Author Interview: Stacey Kade (The Ghost and the Goth)

Thursday, December 16, 2010 |


Books (Young Adult):
  • The Ghost and the Goth (2010)
  • Queen of the Dead (2011)

Stacey Kade:
As an award-winning corporate copywriter, Stacey Kade has written about everything from backhoe loaders to breast pumps. But she prefers to make things up instead.

From her first childhood scribbles about a magical necklace that would turn people into cats, Stacey has long been fascinated with what happens when the “ordinary” bumps up against “out of this world.” What if aliens landed on Earth? What if the afterlife is really just another dimension?

She lives in the Chicago suburbs with her husband, Greg, and their three retired racing greyhounds, Joezooka (Joe), Tall Walker (Walker) and SheWearsThePants (Pansy). When she’s not reading or writing, you’ll likely find her parked in front of the television with her Roswell DVDs, staring rapturously at Jason Behr.

The Ghost and the Goth:
After a close encounter with the front end of a school bus, Alona Dare goes from Homecoming Queen to Queen of the Dead. Now she’s stuck here in spirit form with no sign of the big, bright light coming to take her away. To make matters worse, the only person who might be able to help her is Will Killian, a total loser/outcast type who hates the social elite. He alone can see and hear her, but he wants nothing to do with the former mean girl of Groundsboro High.

Can they get over their mutual distrust—and this weird attraction between them—to work together before Alona vanishes for good and Will is locked up for seeing things that don’t exist?
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What's the feeling of seeing your books in the bookstores?
It's strange but thrilling, of course! It's kind of like the sensation of walking into a room full of strangers and seeing one familiar and friendly face. Like, hey, I know you!

The premise of GHOST was really interesting. Where'd you pick this up from?
Thanks! I've always been fascinated by ghosts and ghost stories. The idea of someone who can see ghosts more often or better than the rest of us is a pretty common idea in our culture, but I just really liked the idea of drawing it out to its natural conclusion. That people would think you're crazy. That you'd have to deal with the ghosts of people you knew when they were alive and might not have liked. And I'm a big fan of the Han Solo/Princess Leia relationship dynamic--people who can't stand each other in the beginning and have nothing in common until they sort of fall for one another. :)

The cover for GHOST is so so so pretty. Did you have any input to this?

Thank you! I'm not artistic in the slightest and cannot take any credit for the gorgeous cover at all. My awesome editor, Christian Trimmer, and I had a couple conversations about it. We talked about the feeling we wanted the cover to have. I sent him a few movie poster images that I liked and some images my friend/mentor Linnea Sinclair helped me find of examples of people with the right attitude/looks for Will and Alona. From there, it was all the fabulous people at Hyperion. I LOVE the models who represent Will and Alona, and the design is just perfect. To me, it really represents what the story is about in just a glance, which I think is great.

Alona or Will?
I think I'm more like Will, personality-wise, so he's sometimes easier for me to write. But Alona is SO much fun! :)

When writing, do you have any necessities?
Not really. I prefer to have a cup of Earl Grey tea and my notebook (where I've jotted ideas) with me. But I can write anywhere, as I learned this summer when I was revising Queen of the Dead while on tour for The Ghost and the Goth. It was an amazing experience, and sections of that book were written in hotel rooms, planes, and airports all across the country. So cool!

Your favorite to place to write in would be?
My local Barnes and Noble cafe. I also had a good experience with writing on a train once. I couldn't leave, couldn't get distracted. It was awesome!

What's the scariest thing you've ever done?
Despite having always been the new kid in school growing up, I'm terrible about going places on my own where I don't know anyone. Actually, maybe it's because of that! :) So, I think the scariest (and best) thing I ever did was sign up to attend my first writing convention. However, this is not one of those stories where the new shy person ends up being just fine on her own. Oh, no. I huddled in my hotel room, scared and not knowing what to do in the face of such an overwhelming number of people, until I finally caved and called one of my favorite authors, who I'd never met in person, Linnea Sinclair. We'd been chatting online and she--Thank God--had given me her phone number in case I needed help at the convention.

I called. She rescued me. And we've been friends ever since! :)

What's next for you?
The next book in the series, Queen of the Dead has already been turned in. Yea! It'll be out on June 7. So I'm working now on the third and final book in the trilogy.
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Thanks so much to Stacey for stopping by!

2 comments:

Lisa_Gibson said...

Great interview! This book sounds interesting. I'll have to add it my tbr pile.
Writing on a train is definitely a creative place to write. :)
Lisa ~ YA Literature Lover

~The Book Pixie said...

Got this book on my wishlist! Yeah if I was at a writer's convention I'd probably start out the same way but I think I would end up joining the rest. I'm really shy around a ton of strangers to start with but then I usually find I end up in the middle of everything having a good time. Stacey sounds like a really cool person and this was a great interview! :D

~Briana

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