We chat with author Alexis Henderson about When I Was Death, which is a haunting young adult that follows a teenage girl who must do Death’s bidding to uncover the secrets of her sister’s disappearance.
Hi, Alexis! Welcome back! How have you been since we last spoke for The Year of the Witching?
I’ve been doing really well! So much has changed since the last time we spoke, but I’m so glad that I’m still here, writing the books that I love. I feel really lucky.
When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?
Books and reading have been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. But I think I really fell in love with writing when I began to keep a journal, around age five or six. As soon as I realized I could put my thoughts on paper, I was hooked.
Quick lightning round! Tell us:
- The first book you ever remember reading: Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats. That was one of the first, if not the first, book I read cover to cover all by myself.
- The one that made you want to become an author: I’m not sure there was any one book for me, Goodnight Moon is a fundamental text though. I love everything about it.
- The one that you can’t stop thinking about: A few months ago I read A Short Stay in Hell by Steven L. Peck and I still think about it all the time.
Your latest novel, When I Was Death, is out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Dreamy, eerie, morbid, girlhood, grief.
What can readers expect?
A lot of grief, girlhood, and of course, death.
Where did the inspiration for When I Was Death come from?
I had a dream about two girls in a world that felt empty, as if they were the only two people left. That image—just the seed of an idea really—slowly grew to become When I Was Death. The story went through so many different iterations, as I experimented with the characters and decided what their story was and how I wanted to tell it. Looking back, it’s almost difficult to believe that all of this came from a dream I had as a teenager.
Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
I loved writing from the POV of Death incarnate. It was such a fun challenge to condense this cosmic force/metaphor for complete annihilation into the body of a vaguely patronizing man.
Did you face any challenges whilst writing? How did you overcome them?
At first, I was pretty intimidated, almost afraid of my main character Roslyn. The weight of her grief was immense and I found it really challenging to wrestle with that on the page. But in a sort of cruel twist of fate, I lost my mom to cancer while I was working on this book, and as I experienced my own grief, I became less intimidated by Roslyn’s. It became much easier to channel her voice and experience the grieving process alongside her.
What’s next for you?
I have a few projects currently in the pipeline but I don’t think any of them have been formally announced yet. I can give you the title of a future release though: The Godfrey Home for Demonic Children. It’s about a home for demon possessed children and the dysfunctional adults who are responsible for taking care of them.
Lastly, what books are you looking forward to picking up this year?
I’m really looking forward to Reliquary by Hannah Whitten, Witch Queen Rising by Savannah Stephens, Dreamland by Olivie Blake, Paint Me Like Your Dead Girls by Cynthia Murphy, and A Dark and Wild Wood by Sara Nicole Lemon.
