Midsummer Magic (34 page)

BOOK: Midsummer Magic

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Music is fantastically important to me when I’m writing, and often forms the inspiration for stories, scenes and characters. This time around the song, which I find very haunting, made me think of enchantments and spells and falling in love. Unusually for me (I have terrible trouble with titles normally), the idea of calling a book
Midsummer Magic
tumbled into my head. I thought immediately of Cornwall, (a place I find both mysterious and fascinating), Standing Stones, and magic. From there it wasn’t too big a stretch to thinking about
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
, and how I could write a modern take on it.

Initially, I thought this might be easy – after all, the plot’s all there (thank you, Mr Shakespeare), but what works well in a play – an impish sprite dropping magical potion into people’s eyes, seemed a bit more problematic in a novel. My first thought was to have my characters somehow take some hallucinogenic drugs, but that proved tricky, as it made my Puckish character seem rather sleazy, and Puck isn’t a sleazy character …

In the end I hit on hypnotism as the key. I thought it could be a fun way of unlocking my characters’ innermost desires in a way that perhaps they hadn’t quite intended. I started to research the work of both Paul McKenna and Derren Brown for background and thus the characters of Freddie Puck, Auberon and Tatiana were born. I am indebted to Derren Brown’s fascinating book,
Tricks of the Mind
for explaining the process of hypnotism to me and a lot else besides. If you’re interested in mind games, it’s well worth a read!

From then on in, I had my story, and though it has inevitably changed somewhat during the telling, the kernel of the original idea, which came from a simple song, remains. It’s been a blast to write from start to finish. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

As summertime flourishes, it’s time for new beginnings … Kick off your sandals, enjoy a glass of rose and escape into another gorgeous novel this summer with Julia Williams.

About the Author

Julia Williams has always made up stories in her head, and until recently she thought everyone else did too. She grew up in London, one of eight children, including a twin sister. She was a children’s editor at Scholastic for several years before going freelance after the birth of her second child. It was then she decided to try her hand at writing. The result, her debut novel,
Pastures New
, was a bestseller and has sold across Europe.

To find out more about Julia go to her website at
www.juliawilliamsauthor.com
, visit her blog at
www.maniacmum.blogspot.com
or follow Julia on Twitter
@JCCWilliams

By the same author:

Pastures New

Strictly Love

Last Christmas

The Bridesmaid Pact

The Summer Season

A Merry Little Christmas

Copyright

Published by HarperCollins
Publishers Ltd

77-85 Fulham Palace Road

Hammersmith, London W6 8JB

www.harpercollins.co.uk

First published in Great Britain by Avon 2013

Cover illustration © Sarah Gibb

Cover layout design © HarperCollins
Publishers
Ltd 2013

Julia Williams asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.

Source ISBN: 9781847563576

Ebook Edition © June 2013 ISBN: 9780007464487

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

Version 1

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