We chat with author Kate Pearsall about Lies On The Serpent’s Tongue, which is the haunting companion to Bittersweet in the Hollow following a girl who can smell the lies of others as she uncovers the incendiary mysteries of her small Appalachian town.
Hi, Kate! Welcome back! How has the past year been since we last spoke?
Hi! Thanks for having me. It’s been an absolutely wild and wonderful year since the release of my debut novel, Bittersweet in the Hollow. I wrote it mostly tucked away in a room alone, and I knew how much I loved it, but definitely questioned if maybe it was too strange a concept, or a mix of too many genres, and if it would find its audience. And then it went out into the world and received some lovely starred reviews, and was selected as an Indie Next Pick, a 2024 YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults Pick, and a Kirkus Best YA Book of 2023, which was all beyond my wildest dreams. But my favorite part has been hearing from readers who really connected with it about how much it meant to them and how excited they are for the next book.
With it being the new year, have you set any goals for the year?
I’d really love to meet more readers this year, especially in places I haven’t been before, so that’s a big a goal for the new year.
Lies on the Serpent’s Tongue is the sequel to Bittersweet in the Hollow and it’s out January 7th 2025! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
One of my favorite things about having each book told from the viewpoint of a different sister is that they can be read completely independently, so Lies on the Serpent’s Tongue can function as a sequel or a standalone!
Five words is so tough, maybe: haunting, uncanny, incendiary, treacherous, and spellbinding
What can readers expect?
My editor and I jokingly refer to Lies on the Serpent’s Tongue as 2 Bitter 2 Sweet because we wanted to take all the things we loved about Bittersweet in the Hollow and dial them up. There are more twists and turns, more eerie folklore legends, more sisterhood, more mystery, and more romance.
Where did the inspiration for Lies on the Serpent’s Tongue come from?
Truly, the inspiration began with Rowan herself. She burst onto the page in Bittersweet in the Hollow with her brazen attitude and fiery temper and that was where I started when I was dreaming up Lies on the Serpent’s Tongue. I knew I wanted to explore another Appalachian folk legend and also that this story would pick up a few weeks after the ending of the first book, which put us into ginseng season in West Virginia and opened up a lot of fun plotlines to explore.
Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring further?
One of the elements I really wanted to explore in Lies on the Serpent’s Tongue was what it meant to see the world through Rowan’s eyes instead of Linden’s and how her perspective would change things. To that end, one of my favorite scenes to write was a flashback to a situation that happened in the previous book, but this time we see it from Rowan’s perspective and it adds so much nuance and detail to her motivations that we didn’t get before when we were observing what happened from Linden’s perspective.
Did you face any challenges? How did you overcome them?
Second books are notoriously difficult and Lies on the Serpent’s Tongue was no exception. Part of it, and likely what I struggled with the most, is that suddenly there were these expectations. I was no longer writing just for myself, and didn’t want to let down anyone who had loved my first book and was looking forward to the second. But writing Lies on the Serpent’s Tongue was a huge growth experience for me as an author. One thing that really helped was focusing, not on what would happen when the book was finished—which was mostly out of my control—but on the joy I found in exploring Rowan’s character and the story I needed to tell.
Were there any key lessons learned between working on the two books?
Yes, I learned so much! A big one was about how the publication process itself works. And also writing an entire novel from start to finish on deadline, unlike Bittersweet in the Hollow, which I wrote before I was agented or under contract. My background is in copywriting, so I thought I was very used to writing to a deadline, but this was a whole different thing. Especially because the publication schedule meant that I was working on Lies on the Serpent’s Tongue while we were launching Bittersweet in the Hollow and my first ever reviews were coming in. But my editor at Putnam is wonderful and kindly guided me through the process with supernatural levels of patience and understanding.
What’s next for you?
Nothing I’m allowed to talk about yet! But I will say watch for more twisty stories about deep, dark woods, mysterious circumstances, and magical sisterhoods coming soon.
Lastly, what books are you looking forward to picking up in 2025?
My TBR list for 2025 is packed with so many amazing books! I was lucky enough to ready early copies of The Rose Bargain by Sasha Peyton Smith and The Wildest Things by Andrea Hannah and both were incredible! I’m also really looking forward to All the Stars Align by Gretchen Schreiber, Boys with Sharp Teeth by Jenni Howell, and When Devils Sing by Xan Kaur.
