Don't Look Behind the Bookshelf: Day 10

Don’t Look Behind the Bookshelf

What are you doing here? Did you not see the letters in huge red script?! It told you not to look behind here--and you did. Now you have no choice but to pry your eyes open and be exposed to yet another day of Don't Look Behind the Bookshelf. (You can see yesterday's interview here.) Today brings an author who may be a little wicked. Her debut novel features the witchy side of Halloween, while her upcoming novel has something to do with the dead--but without zombies. Please prepare a (nice) spell for...

Victoria Schwab

Trick or treat?

The sweet tooth and the horribly gullible part of me agree: treat. 

Truth or dare?

Dare.

Best Halloween creature?

Witches. They can take so many shapes and do so many things. 

What’s the worst and best candy to get on Halloween?

Best: Snickers

Worst: Sweet Tarts 

What’s your most memorable Halloween costume?

I was D'Artagnan from the Three Musketeers, complete with cloak, sword, and even a mustache.

Victoria Schwab as a Musketeer!

Best movie to watch for Halloween? Best book to read?

Movie: Hocus Pocus

Book: The Graveyard Book

What scares you?

Ghosts. Or really, most things, but that's because I believe in things until they are DISproven, which almost never happens. 

If you could be any Halloween creature what would you be?

Once again, witch. Same reasons as above. 

How do you celebrate Halloween?

By eating lots of candy when I'm supposed to be handing it out to children.  

In about 140 characters or less, please write a super short Halloween story.

I hear it from my room at the top of the stairs. Every night. The groaning door and the steps in the hall and the voice calling me down.

It’s Friday the 13^th, you’re home alone, and it’s dark. Simultaneously, the phone rings and you hear somebody upstairs. What do you do?

LEAVE THE DAMN HOUSE.

If you were in a horror movie with a classic killer what would you do to survive?

LEAVE THE DAMN HOUSE. 

If some of your characters were going to dress up for Halloween, what would they dress up as?

--Lexi Harris would be a witch.

--Mackenzie Bishop would be a normal girl.

--Wesley Ayers would be a pirate. 

What's a random fact about you?

I suffer from wanderlust, but my bones are happy in Scotland.  

Using the letters of HOCUS, please describe The Near Witch.

Haunting, Otherworldly, Child-stealing, Unnerving, Spooky.

Using the letters of POCUS, please describe The Archived.

Past is never lost, Obedience is key, Chilling world, Unquiet minds, Sleepless Histories. 

The Near Witch is out, The Archived is releasing in a few months—what’s next for you?

Wheeeeeeeee. Also eeeeeeeeeep. Next up for me, after The Archived, is Vicious. It comes out next September, and it's my first adult book, and it's about supervillains. 

Is there anything else you’d like to share?

Happy Halloween!!!

Victoria is the product of a British mother, a Beverly Hills father, and a southern upbringing. Because of this, she has been known to say "tom-ah-toes," "like," and "y'all."
She also tells stories.
She loves fairy tales, and folklore, and stories that make her wonder if the world is really as it seems. 

To learn more about Victoria Schwab, please visit her website, blog, Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, and Tumblr. And don't forget to check out The Near Witch and keep an eye out for The Archived!

Publisher: Hyperion
Publishing Date: August 2, 2011
Pages: 282
"The Near Witch is only an old story told to frighten children. "

"If the wind calls at night, you must not listen. The wind is lonely, and always looking for company. "

"And there are no strangers in the town of Near." 

These are the truths that Lexi has heard all her life. 

But when an actual stranger--a boy who seems to fade like smoke--appears outside her home on the moor at night, she knows that at least one of these sayings is no longer true. 

The next night, the children of Near start disappearing from their beds, and the mysterious boy falls under suspicion. Still, he insists on helping Lexi search for them. Something tells her she can trust him. 

As the hunt for the children intensifies, so does Lexi's need to know--about the witch that just might be more than a bedtime story, about the wind that seems to speak through the walls at night, and about the history of this nameless boy. 

Part fairy tale, part love story, Victoria Schwab's debut novel is entirely original yet achingly familiar: a song you heard long ago, a whisper carried by the wind, and a dream you won't soon forget. 

Publisher: Hyperion 

Publishing Date: January 22, 2012
Pages: 336
Imagine a place where the dead rest on shelves like books.

Each body has a story to tell, a life seen in pictures that only Librarians can read. The dead are called Histories, and the vast realm in which they rest is the Archive.

Da first brought Mackenzie Bishop here four years ago, when she was twelve years old, frightened but determined to prove herself. Now Da is dead, and Mac has grown into what he once was, a ruthless Keeper, tasked with stopping often-violent Histories from waking up and getting out. Because of her job, she lies to the people she loves, and she knows fear for what it is: a useful tool for staying alive.

Being a Keeper isn't just dangerous-it's a constant reminder of those Mac has lost. Da's death was hard enough, but now her little brother is gone too. Mac starts to wonder about the boundary between living and dying, sleeping and waking. In the Archive, the dead must never be disturbed. And yet, someone is deliberately altering Histories, erasing essential chapters. Unless Mac can piece together what remains, the Archive itself might crumble and fall.

In this haunting, richly imagined novel, Victoria Schwab reveals the thin lines between past and present, love and pain, trust and deceit, unbearable loss and hard-won redemption.

Be watching Victoria's blog as you wait for The Archived--she has this super cool feature going on called Making History, and you'll definitely want to look into it. And don't forget to return to Beauty and the Bookshelf tomorrow (and through October) for the rest of Don't Look Behind the Bookshelf--fourteen days, thirteen authors, one giveaway.