Interview with Dawn Kurtagich, Debut Author of THE DEAD HOUSE

I love interviewing debut authors on the blog. It’s time to share my interview with Dawn Kurtagich, debut author of upcoming YA horror THE DEAD HOUSE, a 2015 release from Orion/Indigo (UK) and Little, Brown Books for Young Readers (US).

Dawn Kurtagich is a writer of creepy, spooky and psychologically sinister YA fiction, where girls may descend into madness, boys may see monsters in men, and grown-ups may have something to hide.

By the time she was eighteen, she had been to fifteen schools across two continents. The daughter of a British globe-trotter and single mother, she grew up all over the place, but her formative years were spent in Africa—on a mission, in the bush, in the city and in the desert.

She has been lucky enough to see an elephant stampede at close range, a giraffe tongue at very close range, and she once witnessed the stealing of her (and her friends’) underwear by very large, angry baboons. (This will most definitely end up in a book . . . ) While she has quite a few tales to tell about the jumping African baboon spider, she tends to save these for Halloween!

She writes over at the YA Scream Queens, a young adult blog for all things horror and thriller, and she is a member of the The YA League.




Let's talk about yourself first. What are your favorite books?

That question is always so hard to answer! I love so many. Off the top of my head:

House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood

The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

Daughter of the Forest by Juliet Marillier

Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline Carey

Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffineger

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K Rowling

Sepulchre by Kate Mosse

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

White Oleander by Janet Fitch



2. Hey, you're getting published! How'd that happen?


I know! It's pretty amazing! In January 2014 I began sending out query letters for my novel The Dead House (at the time it was called My Sick Soul). At the end of February, I had signed with the Greenhouse Literary Agency, and in June we began submitting the novel to publishers. The book went out simultaneously and now it has a wonderful home with Little, Brown Books for Young Readers and the Orion Publishing Group. I couldn't be happier!


3. How long did it take you to write your novel? What was easier to write: the beginning or the ending?

It took me eight months to have the finished novel. It is a very complex book, with many layers and in many pieces. It was like trying to build an engine! I think that the beginning was as easy to write as the ending. The trouble was the middle, and what to do with all of those strands!

4. What's your debut book about? Can you share any cool details?

"The Dead House, which is set for fall 2015, is about the discovery of a diary in the ruins of a high school that burned down a quarter-century earlier. The diary was written by a girl whom no-one is sure ever existed."

Some extra details:

From my website:

"Carly gets the day, Kaitlyn the night...

Twenty-five years ago, Elmbridge High burned down. Five people were killed . . . and one pupil, Carly Johnson, disappeared. Now a diary has been found in the ruins of the school. The diary belongs to Kaitlyn Johnson, Carly's identical twin sister. But Carly didn't have a twin.

Re-opened police records, psychiatric reports, transcripts of video footage and fragments of diary reveal a web of deceit and intrigue. Who was Kaitlyn and why did she only appear at night? Did she really exist or was she a figment of a disturbed mind? What were the illicit voodoo rituals taking place at the school? And just what did happen at Elmbridge in the events leading up to 'the Johnson Incident'?"


What
         

           is
           

                the
              

                       truth?




5. If you had to describe the book in one sentence, what would it be?

The Dead House cannot be trusted.


6. What inspired you to write The Dead House?

I thought of The Dead House when I was very sick. I had inversion syndrome, which means you are awake all night and asleep during the day. My whole life was a long series of dark nights. That was the beginning of the story. Carly and Kaitlyn were the two halves of my life. I had to tell their story.



Sounds great, yeah? Don’t forget to add The Dead House to you list on GoodReads!
Author’s links:
Website
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Twitter
Goodreads

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