We chat with co-authors MarcyKate Connolly and Kathryn Holmes about The Thirteenth Circle, which is a middle-grade mystery featuring two unexpected friends, crop circles, science fairs, and Men in Black, perfect for both the highly scientific and cryptid enthusiasts alike—think The X-Files meets Scooby-Doo.
Hi, MarcyKate and Kathryn! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourselves?
MarcyKate: I’m a children’s book author who lives in New England with my family and a grumble of short-nosed dogs (currently a pug and a French bulldog). I grew up in NH, but now live in MA in one of those towns that’s notoriously hard to pronounce. When I was in 4th grade, I saw an unidentified flying object zig-zag across the sky over my neighbor’s backyard and I’ve been preparing to write a book like The Thirteenth Circle ever since. Even before that, I was (and still am) obsessed with UFOs, cryptids, and all things strange, which made writing the POV of Cat Mulvaney in The Thirteenth Circle a perfect fit!
Kathryn: I’m a children’s book author and freelance writer who lives in Brooklyn, NY. I’m also a lifelong nerd, so it’s an honor to be interviewed by The Nerd Daily! I grew up in East Tennessee. As a kid, I was a dedicated bookworm, reading anything I could get my hands on. My intro to science fiction came from watching “Star Trek: The Next Generation” with my dad, and a few years later, I became obsessed with “The X-Files” as a teenager. Some of my earliest attempts at fiction-writing were in the form of “X-Files” fanfiction!
The Thirteenth Circle is my middle-grade debut, and my first sci-fi/mystery novel. My other published books include a lightly magical chapter book series for early readers, Class Critters, and two realistic novels for young adults. I love telling stories—and I especially love capturing kids’ imaginations.
When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?
MarcyKate: I was a precocious reader as a child. My older brother (by ten years) was an English literature major in college and by the time was 8, I was sneaking into his room to steal his books off his shelves (yes, I was a very annoying little sister!). So I was reading Shakespeare and Poe way too young, but it definitely informed my later writing. I didn’t begin writing seriously until I was in my late 20s, but when I was in elementary school I loved writing poetry, and I really enjoyed the writing workshops we did in school. Not long ago, I found my 4th grade writing portfolio and it was surprisingly on brand. One piece was my last will and testament (I left my sister my silver, and my mother my gold, neither of which I actually had); a short story about a girl who has an encounter with a UFO; and a picture book (I illustrated the cover too) called The Seal’s Revenge where a seal gets revenge on the narwhal who killed his mate by killing him, but then in a shocking twist at the end, the narwhal’s mate ends up skewering the seal. I’m fairly certain this was around the time I first read Hamlet, because the everybody-dies theme was pretty strong!
Fast forward to my late 20s, I was working and getting my Masters degree in Boston and commuting to my home in NH. One night I was stuck between stations on a subway train and saw this odd glow behind some old plastic sheeting in an unused subway tunnel from a work lamp. I was suddenly struck by the idea for a story about fairies living in the subway tunnels and when I got home I wrote the first chapter, then the next, and the next, and I basically haven’t looked back since.
Kathryn: I always liked writing as a kid, but I didn’t truly fall in love with it until my fanfiction days. Posting my “X-Files” stories online in serial format (adding a scene or a chapter every couple of days) introduced me to the experience of having readers—people who commented with their feedback and who were eager to see what I’d write next. This was so different from writing for myself or for my teachers, in the case of school assignments. I loved knowing there were people out there, who I didn’t know, who enjoyed my stories! Having that experience in high school is part of what encouraged me to take creative writing courses in college (I was a double-major in dance and English literature), and then to enroll in an MFA in Creative Writing in my twenties, with the goal of one day publishing a novel.
Quick lightning round! Tell us:
- The first book you ever remember reading:
- MarcyKate: This little board book of nursery rhymes that was just exquisitely illustrated. I was obsessed with this one drawing of Miss Muffet and recall tiny me wishing on stars nightly that she could come alive and be my best friend.
- Kathryn: I have vivid memories of my dad reading The Hobbit to me and my siblings at bedtime. He did all the voices!
- The one that made you want to become an author:
- MarcyKate: I don’t think I can pinpoint just one book! There were so many that I loved, and it was really the collective accumulation of them along with my desire to create something and express myself artistically that made me want to be an author.
- Kathryn: Feed by M.T. Anderson was one of the first books we read in my MFA program, and it honestly blew my mind. Seeing that as an example of what children’s books could be and do made me even more certain I wanted to write and publish for kids and teens.
- The one that you can’t stop thinking about:
- MarcyKate: The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. I’ve been slightly obsessed with this book ever since I read it in French class in high school. I have every edition I’ve been able to get my hands on – English translation, the original French version, the audiobook, a pop-up picture book, even the stage recording of The Little Prince opera by Rachel Portman!
- Kathryn: E. Schwab’s Shades of Magic series (as well as the new sequel, The Fragile Threads of Power)—I can only dream of writing such a rich, lush fantasy. I love spending time in Schwab’s worlds.
Your co-authored novel, The Thirteenth Circle, is out January 30th! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
MarcyKate: Love letter to the X-Files!
Kathryn: The X-Files Meets Scooby-Doo!
What can readers expect?
MarcyKate: A middle grade mystery with both “sci” and “fi,” plus tween girls making science fun!
Kathryn: A fun sci-fi mystery grounded in real science, featuring two smart, driven seventh-grade girls who share a common goal—to win a prestigious regional science fair—but whose motivations couldn’t be more different. They have to figure out how to work together in order to crack the case!
Where did the inspiration for The Thirteenth Circle come from?
Kathryn: When watching the new season of “The X-Files” that was released in 2016, it occurred to me that I’d love to see that dynamic in a children’s book: two kids, one a true believer and one a science-minded skeptic, investigate something paranormal in their hometown. The more I thought about it, the more excited I was about the idea. But I didn’t want to write it alone. I really wanted the interplay of two voices, one author for each character. So I fleshed out the concept a little—deciding on a crop circle phenomenon as the paranormal incident, and adding a science fair as the reason for the investigation—and reached out to some author friends to see who felt like a good fit for a collaboration. The moment I spoke to MarcyKate about this idea, I knew it was meant to be!
MarcyKate: One day in fall 2017, Kathryn DM’d me on Twitter about the possibility of writing an X-files-inspired book together and that she was looking for someone to write the Mulder-esque POV character. My answer was a resounding YES! I’ve been fascinated by UFOs and crop circles and already knew a lot about them, and I was very keen to be a part of this project. We set up a Skype call to discuss details and brainstorm, and ended up putting together a fair amount of the plot on that first call.
Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
MarcyKate: I wrote Cat, the “Mulder” inspired character, and it was a BLAST. I was completely obsessed with aliens and UFOs when I was in elementary school and even had a pair of binoculars I’d wear everywhere, just like Cat does in the book. But Cat is much more highly caffeinated and into science than I ever was, and has far more fun investigative toys, er tools, than I did. So she was sort of like me as a kid, but cranked up to eleven. One of my favorite scenes was actually cut in a revision we did before the book sold, but my current two favorites are when Cat tells Dani what their science project is going to be, and when she presents a slideshow (fueled by Mountain Dew) on crop circles to get non-believer Dani up to speed.
Kathryn: I wrote the character of Dani, the “Scully” of the duo—the skeptic. I enjoyed her role as the grounded character in the face of Cat’s wild, supernatural theories. It was especially fun to write the moments when Dani begins to suspect there actually is more going on than your average crop circle hoax. She’s determined to figure out what’s really happening, even if that means questioning her own assumptions—but she’s also stubborn. Even in the fact of actual evidence, for instance standing in the middle of a freshly formed crop circle, she doesn’t want to get carried away by her imagination. She wants to take the logical approach. I loved helping her navigate the “strange” situations Cat puts her in throughout the book.
This is your first published collab together! Can you tell us a bit about how the collab came to be and about the process?
Kathryn & MarcyKate: Before The Thirteenth Circle, we knew each other online, thanks to both publishing our first novels in the same year and joining a group for debut authors, but we’d actually only met in person once before starting this book. After MarcyKate expressed interest in working together, we had a video-call brainstorm session to throw out ideas for how the story could unfold. We plotted out the big events of the story, as well as from whose point of view those scenes should be told. Then, we each got to work writing. The book alternates chapters between the two narrators, so we drafted by writing back and forth in a shared document, with plenty of emails commenting on each other’s scenes as well as offering ideas for what could come next.
What’s next for you both?
MarcyKate: I’m currently in that strange place between contracts, but I do have lots of irons in the fire and hopefully some of them will come to fruition soon. I’m working on a Poe-inspired picture book, two different YA fantasies, and a middle-grade fantasy inspired by the legend of the Green Children of Woolpit. So I’m constantly neck deep in either drafting or revisions of some kind!
Kathryn: I’ve been collaborating with Hopscotch Girls on a new illustrated middle-grade series, and the first book releases on April 30th, 2024! Mia Madison, CEO, is about an eleven-year-old “kid-trepreneur” (a.k.a. a kid entrepreneur) who starts a consulting business to help her friends and classmates launch businesses of their own. This series has been a blast to work on, and I can’t wait to get it into kids’ hands!
Lastly, are there any 2024 book releases that you’re looking forward to?
MarcyKate: Too many! Some highlights include Most Ardently by Gabe Cole Novoa (a queer reimagining of Pride & Prejudice – P&P retellings are totally my catnip!), Under This Red Rock by Mindy McGinnis, To Cage A God by Elizabeth May, and Leigh Bardugo’s The Familiar.
Kathryn: For kids’ books, I’m excited for the third book in Lauren Magaziner’s Mythics series, Kit and the Nine-Tailed Fox, as well as Janae Marks’s next book, A Split Second. For adult books, I think my most anticipated 2024 releases are Emily Henry’s Funny Story and Jeff Zentner’s Colton Gentry’s Third Act.
