Tig Wallace grew up in a town between London and Oxford, reading as much fantasy as possible. After work as a runner on movies, and a brief, eye-opening experience working in magazines, Tig started a career in book publishing as an editor. Tig is a keen tennis fan, as both spectator and player, a cat enthusiast, and has never been known to say no to karaoke. He lives in London, Storm Bringer is his first book.
Storm Bringer blends supernatural storms with a society divided between magic and science – what sparked the original idea for that central conflict, and how did it evolve during writing?
I started with the idea for the storms – I thought they’d be dramatic and tonally exciting for the world I was creating – and as I delved into the why and how, they helped to crystallise the wider magic and science divide. In the latter parts of the book we get a glimpse at the history behind storms and their place in this world, and in many ways I see the main thrust of the narrative as pushing towards this point. I loved that the storms would be big and monstrous and impenetrable at the start, but that there would be something deeper behind them, a question for the reader about why they exist. In shifting that question to the people populating Amrigo and Nimira, for whom the storms are completely bound up with their beliefs about magic, I got to explore it more fully. Initially, I thought magic vs science would be quite binary between the two halves of the continent, but as I wrote, I realised that Nimirans wouldn’t all agree with each other either, and began to distinguish the spectrum of beliefs.
Amelio’s journey begins with a missing mother and quickly expands into a world-saving mission. How did you balance his personal emotional stakes with the larger apocalyptic scope of the story?
I’ve always loved narratives that blend high personal stakes with big world stakes and I enjoyed putting Amelio in lots of difficult situations! The balance can be hard to strike – in a race against a storm scene, there isn’t time for Amelio to be doing anything other than trying to stay alive. I strived for ebb and flow, or build up and release: if there’s a big action-packed scene, the next one will be quieter, more about what’s happening in Amelio’s head. The storms heighten the emotional stakes I think – people do things and reveal things when they’re in peril. That realisation helped me bring the two together. Amelio’s questions of identity also have to sit alongside the prophecy element of the story and I liked the way they complemented each other. On a macro level, he – and everyone else – is trying to work out what the prophecy means, while on the micro level, he is trying to make sense of his place in this world. I liked that as he takes steps towards solving one, he progresses with the other.
The relationship dynamic between Amelio, Paige, and Vintane is often described as complex and emotionally charged. What were you aiming to explore through their bond – especially under constant life-or-death pressure?
They are three very different people from walks of life that are far apart. Three people who, on paper, would never cross paths. I wanted to explore what it would feel like to have this huge task and be stuck with people you’re just getting to know, to then have to balance growing feelings towards each other too. There’s a particular chemistry between them as a trio too – how they feel is big and complicated – and I wanted to let that unfold while it feels like the end of the world is coming. I guess it’s wrapped up in a question I wanted to explore of what you fight for, and most of the time it’s fighting for the people we love.
The storms in Storm Bringer feel almost like living forces rather than background elements. How did you approach building the mythology and rules behind them so they feel both magical and scientifically grounded?
The storms changed a lot as I was writing, making them more magical as I redrafted, distinguishing between the different kinds of storms to make them feel more alive. The rules were a lot of fun, thinking through how each storm could work and then bringing them to life with a lot of trial and error. At the same time, many of the tornados we see in book one work similarly to those in our own world, so I did a lot of reading, searching on YouTube and finding real-world photos to understand both how they look and behave and the destruction they cause, before I bent the rules with magic.
The book is often compared to works like Shadow and Bone and Twisters, but it also has a very distinct tone and identity. What do you think sets Storm Bringer apart in the YA fantasy landscape?
Since the book published, I’ve visited over thirty bookshops and have had the opportunity to chat to lots of booksellers. Getting their take on the YA fantasy landscape, seeing what else is out there, has really helped for answering a question like this. Storm Bringer has a crucial romance thread but is not romantasy, which does separate it out from a lot of what’s publishing at the moment. I hope that thread means there’s plenty for older readers to enjoy, but at the same time I see the book as for core YA readers really. In a lot of shops it’s sitting alongside some more traditional feeling YA – books like Scythe and Eragon, Sabriel and The Maze Runner – all of which is completely thrilling! I hope Storm Bringer stands apart by blending the approach of some of those high concept fantasy books with modern sensibilities, from the inclusivity of the characters’ identities and stories, to the way they talk. I’d also love to think that Storm Bringer sits in a space for readers who’ve finished series like Percy Jackson, Skandar, Alex Rider, who’re ready to step into YA.
If readers take away one underlying theme from Storm Bringer beyond the action and worldbuilding, what would you want it to be – and why?
I think it would be: you are capable of extraordinary things but you don’t have to do it alone. Amelio is thrust into a world he doesn’t know, he’s dealing with a lot of complex feelings, and soon a huge weight is on his shoulders. He gets through, sometimes clumsily, sometimes on instinct, and is often hard on himself, but he makes it. He keeps going and finds incredible strength and resolve in the face of the unexpected, and that redoubles when opens up to Paige and Vintane. I definitely want to prioritize tenacity and scrappiness over perfection in things I do, and also know how much lighter the load is when you share it, even if that’s not your instinct. I’d love if readers could feel a sense of that from Amelio’s journey.
INTERVIEW: YA SH3LF