The Nerd Daily contributor Mimi recently had the chance to speak to Kalynn Bayron, author of the highly acclaimed YA Cinderella is Dead and the upcoming contemporary fantasy This Poison Heart, which features a girl with plant magic, a dark town and twisty family secrets. We got to ask Kalynn about her life beyond writing, favorite magical abilities and all things queer Black power!
You can find Kalynn at her website, and on Twitter and Instagram.
Hi, Kalynn! Thanks for joining us! Why don’t you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
I’m Kalynn Bayron, author of Cinderella Is Dead and This Poison Heart. I am a horror movie enthusiast, a classically trained vocalist, and musical theater stan. I grew up in Anchorage, Alaska and I now live in San Antonio.
Lightning round: tell us the last book you read, the first book you can remember reading as a kid, and one that you will never stop recommending!
The last book I read was SCARY STORIES FOR YOUNG FOXES by Christian McKay Heidicker. I LOVE dark and scary stories for younger readers. This book is all of that and more.
The first book I can remember reading cover to cover was Nancy Drew: THE HIDDEN STAIRCASE when I was about eight years old. It sparked a love of mysteries for me and I actually started my own “detective agency” after reading it. It was basically just me and my friends all in people’s business for no real reason.
A book I will never stop recommending is THE CHANGELING by Victor LaValle. It is one of the best books I’ve ever read. I return to it again and again. It’s perfect.
When you’re not writing, what do you like to do in your spare time?
I love horror movies, so I watch a lot of them when I’m not writing. I enjoy live music, which has been tough since COVID but I’m hoping to get out and see some shows as soon as it’s safe. And of course, I love to read.
Now tell us about This Poison Heart! What can readers expect?
This Poison Heart is the story of Briseis Greene, a young woman born with a unique ability—she can control plants. Think Poison Ivy if she was a 16 year old queer Black girl from Brooklyn. When she’s willed a sprawling estate just outside Rhinebeck NY, she learns that her gift serves a very specific purpose and that the walled garden on the property contains a secret so closely guarded that the threat of its revelation may require the gods themselves to intercede. I like to think of this story as equal parts The Secret Garden and Little Shop of Horrors with a Greek mythology twist.
Parts of this story were in my head for years before I actually wrote it. I was obsessed with Little Shop of Horrors as a kid, I loved the idea of a secret garden tucked away on some windswept estate, and I find Greek mythology fascinating. All of these things were pinballing around in my head and then one day sometime in 2017 I saw an article about the Alnwick Poison Garden and I thought it would be fascinating if the secret garden was filled with deadly plants. This story is all things weird and wonderful and I’m so excited to get it into the hands of my readers!
This Poison Heart is your second novel. How did writing this story differ from penning your debut?
I’d been working on this story since before Cinderella Is Dead came out. They’re both books that I wrote when I wasn’t sure what was going to happen with my career. I was just writing what I wanted to read. The biggest difference was the shift from historical fantasy to contemporary fantasy. It’s great because I get to reference all these real-world things that I love. It allows me to firmly ground the narrative in things that are real and tangible before I take it to a place that asks readers to suspend disbelief for a little while. It’s challenging but I had a blast writing it.
Plant magic is such a cool concept! What inspired you to give Briseis this magical ability? Bonus question: what witches/magicians/sorcerers from books/movies etc are your favorites?
Briseis’s power has roots in a few different places. I did all this research and found out all the ways plants are interconnected when they exist in the same ecosystem. Sometimes they share a root system and have their own way of communicating that influences their growth patterns. It made me think about how a human being might fit into that system. Those ideas deal specifically with Briseis’s physical power but there is also a system of plant magic that is very real and exists in Black folk magic practices. The idea that certain plants have medicinal and magical properties is something I touched on in Cinderella Is Dead but got to fully flesh out in This Poison Heart. It’s an homage to rootworkers with a fantasy twist and that feels incredibly special and personal to me.
My favorite witches are the Wicked Witch of the West, the Aunties from Practical Magic, the Sanderson Sisters from Hocus Pocus, Whitney Houston as the godmother in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella, Rochelle from The Craft, Prudence in The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Cher in The Witches of Eastwick, Ursula. There are so many!
If you could have any magical ability, what would you choose and why?
Invisibility. Hands down. I’m an introvert so this ability speaks directly to who I am as a person. Also, when I’m eating snacks that I specifically bought for myself and my kids see me with it, imagine if I could just become invisible. Sounds like a good idea to me!
This Poison Heart features a lot of Greek mythology. What fascinates you about it and what did you take inspiration from for this story?
I love Greek mythology and I did a lot of research as I was writing this book. What I find most fascinating is the way mythos specific to neighboring cultures were grafted onto Greek mythos. You get this mix of intertwining history, legend, and myth that pull from other many other cultures. The stories are told and retold with so many variants that it makes establishing canon impossible and I think that’s okay. I wanted to explore some of the figures that were outside the more well known Olympians and think about how their origins may have originated elsewhere.
I absolutely loved the queer Black family vibes in This Poison Heart, especially Briseis’ two moms. What was your favorite scene to write with these three powerhouses in them?
The relationship between Briseis and her moms is really the heart of the novel. That dynamic is very special to me because I’m the queer parent of a queer kiddo. It is my favorite part of this story.
One of my favorite scenes is where Bri, Mom, and Mo are in the car on their way to Rhinebeck and their GPS stops working. Mom asks Mo to tell her which way to go based on an actual map and Mo is struggling. She tells Bri she’s never really had to read an actual map and says she had MapQuest back in the day. Mom and Mo explaining MapQuest to a 16-year-old Bri is hilarious to me. It also shows my age because I have definitely navigated via printed MapQuest directions in my lifetime and I don’t miss it at all.
With This Poison Heart releasing soon, can you share a bit about the sequel with antsy readers?
I can’t say much! What I can say is that we’ll meet some new characters that have a little more insight into Bri’s family history, we’ll see Briseis face the most daunting challenge of her life, and we’ll see a lot more plants with some unique and terrifying qualities! I just finished the latest revisions and it is shaping up to be something really special.
You also have your middle grade debut coming up next year! Can you tell us bit more about The Vanquishers?
I am SO excited to be stepping into the world of middle grade speculative fiction! The Vanquishers is about 12 year old Malika “Boog” Wilson and her BFFs Cedrick and Jules navigating their first year of middle school in an alternative modern day San Antonio where vampires are known to have existed but were wiped out during an event known as the Reaping by a group of masked vampire slayers—the Vanquishers. It is fun, scary, and reminds me of Stranger Things meets an age-appropriate Watchmen. It’s queer and full of heart, and I think it might be one of the best things I’ve ever written. I’m excited to get to know a new swath of younger readers and invite them into this story. We’re going to have so much fun!
Last but not least, do you have any book recommendations for our readers?
I always have recs and the list is so long! But these are a few of my favorites:
- Ghost Squad by Claribel Ortega
- Legendborn by Tracy Deonn
- A Chorus Rises by Bethany C Morrow
- Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas
- Jay’s Gay Agenda by Jason June
- Scary Stories for Young Foxes
- Book by Christian McKay Heidicker
