We chat with author Nicole Lesperance about A Spell To Wake The Dead, which follows two teen girls who must uncover the dark, occult secrets lurking in their Cape Cod town to solve a series of murders—and save themselves from the same fate.
Hi, Nicole! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
Hi! I’m Nicole Lesperance, and I write strange and magical books for young adults and middle grade readers. I live just outside of Boston with my family and my two black cats. In my spare time, I like to knit, practice yoga, and read tarot cards.
When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?
Back in fourth grade, we had designated writing time, and our teacher would give us those blue essay booklets and tell us to write literally anything we wanted for like twenty minutes every day. I started writing epic, mulitpart stories about the OG Disney characters (Mickey, Minnie, etc.) going to haunted houses and meeting gorey, untimely ends My teacher would read them and leave little comments like “Goodness, how are they going to get out of this?” (spoiler: they weren’t). I still remember the rush, like the stories were almost coming out faster than I could write them down, and feeling like I had magical powers to create something out of nothing. I’m so grateful to that teacher for encouraging what was essentially fanfiction but developed into a lifelong love for storytelling and writing.
Quick lightning round! Tell us:
- The first book you ever remember reading: I started reading really young, so I don’t have a specific memory of my first book, but I loved Astrid Lindgren’s books, especially Ronia, the Robber’s Daughter. I also had a big phase of reading and rereading The Secret Garden.
- The one that made you want to become an author: The two books that made me fall in love with YA and realize that my writing style could be a good fit for it were Lips Touch: Three Times by Laini Taylor and Chime by Franny Billingsley.
- The one that you can’t stop thinking about: I read the Locked Tomb series by Tamsyn Muir last year and am OBSESSED with it. Like the rest of the fandom, I am eagerly awaiting the final book, and in the meantime I’m planning to reread the series, because the books are so complex and there are so many clever little secrets and clues hidden everywhere and I’m excited to find all the ones I missed.
Your latest novel, A Spell to Wake the Dead, is out August 26th! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Occult, moonlit, coastal, macabre, suspenseful
What can readers expect?
A Spell to Wake the Dead is a witchy YA thriller about two best friends who find a body washed up on a beach one night. In an effort to solve the mystery, they use witchcraft to contact the sprit of the dead woman … and it ends up being a very bad idea.
Where did the inspiration for A Spell to Wake the Dead come from?
This is going to sound funny because the book is fairly gruesome and full of murder, but it’s my love letter to Cape Cod in the off-season. I grew up there, and it’s strange to live in an area that transforms into a vacation paradise three months out of the year, but the rest of the time, it’s just a normal (but still beautiful) place where regular people live. I feel like most visitors don’t get the full picture of Cape Cod, so I wanted to lean into the dark, windy emptiness of late autumn and set my story there. Mazzy and Nora’s journey with withcraft is loosely based on some of the dabbling that my sister and I used to do as teens, as well as my own experience with tarot cards and other witchy practices.
Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
I loved sending my characters to all the places that my friends and I used to haunt as teenagers on Cape Cod. Moonlit beaches, shadowy graveyards, Scargo Tower, Grays Beach, etc. Obviously we weren’t investigating murders or sneaking into morgues or anything, but it was fun to take my real memories and weave the story into them.
Did you face any challenges whilst writing? How did you overcome them?
In the middle of revising this book, I broke my heel in a freak accident involving a loft and a ladder. You wouldn’t think this would affect my ability to write, but I usually go for long walks to do all of my brainstorming and plot planning. So for a couple of months, it was really hard to get my brain into creative mode, but I figured out some workarounds, like listening to playlists, freewriting, and taking long showers. I have no idea why showers work, but they are magical for idea generating.
What’s next for you?
I’m working on a couple of different projects at the moment, and I can’t say much about them except that they are magical/speculative and weird, just like all of my other books.
Lastly, what books have you enjoyed reading this year? Are there any you’re looking forward to picking up?
I’m a huge T Kingfisher fan, having read A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking a few years ago with my son. Recently, I read her book What Moves the Dead, and it was pure gothic perfection, so eerie and mysterious and disturbing with just a hint of wry humor from the narrator, which doesn’t sound like it would work but totally does. As for upcoming books, I’m really excited for Margot Harrison’s The Library of Fates, which comes out in December!
