The Quick author Lauren Owen on fanfiction and new avenues for fantasy fiction

Vampires may be rather de rigour at the moment, but debut author Lauren Owen has managed to find a new direction to take them in for her spooky supernatural tale, The Quick.

And though the quality of the writing pretty much scraps any vague comparison, like other writers hitting the best seller list right now, Lauren honed her craft writing fanfiction online.

We caught up with her to find out how she came to write a book full of seedy secrets and artificial limbs, and what she thinks of fanfiction now.

"I remember in school writing a poem when I was about seven," Lauren tells us. "The teacher said it was good and from then on writing seemed to be the thing I could do and I've always enjoyed it.

"I never put original writing online but I did enjoy writing fanficiton in my teenage years. I usually wrote about Harry Potter - it had a very big online fan presence during the time the books were coming up and I think a lot of people were waiting and on the edge of their seats for their next installment. It sort of staved off the impatience a bit by imaginging the things that we wanted to happen."

But while some fanfiction has led to books being self-published to huge success, Lauren thinks the popularity of online writing can be something of a double-edged sword.

"You hear about people publishing independently and becoming a huge overnight successs now so it can be done. But I think there is so much out there that it can be hard to locate good quality writing sometimes."

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The Quick

Lauren's debut novel is a spooky story set in London at the end of the Yorkshire and Victorian era. With some surprising twists and turns it's quite a tour de force and just when we thought Twilight had cornered the market of supernatural thrillers, this takes fantasy in a totally new direction.

"The Quick looks more to earlier works of fantasy and supernatural, which is what makes it a bit different to what's out there at the moment. I love Victorian gossip, things like Thackeray, The Picture of Dorian Grey, those are the sorts of works that I really adored growing up, I think the debt I owe them it huge. My style harks back to the older end of fantasy writing."

Her love of this literature meant choosing the period to set her novel came naturally.

"Because I was interested in the period anyway the research was enjoyable as well as stimulating – I have a bit of a love affair with the 19th century.

"I remember discovering Jane Eyre when I was about 11 and it was a revelation. Remember those £1 Penguin classics? I used ot get my pocket money go in and load up!"

What to read next

With an MA in Victorian Literature it's hardly surprisng that many of Lauren's favourite books are from the era. But what's she reading now?

"The books I go back to most are the ones I read in my childhood – Watership Down,Sherlock Holkmes and classics Little Women, Anne of Green Gables - they're comforting. "But right now I'm reading the Luminaries by Eleanor Catton. I love a long book. When it’s one you love the more the better. "And I read a very interesting book recently, again from the 19th century, by Lady Florence Dixie called Gloriana. It's a fascinating snapshot of the time, a power fantasy of feminist revlolution and how she changes the country. Very utopian, I'd recommend it."

The Quick by Lauren Owen

is out now.