Hi, April! Welcome back! How have you been since we last spoke for Girl Forgotten?

I’ve been very busy, but in a good way! Girl Forgotten won the Edgar, which was definitely a career highlight. I’ve written four more books in the interim, including In The Blood. And I continue to crisscross the country, speaking to middle and high school students about reading, writing, and research.

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

My parents claimed I was reading at age three. One of my earliest memories is of my mom showing me flashcards with a letter on one side, like an A, and on the back was a picture of something that began with that letter, like an apple. They felt magical. Learning to read opened up door after door for me, a kid who grew up poor in a logging town.

Quick lightning round! Tell us:

• The first book you ever remember reading:

It might have been Are You My Mother, by PD Eastman, but that could also have been read to me. I definitely remember the thrill of Evelyn Lampman’s City Under the Back Steps, which is about two children who shrink down small enough they can join the world of ants.

• The one that made you want to become an author:

I loved Charlie in the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl so much. When I was 12, I wrote a short story about a 6-foot tall frog named Herman who loved peanut butter, and I was sure Dahl would like it. It did have some of his sense of whimsy. I mailed it to him care of his publisher. He not only sent me back a postcard saying how much he loved it, he actually showed it to his editor, who asked if she could publish it in a children’s magazine called Puffin Post.

• The one that you can’t stop thinking about:

Fierce Kingdom by Gin Phillips. Her main character, a woman who is with her four-year-old at the zoo, is desperate to have them both survive a mass shooting. Phillips has the character make some less-than-saintly choices, which is a brave thing to do with your main character.

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

I’ll take the five words from reviews:

“Unsettling”

“Exciting”

“Disturbing”

“Insightful”

“Suspenseful”

What can readers expect?

After an adopted teen takes a DNA test, she figures out her biological mother is missing and her biological father a mystery. As she tries to identify him, law enforcement is too—because she’s the daughter of the Portland Phantom, a serial killer they’ve been hunting for over a decade.

Tessa just wants to feel like she belongs. And once her biological father learns of her existence, he’ll think she does belong—to him.

Where did the inspiration for In the Blood come from?

Over the last ten years, I’ve become pretty good at genetic genealogy. In addition to helping adoptees and other people find relatives, genetic genealogy can help law enforcement identify both victims and killers. During the pandemic, I volunteered with the DNA Doe Project. And even though I’m not adopted, I’m a member of the DNA Adoption Google Group.

Using DNA matches, I was able to identify my great-grandmother’s family. Last year I hired a researcher to comb through the National Archives, and he uncovered handwritten family records that proved I was right. These same records showed that my great-great grandfather was a scoundrel who seems to have faked his own death.

When I first started using DNA to trace my family tree I was warned that I might find unwelcome surprises. I did figure out I was descended from a murderer, an arsonist, and even an accused witch—but all long enough ago that it was more interesting than disturbing.

I started picturing an adopted girl who turns 18, takes a DNA test, and discovers far more than she bargained for. How much of who we are is in our genes?

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

Tessa, my main character, wants to be a writer, and is processing her thoughts and feelings through short stories. It was fun to write snippets of them.

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

At one point, two characters are trapped in a locked storage unit the bad guy has set on fire. I had no idea how they would get out. Through obsessive googling, I discovered a message board for storage unit owners. I managed to get approved to post, and then asked the group for help on how to get my characters out alive. And they had lots of advice!

What’s next for you?

Two of my most popular books have been Girl, Stolen and Count All Her Bones, both about Cheyenne Wilder, a blind girl who unexpectedly crosses paths with Griffin Sawyer, a boy from the very wrong side of the tracks. In September 2027 there will be a third book in the series, Dig Another Grave. While hiking in a remote Oregon forest, Cheyenne and Griffin stumble across a man digging a secret grave.

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

Looking forward to:

• Five: A Novel by Ilona Bannister
• Ghost Town by Tom Perotta
• The Ending Writes Itself by Evelyn Clarke

Enjoyed so far:

• Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke
• It’s Not Her by Mary Kubica
• Beth is Dead by Katie Bernet

Will you be picking up In the Blood? Tell us in the comments below!

The post Q&A: April Henry, Author of ‘In the Blood’ appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

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

I live just outside Philadelphia with my family, and although I’ve been writing my whole life The Franchise is my first novel. Other than that, my life is not full of too much excitement! I like reading, watching movies, browsing through record stores, and rooting (or despairing) for the Philadelphia Phillies.

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

The first story I ever wrote was in first grade, when I wrote an explanation of the history of Groundhog Day from the perspective of the groundhogs. (There was even some fake etymology in there with how the groundhogs invented the word “shadow.”) Over my school years I was fortunate enough to have many teachers who encouraged my creative writing impulses in many ways. So I’ve always been writing and telling stories, usually speculative fictional ones, since about as long as I could write.

Quick lightning round! Tell us:

• The first book you ever remember reading: The first actual novel (not a children’s picture book) I really remember reading was either My Teacher Is an Alien by Bruce Coville or Sideway Stories from Wayside School by Louis Sachar. I guess both were pretty formative to my interests.
• The one that made you want to become an author: It’s a bit of a cliche, but when I was nine years old I read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings for the first time and it really sparked something. Probably those books and a lot of the H.G. Wells I was reading at the same time cemented my interest in wanting to write.
• The one that you can’t stop thinking about: I think the best book ever is The Canterbury Tales. It’s not a novel but it certainly has a lot of novelistic elements. It has everything in there, really. Satire, genre-bending, moral and ethical debates, politics, fart jokes. That’s the book that keeps on giving.

Your debut novel, The Franchise, is out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?

Middle Earth Reality TV Show

What can readers expect?

The book has a big hook (what if The Truman Show were Game of Thrones?) and it certainly delves into that concept in detail. But it’s also a book about point of view and identity, and so I think readers can expect lots of playing around with who is telling what part of the story, how it’s being told, and how the telling affects the characters or even shapes who they are. It’s a very self-aware novel, in a lot of ways, and I hope readers find that fun.

Where did the inspiration for The Franchise come from?

I am really tired of how our pop culture and entertainment products have all become extensions of various intellectual properties. And even the long-running franchises out there feel very worn and out of ideas. But I’m also aware that all this IP is tied to the long-term financial interests of very large media conglomerates, who can’t just stop making them and move on to something new. Too much of, for example, Disney’s portfolio is tied up in things like Marvel or Star Wars for them to actually stop making Marvel or Star Wars things. So what happens to a culture that can never grow or evolve or make anything new? That’s really where the seed for the idea of the novel came from.

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

A lot of my characters are not very smart. A few have intentionally cultivated a way of living that rewards their ignorance and complacency, but they move through the world kind of unaware and unengaged with what’s actually happening. In real life those types of people can be maddening, but in fiction they are quite fun to write. I was able to mine a lot of humor out of characters who don’t know or can’t know what’s going on, and their attempts to figure it out are where most of the conflict comes from.

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

The story is told in a circular, non-linear way, but the earlier drafts were much more straightforward. My editor and I talked about it and decided there was a better way of telling the story by first coming into the world at a later point in the plot, and from a different angle. The reshaping of the narrative in that way – and keeping all of the details straight – was tough but ultimately worth it. The book is better now, and builds momentum faster even as it often doubles back on itself.

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

It took a long time! I had written a different book, which is how I landed my agent, but we couldn’t sell it and so I had to work on something else. That became this project, and even then it took a long time to shop around and eventually land a contract. Then even longer for the book to go through all of the various editorial, production, and marketing stages it needs to go through before it hits shelves. Patience is really a key virtue all aspiring authors should cultivate. But now I’m excited that people can finally read it, so the wait was definitely worth it.

What’s next for you?

I’ve written a second novel, which should be out next year, which is a little different than this one but also plays with genre in some interesting ways that I hope people respond to. And now I’m working on developing future projects with my agent, and hopefully we’ll be able to sell those as well. Always writing, that’s the key!

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

The Republic of Memory by Mahmud El Sayed is one I’m really looking forward to reading. Generation ships, political turmoil. Sounds just up my alley. Recently I’ve read Notes from a Regicide by Isaac Fellman, which was also about politics and art and was terrific. And I enjoyed Nicked by M.T. Anderson, which is a very fun, comic medieval heist story about trying to steal the bones of Saint Nicholas (based on a real event, evidently).

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

The post Q&A: Thomas Elrod, Author of ‘The Franchise’ appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

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

Hi, ND. I’m an author, critic and broadcaster, based in London. My books about film include Nightmare Movies, Kim Newman’s Video Dungeon and BFI Classics booklets on Cat People, Doctor Who and Quatermass and the Pit. My fiction includes the Anno Dracula series, the Drearcliff Grange School novels, The Night Mayor, The Quorum, Professor Moriarty: The Hound of the d’Urbervilles, Angels of Music, A Christmas Ghost Story, Something More Than Night and Model Actress Whatever. I’ve written for television (Mark Kermode’s Secrets of Cinema), radio (Afternoon Theatre: Cry-Babies) and the theatre (The Hallowe’en Sessions), contributed many commentary tracks and extra features to BluRay releases, and directed a tiny film (Missing Girl). My website is at www.johnnyalucard.com and you can find me on Instagram @kimnewmanannodracula and on Bluesky @annodracula.bsky.social

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

As a child in the 1960s, I was lucky to get caught up in many storytelling media – books and comics, but also films, TV, music, radio and the theatre. I also had crazes for the Biggles books, Molesworth, Mad Magazine, Marvel Comics, TV shows (Dr Who, Batman, The Avengers, Gerry Anderson) and fantasy films (Ray Harryhausen, James Bond, 2001, Planet of the Apes). 

Quick lightning round! Tell us:

• The first book you ever remember reading: C.S. Lewis’ Narnia novels and Alan Garner’s The Weirdstone of Brisingamen.
• The one that made you want to become an author: Either Dracula by Bram Stoker or The Big Sleep by Raymond Chandler – which oddly have very similar opening chapters.
• The one that you can’t stop thinking about: Misery by Stephen King. I think you have to be an author to get this – the scene where she makes him burn the only copy of his just-finished novel is worse than the bit where she cuts his foot off.

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

You’re in for an adventure.

What can readers expect?

A new reality, where the Beatles didn’t split up but recorded an album which opened the way to a colourful, magic 21^st century Britain populated by enlightened, empowered folks who do their best or their worst to get through the night. Our lead character, Christine Chambers, is appearing in a soap opera and trying to get a media career started during her gap year – then she develops super powers after dark and her aunt tells her that she’s heir to a tradition of high-flying heroics. 

Where did the inspiration for Model Actress Whatever come from?

My memories of certain fun things from the 1960s – music, comics, television – and a desire to reimagine them in a 2020s context. The idea has been percolating in my head since the Millennium but I began working on the book just after lockdown, which made me try for something expansive, exuberant, and bright. I thought we could all do with some cheering up. As the title suggests, I wanted to explore the world of minor celebrity – with fond indulgence, but also a sense of the ridiculous. 

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

All of it. My prospectus was to have fun with the book. It’s full of big, strange people… so far, readers have responded especially to the heroine’s best friend, Loulee Ling – the Ghost Lantern Girl, but I particularly like the many, many incidental or one-scene characters. I could happily do spinoff stories or books about, say, the mysterious Poltergirl or hippie wizard Magic Ian. I’ve commissioned mock-up comic book covers from artist Paul McCaffrey – and an animated book trailer to give a feel of the highly-populated world of the book.

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

The book took longer than my usual – just as I was ready to write the finale, I came down with covid and had to take a break… and for scheduling reasons it made sense to write a novella (A Christmas Ghost Story) to take MAW’s original publishing slot before getting back to finish the book, which meant reacclimatising myself to a world with its own distinctive tone of voice and vocabulary.  Probably the biggest challenge was keeping the whole world in my head for the entire period of writing.

What’s next for you?

I’m just finishing Mystery at Christmas, a novella which follows my A Christmas Ghost Story.  Next up is a contemporary ghost/horror novel called Rotten Row and a follow-up to my Professor Moriarty book The Hound of the d’Urbervilles.

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

This year, I’ve very much enjoyed Bridge by Lauren Beukes and Boys in the Valley by Philip Fracassi (newish) and have been reading a lot of vintage crime by Ngaio Marsh, Josephine Tey, Michael Innes, Edmund Crispin and Ruth Rendell.  My To-Be-Read pile is the size of a 1950s fridge.

The post Q&A: Kim Newman, Author of ‘Model Actress Whatever’ appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

About The Seeker and the Shade: From this must-read debut author comes an intense and compelling romance for young adults featuring all your favourite tropes – enemies to lovers, slow burn, first love, soul- mates, good versus evil. Publishes 14^th May – available wherever you buy your books.

Factions, school houses, sides in a war; there’s nothing YA fans love better than picking a side. If there’s more than one love interest, you can be confident we’ll be martialling our energy in support of our favourite – sometimes even shipping the characters that were never supposed to be shipped. Where there’s an ability to unlock or a talent to express, there’ll be a clan to give it a name and shape, and readers will wear their preference as a loud badge of honour.

So why is this genre so obsessed with tribalism? From the ancient beginnings of the YA boom when everyone chose their preferred boyfriend between Twilight’s Team Edward and Team Jacob (though let’s be real, was that ever a legitimate contest?) through to more recent examples like Twin Crowns, where you can favour the leadership style of responsible Team Rose over wild Team Wren (with physical book covers to match!), it seems that there’s never been a time when choosing a side hasn’t been an essential part of the experience.

Them + Me = Identity

The first and obvious answer is that reading is a powerful way to express a sense of self. Whenever we open a book or watch a story, we’re subconsciously looking for ourselves. Whether it’s the choices, background or even just the vibe of a character, we gravitate towards what feels familiar. That’s one reason why diversity and inclusion matter so much and we should continue to champion representation of all readers.

But psychologists go further to say that stories act like mirrors, reflecting bits of our personality back at us – helping us to figure out what our identity actually is. When a character faces a choice, it’s not just a story, it’s an invitation – what would you choose? And when a character makes inevitably devastating decisions, what do you think about that? We love to weigh in, because we love to assert our sense of self and layer over our own unique perspective. By reacting, we’re actually drawing lines around what we care about, how we see the world and what our value system is.

These choices tend towards being black and white because often the characters themselves are understanding their identity for the first time, asking the big questions of ‘Who am I?’ and ‘What ideas represent me the best?’ So we can ask alongside them – and what better playground to explore the answers than the realm of story! Not to mention how fun discerning those labels can be – answering quizzes to get your school house, or as in the hugely popular Divergent series, using personality traits to determine which ‘virtue’ you belong to.

You + Me – Them = Community

Tribes are also excellent openings to interact with a story. We live in a very distinct age of storytelling. We are saturated with stories. Through the rise of fan fiction and cult followings, the ‘canon’ version of a story no longer exists in isolation. Now we can explore the world on our own terms, create within it, or jump into passionate online discourse about it.

Romance gives a great example for how this plays out. Now romantic leads are not just confined to the book, they are brought alive on social media with fan art, exclusive prints, memes and inside jokes. Sometimes I decide to pick up a book based on the fandom conflicts I see playing out! One Romantasy writer I follow has effectively created a social media output from the main character of her book. I already know that central pairing will be right up my street without even seeing a copy of the book – and I’m not the only reader desperate for the release date!

In my opinion, readers pay the material the highest compliment when they find it rich and delightful enough to have fun with. By choosing their ‘side’ within the story, they’re already emotionally invested before the book has even hit shelves.

Us x Them / The World = Understanding

I passionately believe that literature is a safe canvas for us all to navigate the intricacies, wonder and horror of our world, to help us understand why things are the way they are, why people act the way they do, and what really matters to us personally.

In the tribes of Young Adult stories, we see this mapped out to the extreme. There’s an academic theory about storytelling put forward by a famous guy called Lévi-Strauss that talks about ‘binary oppositions’. Basically, as humans, we view the world through opposites, light vs dark, good vs evil, and so on, and when we lean into these concepts in storytelling, we’re allowing our readers to feel the difference between opposing forces rather than trying to describe them.

No wonder then that we see similar ideas crop up time and again in these stories – wars with opposing sides, factions with different characteristics, end-of-the-world-scenarios with green shoots of hope, the love triangle of impossible choice… These are perfect vehicles for us to absorb the contradictions we experience everyday. By translating them into the medium of story, and turning up the contrast, we can actually see them more clearly.

In my debut, THE SEEKER AND THE SHADE, the route to being a caster or a seeker is not the same, and the roles attract different personalities. Casters must be perceptive and seekers must be brave. But crucially, they’re both needed, and they both need each other. At its heart, it’s a story about how the best partnerships embrace difference. The ‘tribes’ of a story have a curious power to root us, while at the same time, expand our understanding of those who think differently – ultimately drawing us into a deeper connection with them.

So what are you waiting for? Pick your side!

The post Choose a Side! YA’s Unstoppable Obsession with Tribalism appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

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

Hi! I’m the author of two YA novels: Wavelength, a runaway popstar romance, and now my first horror novel, The Saw Mouth. I live in Winnipeg, Manitoba, but I grew up in a literal house in the woods that left me very fond of nowhere places. And little less scared of them than I should be. I’m nonbinary and genderfluid, so it’s no shock most of characters are queer too. If I’m not writing novels, it’s stories or poems or songs or or or. If I didn’t have another way, I’d probably be scratching words into the walls of a cave. 

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

I remember being about six and getting obsessed with any song I’d hear that had characters and a story. Like Jennifer Warnes covering “Joan of Arc.” That’s a weird favorite song for a kid, apparently. I had insomnia for years as a kid/teenager, and I’d tell myself stories to fall asleep, adding a bit each night. The first time I tried writing fiction I was twelve and it was fanfiction of Erin Hunter’s Warriors books. And then I started writing my own stories and just never stopped.  

Quick lightning round! Tell us:

• The first book you ever remember reading: Any Magic Tree House by Mary Pope Osborne.
• The one that made you want to become an author: Skybreaker by Kenneth Oppel.
• The one that you can’t stop thinking about: Tell Me I’m Worthless by Alison Rumfitt. That’s so deeply not YA. I’ll give a YA one. What the Woods Took by Courtney Gould.

Your debut YA novel, The Saw Mouth, is out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?

I’ll write again if I see the night through.

(I’m sorry. That’s fully nine words. No walls can hold me!)

What can readers expect?

A story of being hunted by the sins of the past. Awakened machines with tortured souls rattling their cages. Lots of creeping, circling fear. Muggy nights, mosquito whine, sweaty parties. Characters who fight for each other messily and fiercely. Queer love stories – romantic and platonic.

I hope this book feels like getting punched in the teeth and spitting out blood in the dirt as you get back up. Me and Rory Power were talking about it once, and she described trying to write like – and I might be paraphrasing – a razorblade inside a peach. I tried to make The Saw Mouth as sharp and dangerous as it is sweet.

And of course expect horror things! Trauma! Monsters! Big teeth! Humor as a coping mechanism! The deep fear of true aloneness!

Where did the inspiration for The Saw Mouth come from?

There’s a highway intersection a couple hours from where I grew up that started this whole story. It’s out in lake country, where it’s just pockets of dark and darker and the last light was a long time ago and the next one is a long way away. And this intersection had one flickering streetlight against all the blackness. The Saw Mouth came from the darkness around the edges of town, consciousness, memory. Evangaline Gallagher drew it perfectly for the cover. The Saw Mouth is about fear as vast, faceless, and shifting as a nightmare.

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

The Saw Mouth sometimes gets very fragmented in its gentlest and harshest moments. I love writing those. It’s high stakes. Every word counts extra. I’m happiest creating the parts when my characters are joking and flirting and falling in love, though it’s bittersweet knowing I’m about to put them through hell.  

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

I wrote about two-thirds of an unrecognizably different first draft of The Saw Mouth when I was twenty, and I didn’t come back to it until I was twenty-five. That first version was a mess. It had way too many ideas. It was murky where I wanted the story to be churning. I’m not usually a brave editor without some help. I had to be for The Saw Mouth. I threw out all the characters and all but two thousand words seeded in here and there. It was like starting to build a house by picking through the heap of scraps that were all that remained of the last collapsed thing I tried to build. I will not be making this my usual drafting method.

What’s next for you?

I have a second queer YA horror novel coming out with Delacorte in fall 2027! It’s called Stranglehold. Think the smalltown, twisted miracle of Mike Flanagan’s Midnight Mass crossed with the frozen, cosmic dread of True Detective: Night Country. A long, rattling panic attack driven by an ancient god from the old world, revenants serving as its lungs, and a coming harvest that could slaughter the entire population with the hands of their own loved ones. Dun dun dun. I hope it’s as unsettling as hell. If I’m quoting lyrics, The Saw Mouth is “there’s a darkness on the edge of town” and Stranglehold is “everything that dies someday comes back.” And I think if you like the one, you’ll like the other.

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

I’m really excited for Andrew Joseph White’s new book You’re No Better. I’ve got Logan-Ashley Kisner’s The Transition on my nightstand just dying to be read. And I just finished Cuckoo by Gretchen Felker-Martin. It burned with this defiant, snarling queer will to survive. That’s how I wanted The Saw Mouth to be, how I want all my writing to be. We can never have too much of it.

Will you be picking up The Saw Mouth? Tell us in the comments below!

The post Q&A: Cale Plett, Author of ‘The Saw Mouth’ appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

About The River Muse (releases May 12, 2026): When a musician escapes her ex-partner and takes refuge with her young daughter in a French village, she reclaims her voice, power, and second chances at friendship and love.

As an author, I’ve frequently fielded questions about the role of AI in writing books. I’m proud to belong to the forty-eight percent of authors who do not use generative AI in our work and do not plan to (Bookbub, 2025.) Fiction writers like myself are particularly adamant in our rejection of AI (Publishers Weekly, 2025.)

Bottom line: I avoid using AI. Like the Plague. Like my humanity depends on it.

That said, I do have empathy for all humans as we’re trying to navigate this new technology that could change what we are as a species on this planet. I don’t judge anyone for their stance on AI—we all have our own life experiences and challenges that we’re bringing to the table. (Well, maybe I do judge the handful of selfish billionaires running the show.)

Creativity has always been a sacred act for me, a way to connect with something deep and mysterious, to feel fully alive. That’s why I do this work. For me, it would feel sacrilegious to use AI during the creative writing process, whether for brainstorming or researching or drafting or revising. When AI tries to sneak in (I’m looking at you, Google!), I make every effort to ignore it and go directly to human-produced sources of information.

Over the past two decades of my writing journey—through my thirteen books for kids, teens, and adults—one of the greatest joys has been making human connections. I connect with readers, writers, collaborators, consultants, and even with my own deeper self. That’s where the heart and soul are for me.

Let’s take the research stage as example. Most of my research is in person, and for my latest novel, The River Muse, that meant searching for truffles with dogs in the Mediterranean, touring ancient wine cellars and wine-tasting in France, and listening to oral histories from my French host family over delicious meals that stretch from sunset to midnight in Provence. This research strengthened existing friendship bonds and sparked new human (and canine) bonds… while stimulating all my senses in my human body (Truffles! Burgundy! Ratatouille!)

My online searches for human-made websites often result in meaningful, real-life connections too. When I was researching advice on querying agents for my adult debut, The Alchemy of Flowers, I came across author Sarah Penner’s website, where she offers insightful personal essays on this topic. While I was on her website, I looked around (which I’m guessing is what she intended when she created these resources in the first place!).

I’d never heard of her work before, but I promptly read The Lost Apothecary, loved it, and attended an in-person Community Read event, where we chatted… and soon after, she kindly agreed to read my own debut adult novel to consider blurbing it (which she did!). If I had just read Google’s AI overview for “how to get an agent,” I wouldn’t have formed a meaningful connection with Sarah. (I also met a new friend in the signing line, who invited me to a local, in-person book club, which multiplied the human connections.)

Even apparently mundane tasks like fact-checking can enforce human bonds. When I asked my Colorado neighbor from Paris to weigh in on my French expressions in The River Muse, we did so over tea on her deck while our dogs played in her yard. My childhood friend from Maryland, who now lives in the Burgundy region of France, helped with my wine pairings for every meal in the book, resulting in a string of WhatsApp messages (interspersed with cute videos of her daughter’s dance performances) that reinforce our lifelong connection.

But AI does even more harm than taking the heart, soul, and human-ness out of creative endeavors. In my opinion, it’s unethical. I believe that before we use AI for a task, we should ask ourselves these questions:

• Is this necessary? (For me, almost always, no.)
• Is this harming humans’ creativity? (For me, yes.)
• Is this harming human connections? (Yes.)
• Is this harming humans’ job prospects? (Yes.)
• Is this harming the environment? (Yes.)
• Who is ultimately benefitting the most from AI? (A handful of billionaires.)
• Was this AI trained on work by humans who did not give permission? (Most likely, yes.)
• Do our individual actions make a difference? (Yes.)

Again, as humans, we’re all doing the best we can during these chaotic times. Still, part of doing our best means reflecting on our choices and their consequences—for our human connections and our human selves.

In the fourteenth century, the bubonic plague killed off about half of Europe and changed the course of human history. Those victims had little agency in the matter. This time, we do. This time, our eyes are open. Do we want to kill off what makes us human? Hand our creative souls to a handful of billionaires on a silver platter? Or will we resist?

For me, the answer is clear. I avoid AI like the Plague.

The post Why Author Laura Resau Avoids AI Like the Plague appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

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

Hi! I’m the author of Kaikeyi, Goddess of the River, and Ten Incarnations of Rebellion, along with my new release We Dance Upon Demons, a contemporary fantasy set at an abortion clinic. In my day job, I’m a civil rights lawyer and a longtime abortion clinic volunteer, so I’m deeply passionate about reproductive rights and excited to share this story with the world!

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

I have loved writing and stories for as long as I can remember. My very first word was “book,” and my mom has saved little stories I wrote back when I was five years old, so it’s always been a part of me. I lost my passion for writing somewhere toward the end of high school, and rediscovered it several years later at the beginning of law school when I needed a creative outlet. I’m so fortunate that stories have always been there for me, and that they embraced me as an old friend when I found my way back to them.

Quick lightning round! Tell us:

• The first book you ever remember reading: The Paperbag Princess by Robert Munsch, illustrated by Michael Martchenko
• The one that made you want to become an author: The Conch Bearer by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
• The one that you can’t stop thinking about: The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhorn

Your latest novel, We Dance Upon Demons, is out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?

Abortion + Depression + Demons + Dance = Catharsis

What can readers expect?

Readers can expect a mix of real world horror and fun fantasy elements. We Dance Upon Demons follows a depressed abortion clinic worker, Nisha, who accidentally acquires magical powers from a demon. There’s a realistic look at the daily functioning of reproductive health clinics and their struggles, mixed with demon hijinks all across the city of Chicago. So expect a story that acknowledges the bleak politics of women’s autonomy while also providing hope and strength.

Where did the inspiration for We Dance Upon Demons come from?

The idea for this book came about when I was struggling to come to terms with the fall of Roe and to find the motivation to keep fighting. I drew on my own feelings of hopelessness, as well as my knowledge of the reproductive justice movement, both as a lawyer and a longtime volunteer. Other bits of We Dance Upon Demons were added because I thought they would bring some lightness to the story—I love Indian art and mythology and dance, so all of those elements got folded in.

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

I really enjoyed writing all the scenes between Nisha, the main character, and Muya, the demon that she accidentally frees from a statue. They start off having an antagonistic relationship, but as time goes on, it becomes a bit of a buddy comedy, although tinged with suspicion because he is a demon. I loved writing their evolving relationship and banter, as well as exploring how a demon of ignorance would react to being in the modern world.

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

The hardest part of writing this book was balancing the bleakness of the reproductive rights landscape with the message of hope that I wanted to leave readers with. The book started off very dark and hopeless, but as I revised, I myself had the experience of regaining my resolve. I integrated that experience into the book, and gave it a slightly more hopeful character—but striking that balance took a lot of time and care.

What’s next for you?

Next up for me is The Library of Lost Time which is coming in fall 2027. It’s a time travel novel about book banning with my first ever romance! I’m so excited to share it with readers next year. In the meantime, I will be disappearing for a bit after the launch of We Dance Upon Demons because I am also launching a baby this summer.

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

I’ve recently enjoyed Shay Kauwe’s The Killing Spell, which is an urban fantasy with Native Hawaiian representation. I’m looking forward to the release of Emily Varga’s The River She Became; I read it last year and can’t wait for it to be out in the world.

Will you be picking up We Dance Upon Demons? Tell us in the comments below!

The post Q&A: Vaishnavi Patel, Author of ‘We Dance Upon Demons’ appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

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

I’m a London-based journalist and a curious person – truthfully, probably in both senses of the word. I write articles about strange, fascinating and unique phenomena and people, from competitive eaters who’ve fallen in love to the inventor of novelty bubble bath bottles. My biggest hobbies outside of writing are: discovering new crisp/chip flavours in foreign supermarkets; making miniature food out of clay; eating blue raspberry candy; and pressing play on the Lord of the Rings trilogy and weeping from minute one.

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

It feels silly to say I’ve “always” loved writing stories, because for the first three or four years of my life, I was really busy with the alphabet. But ever since I mastered that, I’ve loved writing – I actually have a self-portrait from when I was around 7; it’s of me sat at a desk with a giant pencil, captioned, “This is a picture of me writing a story”. I loved creative writing classes at school, especially the times the teacher read my work out loud (I still remember the times she didn’t!).

Quick lightning round! Tell us:

• The first book you ever remember reading: The Tale of Samuel Whiskers or The Roly-Poly Pudding
• The one that made you want to become an author: The Phantom Tollbooth
• The one that you can’t stop thinking about: Come and Get It

Your latest novel, Lily Tripp: Diary of an Accidental Time Traveler, is out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?

Surprising, funny, historical, dramatic, different!

What can readers expect?

A typical tween coming-of-age story with a time-travel twist. Every New Year’s Day, Lily jumps back in time and lives in a different era. Everyone she knows – from her best friend Poppy to the love of her many lives, Ollie – comes with her too. But here’s the thing: Lily is the ONLY one who remembers that they haven’t always been Victorians, Romans, or hippies, and so she consequently often struggles to fit in. Lily deals with the kind of issues every 13-year-old girl deals with, from clueless crushes to friendship fallouts, but she has to deal with them while also figuring out what a “farthingale” is and how to avoid the town pillory…

Where did the inspiration for Lily Tripp: Diary of an Accidental Time Traveler come from?

I adored The Princess Diaries series when I was growing up, and I realised during the pandemic that I’d love to write a diary-style book for young people today. Because I’ve spent years looking for unique stories with my journalism, I knew I wanted to do something different here, too. I love history, so the idea of being able to take my protagonist to different eras excited me greatly. I wanted to show readers everyday life in the past.

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

To get details about what life was like in different centuries, I consulted over 150 library books – I even interviewed 10 women who were teens in one of the eras that pops up in the book. That felt very fulfilling, and I loved learning more about their lives. Equally, I loved writing about Lily’s first crush – because it’s such a unique and special thing!

What’s your pitch to parents, caregivers, educators, and librarians to get this in the hands of readers?

This is a “hidden veggie pasta sauce” of a book. We all know it’s sometimes easier to get kids to eat their greens by blending them up and hiding them in tomato sauce, right? Lily Tripp is a book about history – with an important message about conformity – disguised by the tomato sauce of cute crushes, friendship drama and cliff-hanger chapters. I think it’s fun and I hope it’s funny – I really believe there’s something for a lot of children here.

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

I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say that initially, at one point in the book, Lily ended up in 1349 – that is, the time of the Black Death. They say that writers should kill their darlings, but they should definitely also kill their bubonic plagues. I wasted a lot of time researching the period (ask me about what a lot of fiction gets wrong about this pandemic!), so it was hard to let it go. But I had to let it go – because it really didn’t fit with the tone of the rest of the book!

What’s next for you?

Lily Tripp is actually a trilogy, so I’m currently greatly enjoying working on book two! My dream is to write books for every age group in every genre – I’d love to be prolific!

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

I am really looking forward to the next book in Katherine Rundell’s Impossible Creatures series. I think they’re unrivalled when it comes to modern children’s books. My favourite books I’ve read this year are Our Spoons Came From Woolworths by Barbara Comyns and London Falling by Patrick Radden Keefe.

Will you be picking up Lily Tripp: Diary of an Accidental Time Traveler? Tell us in the comments below!

The post Q&A: Amelia Tait, Author of ‘Lily Tripp: Diary of an Accidental Time Traveler’ appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

Hi, Katie and Becky! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourselves?

Katie: I’m an unabashed fantasy fangirl and have been a nerd for magical worlds ever since my dad introduced me to Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels. I worked in publishing for many years, most recently as a publisher at Vintage, part of Penguin Random House, though my titles were mainly crime and book club. I do miss being an editor at times, however, writing fantasy and romance stories is my passion. When I’m not writing, reading, daydreaming, playing with my toddler, bombarding Becky with WhatsApps about our characters, or meeting the demands of my two black cats, I would prefer to be skiing, walking in the mountains, breathing in the night air, listening to ASMR to relax, or doing a quiz of some sort (the Financial Times quiz on a Saturday is a favourite).

Becky: I’m a writer, reader and animal lover! I’ve loved reading from before I can remember, and creative writing was always my favourite subject in school when I was little. I wrote my first full length novel when I was 21, before I realised just how much there was to learn – and have probably written a book a year since then, most of which aren’t published! I also write under my own name (Becky Hunter) and the name Emily Stone – but this is my first foray into fantasy and my first time working with a co-author. Fantasy is my first reading love, so I’ve loved being able to be a fan-girl as well as a writer (because we get to read each others chapters!). Outside of writing I mainly spend time with my horses (including two little rescue ponies) and my little rescue dog.

Your co-authored novel, Blood Bound, is out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?

Katie: Best friends against the world

Becky: Dragons, witches, swoon, stab, chaos.

What can readers expect?

Becky: This is our love letter to the genre and I hope that shows in the book! We have both read fantasy since we were little, and we wanted to write a book that we love as readers. We’ve tried to pay homage to familiar tropes that we know and love, while offering (we hope!) a fresh take on some of them. We are both big romance fans, so it’s definitely got that in spades, but at it’s heart it’s about female friendship. It’s also got some big twists, bigger dragons, and a small talking animal or two…

Katie: As well as being (we hope) a lot of fun, we also explore themes and issues close to our hearts, like climate change, energy poverty and economic disparity, the inherent flaws of monarchy, and how it’s always the poorer and more vulnerable who suffer most in times of war or climate disaster. We also poured a lot of personal elements into our two protagonists; one of our FMCs, Astrid, the heir to the witches, is neurodivergent and struggles with a mood disorder and anxiety, while the other FMC, Skylar, a blade juggler in a travelling troupe, has suffered great loss and is incredibly lonely, loyal only to the (very) few people she trusts. We hope they both resonate with readers in some way.

Where did the inspiration for Blood Bound come from?

Becky: When we first started planning this book together, we spent a lot of time brainstorming – I’m not sure there was a lightbulb moment, other than a message I sent Katie saying we should write a dragon book together… But really, we started writing it because it’s the genre we love to read, and it was very much for fun in the beginning. We knew we would have two FMCs, and that there would be a duel for the source of all magic… But, despite the initial message, Katie had to talk me into the dragons in the end! It’s been a lot of throwing ideas back and forth, and even while writing it we’d have new ideas that would change something in the plot.

Katie: I think the main inspiration for Blood Bound was friendship, and the intensity of female friendship especially. Becky and I became close at a time in our lives when we both felt a little lonely and isolated, and in the end we wanted to write a fantasy romance where the main ‘love story’ was the platonic love between two women, and the power that women can wield when we work together. I think for a lot of us our longest lasting relationships are those we have with our friends rather than the relationship with a partner or even family!

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

Katie: Astrid is my favourite character, and likely always will be, because she has changed my life in so many ways: I was able to quit my job and become a full time writer because of her, but she also helped me to explore my own neurodivergency and bipolar disorder. I’ve learned a lot about myself both through the process of writing her character and through this new career! While she hasn’t been the easiest to write, she’s been the most rewarding.

If we’re speaking pure, unadulterated fun, then writing Zryan makes me giddy. We have two bonus chapters from his pov and one of them might be my favourite chapter I’ve ever written, although it is up there with the winter wonderland scene at the Masked Ball (yes, of course there is a masked ball in this fantasy novel where assassins are trying to kill them, it makes perfect sense…). The characters who make me laugh the most are Skylar (because she DGAF) and Bastet (a world-weary, ancient-souled familiar in the body of a tiny black cat).

Becky: Oh there are so many! I write Skylar in the book, and she’s probably my all-time favourite character – and I’ve written quite a few now! She says and does what she likes – it doesn’t make her very likeable at times, but it does make her very fun to write. In terms of moments, I loved writing Chapter 10, which is just after one of the big twists… I also love reading Katie’s chapters. She came up with Bastet, and readers are just falling head over heels for him, which is so fun to see. She also took the lead on the romance, and some of the lines are swoonworthy, so these were some of my favourite scenes in the book.

Can you tell us about your co-authoring process?

Becky: We take a character each – so Katie writes Astrid and I write Skylar. We spend a lot of time planning the book together and talking through each chapter, so it’s a really collobarative process – it has to be! Then we’ll upload a chapter and the other person will read and feedback, before writing the next chapter… Any problems we have along the way we talk through!

Katie: co-authoring requires lots of communication, consistent communication at that, and a huge amount of trust in each other. We’re lucky in that we’re compatible both as writing partners and business partners, and honesty is core to our relationship. We’re also super aligned on our ideas and we nurture each other’s creativity, stoking the weird and the wonderful and pushing each other to be the best we can be!

Any teasers for what’s to come in the sequel?

Becky: More dragons, more romance, even higher stakes…

Katie: It’s bigger, bolder, more ambitious, and has a secret third POV character…

What’s next for you both?

Katie: The second book is my priority; it is ambitious and I want it to live up to its potential! So the aim will be to get it finished this summer, then we’ll be moving straight onto book three. I do have other projects I’d love to work on, but with book one promo, book two and three writing and drafting, then being a mother to a toddler, it won’t be for some time until I can pursue those.

Becky: We’re deep in writing book 2 at the moment – and then we’ve got to make it as good as it can be! Then it’ll be on to book 3… I do also have a new Emily Stone novel coming this year, so it’s a busy year all round!

Lastly, what books are you looking forward to picking up this year?

Katie: So many conclusions to duologies, actually! Daybreak, by Autumn Woods; The Knave and the Moon by Rachel Gillig – I miss my beloved Bartholomew; and All Hail Chaos by Sarah Rees Brennan. I am currently reading The Will of the Many and I’m enjoying being immersed in the rich world-building of that story. As to what I’ve read and loved this year, then Deathbringer by Sonia Tagliareni, Aicha by Soraya Bouazzaoui, Weavingshaw by Heba Al-Wasity, and Nemesis Mine by Amy Archer.

Becky: So many, and I always wish I had more time for reading – I find it really difficult to focus on reading when I’ve got a deadline! I’m looking forward to The Ballard of Falling Dragons by Sarah A Parker.

Will you be picking up Blood Bound? Tell us in the comments below!

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About The Last Page: From the author of Not in My Book comes another irresistible, bookish contemporary romance. A bookseller with a dream of running her beloved bookstore vs. the owner’s out-of-touch grandson who inherits everything. Game on. Out May 12th 2026.

Ever since I moved to New York five years ago, I’ve kept a running list of my favorite places in the city. Whether they’re parks or bars or even little alleyways, I keep track of them nearly religiously. Although I’ve lived in New York for half a decade, I’m not a New Yorker (try as I might). But, whenever someone from back home visits me, I like to pretend I am as I pull out my lengthy lists of, in my opinion, some of New York’s greatest hits.

I fell in love with romcoms through Nora Ephron’s films, like so many, but I also fell in love with New York that way, too. Everyone wants to visit Katz’s Deli for that iconic scene in When Harry Met Sally. But what about, formerly, Shakespeare & Co., where Carrie Fisher hilariously delivers, “Someone is staring at you in personal growth.” Nora had such a way of making New York City feel like its own character and it’s one of my missions as I write my books.

Here’s a non-comprehensive list of my favorite NYC spots that made it into The Last Page:

Kingston Hall on 2nd Ave

I love the interior design of this bar. It’s the perfect amount of whimsical and mood lighting. Plus a nice pool table and BOGO beer on the weekend! I wrote a lot of The Last Page sitting on their outdoor deck. It felt like the perfect place for Ella and Henry to devise their plan to save the store. This is where they first start to believe that they could actually save the store and Leo’s legacy.

Museum of Natural History

Personally, I think this is one of the greatest first date spots. Ella and Henry really get to know each other here, wandering and talking for hours. This feels like a turning point where Henry realizes if he stays, it’s not for NYC, but for something or someone else.

Don Ceviche on 1st Ave

My friend lived above this Peruvian restaurant for years, so I was well fed by their delicious picarones. Peruvian food is the best food on the planet and a point of pride for Peruvians. Growing up in TN, Henry’s never had it before, so Ella takes him to her favorite hole in the wall spot.

Little Island

At this point in the novel, Ella and Henry have already faced their feelings, as much as they try to ignore it. The man made island has always made me a little homesick being surrounded by all that green. It felt like the perfect place for them to acknowledge there’s something between them, but something also holding them back.

Little Ruby’s Cafe – West 4th Street

Ella and Julia come here for a brunch moment, which I’ve admittedly done with my sister plenty of times. Their friendship was a lot of fun to write and no New York friendship is complete without at least one brunch and mimosa moment. (Their crispy rice bowl is the best thing on the menu!!)

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