your fancy. If the numbers 90125 mean
anything to you, then you already know something about me, and that’s probably
all you need to know. Do pop by and say hi!
