Hello everybody! Today, I’m very excited to be on the blog tour for Ruth Lauren’s new book Tourmaline and the Island of Elsewhere. I’ve been a huge fan since 2017 and I’m thrilled we finally have more books by her in the world. Onto the post!
Hi Amy, Thanks for having me on your blog again! I loved adventure films as a kid (a long time ago in the 80s). I loved the travel, the treasure, the fantasy and the magic. I still do – and so during the pandemic was the perfect time to launch myself into writing something that took me out of the real world (who didn’t want that in 2020) and off on a fantastical adventure.
I started thinking about the 80s adventure films I watched and loved as a kid – films like Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Goonies. I wanted to write something like that – except that it had to have a young girl as the hero, of course, because thankfully this isn’t the 80s.
Luckily there are so many more representations of women in books and films than there were in my childhood. Too often, back then, even if there were girls in the films I avidly watched, they weren’t the heroes. And there weren’t enough girls. But this story – Tourmaline and the Island of Elsewhere – was my story. And I could easily fix that. So I pulled in all the female characters. The good, the bad, and the somewhere in between.
And so Tourmaline was born, and off she went on her first adventure. It’s about a girl whose explorer mother goes missing while she’s on a mission hunting for precious artefacts. No one knows exactly where she is, and no one else is going to rescue her, so Tourmaline just has to do it herself. She never expects to learn that magic is real, and that her mother is trapped on a sentient magical island. I hope I’ve captured that wonderful sense of adventure I felt watching 80s films, but brought those adventures with me to where they should be in 2023.
Thank you so much for reading! What is your favourite 80s film? Are you planning to pick up Ruth’s new book? I’d love to have a chat in the comments!
Amy xx
Golden Books Girl 
Despite growing up in the 80s I have probably forgotten all the films I enjoyed! But I did watch Gremlins repeatedly so I’ll say that! I’ve just finished Tourmaline this morning, such a fun magical adventure!
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