September 22

Steve Cole – ‘Thieves Like Us’

Steve ColeI had the opportunity recently to meet the fabulous Steve Cole (AKA Stephen Cole) author of the ‘Thieves Like Us’ and ‘Wereling’ series, AKA author of Dr Who books, voice of the Dialects, imaginative and witty lunch guest…
I asked how someone who looked so young could have accomplished so much! And where did he get his brilliant ideas from? So here’s his reply:

“I’ve been a full-time writer for eight years now, but it still surprises me how stories come together. There’s that famous saying – one idea leads to another. But I find one idea leads to another and then goes on to find another couple of ideas and drags them along to the party too.

It certainly worked that way with THIEVES LIKE US, a YA novel I dreamed up a few years back. I was thinking about master-criminals (as you do) and wondering how they manage as they get older. You don’t often find old age pensioners robbing banks, escaping down the street on crutches. Then I imagined that sensible master criminals would employ younger crooks to do the jobs for them. And of course, they’d need specialists in different fields, depending on the crime in hand. I had lots of fun dreaming up five characters and the unfortunate things that had messed up their lives to put them in this position.

A band of teenage criminals working for a mysterious master planner sounded like fun, but I wanted them to be likeable characters, so that suggested they couldn’t commit nasty, petty offences. They’d have to do big crimes against even bigger criminals. And maybe there could be a supernatural twist to their capers? I remembered reading that there are actually 13 signs of the zodiac, not 12, but that no one ever mentions the 13th sign, named Ophiuchus (if you’re born between November 29th and December 18th you are NOT a Sagittarian – you’re actually an Ophiuchun!). That sounded a bit
spooky and exploring the shadowy reasons why became the basis of the first adventure for my gang of thieves.

So the idea of an old looper doing over banks led in the end to the creation of some of my favourite characters and three of my favourite books. So be kind to an idea when it pops into your head, no matter how silly it might seem at first. If you can just work out what to DO with that idea, it could change your life!” Steve Cole

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Posted September 22, 2010 by marjk in category Author comments

About the Author

Teacher-librarian at Aquinas College, Southport, Gold Coast, Australia

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