Monday, November 26, 2018

The Haunted Serpents Eerie Tale

Worthy Readers!



Welcome to another Worthy Read review and author interview!! 

This time I interviewed Dora Mitchell author of the new book  Haunted Serpent!!


Worthy Reader Haunted Serpent Review of Haunted Serpent: 

Young sleuth Spaulding is afraid.  Creeped out by the emerging scary creatures and dastardly people around his hometown. To make matters worse, he is an outcast outsider trying to find where he belongs amidst the murky mysteries of his community.  This hauntingly relevant story is sure to resonate with readers trying to find their tribe, their community and their place in the world.



Official Author intro: 


Dora M. Mitchell is a writer, illustrator, and children’s librarian living in a small Northern California town that dates back to the Gold Rush. She writes surrounded by dark woods where the evidence of mining days can still be found hidden away among the trees—the inspiration for the setting of her debut novel, The Haunted Serpent (Sterling Books, June 2018). Her illustration work can be seen in The Boatman, by Kat Hawthorne (BookFish Books, 2015), and in her all-ages mystery webcomic, The Curse of Crooked Mile

Dora intro in her own words:

I live in a small Northern California town, in an old house surrounded by trees. I like writing about weird little towns where people have things to hide and everyone knows everyone. If I'm not writing or drawing, I'm hanging out with any animals I can find -- my pets, other people's pets, birds, beetles, cows, whatever. I've been a vegetarian for 20 years, and I have two dogs, two house rabbits, and a very bad cat who wears stylish leopard-print underwear to keep him from peeing on the furniture. 


 Official Haunted Serpent intro: 


Haunted Serpent official Intro: 


Spaulding Meriwether, Thedgeroot Middle School’s new resident weirdo and son of questionable television ghost hunters, just wants to fit in. But after a revenant chases him through the woods, Spaulding suspects there’s something afoot in Thedgeroot. (At least he thinks it’s a foot. Maybe it was a hand. It’s hard to tell when you’re running away.)Then he notices the chimneys of the abandoned factory at the edge of town puffing smoke—and his dead next-door neighbor materializes, along with David, the missing pet boa constrictor that supposedly ate him. Spaulding can’t help wondering if these strange happenings have anything to do with his undead friends in the forest. Of course, Spaulding just has to investigate—but he may be biting off more than he can chew…


Dora’s intro in her own words: 

The Haunted Serpent is my first book. It's about a kid named Spaulding Meriwether, who uncovers weird things happening in his hometown. Spaulding hopes unraveling the mystery will prove to the kids at school that he's not weird, he's actually totally cool and smart and completely right that the undead are on the loose. But it turns out the living dead aren't the only creepy creatures in town -- the place is crawling with ghosts, killer boa constrictors, scary schoolteachers, and murderous business owners. Spaulding can't handle all this on his own...which means he has to solve an even tougher mystery: how can he make friends when everybody thinks he's a weirdo?









Worthy Reader and Dora Mitchell at NCIBA Fall discovery show 2018

What is your intended audience for Haunted Serpent? Intended audience for the webcomic?


Intended audience as in age, or type of reader I wrote it for? As far as age, I'd say 8 or 9 and up (nobody's ever too old for kids' books!). As for the type of reader: I wrote it for imaginative kids, kids who'd love to have an adventure or stumble on a mystery, and especially for kids who feel like they don't fit in.


The webcomic is aimed at all ages, for anyone who likes a spooky, funny mystery. It's set in the 1910s, so if you like weird old-fashioned stuff, you'll probably enjoy it! Fans of Nightmare Before Christmas and Coraline will probably dig it too. 

1. The spooky magical realism becomes more sensory with the illustrations in the book. How do the illustrations and notebook inserts help readers suspend their disbelief throughout the story? How did you balance illustrations with text so well?

I’m glad you felt the illustrations helped bring the story to life! Making the pictures as if they came from Spaulding’s notebook gave me a whole new feeling of what it would be like to actually be Spaulding. In fact, I went back and re-wrote parts of the story after I started drawing the pictures, because I felt like I knew Spaulding so much better.

As far as balancing the illustrations and text, I re-read the whole story and tried to imagine, if I were in Spaulding’s shoes, what would I write down or make a sketch of? What would stand out to me? What kinds of notes and things would I save as evidence? It was also interesting writing the notes in first person and the rest of the story in third person -- sometimes his notes give us a slightly different take than what the narrator tells us!


2. Why did you choose to focus on creepy haunted and or undead creatures?


Ever since I was a kid, I’ve loved scary stories -- even though I’m a pretty nervous person. My family went to the library every week, and I’d promise myself I wouldn’t check out any scary books...but they were always too tempting to resist, and I’d go home with an armload of them! I was petrified of the dark, and I had a lot of nightmares (and this was before the scary books. My brain came up with terrifying ideas on its own, as brains will do). I didn’t realize it at the time, but I think that’s why I liked creepy books. Deciding to scare yourself puts you in control; it shows you that you have power over your fears.


3. What are some of the most important influences on your book? Goosebumps maybe?



Haunted Serpent, on shelves now!

Oddly enough, I never read Goosebumps! Some of my favorite authors were Joan Aiken, Zilpha Keatley Snyder (check out The Egypt Game if you can!), Mary Downing Hahn, and Betty Ren Wright. The very biggest influence, though, was John Bellairs -- I’d recommend The House with a Clock in its Walls, or any of the Lewis Barnavelt series, if you liked Haunted Serpent!





As for my artwork, many of John Bellairs’ books were illustrated with wonderfully creepy pen and ink drawings by an amazing illustrator named Edward Gorey. He’s my biggest inspiration as an illustrator. Another influence on the art side was Stephen Gammell, who illustrated the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark series (not the newer edition illustrated by Brett Helquist). Fair warning, if you look up Gammell -- some of his art is almost too creepy to even look at!




4. How do you write in such an immediately relatable, funny  and even familiar way about ghosts, dead things and creepy creatures?


Well, they say “write what you know,” so I just think about all the ghosts and ghouls and undead I’ve met...just kidding! :) (I don’t believe in ghosts, for the record!)

I actually do follow that advice, though. To me, “write what you know” doesn’t mean you only write about real things. It means you think about the feelings you want your readers to feel, and you find those feelings in your real-life experiences. Like, say I want to write about characters finding something spooky in the woods (and don’t I always!). Maybe I’ve never found a living dead guy lying in a shrub -- but I have been walking alone on a foggy day, heard a weird noise I couldn’t identify, smelled wet leaves underfoot, started to get a creepy feeling. . . So I use all the things I really saw, heard, smelled, and felt to make the imaginary scene come to life. That, to me, is how you write about weird and crazy stuff while making it feel real and possible.


5. What was your process like for writing The Haunted Serpent?


Spaulding popped into my head out of the blue. I heard his voice saying, “The name’s Meriwether -- S.S. Meriwether. But my friends call me Boat.” I felt like I’d made a new friend! But coming up with a story for him was a long process. It was only the second novel I’d completed, and I didn’t really know what I was doing. Now I know a lot more about how to craft a plot so it’s a much faster process, but Haunted Serpent took me six years to hammer into shape! Lots of trying different things, realizing they weren’t working, and starting almost from scratch again. Lots of how-to books and classes on plot and character development. For aspiring writers out there: be patient with yourself, and accept that some stories take a looong time to bring into the world! It’s all a learning process, and you’re never done learning.


Picture by Dora Mitchell from Haunted Serpent

6. Eeriness is abundantly felt and seems to be a focus throughout the story. What made you choose this tone?



I just love anything eerie, mysterious, or creepy! I love a cloudy day, an old house, creepy woods. Not flat-out horror, but suspense. I think eerie stories are a good way to process real-life fears about things that are too big or overwhelming to think about directly. Life can be kinda scary, right? Stories with a feeling of suspense or eeriness can help you experience fear in a safe way that you can put aside when you want to be done with it.


7. The warnings in the chapter titles add to the feeling of caution yet they add moments of fun into the story. How do you mix humor with such a ghostly otherworldly story?


The idea for the Note to Self chapter titles came from thinking how Spaulding might respond to these bizarre events in his usual dry, kind of deadpan way. Spaulding’s scientific researcher attitude contrasted with the goofy/creepy things he’s facing became one of my favorite ways to mix in some humor. He’s a pretty matter-of-fact kid, so if he’s going to be dealing with ghosts and snakes and revenants, he’s going to try to draw some logical conclusions (especially because he’s determined to be different than his superstitious parents -- he’s going to handle the supernatural in an orderly way, thank you very much!).


Dora Mitchell

8. I love the way the kids especially Spaulding use humor to face their fears. How can readers do the same in their lives?


Humor is definitely a powerful weapon against fear! (Just think about Harry Potter, when they learn to use Riddikulus.) Of course, real-life scary stuff, like mean kids at school or speaking in front of the class or whatever, is harder to face than a ghost -- since it’s real and, as I mentioned above, ghosts aren’t! It helps to remember that very soon whatever you’re facing will be just another memory. Your memories are your stories. Can you imagine how you’ll share this story with someone once it’s all over? Can you see what parts you’ll tell in a funny way, even if it’s not so funny at the time? Everything that happens to you -- even scary and hard things -- is your story, that you choose how to tell.


Were you an author or an illustrator first?

I started drawing as soon as I could hold a pencil, but writing stories started pretty soon after! Writing is harder, in my opinion, so I've spent more of my life intending to be an illustrator than an author. But eventually I realized that I love writing so much that I had to do it, even if it's really hard. So in college (while I was working on an art degree), I started really focusing on writing too, and ever since then I've hoped to make a career doing both.

Did the book always have plans for illustrations in it?

Not exactly -- I always drew pictures of the characters and settings as I wrote, just for the fun of it. I didn't expect to include them in the book. It wasn't until I'd finished writing the whole thing that an early reader commented that it'd be fun to see excerpts from Spaulding's notes, and that's when the idea for the illustrations came along.

What material did you start with? What were the primary sources for the Haunted Serpent story?

Lots of material came from my hometown. For example, the factory was inspired by the lumber mill in my town (it isn't out of business, but it does spew a lot of smoke -- yuck!). Mr. Radzinsky came about because I lived next door to a house that was kind of creepy and sad because a guy had died there alone, and I wanted to reimagine his story in a happier way. It's also an old mining town, so I read a lot about mining history and got ideas from some of the weird facts I learned. For example, it might seem unlikely that kids could just roam into old mine tunnels, but it turns out the U.S. is full of abandoned mines -- unmarked, and open for anybody to wander (or fall!) into. Yikes! That's the kind of stuff that makes me itch to write stories. :)


9. Above everything else What do message do you hope to share with readers from your new book The Haunted Serpent?


I hope that kids will embrace being different and not worry too much about fitting in. The middle school years are tough, but even if you feel like a dork, don’t worry, there’s always somebody else feeling the same way!





10. What’s next for you and your writing?


I post a new page of my spooky mystery webcomic, The Curse of Crooked Mile (www.owensuncles.com), every Friday. It’s about a boy named Owen who’s just been adopted by his mad scientist uncles -- I write and illustrate it, so if you liked Haunted Serpent, hopefully you’ll enjoy it too! It’s got all the fun, eerie stuff that by now we all know I love!

I’m also working on a sequel to Haunted Serpent, and another creepy mystery starring new characters, so keep an eye out for those -- hopefully in the near future. Thank you again for reading Haunted Serpent!

From Dora Mitchell's Web Comic Curse of Crooke Mile

Gratitude and social media links: Thank you to Dora Mitchell and Sterling Publishers!

Dora's Social media:

Twitter: @inky_beast

Instagram: @inkybeast 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authordoramitchell/


website: http://www.doramitchell.com

Sterling Publishers:

twitter: @sterlingkids

Monday, November 5, 2018

Collect Magic, find Treasure and read The Collectors by Jacqueline West

"There were treasures everywhere. You just had to know how to look." From the Collectors by Jacqueline West

Book Review  of The Collectors by Jacqueline West

Jacqueline West has written another brilliant middle grade magical, beguiling story full of real and flawed characters and an eerie plot line full of magical realism. Genuinely moving with poetic hidden truths
(treasures) which are hidden in the sometimes poetic prose. This exquisitely fantastical story is immediately related to today's modern world. The story focuses on unintended consequences of wishes, and finding our own treasure in our everyday lives. Magic is everywhere, but you dont have to take my word for it. Add The collectors to your shelves or your To be read list, as soon as you read this blog! Out everywhere especially at Books Inc link is here https://www.booksinc.net/book/9780062691699


Here is my previous interview with Jacqueline West about her Books of Elsewhere series: http://www.reachandteach.com/content/article.php?story=elsewhere

Now, below is my most recent interview with Jacqueline West.
Questions in bold answers below.

1. Please introduce yourself to our readers.....
Hi, everybody! I’m Jacqueline West, and I’m the author of the new middle grade fantasy The Collectors, the MG series The Books of Elsewhere, the YA novel Dreamers Often Lie, and a lot of poetry, plays, and short stories. 

2. Please Introduce your new book in five sentences or less...
The Collectors is about the kinds of magic that we don’t notice—magic that might be happening around us every day. The main character is a small boy named Van who has a talent for spotting things that other people don’t see, like the tiny objects that he finds on the ground and adds to his treasure collection. But one day, in a busy city park, Van sees something he’s not supposed to be able to see…and suddenly, he is pulled into the world of the Collectors: a dark, secretive underworld dedicated to collecting people’s wishes before they can come true.


3. It seems you did hard work to get the hard of hearing young hero of your new book, Van to be readily realistic and marvelously hopeful. Explain your process in creating him.
A funny thing happened while I was writing the first full draft of The Collectors. I was halfway through the book, and all the big pieces were there—Van’s mother being an opera singer, Van’s collecting hobby, the wishes and wish-magic—and out of the blue, I realized that Van was hard of hearing. I didn’t decide to make him that way; it was like the character had told me this fact about himself. And with that one added fact, all of the other pieces fell into place, and everything made sense in a way it hadn’t before.
My first instinct was to chicken out. I’m not hard of hearing myself, and I was afraid that I wouldn’t be able to do justice to this experience. But I couldn’t change this fact about Van—it was who he was. So I dove into research instead.
I read great books about deaf and hard of hearing experiences. I researched online. I interviewed kids and teachers in local DHH programs, as well as at Minnesota’s State Academy for the Deaf, and they gave me incredibly insightful, helpful responses. Then I took everything I’d learned and tried to weave it into Van’s experience of the world. Obviously, his experiences aren’t meant to represent every hard of hearing kid’s experiences, but I hope I did some justice to the wonderful people who helped me.   

Jacqueline Wests new story The Collectors out now!


4. Personally after being close friends with Olive from your spell binding Elsewhere series, I felt Van and Olive would have been best friends especially in terms of their beliefs on wishes and magic. Explain how The new book explores the dangerous magic of wishes? How would you compare those two characters?
Oh, I LOVE to think of Olive and Van being friends! You’re right, I think they would be—they’re both imaginative, sensitive, isolated kids who have to use their human qualities to combat dangerous magic. 
There are some big differences between the way magic is used in The Books of Elsewhere and the way it’s used in The Collectors. In Olive’s world, magic is being used by a malevolent force in order to control others. In Van’s world, magic isn’t used malevolently, it’s used carelessly. And of course, this can have dangerous consequences too. 
Wishes can be especially dangerous because we tend to overlook them. Most of us don’t consider ourselves superstitious, or truly believe in magic as a thing that can affect our day-to-day lives. But most of us make a wish when we blow out our birthday candles, right? We make wishes when we toss coins into fountains, or blow an eyelash off of our fingertips. We’re using magic without even thinking about it…which, if that magic is real, could be an awfully risky thing to do!

5. You are quite gifted for attention to detail in you books, clearly so much is hidden in your words. I know some readers will miss some of the gems you write. In previous interviews You’ve talked about being a “story scavenger” and that curiosity and attention to detail is crucial to your work. In fact you even write about seeing the world as kids does, like your own child does. How can readers get discover the details in their lives?
Thank you so much, and what a marvelous question.
It’s hard to remember to really look at the world around us. If we’ve seen something a hundred times already—like the view out our own window—it almost becomes invisible. This might be why traveling is so useful for writers: you tend to notice more details about a place when you’re seeing it for the first time. 
But you don’t have to travel to sharpen your detail-vision. You just have to slow down and look closely. Think about the colors and textures and scents and sounds of a place. Imagine that you are someone else, observing your own street or your own home with fresh eyes. Imagine that you are someone very different from yourself, someone younger or older or from a very different place. You’ll notice things that you’ve overlooked, I promise.
This kind of detail-vision is especially important when I’m writing about Van. Because he’s hard of hearing, he relies strongly on his vision. He’s also very small, and because he and his mother move around so much, he’s almost always in unfamiliar places. Asking myself what a super-observant person like Van would see in one small part of the world—one corner of a busy park, for example—and then exploring those details created a lot of The Collectors. 


6. You are skilled at getting to the heart of your characters and showing their feelings.  How do you capture feelings, especially those of children so well?
I can remember being a child so clearly. Often, I feel like I am still a kid—just one with a checking account and a decent computer. 
For kids, every emotion is fresh and raw and deep. Everything leaves an impression. To write for kids, and to feel like a kid, you have to try to keep your heart open. You have to be vulnerable.
Jacqueline West herself


7. You’ve written that exploring perspectives different then our own makes the world richer.
Explain how kids themselves can do that?
By reading! As a kid, you don’t get to choose where you travel, or where you live, or the kinds of people who surround you. But you can go to a library and choose any book you like. You can visit different times and different places, you can even step inside of different bodies and feel with different hearts. It’s the greatest thing ever.

8. What would Van have to say to kids and parents today?
Well, Van is quite shy, especially with other kids. But I think he would remind everyone to keep their eyes open—treasures are waiting for us everywhere.



9. You wrote once that “there’s just nothing better than that thrilling, telling-stories-around-the-campfire feeling of shivering and laughing at the same time.” Your middle grade stories do just that. Thank you so much for Van and his world in The Collectors! Out now.
Hooray! That’s just the feeling I hope they create. Thank you.

10. Where can readers find more information about you and your work? What’s next?
You can find me on Facebook and, much more often, on Instagram (@jacqueline.west.writes). I keep a pretty up-to-date website (jacquelinewest.com), where you can find my appearance calendar, my blog, and information about all of my books, including the upcoming ones! 

Jacqueline West's Digging Up Danger book to come out in January 2019
 


2019 is going to be a busy year: I’ve got a new middle grade mystery called Digging Up Danger, written in cooperation with the amazing storytelling troupe The Story Pirates, coming from Random House in January 2019. On May 7, my new YA novel, Last Things, will be released by Greenwillow  
(facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greenwillow  )
and 
HarperCollins . webpage: https://www.harpercollins.com/childrens/

And next October, volume two of The Collectors—A Storm of Wishes--will arrive! 




Sunday, August 12, 2018

Carnival Magic: Touch The sky



Eager readers!!!!

We are back for another review and author interview.

 Here is the official plot summary of Carnival Magic by Amy Ephron, from the publisher, Penguin Random House: 



This companion to The Castle In the Mist features a mysterious carnival, an ominous psychic, and a wind that whisks Tess and Max away from their vacation in South Devon, England. Which fantastical world will they find this time?

Tess and Max are back in England for another summer with their Aunt Evie--this time by the seashore in South Devon. And they're incredibly excited about the traveling carnival that's come to town. There are rides, games, acrobats, The House of Mirrors--and even a psychic, with a beautiful wagon all her own.

In a visit to the psychic's wagon, while Tess is being hypnotized, the wagon seems to move. Before Tess can shake herself out of the hypnosis, before Max can do anything, they seem to be traveling--along with the rest of the carnival--too quickly for the two of them to jump out. But where are they going and what awaits them? Will they be caught in a world different from their own? And do the Baranova twins, acrobats who miss their sister almost as much as Tess and Max miss their family, hold the keys to the mystery?

Internationally bestselling author Amy Ephron returns with a companion novel to The Castle in the Mist and creates a magical tale filled with adventure, mystery, fantasy, family, and fun.

 


Drew's review:
Carnival Magic develops the magic following where Castle in the Mist left off and builds the characters with a magically more fulfilling and mysterious plot. Tess and Max are more vivid and clearly more developed then in the first book and the plot feels more real because of mystery of the marvelous traveling circus and finding family. The carnival's deeper magical realism connects to readers memories of circus and carnivals past. The imagery and sensational words combine in a balanced and surprise filled story that is sure to have readers of all ages believing in the power of human imagination, especially the magic of family. But don't take my word for it, read the Carnival Magic yourself!



 








 ---------------------------------------------

 I was honored to interview the author for Carnival Magic, Amy Ephron recently about her new book and the magic around her stories. The fully interview is below. Amy's answers are in dark green.


 Interview with Drew Durham and Amy Ephron for “Carnival Magic” & “The Castle in the Mist”  BooksInc.   





1.    Magical realism is even more carefully and majestically crafted in Carnival Magic. what did you learn about magic from writing The Castle in the Mist?

    
The best magic is sometimes foreshadowed but also unexpected. In the same way that Tess does, I had to open myself up to the possibilities of imagination. Let the book and the magic go where it wanted to…  I honestly didn’t know in “The Castle in the Mist” what the first “wish” was going to bring about until they hit the turnstile to the ride on the carousel and the merry-go-round began to spin and then….(if I say anymore it’s a spoiler alert.)  I had to open myself up to the possibilities of magic occurring when you least expect it.


  “The Castle in the Mist,” is, in a way, a teaser, as I push the envelope even more in “Carnival Magic” into the possibility of one (or maybe more) alternate universes.  Where does the carnival move to?  They’re definitely not in Devon any more, at least it doesn’t seem they are. 

   
 Tess and Max are a year younger in The Castle in the Mist, so, they also brought their own lessons a year later to Carnival Magic.  And they definitely learned some things about magic the first time, too.



2.    What does The House of Mirrors symbolize to you?  How does this ‘house’ add to the magic?


Both books play with barriers.  The invisible wall in “The Castle in the Mist” and Wiliam’s warning, “Beware of the hawthorn trees.”  And in “Carnival Magic,”  The House of Mirrors might be a barrier (or a portal) too. 
                
 Sometimes people see something they can’t quite explain in The House of Mirrors, almost as if it’s an image of a ghost carnival on the other side of a panes of glass.  Is it a portal of some kind?  And if you were to go through it…..would you be able to get   back again…?



3.    Touch the sky! reaching toward imagination that  just out of our scientific observations seems to be a theme of the book. Please Explain the phrase touch the sky and what it means to you and your characters.


   Touch the sky is really about pushing yourself almost beyond your own limits, believing in yourself, achieving.  Having the confidence not to be afraid. Tess sometimes has this in spades the willingness to ‘go for it.’  Especially if ultimately helps someone else, even though it gets you in a bit of trouble to start. Touch the sky.  That amazing feeling that you’re flying effortlessly even though the task you’re performing might seem almost daunting to someone else.  This can be something as simple as speaking before a crowd, writing a story or having an amazing run on the basketball court. 







     4. There is plenty of magic in the magic of the carnival. what inspired the magical carnival? Why did you choose aerial acrobatics as a focal point to unleashing magical performance?  

 I always joke that I don’t always find my stories – sometimes my stories find me. In “The Castle in the Mist” Tess does a dance in the sky, or thinks she does… The real sky,  The Pleiaides. 
  
 In “Carnival Magic” the aerial ballet twins and Tess possibly doing a dance with them…wasn’t really thought out as much as it “just” happened.  But I loved the idea, the initial idea of the carnival running away with you (a sort of inverse of running away with the carnival.)



4.    Talk about the importance of the background setting of England and Wales?

      
I always wanted to take two American kids out of their own environment, and put them in an unfamiliar world that might also be a portal to somewhere…or lead to a pathway (as happens in both books,) to a magical real fantasy world, or more than one!  
 
    Since the books go in and out of time and sometimes even a time  space  continuum, the UK seems an easy place to go back from, a magical place.  There is also so much faded elegance, earlier times still heralded, history observed, royalty, and let’s not forget high tea, or Stonehenge, or the fact that almost every hotel in London of a certain age is definitely haunted!  (Stay tuned, please.  shh.  Yes, I’m hinting about Book 3.)  


Magical Illustration in Carnival Magic





5.    Fast, graceful and swimming horses play an important role in the book, what was your inspiration for the horses?

    
 Tess loves horses. And I also loved the gender playing with Tess imagining herself to be a knight (rather than a lady) and the horse is her steed.  She’s very forward thinking that way.  

 There’s also true, palpable affection both ways between a horse and it’s owner and (or designated rider for a time), loyalty, and a necessary mutual care taking which is in line with the subset of ethics in the books, in Tess and Max’s sibling relationship, in the relationships the form with William in the first book and aerial ballet twins and their sister in “Carnival Magic.”    

  
   There are a lot of amazing horses in England, some of them wild, if you drive down from North Devon, you often see wild horses running by the road, hearkening back to an earlier time. 

     The horses in both books, “Midnight” and “Coco” sometimes also go back and forth in time and “place,” too, as if the horses themselves are magic…



Yours Drewly with Amy Ephron when Castle in the Mist was new
6.    “Sometimes the best way of making sure you might see someone again is by not saying goodbye.” Please explain this quote in the context of the book and departures from the book.

    
 For me, this is a throwback, a wish if you will, to “The Castle in the Mist” and something Tess especially will hold on to.  It also suggests that maybe (just maybe) she and Max might see their friend William, the boy who lived in the Castle next door, again.  Some day.  Maybe…  Or might see someone from “Carnival Magic” again later in what might be another magical adventure.   There’s an inherent sadness when you make a friend in another place then where you live or move away, and sometimes if you don’t say goodbye, it might be (at least that’s the implication) that you might see each other again!





7.    Sound, noise, voice, music and song are important to the soundtrack of this book. Describe what sound and especially voices and the violin add to the Carnival Magic story?

     
 Senses converge, sometimes.  Sight, smell, touch, even sound -- an occasional hint of music almost as an underpinning to the tone of the action.  It’s part of what makes up the real world and in this case the fantasy world, that all of the senses converge at times, or time slows down, expands, and a real or imagined orchestral soundtrack can be heard.  Is there an audience or is she just imagining it?  Is the sky paler, is everything fading, do the voices seem softer, is everything almost in black and white….

     There’s a word for this.  It’s called synesthesia when senses overlap and sometimes that happens in these books. 

     And now I have to ask you a question?  Have you ever time travelled? 



8.    There are several sections on the magic of stories, especially the part about the mastery of leaving out parts of telling a story artfully while leaving out many secrets without audience suspicion. Because of its brevity I think Carnival magic hides teachable mysteries and resounding truths on its pages and things are hidden in what is not directly on its pages.

       
Thank you!  That’s very nice of you to say.  Back stories are hinted at.  Guardians are not immediately obvious but they’re there.  That’s also along with the same theme of, in their own odd way, the kids taking care of each other.  Pushing the limit to reach the sky.  And both books are, in a way, about reconciliation and healing love.  At least I think they are.  On the other hand maybe it’s just “Carnival Magic.”   




Another illustration from Carnival Magic
     9. Does the careful brevity show and withhold secrets for the readers you would like to share here on this blog? What would Tess share today? What would Max share that is not in the book?


               Well, actually, it just happened.  (shh…)  Tess and Max are going back to Switzerland to boarding school.  It’s Christmas break  and they’re going to meet Aunt Evie at a boutique hotel, once a private home.  
 

          Their mom and dad are going to join them except their plane is delayed due to weather. And, in the tea room, Tess sees a little boy, not that little, probably eleven, having tea alone.  Except nobody but her can see him…. 

                

   If I tell you any more, it probably will be a spoiler alert.   “The Other Side of the Wall” will be published by Philomel Books/PenguinKids inthe fall of 2019!  

                Tess and Max are very excited that there’s going to be a third one!!  (So am I!)

         #believeinmagic #touchthesky

                And truly thank you to you and BooksInc. for being so kind to me and to “The Castle in the Mist” and “Carnival Magic.”   #IndiesRock   And the best books are places to get lost in. 

    


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