Author Interview with Kristah Price

Author Interviews

August 7, 2014

Author Interview with Kristah Price

I’m interviewing Kristah Price, author of YA fantasy “Where The Moths Dance”. I hope you enjoy the interview, and thanks to Kristah for responding to my questions.

1. When did you know you wanted to be an author?

I enjoyed writing stories from a young age, but from when I was a teenager, being an author was my number one ambition. I am an introvert by nature, and the idea of being able to work from home, doing something I loved, seemed very appealing. I took a couple of writing courses and, while working in unfulfilling jobs over the years, I created stories in my mind, and dreamed of the day I could give up work and write full time. I am fortunate, now, to have a very supportive partner who is happy for me to stay at home and follow my dream.

2. Where did you get the inspiration for Where The Moths Dance?

Nick and I often used to take our dog for walks through an old graveyard. Filled with wonderful, old, lichen-encrusted gravestones, and surrounded by gum trees, it was very atmospheric and provided the inspiration for Gum Tree Hill Cemetery in Where the Moths Dance.

I have always believed in the afterlife and the ability that some people have to communicate with spirits who have passed on – my favourite TV shows were Ghost Whisperer and Medium – and I have always wanted to write a ghost story. I wanted to explore the possibility that if our souls move on to a higher dimension when we die, then what if there were more dimensions where other beings existed, both good and evil, that could also access our world?

3. What is your editing process like?

Each day when I begin writing, I will go back over what I have written the previous day and make improvements. Once I have completed the first draft of the novel – basically getting the story down from beginning to end – I will go back through it, add descriptions, take out parts that don’t work, make sure the story flows properly. Often with the first draft, the characters or the plot might have changed from my original vision as the story has progressed, so in the second draft I will go back and make any changes necessary. Also, with the second draft, I will carry out research and check any facts to make sure everything is accurate. Then I will go through a third time and check spelling, grammar and punctuation. Once I am confident that the book is as good as it can be, I hand it over to my wonderful proofreader for a final proofread and edit. It is good to have a fresh pair of eyes looking through it. She always manages to find things I have missed and might suggest a different way of wording a phrase to make it flow more smoothly.

4. What was the most challenging part of writing this book?

I think the most challenging part of writing this book was to tell the story in such a way as to make it believable, rather than total fantasy. I have read a lot on paranormal phenomena, and studied parapsychology, and I think that if you believe in ghosts and the afterlife, then it might not be too much a stretch of the imagination to believe that certain parts of what happens in the story could actually happen in real life.

5. What are your writing goals for 2014?

I hope to finish the novel I am currently working on and publish it before the end of the year. After that, I am going to write a sequel to Where the Moths Dance, which I already have planned out and can’t wait to begin writing.

6. Are you working on something now? If so, can you tell us a little about it?

I am in the final stages of writing the second book in my Wattle Lane series, the first of which was Scrappy Cupcake Angels. The second book, The House in Wattle Lane, is about a young woman who returns to the small town of Kerrigan to reconnect with her estranged family. After joining a heritage scrapbooking class, she becomes interested in tracing her family history and uncovers some dark family secrets. And yes, there is a ghostly element in the story!

About The Book

Title: Where The Moths Dance

Author: Kristah Price

Genre: YA Paranormal

Sixteen-year-old Jessie Hale lives in the caretaker’s cottage at the bottom of Gum Tree Hill Cemetery. She feels more comfortable surrounded by the dead than the living, and the graveyard is her sanctuary, a place to escape from her troubled home life and from her mother’s despicable boyfriend, Conrad.

Elliott Rossi has found a way to come back from the dead. He needs to warn Jessie about a demon who can also access the living world and has his new prey firmly in his grasp.

When Jessie learns who has become the demon’s latest victim, she must enlist the help of her friends to battle the evil that has invaded her sanctuary, turning her life upside down and threatening to destroy everything she cares about.

Then there is the small matter of falling in love with a dead boy.

Author Bio

Kristah Price has always loved books and dreamed of being a writer since she was a teenager. After much dreaming, and writing in her spare time, she eventually took a year off work to write a novel. Although that novel remains hidden away in a box on the top shelf of a wardrobe, she went on to have several novellas published in magazines in Scotland, and her first full-length novel, Scrappy Cupcake Angels, was published in 2012. Where the Moths Dance is her first novel for young adults. When she is not reading or writing, she enjoys scrapbooking, quilting, mixed-media art, and organic gardening. She lives with her partner, Nick, and their puppy, Finn, in the Art Deco city of Napier, New Zealand.