We chat with author Caitlin Rozakis about The Grimoire Grammar School Parent Teacher Association, which follows two parents and their recently-bitten-werewolf daughter who try to fit into a privileged New England society of magic aristocracy. But deadly terrors await them – ancient prophecies, remorseless magical trials, hidden conspiracies and the PTA bake sale.
Hi, Caitlin! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
I’ve been writing most of my life but had a lot of ups and downs in terms of publication—I won a kids’ fiction contest my local newspaper ran in late elementary school and then finished relatively little until my first short story sale in 2007. But my novel debut wasn’t until last year (in my early 40s, keep writing, kids!). Dreadful was a surprise hit (well, surprise to me at least!), and to my utter astonishment, made the New York Times bestseller list. I’d also self-published a romance novella called Leah’s Perfect Christmas under a different pen name, Catherine Beck, a few years earlier. Honestly, it didn’t do particularly well—I lost money, actually—until Hallmark picked it up and turned it into an original movie, Leah’s Perfect Gift, that aired in December. And in between the two successes, I got laid off. So 2024 was a rollercoaster of a year.
Outside of writing, I have a degree in mechanical engineering with a certificate in robotics and intelligent systems from Princeton, which I don’t really use. I’ve been in corporate marketing for the last fifteen years or so, and I’ve gotten to work at some very cool places including Final Draft (the screenwriting software) and the American Museum of Natural History. I live in Jersey City with my husband and son. And yes, I’ve been on the PTA for most of the last decade.
When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?
Writing always seemed like the extension of Let’s Pretend, and I loved Let’s Pretend. I still love Let’s Pretend, honestly. I ran a campaign for my tabletop RPG group I called “Middle-Aged Mages” that was set in the same town as The Grimoire Grammar School Parent Teacher Association. It involved giving them the power to level a house and then making them deal with incredibly mundane-ish problems like Back-to-School Night (the classroom pet turned out to be a shapeshifted cockatrice), needing a couch (the couch was haunted), and dealing with the HOA (the HOA were jerks, ‘cause HOA).
I literally cannot remember a time where I couldn’t read, so books have always been my refuge. Why wouldn’t I want to make some of my own?
Quick lightning round! Tell us:
- The first book you ever remember reading: Charlotte’s Web, which I read in kindergarten
- The one that made you want to become an author: …all of them?
- The one that you can’t stop thinking about: I feel like I ought to be intellectual and say something like Middlemarch or James, but let’s be honest—I imprinted hard on Mercedes Lackey’s Valdemar books, and I still come back to them again and again as comfort reads.
Your latest novel, The Grimoire Grammar School Parent Teacher Association, is out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Magic school: Big Little Lies
What can readers expect?
Wicked satire of modern parenting—from the dread of the class WhatsApp thread to the one-upsmanship of the birthday party circuit—taken to 11 because everyone involved also can cast fireballs. Or more to the point, have a real live unicorn for the kindergartners to ride on, and you’re just not going to be able to top that with Gymboree and some Whole Foods cupcakes.
But while there’s a fair amount of humor (what would a multi-level marketing scheme look like when the sales rep is a nymph from the underworld?), there’s also a fair amount of heart. And maybe a smidgen of autobiography here—I’ve had the kid who was struggling with getting along with his peers in kindergarten, and I’ve definitely felt some of the Mean Girl impact from mom cliques. Vivian desparately wants not just for her kid to fit in, but to find her own place with the other parents. As one of the only mundane humans in the group, though, she constantly struggles with not being able to keep up. I think a lot of parents will emphasize. There are so many fears involved in being a parent. Will my child be safe? Will they be happy? Will the other parents like me? Will the dark prophecy that’s suddenly impacting real estate prices in my community be blamed on me personally?
…maybe not that last one.
Where did the inspiration for The Grimoire Grammar School Parent Teacher Association come from?
Like a lot of people my age, I grew up on magic school books. I wanted desperately for someone to tell me I was special and whisk me away to, I dunno, learn how to teleport and make friends with a dragon or something. Then I had a kid of my own and realized, holy crap, someone should report these schools for child abuse. I don’t care if you’ve got potions that will regrow their bones, why did you think it was reasonable to allow pre-pubescents access to flying spells in the first place? I have to sign a permission slip for my kid to visit the petting zoo and this school has man-eating monsters roaming the grounds? Believe me, I’ve been in enough PTA meetings where the parents were losing their minds over relatively minor things—there is no way any of the shenanigans that happen at magic schools could ever occur without today’s parents showing up with literal torches and pitchforks.
Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
Mrs. Fairhair, the werewolf matriarch, is so much fun to write. She’s the kind of blue-blood Connecticut WASP who runs the debutante ball and also she can rip you limb-from-limb. Rest assured, if she does, she won’t so much as get blood on her pearls.
Did you face any challenges whilst writing? How did you overcome them?
I have a really terrible process that involves fully outlining a book, writing it, and then having to rip it apart for major revisions. This one wasn’t as bad as Dreadful. For this one, I merely had to excise and replace an entire major subplot that didn’t work, combine four supporting characters down to two (I always have too many characters), and add two chapters to the climax. (Dreadful involved merging two major characters and completely rewriting the back third of the book. Fun times!)
What’s next for you?
We have a big exciting announcement coming in the next week or so—keep your eyes peeled!
Lastly, what books are you looking forward to picking up this year?
Books that I got to read as ARCs that you should definitely keep an eye out for—The Incandescent by Emily Tesh came out about a week ago and is also about a magic school (but from the administrator’s point of view). Wearing the Lion by John Wiswell, retelling Hercules and coming out in June, starts out hilariously and then punches you in the feels. I’m also really looking forward to some follow-ups like The Enchanted Greenhouse by Sarah Beth Durst and What Stalks the Deep by T. Kingfisher. Plus there’s a bunch of stuff that’s already come out this year that I haven’t gotten to yet! Alas for infinite time with which to read more books.
