INDIGO'S DRAGON BLOG TOUR | Interview with Sofi Croft!

Hello readers, and hope you are all well since I spoke to you yesterday!

It is another late night and I am late yet again with the posting of a blog tour - my apologies!


But nonetheless, today I am honoured to welcome Sofi Croft to my blog for an interview about her brand new book, Indigo's Dragon! I was lucky enough to meet Sofi at the Accent YA Launch at London Book Fair and she is so lovely, and I also read Indigo's Dragon a few weeks ago and absolutely loved it, I will leave a link to my review here.

For those of you unfortunate enough not to have come across this wonderful book yet, here is the blurb...

Some families keep monstrous secrets... 

Fans of How to Train your Dragon, Harry Potter, and Percy Jackson. 

Indigo lives in the Lake District, and spends his time exploring the mountains he loves. An unexpected parcel arrives containing a first aid kit inside his grandfather’s satchel. Indigo’s curiosity is raised as he looks through his grandfather’s notebook to discover drawings of mythical creatures. 

Strange things begin to happen and Indigo finds himself treating an injured magpie-cat, curing a cockatrice of its death-darting gaze, and defending a dragon. Indigo realises he must uncover the secrets his family have kept hidden, and travels alone to the Polish mountains to search for his grandfather and the truth. 


Danger looms as events spiral out of control, and Indigo needs to make choices that change him, his world, and his future forever…

Doesn't it sound amazing?! If you are still yet to be convinced, today I am so excited to welcome Sofi Croft to my blog where we will be discussing dragons, her writing inspiration, and what she loved reading as a kid!

Hi Sofi! Tell us a bit about Indigo's Dragon. What gave you the inspiration to write it?

I started writing Indigo’s Dragon after I moved to Borrowdale in the Lake District. I spent a huge amount of time sat at the side of the river while my children played in the water. I would write poems, short stories and sketch pictures, all inspired by the things my children and I liked most at the time – mountains, lakes and rivers, wildlife, dragon caves, strange hidden beasts, adventures, mysteries, journeys, folktales and legends. Very slowly the thoughts, ideas, pictures and words in my notebooks all came together to create Indigo’s Dragon.

What do you find interesting about sea monsters? Why did you want to write about them?

I grew up near the coast; beachcombing, rock pooling, fossil collecting and swimming in the sea. I have always loved the mystery of the oceans and I find sea creatures absolutely fascinating. They are so different to us, like alien life forms right on our doorstep! I love the idea that huge sea creatures may be living in our oceans undiscovered, and it is not as unlikely as it sounds. 95% of the world’s oceans are unexplored and scientists estimate up to a million species remain undiscovered, so there is actually quite a good chance there may be some pretty big creatures out there we haven’t seen yet.

In my late teens I learned to scuba dive and had some incredible experiences underwater. It is this vast, mysterious, other world, with an incredible extra dimension – you can move up and down as well as on the horizontal plane. The creatures are so surprising and wonderful; I have been chased by curious seals, terrified by moray eels and intrigued by cuttlefish and octopus trying to communicate by flashing patterns on their skin.

For me, more than anywhere else, the oceans are where the wonders of the world, and the life in it, are most apparent. The third book in the Indigo series, Indigo’s Deep, is set almost entirely underwater, in the Irish and Baltic seas, and it includes more than a few sea monsters, real and imagined. I had incredible fun researching and writing it, and was able to relive some of my most treasured experiences scuba diving in my youth.

 Did you always want to be a writer?

No! My mother is a writer and when I was growing up I did not see the appeal at all. I watched my mother spend hours of every day sat at a typewriter lost in an imaginary world. I was far more interested in living in the real world. I wanted to be an explorer or a scientist, and that is what I became! I studied biology and geology and worked as a laboratory technician and exploration geologist before becoming a science teacher.

It wasn’t until I had children that I began to write. I spend lots of time outdoors with them, and I think the combination of the outdoors, daydreaming and being with my children must have stimulated my creative and imaginative side!

What did you like reading as a kid?

Some of the first books I really loved were The Moomins books by Tove Jansson. The weird, alien looking Hattifatteners are particularly memorable to me! As a young teenager I enjoyed books full of action and adventure, like the Alanna books by Tamora Pierce, Kim by Rudyard Kipling, and of course The Hobbit by Tolkien. As a slightly older teenager I loved dystopic fiction, books like 1984 by George Orwell, We by Yevgeny Zamyatin, A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley.

Describe Indigo's Dragon in three words!


Adventure, mystery & monsters.

Thank you so much for appearing on my blog, Sofi! 

Guys, please make sure you check out all the other posts from this blog tour!

Check out Sofi Croft here: http://www.soficroft.com

Buy Indigo's Dragon here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Indigos-Dragon-Sofi-Croft-ebook/dp/B00PG0JZWI/280-4279280-9477309?ie=UTF8&tag=geolinker-21




Until next time :)