As part of this exciting blog tour, I am delighted to share this guest post from author, Jennifer Claessen!
A Completely Incomplete List of all the references and jokes in The November Witches
Writing a novel has been, for me so far, roughly:
• 70% my own imagination
• 15% myths and legends repurposed!
• 10% raiding my own life and people in it for names and bits and bobs (this is theft and actually a bit naughty)
• And finally: 5% jokes I put in for my own amusement.
So I thought I’d share some of the jokes which you might not even have known are jokes but they’re in November if you look closely:
• Wicked the Musical!
Noone defies gravity in this book but there are some little references to green faces. I used to work in the West End and took hundreds and thousands of children to see the show so I have lot of love and affection for the theatre. My witches aren’t green but the knights in November are so silly that they think a witch can be identified by the impossible colour of her skin.
• Puns!
There are a lot of puns in all of the A Month of Magic books. In October, Mirabelle is the Chief Punner, the biggest Punster. I wish I was naturally punny but I’m not, I have to go away and think hard about my puns and then they’re best on paper (where they’re nice and stationary). But in November, like the magic, the puns begin to get out of hand. There are knights everywhere and so many jokes to make about nights/ knights that even Mirabelle is overwhelmed. You can – maybe even you should! – turn punspotting into a game. Give yourself a treat every time every time your recognise one. But careful, you could be myth-taken.
• This is really niche but there’s a song called ‘How Long Has This Been Going On?’ from a musical called Funny Girl by Ira and George Gershwin which has the line in it, ‘can one kiss do all of this?’ which I’ve turned into ‘can one snip do all of this?’ Which is lowkey a spoiler… but listen to the song if you can, it’s really catchy!
• ‘You know what November has it in?’…. ‘The word no.’
October is my favourite month for lots of reasons (half term holiday! Crisp early autumn weather! Halloween and all the sweet treats and costumes that go with it!) and so I always felt, like the Merlyns, miserable at the end of the month. But I think November gets a rough deal and I’m trying to find the magic in it too! Two of the most important people in my life have November birthdays and there are fireworks – so there’s still magic, excitement and light in the darkness!
My Shelves Are Full 