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.) The following author's books are absolutely perfect for Halloween. They have a ghost, after all. And death. And blood. And scenes that shouldn't be read at night, but that are read then anyway. So take a break from ghost hunting (or busting) and welcome...
Kendare Blake
Trick or treat?
It is unfair to choose.
Truth or dare?
Dare.
Best Halloween creature?
I prefer creatures that you make up. Or classic ones you alter in some way.
What’s the worst and best candy to get on Halloween?
Best: Anything chocolate or fruit chewy. Worst: Candy corn. They should just stop it with the candy corn.
What’s your most memorable Halloween costume?
I had a big, stuffed killer whale costume one year. I remember enjoying it because it was warm. I don't know what happened to it. I would wear it again, only this time, cover my face in gore, like I was the last person he ate.
Best movie to watch for Halloween?
Well, you need two. A classic, like A Nightmare on Elm Street, and something new. Like perhaps Sinister, with Ethan Hawke.
What scares you?
Zombies scare me. If they're fast and smart enough to open doors. Spiders scare me, if they meet the same criteria.
If you could be any Halloween creature what would you be?
If I'm honest I'd probably be a vampire. They seem to have the cushiest lives. Or I would be a Gremlin. Because they seem to have a lot of fun.
Do you have a real-life experience Halloween story?
I wish. I should break out the Ouija board again this year, but so far, ghosts snub me.
If you could go back in time and rewrite the legend of a monster/creature, which would you choose?
Maybe the wolf in Little Red Riding Hood. He'd totally eat her. And it would have been her Grandma's idea.
How do you celebrate Halloween?
If I'm lucky enough to have a great party in the area, I'll dress up and go. But lately...I haven't even celebrated. I know. I should be burned.
It’s Friday the 13th, you’re home alone, and it’s dark. Simultaneously, the phone rings and you hear somebody upstairs. What do you do?
Answer the phone and grab two knives. Which should be kept by the phone.
If you were in a horror movie with a classic killer what would you do to survive?
With Jason and Mike Meyers, what else can you do but seek open spaces? With Freddy, I'd go all Dream Master on him. Or perhaps not. I think Freddy and I might just hang out.
If some of your characters were going to dress up for Halloween, what would they dress up as? Thomas and Carmel would dress up as Peter Venkman and Janine, to piss Cas off. Cas would never dress up. They'd try to make Anna, but in something stupid, like as a really awkward cat or something.
What are five facts about yourself?
1. I usually have long nails, only because I'm too lazy to trim them.
2. I cry at the end of Marley and Me. Every time.
3. Ditto at the end of The Bridges of Madison County.
4. I never change my jewelry, unless it breaks.
5. Despite being fairly chill, I am easily startled, and usually yelp when it happens.
Using the letters of NIGHTMARES, please describe Anna Dressed in Blood and Girl of Nightmares.
Never go into a house where someone has died violently.
If you suspect someone has died violently there, bring a spirit-sniffing cat with you.
Ghosts often try to murder the living in a fashion similar to the manner in which they were murdered.
Have a witch at the ready, if possible. They're quite handy.
Theseus Cassio Lowood is also fairly handy at dispatching the dead; he can be contacted through select routes only.
Murderous girls were his most recent specialty.
Anna Dressed in Blood in particular.
Relocated permanently in Thunder Bay, he now seeks answers about her demise.
Enter their world at your own risk.
She still beckons, from somewhere made of blood, and screams.
Now that Anna is done—or is it?—what’s next for you?
Anna is done. I'm ninety percent sure. Unless something drastic happens that Cas needs to tell me about. Up next is Greek gods: Antigoddess in September 2013. It's the start of a trilogy, and features a few more love stories, and of course, girls who can tear things apart with their bare hands. Goddess girls, and mortal ones.
Kendare Blake is an import from South Korea who was raised in the United States by caucasian parents. You know, that old chestnut. She received a Bachelor's degree in Business from Ithaca College and a Master's degree in Writing from Middlesex University in London. She brakes for animals, the largest of which was a deer, which sadly didn't make it, and the smallest of which was a mouse, which did, but it took forever. Amongst her likes are Greek Mythology, rare red meat and veganism. She also enjoys girls who can think with the boys like Ayn Rand, and boys who scare the morality into people, like Bret Easton Ellis.
I've had the opportunity to meet Kendare--local author brownie points--and she's just as cool and awesome as you think she is. To learn more about her, visit her website, blog, Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads! And be sure to read her boo-worthy (in a good, ghoulish way) books, Anna Dressed in Blood and Girl of Nightmares! (And check out those stunning covers!)
Publisher: Tor Teen
Publishing Date: August 30, 2011
Pages: 316
Just your average boy-meets-girl, girl-kills-people story...
Cas Lowood has inherited an unusual vocation: He kills the dead.
So did his father before him, until his gruesome murder by a ghost he sought to kill. Now, armed with his father’s mysterious and deadly athame, Cas travels the country with his kitchen-witch mother and their spirit-sniffing cat. Together they follow legends and local lore, trying to keep up with the murderous dead—keeping pesky things like the future and friends at bay.
When they arrive in a new town in search of a ghost the locals call Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas doesn’t expect anything outside of the ordinary: move, hunt, kill. What he finds instead is a girl entangled in curses and rage, a ghost like he’s never faced before. She still wears the dress she wore on the day of her brutal murder in 1958: once white, but now stained red and dripping blood. Since her death, Anna has killed any and every person who has dared to step into the deserted Victorian she used to call home.
And she, for whatever reason, spares his life
Publisher: Tor Teen
Publishing Date: August 7, 2012
Pages: 332
It's been months since the ghost of Anna Korlov opened a door to Hell in her basement and disappeared into it, but ghost-hunter Cas Lowood can't move on.
His friends remind him that Anna sacrificed herself so that Cas could live—not walk around half dead. He knows they're right, but in Cas's eyes, no living girl he meets can compare to the dead girl he fell in love with.
Now he's seeing Anna everywhere: sometimes when he's asleep and sometimes in waking nightmares. But something is very wrong...these aren't just daydreams. Anna seems tortured, torn apart in new and ever more gruesome ways every time she appears.
Cas doesn't know what happened to Anna when she disappeared into Hell, but he knows she doesn't deserve whatever is happening to her now. Anna saved Cas more than once, and it's time for him to return the favor.
I've read both of these books, and they're wonderful! They have the right balance of scary and creepy and humor, which is great. Plus, the voice in the novels is phenomenal--Kendare does a swell job of portraying a teenage boy. But beware: these books can get scary. I recommend reading them at night when everyone else is asleep (like I did) for the full effect. It's brilliant.
For more horror and Halloween goodness, return to Beauty and the Bookshelf tomorrow (and for the rest of month) for the rest of Don't Look Behind the Bookshelf--fourteen days, thirteen authors, one giveaway.
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