Each day of The Crossroads Tour, a new question will be revealed on The Crossroad Blog Tour main page and each day the answer to that question will be found within one of the 16 different blog posts by Crossroads Tour authors. Your job is to get the question, read the blog posts, and collect all 16 answers by the end of the tour, on Halloween. Go HERE to get today's question and links.
Today's guest for the Crossroads Tour is author Stacey Kade. Her debut YA novel
The Ghost & The Goth was released in June of 2010.
What was your favorite paranormal/horror/fantasy story as a child/teen? And why did you like it so much?
The Girl with the Silver Eyes by Willo Davis Roberts. It was, if I remember correctly, about a girl who gained telekinetic powers because her mother took a medicine with side effects when she was pregnant.
What I recall liking about the story was the girl felt kind of like a freak until she realized there were others like her.
Where did you get the idea for your story? Did you use a real life situation and put a twist on it?
You know, I don’t know where ideas come from. They just sort of show up! And I like it that way—it’s fun to be surprised. That being said, the stories of ghosts and mediums (and popular girls and outcast boys) have been around forever. I just combined the two.
Especially in Y.A., there seems to be a big emphasis on paranormal romance? Do you consider the romance part when you are writing your story or do you consider writing your story and see where the romance fits in?
That’s a good question. I’m guilty of thinking too much about the main story and not enough about the romance. I figured that out in the first draft of the second book (Queen of the Dead, June 2011) and needed to rewrite it! The funny thing is, as a reader, I’m far more interested in the romance angle of the story. I just have trouble remembering that when I’m the one behind the wheel, so to speak!
What helps you to create characters that people will feel passionate about either in liking them or disliking them?
I try to be honest in reflecting who the characters are. I don’t set out to make them either likeable or unlikeable. I just try to get them on the page as close as I can to how they appear/sound in my head.
What characteristics were critical to you in creating your characters?
I knew Alona was a snob, but I also knew that she had her own world-view in which her perspective made sense (skewed though it may seem to the rest of us). I wanted to make sure that snobbery came across but also her humanity. With Will, I thought it was very important to get across the struggle he has
within himself over this gift he has, which he does not want, and the obligation he feels to use it to help others and the guilt he feels when he doesn’t.
What kind of research did you do for your story and did you run into anything weird while you were doing research?
I’ve been reading about ghosts practically my whole life, so I didn’t have to do a great deal of research on that topic. However, I did research specific haunted locations and also how mediums describe seeing spirits. Nothing weird happened, but I also refuse to visit most haunted places! : )
If you could have a supernatural power or gift what would it be?
Oh, see, this is dangerous. Because I believe in a writing principle we call the price of magic. Which means the ability to do something amazing comes with a cost. If I could have a supernatural power or gift, I’d like to be able to heal people (ala Max on Roswell) but the price of that magic seems like it would probably be pretty high. So, I think I’m pretty happy being non-supernatural!
For information about Stacey Kade and her books, check out her website:
www.staceykade.com
You can find her on Twitter: @staceykade
My review of
The Ghost & The Goth will be up later today and there will even be a chance to win a signed copy of Stacey's debut novel.
