Hi, Clare! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?

Hey there! I’m a mixed Filipino American author based in Los Angeles who likes to write about falling in love, messy family relationships, and ghosts—in other words, I like to write happy endings for haunted people.

My new novel, Unfinished Business, is about a lost young woman who takes a job at the megacorporation her late mother worked at for decades and realizes her mom’s ghost is trapped in the company Slack server—and the only one she can confide in about this supernatural crisis is the guy who broke her heart ten years ago (who also happens to work at the same company). It’s perfect for fans of Ashley Poston and Kirsty Greenwood.

When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?

I’ve wanted to be an author since I was four years old; my dad had just passed away, and someone told me he’d always wanted to be an author but never got the chance to. That’s what first put the idea in my mind, but it really stuck—writing stories quickly became my favorite thing, and stayed that way up through college.

Even though I loved it, I had a hard time getting all the way through writing a novel. I’d start projects but get too in my head, revise the beginning a million times, and not finish. After college, I put writing fiction aside for a while and built a career in something more stable, but during COVID lockdown in 2020, I was like “Shit, I’m going to die one day, I’d better do that thing I’ve always wanted to do!” And that’s when I finished the first draft of my first novel, Midnights With You, a young adult romance about two teens with generational trauma keeping them up at night who fall in love over a series of secret late-night driving lessons, which came out in 2024.

Quick lightning round! Tell us:

• The first book you ever remember reading: Ella Enchanted, definitely formative on the romance front!
• The one that made you want to become an author: To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before made me want to try writing a novel again.
• The one that you can’t stop thinking about: Seven Days in June by Tia Williams—it’s so funny and layered and emotional, an all-timer that I’ll revisit again and again.

Your latest novel, Unfinished Business, is out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?

Chaotic haunted Slack workplace romance

What can readers expect?

Based on the last phone conversation they had before she passed away, Ruby becomes convinced that in order to resolve her mother’s unfinished business and free her from the company Slack, she needs to become a less disappointing daughter. She creates a list of ways she can live more like her mom would have wanted, from getting a promotion to dating someone in a higher tax bracket.

The only one she can confide in about this supernatural crisis is her first love and estranged childhood best friend, Greg, who she’s barely spoken to in years. Ruby’s mom never approved of him growing up, but now as an adult, he’s working at the same company, and he comes running the moment Ruby reaches out for help. He’s helping her work down her list, and all the while, they’re getting closer. But item #5 on the list is “date someone in a higher tax bracket,” and the hot but vaguely sinister new junior executive at work—who’s the kind of guy Ruby’s mom always wanted her to date—has been paying her a lot of attention recently.

My favorite reviews have basically said that it’s a hilarious romp with unexpected depth, so I hope that’s what readers will find when they pick it up!

Where did the inspiration for Unfinished Business come from?

The idea came to me because: 1) I’m fascinated with ghosts, 2) I’ve been staring at Slack at my various jobs for at least a decade, and 3) I have chronic mommy issues.

I was actually writing some dialogue for my debut, Midnights With You, when one of the characters said there should be more stories about haunted computers—and I was like…wait, I should write that? So I took it out and filed the idea away.

As the idea bounced around in my head, I thought: but what’s the relationship between the main character and the ghost haunting their Slack DMs? What would be juicy enough to sustain a story for 80,000 words of a novel? And the answer came to me: of course, it has to be her mom! Lots to dig into.

The themes unspooled for me from there—it would let me write a workplace story that allowed me to take on inherited ideas about work and success and family expectations that might hurt you sometimes, even though they’re meant to guide you toward living a better life.

And the romance thread grew out from there, too. When I was growing up, economic pressure always shaped discussions about love and relationships and the kind of person you should end up with, so I wanted those ideas about work and success to also be very tied up with the main character’s love life. Over the course of the story, she finds herself torn between two love interests in a way that forces her to make some choices about what matters to her and who she wants to be.

Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?

There’s a ridiculous chase sequence I had so much fun writing! Overall, I loved being able to let my sense of humor stretch its legs in this book; I had so much fun writing this story. Some people have said they laughed out loud while reading it, and to me that’s the highest compliment.

Did you face any challenges whilst writing? How did you overcome them?

I’ve written four books for traditional publication at this point—two of them are scheduled to come out next year—and looking back, I think the process of writing Unfinished Business was one of the most joyful and smooth drafting processes I’ve had. (This isn’t to make writing sound easy; I rewrote Midnights With You from top to bottom three times before it was published!)

What’s next for you?

My next book for young adults, a ghost-hunting road trip romance called Suddenly I Miss Everyone, is coming out on March 9, 2027 from Hyperion. And I have a second adult romance coming out from Dell in summer 2027! We haven’t officially announced it, but I’ll just say for now: it’s a spooky rom com, the love interest is a bookseller with a wild supernatural secret, and I think it will appeal to fans of Widow’s Bay.

Lastly, what books are you looking forward to picking up? Any you’ve read so far this year that you’ve enjoyed?

Continuing with the theme of romances between coworkers where things get a weird or supernatural: I loved Lauren Okie’s Tropesick, and Mackenzie Reed’s I Hope This Email Finds You in Hell, which I had the pleasure of reading early!

And there are so many other new and upcoming releases I’m exciting for, but I particularly can’t wait to read Danica Nava’s Sunflower Season, Naina Kumar’s Just a Highland Fling, and Natalie Sue’s You’ll Love It Here.

Will you be picking up Unfinished Business? Tell us in the comments below!

The post Q&A: Clare Osongco, Author of ‘Unfinished Business’ appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

Here’s what we do know: there was another infamous barn party at the McClain family farm last night, and things went horribly wrong. By the end of the night, there were two dead bodies in the old barn: seventeen-year-old Sadie Cooper and her killer, Mason Vreeland. The murder was heartbreakingly witnessed by Sadie’s twin sister, Jayne, and Sadie died in her arms. Mason was killed by Sadie’s boyfriend, Ben, in an attempt to save Sadie.

Aside from figuring out Mason’s motive, it should be an open-and-shut case. But it’s not.

The story unfolds just after the murders, and Jayne, Ben, and Sadie’s best friend, Liz, are telling the cops what transpired at the party and the events leading up to it. But little details don’t match. And those little details start to add up to big discrepancies. But who’s lying, and why?

The shocking truth is revealed in the third act, when the POV shifts to victim Sadie herself, in the days leading up to the party. Witness exactly what happened—and see if you can piece it all together. Because poor Sadie totally missed what was right in front of her.

Rachel Peterson graduated from Miami University of Ohio with a degree in English and creative writing. Born and raised in Ohio, she started her career in advertising before spending nearly a decade in New York City as a marketing executive for technology companies. An avid traveler, Rachel now splits her time between Manhattan and the Midwest, where she lives with her husband, Ken; their dog, Olive; and horse, Hope.

We asked Peterson about how Killing Sadie changed her writing life personally, the appeal of summer books with crime elements, and more.

Before becoming a writer, you started your career in advertising and then spent a decade in marketing as an executive for tech companies. How do you think your experience in both professions has entangled in your identity as an author? How has it contributed to Killing Sadie, if it has at all?

This question has me feeling nostalgic! My careers in advertising and marketing have been such a wonderful benefit to my author toolkit – not being too precious about the work, taking feedback with stride, and working against wild deadlines. But more than anything, those two worlds were super pressurized, which forced me to trust my team and my intuition, especially when the outcome was uncertain! Building those trust and collaboration muscles has had a much bigger impact on my author adventure than I could have ever imagined.

Being a debut author, getting Killing Sadie out into the world means wearing different hats (some familiar and some brand new) by the minute, which is mildly terrifying at times, but also a dream come true! Switching between author mode, speaker mode, social media mode and a hundred others has definitely been made easier by my past work life.

Despite the many POVs, you write a very authentic and consistent narrator voice. What preparation did you do to accomplish this? What is some wisdom you’d offer to young writers hoping to accomplish this?

When it comes to a consistent narration voice for these teens, full credit goes to my teenage self, who journaled extensively and was obsessed with Y2K-era blogging sites! She was a rebellious, creative theater kid through and through who loved to imagine the inner lives of other people. And happily, I still have access to a lot of that old writing (and the grainy film photos that prove my 2000s style was mostly on-point haha).

My advice to young writers is to reframe what you might consider a disadvantage into your storytelling edge – there really is magic in the mundane, especially if you push normal situations and characters to the absolute limits. Another piece of advice I always give young writers is to build a writing practice that exists regardless of the creative spark, which can be annoyingly unreliable! I truly treat writing as a daily routine rather than a lightning strike moment, and some of my best pages have come from days when I felt totally uninspired but opened my laptop anyway. True story: Some pages of Killing Sadie were written on my phone notes app in Newark Airport during a delay!

What was it like writing in the present moment with the police uncovering what happened that night and then reliving what the narrator experienced in italics?

The structure was a perfect match for my writing style, which as my wonderful editor knows well, is very much stream of consciousness. My characters tend to surprise me during most writing sessions! I think the pacing of the story plus the unreliable narrators (no spoilers: your favorite Killing Sadie characters are lying to you!) led to pages that feel frenetic, urgent and unhinged.

The italicized sections give readers a quick break from the intensity of police questioning, plus a deeper understanding of our characters and their histories before jumping dramatically back into present day. Personally, I just adore the drama it creates when we finally switch to Act Three: Dead Girl Talking. This page turn always makes my heart skip a beat!

What do you think is the appeal of stories set in the summer with murder or other crime elements that makes this niche genre so popular? What inspired you to write this book?

Twisty thrillers have a certain unstoppable energy, which is totally compatible with the summer mood! While we slow down in some ways (beach vacation with book in hand), tension and escapism is part of that experience! Summer offers up the promise of freedom, especially for teens, and the opportunity to step out of the structured school year and into the unknown. As a teen, I was reinventing myself practically every summer. You can be someone else and jump into a different world … all the elements that make for a brilliant thriller setup!

The inspiration for Killing Sadie came from taking a regular town and teenage life, and dialing the volume way up. It turns out that a sleepy Midwestern town like the one where I grew up can make your mind wander, thinking: Can you ever really know someone? What is truth? What if there was a murder at this weekend’s barn party? You know, the universal questions all teens ask …

You opened the story with a quote from Shakespeare and Fitzgerald. Out of all the authors, what enticed you about including quotes from them, and what does each author mean to you when it comes to Killing Sadie?

Oh, this question makes my English major heart sing! Pairing two unexpected authors together – in this case, authors separated by hundreds of years – is sort of like discovering a surprising pairing of ice cream flavors. Once you taste it, the combination makes perfect sense. The very first Shakespeare quote included in Killing Sadie, from Romeo and Juliet, jumped into my mind instantly alongside the plot itself. There are definitely Shakespearean elements to the book and Sadie’s fate, and I have always loved the idea of pairing the classics with modern stories.

Meanwhile, The Great Gatsby quotes actually came into play with a much later draft. One particular quote from Gatsby stuck with me after I reread the book and just felt so right for a certain character – readers will have to wait until the very end to figure out which character inspired it!

Turns out that modern teenage life has a lot more in common with feuding families, shocking secrets, personal reinvention and star-crossed lovers than we may think … at least in Sadie’s world.

The post Q&A: Rachel Peterson, Author of ‘Killing Sadie’ appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

Hi, Caty! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?

I would love to! I’m a Capricorn (though I’m not really sure that means!), I’m a mom of two amazing girls (plus a dog who is pretty sure he’s people), and my husband is my “he-falls-first” in real life MMC.

When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?

I’ve always loved reading, and I started writing with the help of my mother when I was very young. My mother also wanted to be an author, and she really encouraged this dream of mine in very special ways, including typing up my story ideas (on a typewriter!) and printing them out.

Quick lightning round! Tell us:

• The first book you ever remember reading: On my own? Yikes. Maybe Ella Enchanted? I’m not sure I have a memory of this.
• The one that made you want to become an author: There’s too many!
• The one that you can’t stop thinking about: I’m very excited for September, when Whit Stanfield releases the fourth book in her The Naiads of Juile series about feminine rage and sirens.

Your debut novel, Kissed by the Gods, is out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?

Feminine rage and he’s a yearner. (Almost made it! That’s six.)

What can readers expect?

In addition to the feminine rage and the MMC who is very down bad for our girl Leina, you can expect found family, epic fantasy, meddling gods, and winged war horses.

Where did the inspiration for Kissed by the Gods come from?

Kissed by the Gods was inspired by so many sources of the years, but I love sharing that I’ve pulled inspiration from Star Wars! When you read about the Synod Council, how they can call to their weapons, and the structure of the Altor training system, think Star Wars and the Jedi.

Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?

Too many to count, but I was so surprised by how easily Thalric and Nyrica both came to me. These two have my whole heart.

Did you face any challenges whilst writing? How did you overcome them?

I really dug into writing Kissed by the Gods after having a miscarriage, and the story also became a way for me to process my grief.

This is your debut novel! What was the road to becoming a published author like for you?

It’s been wild! I published Kissed by the Gods as an indie author, and I really loved that journey. The indie author community is so welcoming and supportive, and I’ve learned so much. I’ve also enjoyed taking Kissed by the Gods to the traditional publishing world, and love working with a larger team.

What’s next for you?

I’m hard at work on Blessed by the Damned, which is the sequel to Kissed by the Gods and the conclusion to Leina and Ryot’s duet.

Lastly, what books are you looking forward to picking up? Any you’ve read so far this year that you’ve enjoyed?

Leena Kazak’s Between Tides and Thunder re-releases in January, after also being picked by traditional publishing, and I cannot wait to get my hands on the deluxe edition. I’ve already it, but you better believe I’m going to read it again!

Will you be picking up Kissed by the Gods? Tell us in the comments below!

The post Q&A: Caty Rogan, Author of ‘Kissed by the Gods’ appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

About Tillinghast: A dark and utterly original literary horror debut, following a priest whose bloodthirsty life has extended far longer than any mere human’s—and is upended when a stranger comes to town. Out now.

On the 17th of March 1892, a woman named Mercy Brown, who had been dead for exactly three months, was exhumed from her grave in the small town of Exeter, Rhode Island. A team of local villagers, accompanied by a medical doctor and a newspaper reporter were there to watch as her heart and liver were removed from her body and burned on a fire nearby. The ashes were carefully collected and mixed with water, and her brother Edwin drank the resulting concoction. Mercy wasn’t the first. Nearly one hundred people were exhumed from their graves across New England, especially Rhode Island, throughout the nineteenth century.

Why did they do this? Depending on who you ask, you might get one of two answers.

Answer one is that it happened because Mercy Brown had died of tuberculosis, or consumption, as it was then known. In the wake of the industrial revolution, populations in New England became more concentrated, and these higher density communities provided the ideal conditions for TB to spread. With no effective treatments until the 1940s, contracting the illness meant certain death. In response, local communities developed the belief that TB was spreading through families and towns because those who had already died were somehow sapping the energy of the sick. Perhaps, then, neutralising the dead might halt the disease. Mercy might be harming Edwin, and by destroying her body and giving him pieces of it to consume, he might be cured.

Answer two is that it happened because Mercy Brown was a vampire.

What do you picture when you read the word ‘vampire’? An alluring, Eastern European aristocrat who never drinks… wine? A Louisiana-dwelling, blond Frenchman? A sparkling, perpetual seventeen-year-old?

What, if anything, do these figures have in common with Mercy Brown? On the face of it, not much. The New Englanders who exhumed the bodies of their dead relatives to prevent the spread of tuberculosis never used the word ‘vampire’ themselves – it was projected onto them by newspaper reports which brought the story of Mercy Brown to a national and international audience, one of whom, it seems, was the Irish writer Bram Stoker, who would publish Dracula five years later.

The first seeds of my novel, Tillinghast, came from research into the New England vampire panic, as the exhumations are now known, but it was also shaped by vampires in mythology, fiction and film. There are plenty of fascinating links between what really happened in Rhode Island and the vampires of page and screen. These links are diaphanous and suggestive, and made a great place to play – with the historical record, with readers’ expectations, with the vampire tradition in general. The New England vampire panic and the mythological, fictional vampire can illuminate one another, but they can also stand in opposition. Examining four key characteristics of the vampire, the vampire as outsider, as seducer, as revenant and as parasite, will show these points of union and opposition, and help explain why the story of Mercy Brown holds such enduring fascination.

The Outsider

Vampires are outsiders, in space and in time. Their artificially lengthened lifespans leave them cut off from their own chronological context, adrift in an infinite present. Very often, too, they’re geographical outsiders. Dracula emerges from deepest, darkest Eastern Europe, Lestat is an old world traveller to America. The vampire is non-human and foreign. He’s outside the house and needs an invitation to enter. Once he’s in, he spreads death and corruption.

At the time of the exhumations, Rhode Islanders were in a sense outsiders to their New England neighbours. Founded by a religious refugee from Massachusetts, Rhode Island retained a secretive permissiveness which allowed many of its inhabitants to avoid affiliation with church congregations, which could be systems of surveillance as well as religious communities. Rhode Island was a place for outsiders and a place where you could keep secrets – fertile ground for vampire myths.

To the writers and readers of newspaper reports such as that which appeared in the Providence Journal two days after Mercy Brown’s exhumation, the people of Exeter were outsiders too, cut off from the genteel enlightenment of larger cities. The Journal describes, in frenzied all caps, the “BODIES OF DEAD RELATIVES TAKEN FROM THEIR GRAVES” with the aim of “Testing a Horrible Superstition”, something their readers, of course, would never do. Intriguingly, Dr Michael E. Bell points out that international responses to the exhumations seemed to regard them as a typically American problem: taking a step back makes the Rhode Islanders look a lot less foreign, a lot more integrated into US society. Perhaps they’re not as outside as we’d like them to be.

What’s worse than a vampire lurking outside the door, begging to be invited in? A vampire who’s already inside the house. A vampire who looks like your mother, your sister. Worst of all, a vampire who looks like you.

The Seducer

Vampires are sexy. They can be beautiful and charming when they want to, and their sex appeal can be an excellent tool for hunting their prey. Vampirism is an eloquent stand-in for sexual desire, especially in a conservative context: an alluring, often male figure is in thrall to a barely-contained appetite, the fulfilment of which will result in the destruction of his partner. To me, this sounds a lot like some of the abstinence-forward sexual education I was offered in my early teens.

But what does this have to do with the New England vampires? Surely there’s nothing sexy about a tuberculosis epidemic? As Alicea Hibbard and Annette Lopez Rosa explain in their article, ‘Tuberculosis and the Fatal Beauty of Romanticism’, “the characteristic consumptive appearance of TB victims was the predominant European beauty standard. Suffering from the disease’s effects was seen not only as a beautiful and dramatic way to die, but also an aspirational way to live.” The bright eyes, pale skin, livid cheeks and lips and delicate frame of the TB sufferer were considered beautiful, and it was thought that consumption favoured victims of a romantic or artistic disposition. The disease sought out sexy people and made them sexier as they died.

The idea of a sexy illness sounds weird, but the description of the consumptive body is very close to the heroin chic aesthetic of the 1990s. Echoes of that style are returning right now as changing fashion and rising use of GLP-1 receptor antagonist drugs bring extremely thin body types back into fashion. It’s also worth noting that unlike fictional vampires, who tend to be male, the ‘vampires’ of New England tended to be female – women spent more time in the enclosed spaces of the home, and more time caring for ill family members, leaving them disproportionately vulnerable to contracting disease themselves.

The delicate, vulnerable, suffering woman is a sexualised trope familiar to everyone. Through direct replication and revisionist subversion, it’s still nearly ubiquitous in horror and thriller media today. And if the delicate, suffering woman can double up as the aggressor, the antagonist; if she can die sweetly on a chaise longue and then reappear to sap the life from more victims, all the better. This fetish-figure twines together the historical record and the vampire as cultural artefact. It seems certain to have driven public interest in Mercy Brown’s story back in the 1890s, and the enduring appeal of the story today.

The Revenant

Vampires are undead. Their bodies don’t decay, often they don’t even change.

Human bodies, of course, change constantly, After they die, they alter in ways that are disturbing, even counter-intuitive. The unusual experience of witnessing advanced human decomposition during the exhumations probably contributed to the practices that made up the New England vampire panic. Corpses bloated with decomposition gasses could be mistaken for revenants who had been consuming something. The fluids in the cavities of a decomposing body might be mistaken for fresh blood. Colour changes in the skin could be surprising and frightening.

In between the moment of death and the point at which decomposition is largely complete and only skeletal remains are left is a period of great risk, when the lines between human and non-human, living and dead seem threateningly porous. Decomposition takes a familiar body and makes it unrecognisable, full of uncanny movement and alteration. Victim becomes monster, ailing consumptive becomes vampire.

This fear isn’t one we’ve left behind with the nineteenth-century New Englanders. In the contemporary US, rates of embalming are extremely high, and have only begun to decline recently as cremation becomes more and more popular. Both embalming and cremation stave off the dangerous period of decay, either by temporarily preventing it or by skipping through it to the skeletal phase. They’re technological responses to the threat of a beloved body turning on us. Even now, we prefer people alive or dead. When they’re somewhere in between, horror ensues.

The Parasite

Vampires drink blood. This is a pretty big moral problem, and if the vampire is to appear as anything but a villain, it requires a work-around, such as the animal-blood-only diet of the vampires in Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight series.

When working on Tillinghast, I knew that this point of conflict – a vampire who knows right from wrong, prefers to do the right thing but nevertheless kills victims – was one I didn’t want to resolve or work around. The further I got into writing the book and the better I got to know my main character, the more it seemed that his moral impasse was not only the key to understanding him, but a difficulty that a lot of real people shared, very much including me.

I know that my day-to-day comfort and flourishing is supported by the suffering and even the deaths of other people. Unlike Tillinghast, I don’t have to dispatch them myself, but like him, I have a sense of justice, a desire to do the right thing, and a complete inability to solve this problem in a way that might absolve me of my culpability. Being able to keep on going in circumstances like this is, I think, a far more universal human struggle than it first appears.

I think this is the point at which the New England vampires diverge definitively from their fictional counterparts. I do not think that the people involved in the New England vampire panic acted selfishly, and I don’t even really think that they hurt anyone. In the case of Mercy Brown, the record shows that her father, George Brown, was reluctant to agree to the exhumation, and did not believe that exhuming her would be effective. Dr Metcalfe, who attended the burials, didn’t think it was a good idea either. So why did they go through with it? They did it in order to protect their community, through essentially the only method available to them. The results, however brutal and grotesque they might seem, were the fruits of their selflessness and bravery.

Sometimes it feels that the New England ‘vampires’ have become lost in the fictional and mythological mist that surrounds them, but they are there if you look closely enough. If you take a trip to the Chestnut Hill Baptist Church in Exeter, Rhode Island and walk around the back of the church, you’ll find the headstone of Mercy L. Brown, daughter of Geroge and Mary Brown, who died aged 19. It stands in the shade of a tree, near the graves of her family members. Mercy died in the winter, and the cold preserved her. In some tellings, it was so cold she couldn’t be buried, and instead her body was stored in the crypt, which you’ll find off to your right as you look at the headstone, waiting for the ground to thaw enough for digging.

Something terrible did happen to her, but it wasn’t supernatural. It was nothing worse than what happens to all of us, sooner or later. And that, surely, is a truth too terrible to contemplate. That’s the kind of thing you’d have to do something about. You’d have to find a way to extract the vampire from yourself, your sister, your mother. You’d have to find a way to send her out into the night, where she can’t get at you anymore, where she can beg and beg all she wants, but you’ll never let her back inside.

If you’d like to find out more, I recommend Dr Michael E. Bell’s books Food for the Dead and The Vampire’s Grasp.

The post What is a Vampire Anyway? The New England Vampire Panic appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

Hi Cynthia, thank you for joining us today. Please could you introduce yourself and tell us a little about your book Paint Me Like Your Dead Girls?

Hello! I’m a Young Adult author from Manchester, England, where I live with my lovely husband and our rescue dog, Loli. Paint Me Like Your Dead Girls is a bit of a love letter to art and to people who are so invested in true crime, and it centres around Fliss Keller, who finds a fabled lost portrait that may or may not be cursed…and then the murders begin.

Where did the idea for this book originate from?

I was researching Victorians (which I often do because some of their traditions were so wonderfully morbid) and I came across a particularly gruesome pastime where they liked to use bits of Egyptian mummies for various detestable reasons! But one terrible hobby included grinding them down to use in a paint named ‘Mummy Brown’, which became popular. My first thought was, well, all those paintings will be haunted, won’t they? Then I wondered what would happen if someone did use human remains in a painting, why they would do that and what it might look like. And Paint Me Like Your Dead Girls was born!

As usual, this was such a tightly plotted YA thriller with great twists and turns. What was your process in creating this like and how did you keep track of the different plot strands?

Thank you! I try to plot my big twists and have an idea of where to plant the red herrings, but the truth is those usually come along in the second draft. This book was unusual as I had a completely different idea at first and had to rewrite the start to adapt to the way it ends now, but it’s been one of my favourites to write.

I love how your books tread that line between the supernatural and our world so carefully. How do you find this balance and what influences these aspects?

I just adore anything supernatural and love to have a hint of it in the stories I write. It’s always nice to leave suggestions of something spooky in the text and let the reader pick up on them if that’s their thing, but also be able to dismiss them if not. I’ve actually started a ‘Weird Art History’ series on my social media, as I found so many brilliant stories when I was doing the research for this book that I wanted to share them! I think that hint at the supernatural works especially well here, as the paintings are so creepy and ominous – if I saw them in a gallery, my imagination would definitely get carried away!

How do you think your background in Art History and Archaeology informs your writing, particularly for this art-focused book?

It always manages to sneak in, even if I don’t plan it. There are so many nods to real artefacts in my books, either that I’ve studied or seen in real-life, from John Dee’s scrying mirror in Win Lose Kill Die and Keep Your Friends Close to the Victorian mourning jewellery in Last One To Die. This book was so fun to write, though, because I got to take lots of inspiration from surrealist and often macabre portraits (particularly a series by Francis Bacon) and then invent my own versions with their own histories. I hope that I managed to do it convincingly!

What is one message or lingering thought that you’d like readers to take away from this book?

The ongoing debate on whether we should enjoy good art by bad people. I’m not sure I know the answer, but it’s always something I’m open to discuss!

If you could wipe your memory of the big twist and read a book for the first time again, which book would you pick?

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn. What a masterpiece.

What songs or music would serve as your ideal soundtrack for Paint Me Like Your Dead Girls?

I actually had a playlist to put on when I needed to get in the mood to write, and my favourites were Taste by Sabrina Carpenter, That’s So True by Gracie Abrams, Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me by Talor Swift, Bad Idea Right? By Olivia Rodrigo, My Kink is Karma by Chappell Roan and Happier Than Ever by Billie Eilish. Every one of those songs has a slightly twisted relationship with the book!

What books have you enjoyed so far this year and are there any that you can’t wait to get your hands on?

I have really loved Drop Dead Famous by JC Pearson, Our Wicked Gifts by Kathryn Foxfield and Foes & Cons by Georgia Bowers. I’m also very excited for the final Naturals book by Jennifer Lynn Barnes, The Velvet Knife by Maureen Johnson and Dead Beat by Leigh Bardugo.

If possible, please can you share a little about what you are currently working on or any upcoming projects you have?

I can’t! I do have something coming and it’s a little different, but might be my favourite book so far, so watch this space!

Finally if you could only use five words to describe Paint Me Like Your Dead Girls, what would they be?

Dark, macabre, investigative, thrilling and eerie.

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Hi, Virginia! Welcome back! What have you been up to since we last spoke two years ago for the release of All’s Fair in Love and War?

Lots of writing and lots of travelling. Since we last spoke, Look Before Your Leap, the 2^nd of my Miss Prentice’s Protégées, has been released, the 3^rd is about to hit bookshelves and I’ve even finished writing the 4^th. However, you’ll have to wait until Summer 2027 for that final book in the series to be published. In between that, I’ve visited India, Japan and Egypt, which were three big destinations on my bucket list and all three were amazing. I also got to be both mother-of-the-bride and mother-of-the-groom as both my kids decided to have weddings within a year of each other. So life has been really busy, but in a good way.

Your latest novel, Pride Comes Before a Fall, is out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?

Funny, sexy, thought provoking, romantic.

What can readers expect?

An independent, outspoken, reforming heroine, who has never needed a man to complete her, finds herself falling for one of the patriarchy she’s supposed to be smashing—a duke with dimples who isn’t at all what she expects an entitled duke to be!

Where did the inspiration for Pride Comes Before a Fall come from?

I suppose it grew out of the initial mention of Portia Kendall in the first book of the series All’s Fair in Love and War. When I first introduced the four childhood friends who would each become the heroine of their own standalone love story, I wanted each one to be different. Georgie was the lonely one who needed a found family, Lottie was the tomboy, Kitty was the daydreamer and Portia was the most intelligent one who had quite forthright political opinions. Especially when it came to the class struggle and lack of equality rife during the Regency where the series is set. By the time Look Before You Leap was finished, it became obvious that Portia didn’t only want change, she wanted a complete political revolution. So much so, she’s prepared to risk her freedom and her future by anonymously writing pithy columns calling for reform for an underground, illegal newspaper considered (at that time) seditious. When it came to writing Pride Comes Before a Fall, I figured if she staunchly supported the abolition of the aristocracy because she thought that they were all entitled, pompous, obsolete and out of touch, then I should force her to cross paths with someone who flipped some of those set in stone principles on their head. Hence I created Leo, the most lovable and unconventional duke of his age. A powerful man capable of completely destroying her once he discovers her dark secret. Except he does entirely the opposite…

Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?

As a former Head of History at a school here in the UK, I really enjoyed weaving some of the issues of the time into this story. But as a hopeless romantic who writes Romcoms now for a living, I adored leaning into the ridiculousness of some of the situations my leads got themselves tangled in. Then there is the fact that the heroine is a writer, like me, so it was fun to put some of my own processes onto the page disguised as hers. I also particularly loved creating some endearing and eccentric side characters, which is something I’m known for. Aside from Leo’s troublesome sisters, magnificently meddling mother, the hero’s faithful hounds Captain Barkington and Inspector Snifferson, and the heroine’s hopelessly romantic, daydreaming, disaster-prone friend Kitty (who is the star of next year’s final Miss P book Practice Makes Perfect), the nominee for Best Supporting Actor is very definitely M’Lady Whiskers. She is the hero’s evil and disdainful white Persian cat who will only tolerate him and only very occasionally!

Did you face any challenges whilst writing? How did you overcome them?

Oh my goodness! Some books fly out of your fingers and pretty much write themselves, and some become the uncompliant bane of your existence. This book was very much the latter and was almost the death of me! It was, without a doubt, the hardest book I have ever written. And with the benefit of hindsight, I now completely understand why. Not that I realised that during the months I sat banging my head against my desk wondering why the story just wouldn’t work. Especially as I had a loose plan for this one and a brilliant ending all ready. Something that I never usually do because I cannot plot. I watch the story live like a film in my head and write down everything I see and hear. Weird I know, but it works for me. However, try as I might, by the time I reached the middle of the book, I just couldn’t make the plot work to get to that brilliant ending. I wrote and deleted. Wrote and deleted. Deleted, rejigged and deleted again, and all I seemed to do was tie myself and my characters up in more knots.

Then, as I so often do during a bout of writing-induced insomnia, I had an epiphany. My brilliant ending wasn’t the ending at all. It was the plot twist in the middle! Once I figured that out and abandoned the rest of the planned plot, a new film started in my head and everything fell into place. And the best thing is that I am so proud of the story it became. It is, without a doubt, one of the best books I have ever written. The early reviews of it have also been fantastic, which is such a relief after all the trouble Pride Comes Before a Fall gave me. It also goes to prove the old adage: Easy reading is HARD writing.

What’s the best and worst writing advice you’ve received?

The best is to just write, even if you’re stuck and not feeling it, because you’ll get there in the end. The worst, as Pride Comes Before a Fall is proof, was to plot out the story thoroughly before you start writing it. That, I can assure you after this book, is something I will NEVER be doing again!

Looking back, what’s one piece of wisdom you wished you knew when you were starting out?

That this writing malarky is a marathon, not a sprint. It takes dedication, discipline and a lot of work to make a career out of it, so pace yourself. Newsflash, I didn’t and often burned myself out creatively.

What’s next for you?

I’m simultaneously trying my hand at writing a contemporary romcom and a witchy, accidentally time-travelling romcom at the same time, so hopefully you’ll see those on a bookshelf soon. And, of course, I’ve still got all the edits and stuff to do on the final standalone story in the Miss Prentice series, so I’m not done with Regency romcoms yet either.

Lastly, what books are you looking forward to picking up? Any you’ve read so far this year that you’ve enjoyed?

Bizarrely, for a city girl from London, I went through a big cowboy romance phase earlier this year. My favourite of all of them was Done and Dusted by Lyla Sage, so obviously I devoured the rest of that series. I also really enjoyed Fan Girl Down by Tessa Bailey and Merry Christmas, You Filthy Animal by Meghan Quinn. I’m really looking forward to getting my hands on The Love Stunt by Lulu Morris because I loved her debut The Dating Pact. What’s not to love about a sunny plus-sized heroine, a jaded movie star and a fake relationship romance?

Will you be picking up Pride Comes Before a Fall? Tell us in the comments below!

The post Q&A: Virginia Heath, Author of ‘Pride Comes Before A Fall’ appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

Hi, Calvin! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?

Hello! I’m Calvin James, and I’m an author, aerospace engineer, amateur historian, and role-playing game enthusiast. I live with my wife, dog, and two cats near Denver, and I’ve been seriously writing for ten years now.

When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?

I actually started writing stories running a Dungeons and Dragons campaign for my friends when I was ten. Even then, I eschewed pre-made adventures and wrote my own campaigns. As I ran more campaigns and had more ideas, I started setting my ideas down and eventually began dabbling in writing books. I wrote my first story in seventh grade, and have dreamt of being a novelist at least since then.

Quick lightning round! Tell us:

• The first book you ever remember reading: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
• The one that made you want to become an author: Lord of the Rings
• The one that you can’t stop thinking about: Les Miserables

Your debut novel, Affairs of State, is out July 28^th! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?

Romantic war-torn space palace intrigue

What can readers expect?

A second chance romance packed with longing, historic-based palace society among the stars,  subtle political manoeuvring, a dash of violence, a murderous yet maniacally loyal mechanical ally, and a suite of seductive, scheming characters for our hero to outmanoeuvre if he hopes to reunite with his long-lost love.

Where did the inspiration for Affairs of State come from?

There were two inspirations. One was a conversation with my buddies after one had had a breakup and then had to work with their ex-girlfriend. We started coming up with outlandish worse alternatives, such as her being the boss’s daughter, her being the boss of the labor union, her being a vampire out to suck his blood, or my suggestion, her being an evil enemy emperor trying to conquer the world, but who had never gotten over him. Imagine Sauron pining after Aragorn and making the One Ring for him, only for Aragon to give that ring to a hobbit to throw into the fire because we are So Done, Sauron!

That’s where the character of Astrid came from, but the plot had to wait until I read a history book about the Congress of Vienna. At the end of the Napoleonic Wars, as they negotiated the world order which would dominate Europe for a century, the crowned heads of Europe turned Vienna into a drunken, debauched, and decidedly raunchy eight-month long party, all while manoeuvring huge armies to seize lands and intimidate each other. When I read the outrageous exploits of these individuals – which culminated with the Tsar of Russia and Austria’s Foreign Minister sleeping with each other’s mistresses, buying them expensive presents, and expensing the purchases to their governments under the guise of ‘performing diplomatic reconnaissance’ – I knew I had to set the sexy drunken diplomacy in space. But what would the plot be? Of course: the main character attends the peace conference to find his college ex-girlfriend, who is now the evil enemy emperor.

Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?

Tilly was a delightful surprise. Originally, I didn’t have her in the novel, but then chapter two came around, and cavalry captain Levar Boylan needed a mount. I wanted something more unique than a horse, so I decided on a flying robot horse with the vocal range of R2-D2 and the attitude of a homicidally protective pit bull. Every scene she showed up in, I knew I was going to have fun watching Levar try to prevent his murderous mount from wreaking havoc.

Did you face any challenges whilst writing? How did you overcome them?

Affairs of State is the first and only novel I “pantsed”. I find discovery writing exceptionally difficult and far more work than plotting. I prefer having plans, outlines, character profiles, and a few thousand years of world history before I start writing, but this one I went in on vibes. For example, I wasn’t certain if I wanted the “evil emperor ex-girlfriend at Vienna” story to be fantasy or science-fiction, so I went with both, and only turned to full science-fiction once the demons became genetic augments. Thus, this novel has had the most amount of editing, re-writing, and mid-writing pauses to build out the world of any I’ve ever written, and took the longest time (over a calendar year) to finish. But, with determination, three filled notebooks, and a willingness to torch entire chapters which didn’t work, I forged a novel which I truly enjoy reading.

This is your debut novel! What was the road to becoming a published author like for you?

Long. It was long.

I started writing seriously in 2016, at least finishing novels and pursuing publication. I’ve written ten full manuscripts in those ten years, and Affairs of State was not my first. For six years, I struggled with rejections so cutting Achilles would have felt his tendons twinge had he read them. I honed my craft, read books on writing and attended workshops, trying to make myself good enough for someone to see me.

My agent found me at a literary conference read-and-critique session. She walked into the session, pulled out my first ten pages, and asked, “Who wrote this? I want to read the rest.” She saw me, and she stuck with me for another two and a half brutal years as my novels failed to attract attention. She could have moved on to faster-selling authors, but Amy believed in me, and that gave me hope.

I kept writing, and produced another novel which grabbed a different publisher’s attention. Hearing that I might soon be off the table, my current editor reached out about Affairs of State. When we started the call, my editor said, “My publicity team says I can’t spend the entire hour talking about history with you,” and my agent said, “Oh god, there’s two of them.” A solid start, to be sure.

The last sixteen months have been a steady building pressure to this moment. Today I am achieving a lifelong dream, and the feeling is what I would imagine riding a rising storm cloud would be like.

What’s next for you?

Titan books has chosen to go ahead with the next book in the Rimverse series! It’s the story of how Levar and Astrid fell in love at school, but when Levar throws over his high-class popular-crowd friends after they insult his girlfriend, they set about trying to ruin Levar and Astrid’s lives. Levar must rely on his new rag-tag group of outcast friends to survive his former frenemies’ ire, the corrupt military police department’s attention, and entanglement in a treason plot which threatens far worse than expulsion.

That book is already written, in the hands of my editor, and will come out next year assuredly! After that, well, I have one finished manuscript that I’m particularly proud of. It’s not set in the Rimverse, but I think I’ll keep the details to myself until my publisher has a chance to look at it.

For Rimverse fans, though, I have several more Levar and Astrid books in mind, a spinoff in the works, and another fully written. If you keep reading, I’ll keep writing. I’m nowhere close to running out of stories yet!

Lastly, what books are you looking forward to picking up? Any you’ve read so far this year that you’ve enjoyed?

I loved The Lies of Locke Lamora so much I finished the trilogy in a month, and I’m two-thirds of the way through the Mistborn trilogy, but after that, I think I’m going to find another nice thick history book. You can find so much inspiration in history, even for stories set among the stars.

Will you be picking up Affairs of State? Tell us in the comments below!

The post Q&A: Calvin James, Author of ‘Affairs of State’ appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

The Demon Star is a multi-POV science fantasy about three humans seeking the power to overcome their tyrannical gods. Please tell us a little about your main characters?

The Demon Star has two main POVs, Jacen and Ysira. They’re both about 30, which is the age that I am. There’s a lot to explore in this life stage, where you’re a little more experienced and established, but that comes with this expectation to be a leader or a mentor. You might be in brand new territory just like when you were 20, but there’s more pressure because you’re expected to have more figured out, and more people rely on you. Odds are, you’re also somewhat disillusioned with how your life has turned out—or, as is the case for Jacen and Ysira, even downright embarrassed.

Women are subjected to a lot of messaging about how as we age we’re no longer as valuable—no longer ‘main character material’, so to speak. With TDS, I decided to lean into my frustration over this. I feel like mothers in particular are often sidelined or vilified in SFF books, so I tried to deconstruct that with Ysira. She’s a mother who never really planned on being one, and one of her defining traits is an overwhelming need for recognition and significance.

Neither Ysira nor Jacen would be the main character in a traditional fantasy story—that would be Ysira’s eleven-year-old son Neri. He’s the one who’s supposed to save the world, but it’s his parents and mentors who are pulling the strings. I wanted to explore how they feel about that power, how they use it, and how their own baggage affects how they relate to Neri. He never gets his own POV; you only ever see him through Jacen or Ysira’s eyes, and that was a very intentional choice.

How did your own life experiences and travels influence the world and themes of the novel?

My parents work overseas, so I was born in Brussels, Belgium. I had a lot of incredible experiences because of this multicultural upbringing, but it also made me a bit of an outsider. In the Belgian school system, I experienced a lot of bullying. When I started attending an American school on a base, I didn’t fit in there, either. I’m also of mixed ethnicity, which adds another layer of complication. I’ve spent a lot of my life trying to figure out where I belong, and whether I’m ‘enough’ of anything.

Both main characters of The Demon Star struggle with this, but especially Jacen. He’s been displaced in a pretty extreme sense, in that he’s had his childhood memories erased, and I did draw on personal experience to write him. I was exposed to a lot of military propaganda, and for a long time, to compensate for the sense of displacement I felt, I leaned into that fanatical brand of patriotism—a concept of identity that’s tied not to culture or place, but to ideology. This is reflected in Jacen’s character arc.

It’s incredible how much worldbuilding is packed into this standalone novel, and the demonic xenobiology inhabiting the planet is truly spine-tingling. How did you come up with it?

Growing up, I was obsessed with The X-Files, and my favorite episodes were always the ones with weird bugs or parasitic worms. I’m also a big fan of sci-fi horror creatures like in Aliens or Starship Troopers. In general, I just really like bugs. If you take me to a zoo, I’m going directly to the insectarium.

I also love horror movies about exorcisms, so I suppose it just made sense to me to combine demonic possession with parasitic worms and insect infestations. It all makes for great material to explore themes of bodily autonomy and free will.

Can you talk about the religious conflict facing the citizens of Zivora?

I drew on my Hispanic heritage in the US Southwest. Religion is a big part of this culture, and it’s marked by syncretism, blending Spanish Catholicism, indigenous religions, and Judaism. This came about not only through intermarriage and cultural exchange, but through forced assimilation, discrimination, and violence—which is also reflected in the region’s language, and its very people. I used that as a jumping off point for creating the world of the Scar, though more on a thematic level than anything, since it’s definitely not supposed to be a 1:1 equivalent.

I wanted to dig into the dissonance that’s inherent in a vibrant, beautiful culture that wouldn’t exist without a complicated, often ugly history. Zivora’s religion was not adopted by choice, but it’s woven its way into citizens’ lives and ways of thinking anyway. While this is often a very bad thing, it’s also given many people comfort, healing, and purpose. I wanted to make readers stew in this discomfort, of how you can love a thing that’s done you incredible harm, without providing easy answers. I tried to display a wide variety of perspectives on religion, none of which are objectively correct, and all of which respond differently to their world being upended over the course of the story.

Who are some of your genre influences?

My most obvious influences are old school space opera classics, notably Frank Herbert, Isaac Asimov, Gene Wolfe, and Dan Simmons—sci-fi that feels like epic fantasy. I actually take most of my cues from epic fantasy, so I’d be remiss not to mention George RR Martin. I read A Song of Ice and Fire when I was probably way too young for it, and it shaped the way I think about writing. It made me want to take big risks, explore consequences, and dig deep into the humanity of characters I would never want to meet in real life.

In a stylistic sense, I owe a lot to more modern writers—Kameron Hurley, NK Jemisin, James SA Corey, Pierce Brown, Brian Staveley, and Joe Abercrombie. These are all writers who can do fast-paced, twisty plots without sacrificing complexity or intricate worldbuilding. Their work is dark and high-stakes, full of impossible moral quandaries and very human characters who don’t always make the right choices.

Which identities or communities are reflected through your main and supporting characters?

Both POV characters are bisexual. There is a polyamorous relationship depicted in this book, though it’s not meant to be the healthiest example of one. The setting’s culture is largely made up, but most of the characters are described as people of color, loosely coded as Hispanic/Latino of varying racial backgrounds.

Jacen’s character in particular struggles with his mental health. It’s important to me to write unflinchingly about mental illness, never shying away from how messy and complicated it can get. That’s the sort of portrayal that’s always helped me process my own issues, especially having seen a lot of the uglier sides of humanity in my work as an EMT and RN. I want readers who need this kind of representation to feel seen.

Fascinating!

Ha! Nice. You’d love the insect wing at the American Museum of Natural History in NYC if you’re ever in town

Will you be picking up The Demon Star? Tell us in the comments below!

The post Q&A: Jesse Aragon, Author of ‘The Demon Star’ appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

Hi, Ashley! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?

Hi, Nerd Daily! I’m a fantasy romcom author (or an author of “romcomtasy,” if you’re nasty) who loves cats, cute stuff, spooky stuff, stuff that’s simultaneously cute and spooky like opossums, and staying inside.

When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?

I knew I wanted to tell stories very early on. I went to preschool at my local library and books became my best friends, so I thought, wouldn’t the world be even better with more of them?

Quick lightning round! Tell us:

• The first book you ever remember reading: A book on raising kittens called, appropriately, Kittens. (I don’t know if this is the answer you want, but I distinctly remember being 3 years old and OBSESSED with this book until I could pronounce every word in it.)
• The one that made you want to become an author: Kristy’s Great Idea (a la The Babysitter’s Club)
• The one that you can’t stop thinking about: Gillian Flynn’s Sharp Objects

Your latest novel, Eclipse of the Crown, is the third installment in your Villains & Virtues series and it’s out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?

Three imps in a trenchcoat. (Credit: sewcakey on Instagram. I asked my readers to help me with this one!)

For readers who haven’t picked up Villains & Virtues, what can readers expect?

A silly, swoony good time following the edgiest “bad guy” and a mysterious, bubbly “thief” on a quest to simultaneously destroy and save the realm. It’s got everything you love about romantasy including an excruciating slow burn, but it doesn’t take itself too seriously until the sexy parts—then it gets downright ridiculous.

And for those who have, what’s to come in Eclipse of the Crown?

Eclipse picks up moments after the end of Summoned to the Wilds and explores Yvlcon, the annual villain conference where Damien and Amma grapple with their shared romantic feelings, a theme that follows them as they complete their journey across Eiren, bumping into an eccentric soothsayer, a cave full of sycophantic goblins, and an evil ex. There’s also an eclipse, as the title implies, but like, don’t think too hard about the mechanics of having two moons because it’s a fantasy book, after all, and you just gotta trust me.

Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring further?

Finally completing Damien and Amma’s character arcs was extremely satisfying, but bringing Xander back throughout this book was probably the most fun. He’s of course awful, but he’s inspired by his nemesis to be a tiny bit less bad, and figuring out exactly how he would play into the finale was one of the best challenges in Eclipse—I didn’t know exactly what I was going to do with him, but I’m thrilled with how it all shook out. Also, the gobbies were my absolute favorite thing to write.

Did you face any challenges whilst writing? How did you overcome them?

The biggest challenge was just that I wanted it to be good, you know? It’s not unique to this book, but hoping that you’re creating something satisfying and touching and honest, especially when you’re writing “the end,” always weighs heavily. Unfortunately, I don’t think that desire is really overcomable, and it probably shouldn’t be, but getting to a point where you can say, “All right, I’ve done all I can” is a challenge on its own. You have to accept that perfection is impossible (and probably boring), and every story is a chance to do better, but you won’t get that next chance until you decide you’re done with your current project.

What’s next for you?

V&V has two spinoffs set in the same world but not featuring Damien and Amma, so I’m not quite finished with Eiren yet (Delphine’s sister gets her own tale and Xander gets his happy ending too)! I’m also currently working on a portal fantasy duology about a put-upon woman from our world who gets transported to a fairytale-inspired land full of silly magic, stupid princes, and an infuriating magician trapped in a tower.

Lastly, what books are you looking forward to picking up? Any you’ve read so far this year that you’ve enjoyed?

My most recent new read that I loved was Heather Fawcett’s Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat Shelter, and I also reread C.M. Nacosta’s Morning Glory Milking Farm and found it as friendly and cozy as the first time. When Margaret Rogerson announced Knight Eternal I may have cried for joy! I’ve also got MK Lobb’s The Dark in Her Veins and Laura Winter’s Trick and Tangle on preorder, and I’m basically slapping my desk everyday demanding they arrive ASAP.

Will you be picking up Eclipse of the Crown? Tell us in the comments below!

The post Q&A: A.K. Caggiano, Author of ‘Eclipse of the Crown’ appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

Hi, Elizabeth! Welcome back! How have you been since we last spoke for the release of Her Radiant Curse?

I’ve been keeping busy, thank you! Lots of writing and spending time with my kids (my oldest has started picking up my books to read which is a whole new kind of awesome/anxious) and I’ve also been getting back a little into music.

Quick lightning round! Tell us:

• The first book you ever remember reading: Good Night Moon by Margaret Wise Brown
• The one that made you want to become an author: Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine
• The one that you can’t stop thinking about: Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier

Your latest novel, Fishbone Cinderella, is out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?

Generational curse hurts mother (and) daughter – for a sentence

Or — fairytale, women, heartache, immigration, love

What can readers expect?

Fishbone Cinderella is a multigenerational family saga about a girl who discovers she can turn invisible when the Japanese invade her village during World War II; then, forty years later, in 1980s San Francisco, her daughter has to find a way to stop her from vanishing completely. It’s a story about mothers and daughters, and a family that suffers a generational curse that divides them through war and trials of immigration, and love and loss—with a shimmer of magic.

Where did the inspiration for Fishbone Cinderella come from?

The inspiration for Fishbone Cinderella came from the stories my grandmother told me about her life: from escaping the Japanese during WWII to moving to Hong Kong and having to live with her father’s second wife, to meeting my grandfather and moving to America and working in the restaurant business.

The book was also inspired by the Chinese version of Cinderella, often called Yeh Shen or Ye Xian, in which there are magical fishbones instead of a fairy godmother, golden slippers instead of glass slippers, and a far more ambiguous happily ever after.

Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?

I have a soft spot for writing about food and romance, so I adored writing all Yut Ying’s cooking scenes and about the bakery she opens in California. I also loved writing the romance for Marigold in the second half of the book. What was also meaningful for me was getting to infuse the book with Cantonese food and culture—things like salted egg and congee, soymilk and wind-cured duck, and superstitions like avoiding fours and not sleeping with wet hair. They’re tiny bits of my heritage that I’m proud to have included in this book, and makes it feel even more personal.

Did you face any challenges whilst writing? How did you overcome them?

I found it very challenging to write a dual timeline book (my first, published!) and I spent a long time mapping out the structure for both Yut Ying and Marigold’s chapters and how their timelines would converge. Another challenge was self-doubt. Most of my previous books have been straight fantasies, and though I knew I wanted to write something different, I wasn’t sure whether I was ready to pull it off. But I’m very proud of how Fishbone Cinderella turned out, and grateful that the hard work paid off.

With Fishbone Cinderella spanning multiple decades, can you share some insight into your research and plotting process?

A lot of my research was based on the stories that my grandmother told me about her life, and of course I expanded upon that with my own studies. One of my favorite anecdotes from the research process involved the soymilk arc – I always planned on one of the characters in Fishbone Cinderella being the young heir to a soymilk tycoon, but what I didn’t know was that the mass consumption and production of soymilk in Hong Kong dated back to World War II. I learned that soymilk was vital to combatting malnutrition and food shortages during the Japanese occupation, since it was made from soyabeans rather than from milking live animals, and some of this history found its way into the character’s backstory.

This is your adult debut! Can you tell us about any changes to your writing?

Most of my YA books tend to be coming-of-age stories revolving around characters who are either in the teens or early 20s. While writing Fishbone Cinderella, you get to spend forty years with the main character Yut Ying, who is introduced as a six-year-old girl. You see her grow up, experience her first love and loss, get married, and have children—and I think as she matures, my writing and story within the book also matures.  But it isn’t only her life cycle that’s explored – I also touch upon her mother’s and her daughter’s, which makes for a deeper reflection of the relationships between these women, and how it changes over the years.

What’s next for you?

I’m back to YA fantasy next, for a project I’ve been thinking about for a long time. Then I’m drafting a secret adult project that I’m very excited to get some words on.

Lastly, what books are you looking forward to picking up? Any you’ve read so far this year that you’ve enjoyed?

I have a lot on my list! Since I have some fantasies that I plan on writing, I usually stray away from that genre for my reading. I’m excited to read Kin by Tayari Jones, and When Sleeping Women Wake by Emma Pei Yin.

Will you be picking up Fishbone Cinderella? Tell us in the comments below!

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