Hello and welcome to the And the Trees Crept In by Dawn Kurtlagich Blog Tour! First of all, a big Happy Book Birthday to And the Trees Crept In!
Today I have for you, a brief interview with the lovely author, as well as a giveaway!
And the Trees Crept In by Dawn Kurtagich
Release Date: September 6th, 2016
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Series: N/A
Format: Hardcover, 352 pages
When Silla and Nori arrive at their aunt's home, it's immediately clear that the "blood manor" is cursed. The creaking of the house and the stillness of the woods surrounding them would be enough of a sign, but there are secrets too--the questions that Silla can't ignore: Who is the beautiful boy that's appeared from the woods? Who is the man that her little sister sees, but no one else? And why does it seem that, ever since they arrived, the trees have been creeping closer?
You write in such a new intriguing way, in And The Trees Crept In, and The Dead House, with the notes, handwritten letters, etc. What gave you the idea to write your stories that way?
Thank you so much! I’m so glad that you like the structure and look of both The Dead House as well as And The Trees Crept In.
There were many things that commingled to inspire the books I write and how I write them. The first, and earliest, being my dyslexia. I was not a natural reader as a child—not even close. Books meant confusion, headaches, eyes playing tricks on me and nausea (not to mention anxiety enough to fill a universe!). So I didn’t begin writing in the usual way. I began telling stories in graphic form—I used to create comic books of these wonderfully dramatic (melodramatic…) stories with very few words. The words I chose were only the essential words, and I would try to hide them away inside of the pictures. The books that did intrigue me were usually in the form of letters or short personal chapters/diary entries. They were relatable, so it didn’t feel like work.
The second event, and probably the one that affected me the most, was picking up House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski. House of Leaves is the best horror novel I have ever read. So that was one point in the book’s favor! But the main element that intrigued me was the fact that the book was ergodic literature. Meaning: the way that the text was placed on the page affected how I as the reader took in the story.
Here is a page from House of Leaves:
It was love at first experience. The different patters, placements and fonts allowed me to experience the novel in a more profound way. So much was said, and so much left to my imagination. I knew that it was going to be a book that stuck with me forever, and I knew that I wanted to create books that affected my readers as deeply.
The irony is, though: I never set out to write a book like The Dead House. It happened organically. The Dead House was going to be a series of diary entries from the main character’s perspective, interspersed with interviews with her therapist. What happened was that I ended up with a lot of unreliability in the narrative. It was an imbalance that only allowed me to paint part of the picture. I realized that I needed to see what was going on from a neutral perspective, with no explanatory elements or emotional readings. Hence, Naida’s camera was born. Then the police interviews, since I was leading the reader up to a tragic criminal event. Each little section balanced out the story. And when I had the finished book staring at me on my computer I thought: WHO IS GOING TO BUY THIS???? Thankfully, they did.
Thank you for having me on your wonderful blog! Be sure to come say hi and follow me on
Instagram, because I might just be listing a giveaway soon….!
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. Her debut YA novel,
The Dead House, is forthcoming from Orion/Indigo (UK) and Little, Brown Books for Young Readers (US) in 2015.
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!
When she was sixteen, she thought she'd be an astronomer and writer at the same time, and did a month-long internship at Cambridge's prestigious Cavendish Laboratories.
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
YA League.
Her life reads like a YA novel.
3 winners will receive a finished copy of AND THE TREES CREPT IN,
US Only.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Have you guys read
And the Trees Crept In yet? My sister has an ARC that I've been dying to borrow, so you'll probably see me talk about it more in the future! Thanks for stopping by!
Week One:
Week Two:
9/6/2016- Ohana Reads- Guest Post
