David Almond, his book Skellig and music

I love the feeling when a book clings to me -- I finish it, put it down, and find I am still partly in the imaginary book world days later. Lovely.

And a big favorite of mine is Skellig. Even thinking of Almond's book right now, I can slip into Skellig's world. I just found this great interview by Almond where he talks about the importance of sounds and the music in his head -- part of how he creates the magic.

"When I wrote Skellig - set in the streets of Newcastle - my mind was filled with sounds: the creaking of a dilapidated garage, the scuttlings and scratchings inside, a baby's heartbeats, her breath, the songs of blackbirds, the cheeping of chicks, the hooting of owls, the dawn chorus, the voice of a girl quoting William Blake, the sound of the city beyond a small suburban garden. At the centre of it was Skellig himself: his surly almost-animal squeaks and growls becoming more coherent, turning into a confident human voice. And when the book was published and people began to ask questions about it - about the repetition of certain phrases, for instance, or its rhythms, or its composition as a series of scenes, or its use of Blake's poetry, I often found myself referring to music."

Full interview is posted in The Guardian.