Unlock the Secrets to the Castle in our Midst, interview with Amy Ephron

Unlock the Secrets to the Castle in our Midst, interview with Amy Ephron  

“I am sure there is Magic in everything, only we have not sense enough to get hold of it and make it do things for us”

― Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden

In a magically realistic modern mashup of Half Magic with elements of the Secret Garden and with a dash of a magical whimsy, the wit of children and stars of gumption all its own, Amy Ephron’s new and debut middle grade book, Castle in the Mist is a brief but wondrous story full of adventure and brimming with possibilities.  

The cover of the magical book

Tess and her newly found beguiling and mysterious Castle with a marvelous garden. Tess Befriends a magical boy, Max and they go on fantastical adventures with several creatures reminiscent of a Wrinkle in Time. The book blends modern elements with plenty of more traditional English sensibilities. The relatively short book is nevertheless full with its careful use of language and its easy readability makes it a great read aloud and readers theater. The message is clear believe in magic and never stop believing.

I was lucky enough to have Amy Ephron come by the store (Books Inc in Burlingame) recently and she responded to the interview below.   

Amy Ephron at Books Inc Burlingame with yours Drewly

1. How would you introduce your new book Castle in the Mist (CITM)? What ages would it be appropriate for? Would you agree that it makes for good reader’s theater book/ read aloud?

I call “The Castle in the Mist”  a modern-day mash-up of an old fashioned children’s book, where reality meets magic, and one wonders sometimes if something is real or is it imagined…? 

We like to say it’s appropriate for 8 – 80.  As I’ve had a number of grown-up people tell me, who are older than 12, that they opened the book, intending to a few pages, and the next thing they knew, I’d blown their day!!  i.e they never left the house again. 

I do love the idea that it could be performed as a theatrical piece and always, as it’s a third person narrator telling the story, meant (or hoped) for it to be also sometimes read aloud. 

2. What do you think of the audiobook available from libro.fm?

I was so happy that Listening Library and Philomel thought that it should be voiced by a female narrator, as the voice is a little bit like mine…  Laraine Newman (original SNL castmember) and I are very old friends.  She’s never agreed to do an audio before  She performs all the characters, voices all of them, from the kids to the ancient Irish groundskeeper. It was very magical to be in the studio with her, almost like watching a one woman show. 

3. How would you define or classify CITM? Magical Realism? Magical fantasy? My classification is Castle garden magic parable. your thoughts on labeling your new book Castle in the Mist?

I’m still back on, is it real or did they imagine it?  Sometimes wishes do come true.  I do believe in magic and that sometimes strange, magical, often mystical things occur that we can’t really explain. 

I love your idea that it’s a parable as the hawthorn trees were thought in olden days, if you ate the berries, to be able to cure a broken heart!  As everyone in the book is nursing a certain kind of sadness.  I think it has a foot in magical realism and a foot in old-fashioned story telling like Oz or A Wrinkle in Time where reality and magical worlds combine. 

4. The physical book itself combines older elements of older language arts features including italics, simple, clear descriptions, handwritten chapter titles with modern society elements like war in the middle east and lack of reliable wifi add relatability to the book. Why did you choose to write your new book Castle in the Mist (CITM) this way? Why italics?

It has a foot in now, a foot in somewhere else. An altered reality, a step back in time, a crazy imagination.  But also, I hope, it holds onto to some of the values that we will always think are worthwhile, loyalty, constancy, working together, believing in magic and that wishes can come true, believing in yourself, and pinkie swear, that love itself is a magical thing. 

5. What were your primary influences for the book?

When I was a kid I truly thought books were magical places I could get lost it.  I think my inspiration for this book is kids, mine and some I’ve met along the way and part of the magic of this book has been to be able to interact with kids all around the country and talk to them about magic, astronomy (yes, the sky does some strange things), believing in yourself and that sometimes wishes come true.

6. There are clearly many influences and references to other works in CITM. In your words, what is the role of gardens in your new book and how does that compare with the role of gardens in the classic the Secret Garden?

            I loved The Secret Garden.  I think Misselthwaite Manor is real.  And that it might even be a work of non-fiction.  Really.  It’s so vividly imagined. I love the idea of a secret garden, a place Max and Tess visit that no one else really knows about.  Also I love the act of playing the garden, no wife, old-fashioned games and bird and swan sightings.  But in a way the garden is just a portal into a magical place with a magical friendship and also, beware of the hawthorn trees, possibly a portal to a place you might want to get out of as quickly as you can…..stop…spoiler alert.

This BEAUTIFUL map crafted by Vartan Ter-Avanesyan is placed right before the book starts.  

7. Please describe how this book came to be? Specifically how were our beloved children lead characters Tess and Max created? Please describe their literary growth process?

Not sure I can explain except to say that I wanted to write about siblings – those moments when you don’t quite get along and yet truly are devoted to each other.  I wanted to recreate an old fashioned children’s world in modern day time (hence no wife); and I wanted theirs and William’s, the little boy in the castle, sadness which they swear in missing and worrying about their parents to be a way in which they bonded, something that they shared.  And I wanted them to learn to work together in order to overcome dangers that were put in their way.  Or dangers that they inadvertently put themselves into!!

8. There are many elements of Half Magic by Edward Eager sprinkled dazzlingly in CITM, I was most amazed by the roles of magic in both books. In both books magic tends to mysteriously teach personal growth to children and reveal personal powers that were hidden before. Your thoughts on the role of imagination and magic for Tess and Max?

It was also important to me that they were aware and appreciated some of the absolute beauty that they were seeing, her gardens, the castle, the musty antique shop.  That even though they were tough in some ways, they weren’t immune or jaded in any way.  That to Tess, the dancing doll herself was really a marvel, so that then they could enormous appreciation for what might turn out to be a magical dance in the stars, during a night when there was a blue moon, a blood, and a supermoon all at once where strange and beautiful, and sometimes scary, things can happen. 


9. What is the role of mystery in the lives of modern families?

Are you talking about secrets?  Or are you talking about how sometimes an adventure itself can feel like a mystery, a magical day that you come out of the other side of, like even a spontaneous trip or drive to the mountains. 

My family is very close and we try very hard not to be mysterious with each other – it doesn’t always work that way. The only thing I ever get really mad at my kids about it when they lie to me and I think history tell us that one of the biggest things that gets you in trouble is not necessarily what you did but that you lied about it..   (By the way, if someone asks you to keep a secret, it’s not always the same as lying!!) 

There is something lovely though about some mysteries, like the mystery of William being at the castle, at all.  And the magical antique store that’s never open except for that very one day…

10. Describe the role of friends and family in your new book. Are there any parallels to your own daily life?

Between us, my husband and I have five kids.  And there’s a thing in the book when Tess and Max, who are on their own, sometimes remember or repeat to themselves things they’ve learned along the way, either from one of their parents or a teacher or what I call

a life lesson…and I hope sometimes my kids, when they’re not around me, act that way, too. 

I also think that the family bond, the sibling thing, and how at the end of the day, you have your brother or your sister’s back no matter what, is a kind of credo that we try to live by. 

            Oh, and did I mention, I believe in magic.  And that wishes, sometimes, can come true.

11. If Tess and a Max were here right now what would they be doing and what would they say to thier readers? What do you want the legacy of this book to be?

If Tess and Max were here right now, I would hope they would say that they wanted to be invited back to England next summer to see their Aunt Evie, although possibly not in Hapshire, maybe the seashore, where there’s wireless and other kids and nothing whatsoever (they, Aunt Evie, and their parents think) could happen…

12. What's next for your writing career? Any parting words?

            That’s a secret but I absolutely promise that I’ll tell, the first second I can!  And I hope you’ll invite me to visit you and your magical bookstore again!! 

Make a wish. 

Painting in back of book crafted by Vartan Ter-Avanesyan  is Wrinkle in Time-esque, no?

Limitless thanks to the magical Amy Laura Ephron and to Lindsay Boggs and Jill Santopolo at Philomel/Penguin who allowed me to promote the book and its marvelous illustrations. Thanks also to master artist Vartan Ter-Avanesyan for adding to the magic of this book with purely stellar visuals.

Social media acknowledgments, Shout outs to:

 @philomelbooks and @penguinkids, and @penguinclass

 @amyephron who you can find on twitter and Instagram.  

and of course @booksinc.kids, @BooksincCentral, and @BooksincBurligname