Ask Michelle Anything!
Here are Michelle’s most recent answers to the questions and messages readers have submitted.
Thank you – from a French reader who has grown up with the Wolf Brother books
Léa writes...
Hello !
I don't have a question to ask. I just want to say : thank you.
I'm from France, and I read for the first time Wolf Brother when I was about 9 or 10 years old. I was immediately obsessed with the world and the characters. From book 1 to book 6, this story was with me all of my childhood and trought a big part of my teenagers years. I then kept re-reading all of the books over and over again as I entered adulthood, and cried with joy when I learned about the new 3 books coming up back in 2019.
I read the 7th & 8th books the minutes they were available.
But I couldn't bring myself to read the 9th for the past 3 years, as I knew it would be the last pages of the adventures of my beloved heroes, and i wasn't not quite ready to say goodbye (again).
I'm now going on 27 years old. And I finally decided to read Wolfbane this year.
I actually finished it last night.
And the first thing that I wanted to do after turning that last page was to say thank you.
Thank you for the world you created, a world that always feels like home every times I pick up the books again for a re-reading session. Thank you for the most wonderfull adventures i've ever got to live throught books. Thank you for Torak, Renn, Wolf and every other wonderfull characters I had the honor to meet throught your words.
Thank you for this story that have been with me my entire life and probably always will be.
Simply : Thank you.
PS : I know that Wolfbane is the last one, but I will never get tired of going back to the forest, and will gladly do so again for new adventures if you ever change your mind (we never know !)
With love,
Léa
Michelle Replies...
Dear Lea*, what a marvellous, heartfelt message to receive: thank you so much! I get the impression that as a child, you developed the enviable ability to immerse yourself completely in a story; and of course once acquired, that skill remains with one for life. I'm truly delighted that you enjoyed returning to Torak's world, with the last three books - and I can completely understand why you delayed reading Wolfbane for so long. Incidentally, you're not alone in that; over the years, other readers have told me that they've also delayed reading the final volume; although at three years, I think you probably hold the record! And the phrase that I found particularly gratifying and evocative is when you say that Torak's world "always feels like home". I feel like that with certain of my favourite books, and I'm honoured that my stories are like that for you. Thank you again for getting in touch - and I wish you many more happy hours in the Forest! With very best wishes, Michelle *(P.S. Sorry I've omitted to put the accent on your name; I haven't yet worked out how to do it.)
Daughters of Eden – Michelle’s earlier trilogy set in Jamaica
Aimee writes...
Hi Michelle,
I left a message around a year ago praising the three newest Chronicles of Ancient Darkness books. Since then I’ve read Dark Matter, Wakenhyrst (particularly thrilling as I live near Ely in the fens!) and Thin Air. All three had me on edge, and although I found Thin Air had its similarities to Dark Matter, it still kept me on my toes and I thoroughly enjoyed the read! I’ve just seen that you have a new book in this genre in the works and I’m very excited for the release!!
Now onto the main reason I decided to message again… I got hold of a copy of The Shadow Catcher a little while ago and was hesitant to read it as it’s different to what I’ve previously enjoyed reading… but once I started I couldn’t put it down, it flowed so easily and is so beautifully written with small twists of darkness thrown in. I then saw that the second book’s protagonist was the sister of the first book’s and was hesitant to read that one too… however I found a copy and loved it even more than the first! (I especially love the detail and accuracy of everything equine- I previously worked with horses and now lucky enough have my boy on full loan. Also the detail of everything nature- I now work on a tree nursery- i feel like I connected with this trilogy tenfold because of this, and also when re-reading the Chronicles of Ancient Darkness!) I then couldn’t wait to read the third in the trilogy but made myself be patient and read a Terry Pratchett book in between. I have just finished The Serpents Tooth and feel like I felt every emotion written in the book and didn’t want it to end!
The research and passion for nature you put into your books to make them as accurate as possible whilst remaining fictional is incredible and personally I feel it adds depth to your books without any waffle! I imagine that’s all we’ll see of the Daughters of Eden, but is there possibility of something similar at all in the future? It makes for a lovely relaxing story after being traumatised (ok that’s a little dramatic, haha!) by Dark Matter.
Thank you so much for your imagination, research and putting such beautiful (or tension ridden!) words on paper!!
Aimee
Michelle Replies...
Dear Aimee, thank you for your lovely comments about my Daughters of Eden trilogy; I'm so pleased that you enjoyed it! As you may know, I started my career writing historical novels for grown-ups: first came Without Charity, then A Place in the Hills (my personal favourite of those early books), and then Daughters of Eden - which drew on aspects of my family connection with Jamaica. However it was only when Wolf Brother came along that I felt as if I'd truly found my subject; so to me now as I look back, those five early books can feel quite distant. It's therefore very gratifying to hear from a reader who has read and enjoyed them after reading my later stories. Thank you again, Aimee, for getting in touch - and I really hope that you enjoy Rainforest, when it comes out in October! With very best wishes, Michelle.
P.S. And to anyone reading this who's interested in getting hold of these early books, I believe my publishers intend to re-release them as e-books next year. When I know more, I'll post news on my website.
DARK MATTER – where can I get a copy?
Whitney writes...
Hello!!! I would love to read Dark Matter, i have heard wonderful things about that book and for some reason I can't find it anywhere to purchase! Helpppp!
Michelle Replies...
Dear Whitney, I'm afraid that I'm not able to help with questions of availability of my books, as this is up to the publishers. Dark Matter is still in print in the UK,, so if you can't order it from a bookshop, you might contact the publishers (Orion Books in the UK, they're part of Hachette) - or if you're overseas and it's not published in your country, try getting a secondhand copy through, for example, abe.com. Sorry I can't be of more help, and I do hope you succeed! Best wishes, Michelle
Rainforest cover
Ryan writes...
Dear Michelle!
Hoping, as ever, that you are well and 2025 is treating you well so far! I just wanted to write to congratulate you on the STUNNING cover for RAINFOREST which I saw Goldsboro revealed a few days ago. I love how it’s so colourful and yet so foreboding and ominous! It’s gorgeous and I cannot wait to see it in the flesh when the book comes out. Absolutely itching to read it. It’s been a long time since WOLFBANE came out and the itch for new Michelle Paver is strong!
Wishing you all the best and hoping to catch you at an event later in the year!
Ryan (HalfBloodRyan/Empire of Books)
Michelle Replies...
Dear Ryan, I'm so glad that you like the cover! Like you, I'm really looking forward to seeing the book "in the flesh" (great phrase) - and yes, it does indeed seem a long time since Wolfbane; even though I've been hard at work writing: first on Rainforest, and latterly on another Gothic story, which should see me through the rest of the year. I hope all is well with you. Very best wishes for a great 2025! Michelle
wolfbane audio cd
lynn writes...
Can you confirm how i can get a copy of Wolfbane on Audio Cd - we have every other one in the set andd whilst i can access it on some streaming sites i woud really like the CD to complete the collection - i cannot find it anywhere and am desperate to listen to it !!!
Michelle Replies...
Dear Lynn, I'm so sorry you're having difficulty getting hold of the Wolfbane audio! I'm afraid I'm not really the person to ask about questions of availability (and this goes for all my books, including the overseas ones) - so your best bet is to email my UK publishers, Head of Zeus directly. They're part of Bloomsbury, and I'm sure they'll help you. I really hope that you can get your paws on a copy of the CD very soon! With best wishes, Michelle
Just a greeting – from someone who grew up in Sweden with the Wolf Brother books
Sofie writes...
Dear Michelle,
Hello! My name is Sofie, and I just wanted to write and give you my thanks.
My mom gave me the 1st CoAD book for Christmas back in 2011 when I'd turned 12 years old, and we both got hooked - I'm 25 now and I still love your books so, so much. I've re-read them now and then over the years and they're always a thrill, they hold a proud place in my bookshelf. I hope to have my little cousin read them when he's a bit older, because I think he'd love them just as much as I do. It was so exciting to hear that you'd released 3 new works for the series recently! I know it was a while ago now, but I just found out this winter and my mom and I are both going to read them like we did back in the day. The other week I let a classmate borrow my copy of part five, Oath Breaker, and she was sooo excited to have it, haha. As I understand it she just started reading them for the first time recently, and it's given us something to be equally enthused about.
Right now I'm a university student who studies ancient religion and archaeology (by Umeå University in Sweden), and having read your books it's just a little cherry on top to the whole experience. So interesting!! I've always been very impressed with the research you did in order to write this series, going out of your way to learn more about wolves for example, but it really is amazing seeing how well you breathe life into these ancient worlds. I love and adore your attention to detail, and the way your writing style makes everything so vivid and captivating without being overly lengthy or complicated. Your works have given me a huge love for culture, nature and art.
The Chronicles of Ancient Darkness will always be a series that's dear to my heart, and I can't thank you enough for what a gem you shared with us all. Thank you from me and mine in the past, present and future!
Best wishes to you,
Sofie
Michelle Replies...
Dear Sofie, what a marvellous message to receive! I loved reading about how both the 12-year-old you and your mother both got hooked by my stories - and that you still enjoy reading them today, as an adult. I can imagine that when you re-read them now, with insight into archaeology and ancient religions gained from your course, you probably see all sorts of different things in themfrom when you enjoyed them as a child. (I often find that myself, for instance, when I re-read re-retellings of the Norse myths which were my favourites as a ten-year-old.) Over the years I've had many messages from people such as you, who first read the Wolf Brother books as children, and yet still enjoy them as adults. It's actually not something I foresaw when I was writing the stories, but I love the fact that it happens.
I wish you every possible success with your University course - which sounds absolutely fascinating - and of course, many more hours with Torak, Renn and Wolf in the Forest! May the guardian run with you. Michelle
Wakenhyrst – I Want My Very Own Chatterpie
Rhona writes...
I just wanted to say I think about this book constantly.
I recommend this book to anyone I can.
I want my very own chatterpie
I live near a fen
I want a doom painting
Thanks so much for writing this true diamond xx
Michelle Replies...
Dear Rhona, I'm absolutely delighted that you like Wakenhyrst so much - and I envy you that you live near a fen. It's funny how sometimes a certain book can really touch a chord, and stay with you. I'm so glad that one of mine has done that for you. Thank you for getting in touch.
Best wishes, Michelle
Rainforest! Any signed editions or sprayed edges?
Daryl writes...
Hello!
I wrote to you previously praising Dark Matter & Thin Air and was ecstatic to learn you were writing a new book which we now know is titled Rainforest. Are you planning to do any signed editions or sprayed edges? Im hoping to preorder from waterstones but have jumped the gun before and missed out on exclusives. A huge fan & wishing you a happy publishing day come October!
Michelle Replies...
Dear Darryl, I'm so glad that you're looking forward to Rainforest! I'm afraid I don't yet know whether the publishers are planning any special editions, but as and when I know more, I shall post something on my website. In the meantime, thank your for your enthusiasm, which means a lot. I'm really pleased with Rainforest. I don't think you'll be disappointed! With very best wishes, Michelle.
On the Writing Process, Mrs Oliphant, and Reprints of Michelle’s earliest novels
Ryan writes...
Hi Michelle!! I am a writer from Edinburgh, Scotland! I first read your books back in secondary school in Dundee, where I was born and grew up, and I have loved them ever since. Nightly listening to Ian McKellen reading "Chronicles of Ancient Darkness" was one of the best thing in my adolescence. When I read your adult fiction, I fell in love with the characters. I loved "Wakenhyrst" and "Dark Matter" most, but when I heard that you are bringing out an Aztec inspired jungle thriller of the same vein as Dark Matter, you best believe I was in every way excited and preparing for the event. The announcement of a Michelle Paver book is a massive event in our household.
I have wanted to ask: what is your writing process? Do you handwrite a draft before typing, or are you exclusively a typist novelist? And what is is like writing in the house of a literary predecessor you've enjoyed the works of? I heard you live in the house of Margaret Oliphant, the writer of such great ghost stories as "The Open Door", "Old Lady Mary", and "A Beleaguered City"! That's remarkable in itself! Do you feel like her ghostly presence is looking over your shoulder sometimes when you're writing and telling you that this won't do, or that you're writing remarkably well for this project? It is funny as I am about to bring out, for my publishing course, a book of Mrs Oliphant's ghost stories with an introduction written by me, with Merchiston publishing.
I also want to ask: Will your earlier novels, "Without Charity", "A Place in the Hills", and the "Daughters of Eden" trilogy ever be reprinted? I remember finding copies of them in charity shops and loved them. They are remarkable novels that have stayed with me since I read them and I would love to see them restored to the book shops, since they are notoriously difficult to find. "Without Charity" and "The Shadow Catcher" were excellent novels. It is impossible to name a Paver novel I didn't like, they are so immersive and brilliantly written. But will they ever be brought out again, in paperback editions, perhaps with introductions or afterwards about how they came to be written or how you feel looking back on these books now, in what might be termed the writer's adolescence, now that you're firmly in the area of the writer's maturity?
I hope this makes sense and that you have a most wonderful 2025!!
Kindest Regards
Ryan Petrie
Michelle Replies...
Hello, Ryan, thank you for such a lovely message. I got it after a rather exhausting and depressing day, and it completely cheered me up! You asked about my writing process, so here it is. By the time I'm ready to write part of a story, I've got such a mass of research notes, ideas for my characters, and plot plans that I first need to do some very rough, longhand notes on scrap paper about the part of the story I'm about to write. I ask myself such questions as: From whose point of view is this part written? What's its "plot significance", ie how does this bit advance the story? What actually happens? And (crucially) What are the characters feeling? This helps me focus, and often I'll type up the answers into what I call a "mini-plan" for that section. After that, though, I can no longer put off my least favourite bit of writing: namely, facing the blank page and getting something down. I almost always do this by hand, as I feel it's freer and messier, letting me scribble stuff down, cross out a whole page, and so on. Only then, when I've scrawled a scene or even a whole chapter, do I type it up. (I usually do this on the same day, as otherwise I might not be able to read my scribbles!) Then follows a day or two of polishing, after which I'll print that section and move on to the next bit. After a few months of this, when I finally get to the end of the story, I can start what I call the re-write. This is my favourite bit, as by now I have a much better sense of what the characters and the story are about. Also, I have something on paper, which makes it much easier to see its many faults. The re-write can take many months, but it's so much more fun than that blank page! So that is my writing process in a nutshell. Although I should stress that all this is only what works for me. Your own writing process may be entirely different - and that's absolutely fine. The important thing is that it works for you!
Turning to Margaret Oliphant, you're right, I live in the house where she spent the last year of her life, and where she died. I love her work, and on the day I moved in (well, shortly before midnight), I read her marvellous ghost story "The Open Door" as a homage to her. Before I began to read it, I said aloud, "Margaret, you're still anthologised." It just seemed that she'd like to know that, if she was still around. I should add, though, that I didn't feel her presence then, nor have I ever done so in all the years that I've lived here - although it's a wonderful house to write in. But then, I'm not someone who senses presences. Moreover, as she was exhausted by the time she died, I suspect that if anything of her did survive death, it was only too happy to leave. I do think about her quite often, though, and her works are part of my library; not only her ghost stories, but many of her Carlingford novels. So it's great that you're re-publishing her ghost stories!
Finally, you asked about my earliest novels, "Without Charity", "A Place in the Hills", and the "Daughters of Eden" trilogy. I'm so glad that you liked them, and there are indeed plans for them to be reissued, as ebooks, some time next year. When I know the publication dates, I will post them on my website.
Well, I've got to go now and do some more writing (from scratch, that blank page awaits!). Thank you again so much for getting in touch - and I do wish you all possible good luck with your own writing. With very best wishes, Michelle
Developing Your Unique Writing Voice
Hilbert writes...
Dear Michelle,
I still remember when my brother came home from school one day with that orangey-brown book and I knew from the get-go I wanted to read it too. I think that must have been in 2009/10. We both devoured the whole Chronicles of Ancient Darkness series, returning each day with another coloured book to the point where our mam also ended up reading all the books!
Last year I had my whole backpack stolen from my car while on holiday including my kindle. When I got a replacement, I saw recommended your trio of new books and can confidently say I've enjoyed your writing as much at 25 as I did at 9 or 10.
I've been working on my own fiction in recent years, and although it's set somewhat later in history in the Viking Age, your unique "wolfey" descriptions have shaped and inspired me in many ways. My question would be to ask how you developed such a unique writing style? How long, and how did you find your writing voice? And did all the publishers you approach understand it or like it at first?
I've asked three questions not one, but mostly just wanted to say thank you for all the wonderful books from my family to you. Tige tank!
Wishing you all the very best from Aotearoa New Zealand,
Hilbert
Michelle Replies...
Dear Hilbert, I so enjoyed hearing about how you came to read the Wolf Brother stories as a child, and I'm delighted that as an adult, you still like my writing - although I do feel for you in the loss of your backpack! I was also fascinated to hear that your own writing is set in the Viking Age. It's such a rich, strong period, so vital and adventurous; and the sagas have an abundance of great characters. When I was learning to write novels, I set one two of my early, unpublished ones in that period. One of them was a sort of prototype Wolf Brother; it included a passage from a wolf's point of view, and was set in ninth century Norway.
Turning to your questions: the first two I'll answer together, because to me one's voice and one's style can't really be separated. And my answer is that in general, they simply come during the course of one's writing. Of course like everyone else I've been influenced by the books I've read, and by writers I admire; and at times, when the story has demanded it, I've consciously tried to adopt certain stylistic features, such as shorter sentences and/or paragraphs. But I learnt early on that if I tried to "write like" someone I admired, or adopt certain features of their style, it simply didn't work, and my own voice soon re-emerged. In other words, I think your voice is essentially part of your character. It's who you are, so it will emerge naturally, the more you write. I don't think you have to do anything about it consciously.
Finally, you asked whether all publishers I approached understood or liked my voice. Well, none of them actually mentioned it, and although one or two said a few nice words about my style, I met with nothing but rejection for years while I was starting out. Even when I'd published several adult novels, and sent out the first few chapters of what would become Wolf Brother, I got a few rejections: "it's not right for our lists", that sort of thing. I hope that's not discouraging, and it certainly isn't meant to be. It's just how life is for most writers when they are starting out; and it certainly was for me. The important thing is to keep writing. If you give up, you will never see your books on the shelves - whereas if you find a way to pick yourself up off the floor after each rejection and carry on, you have a chance of getting published.
So onwards and upwards, Hilbert. I hope you find plenty of Norse resonances in the marvellous New Zealand landscapes, particularly the mountains, the forests and the fjords - and I wish you the very best of luck with your writing.
May the guardian run with you!
Michelle