Booktime: Interview with Maz Evans, author of the Oh Maya Gods! series

Is Oh What A Knight! the final book in the series?
Yes, there was the original Who Let the Gods Out series of four books published between 2017 and 2019. Elliot and Virgo were the heroes of that series, and then there's this spin-off series, Oh Maya Gods! which features their children, Vesper and Aster. Oh What A Knight! is the third and final book in the series. So it's either book three or book seven depending on how you count them!

Each book features characters from different mythologies – what is it about these stories that draws you to write about them?
I've loved mythology ever since I won a book when I was nine years old - the Usborne Book of Legends – which I still have today. It's amazing the pages still hold together, frankly, as when I read it I was hooked! I think the reason that I and so many writers keep coming back to these stories is because they are truly timeless. They are about the great universal things. They're about love and loss and every human emotion. I love the Greek gods particularly, as somebody who is a not a woman of religious faith, they kind of appeal to me because they're very human. I can't wrap my head around the concept of an immaculate, perfect human being or entity. But I can absolutely get on board with the squabbling gods who fall out with each other, and are jealous and have their spats and their family disagreements, and their love problems. It is intensely relatable for any generation because some things don't change – it's the same stories we keep telling ourselves over and over again. I absolutely love all mythologies, but Greek mythology has been a big favourite of mine. But what was fun with this new trilogy was to explore and take the world into some different mythology. We've been to the Mayan world, had a little bit of ancient Egypt, and this last book is Arthurian legend, which is something I've wanted to write about for a long time, so that's been really fun.

Do you do a lot of research into the mythologies before you start writing?
Massively! I always say to kids it's amazing how much research you have to do to make things up. I have a whole bookshelf of research books, and I spent hours in libraries doing research. Mayan and Ancient Egyptian mythology were not ones I was as familiar with so I loved that, it was fun. In the second book in the series Oh Mummy Mia! the kids go to the ancient Egyptian underworld In ancient Egyptian mythology you had to travel the path that the sun took. Ancient Egyptians figured that the Sun was drawn through the sky in the day, but it travelled through the underworld at night, which explained day and night to them. But the souls of the dead had to also follow this path for the Sun in order to go to the Egyptian equivalent of heaven. It was a perilous journey beset with snakes and demons, so you had to be armed with spells from the Book of the Dead. There are 189 spells in the Book of the Dead, and this was a great business hustle, as you bought them individually. So if you were wealthy you'd buy all 189, but if you're a bit skint you only buy one or two. And the final spell, number 189, protects the souls of the dead from eating their own wee and poo! As a children’s author, you cannot look that gift horse in the mouth.

I really like the humorous aspect of the books. Is it important for you to make it fun as well as interesting?
Massively. We all learn better if we’re having a good time. And I am in no position to preach to anybody about anything. I can only present, I suppose, my worldview, which is that I wish we would all be a bit nicer to each other, and look at all the good things around us. And my stories are about created families. As I say in this book, family is what you find behind your front door. Just because you're not born into a family, it doesn't mean you can't create one around you and, incorporate people into your family by love rather than by blood. But I think children's literature has to be careful not to get too preachy, because, the point is that kids need to figure this stuff out for themselves.

And I really like the characters of Vesper and Aster. Have you found yourself developing their characters as you write more about them?
Yeah, that's inevitably the way with a series. you spend a lot of time with these people, to the point where you forget that they're not actually real people. With Vesper, I wanted to explore a strong and powerful young woman, who's got this big question mark
at the heart of her about her own identity. And I think, you know, both characters are at an age, 12 years old, when those questions start to become quite personal, whether it's questions of biology, or culture, or just working out who you are. My youngest child who just passed through that age, and I've watched her go through it. Vesper has a very specific question about her mother and where she has come from. I think for kids that is very important, a sense of where you've come from, in terms of culturally inherited terms, but looking at your personality and your family and where you are going to fit in this world. With Aster, I wanted to explore anxiety. I'm a very anxious person, and one of my children has quite pronounced anxiety. And we've gone through that journey together kind of figuring out. We've learned to deal with it and acknowledge it, and embrace and take the good sides of it, but also learn how to live with it in a healthy way with it.

What do independent bookshops mean to you?
They're magical portals to another world. I mean, I love them. I'd like to namecheck my gorgeous local indies Westbourne Bookshop and Gullivers, they are a family run business. The indie sector has been so good to me and supportive of what I do. They are just magical spaces. You go to an indie bookshop and it's like being enveloped in a big hug. They have such an immeasurable contribution to make to this sort of book landscape culturally, and economically. Indie booksellers work so hard on our behalf. We must protect them at all costs and make sure that, in an ever-changing marketplace, they are protected, because they are such sanctuaries for so many people