Author Interview with Maire Roche

Today’s author interview is with Middle Grade author Maire Roche. If you like monsters and retellings, then then buckle up for a fun read! So, without further ado….

KATE: Our Mixed-Up-Files readers would love the inside scoop on your latest book, Little Monsters! Can you tell us a bit about its premise?

MAIRE: Thank you, and I’d love to chat all things Little Monsters! Little Monsters is a monstrous, magical, and modern remix of Little Women, all for a middle grade audience. In this retelling, each of the March sisters is hiding a monstrous power from their foster mom and the world in general. Little Monsters is Meg’s story, as she navigates hiding the sharp claws and twisty teeth that appear when she gets anxious or upset, tries to get everyone Halloween costumes, and develops a crush on the boy next door. Unfortunately for Meg, the closer it gets to Halloween in Salem, the stronger her monstrous magic gets—and she keeps waking up in the woods with no memory of how she got there. She has to learn to rely on her friends and family, accept her magic (and her anxiety), and maybe uncover some spooky secrets about the community she’s living in.

KATE: When I saw the cover of your book and that your story is a retelling of the classic Little Women, I was hooked. Secrets? Monsters? I’m in! As for yourself, what was it about Little Women that pulled you into writing a spooky version of it?

MAIRE: I loved Little Women growing up, but as a kid, I was always drawn to books that had magic and danger. When I was thinking about my childhood reads, I thought about what I would do differently, or what I would add—and right away, adding magic to the March sister’s world made total sense.

KATE: While the classic follows the second sister, Jo, yours follows the eldest sister, Meg. As an older sister, Meg feels a duty to take care of the younger ones. I’m curious what came first for you – the premise (and that’s how you knew to write about Meg) or if you always wanted to give Meg a chance to shine and thus found a story that would fit her?

MAIRE:  I’ve always loved Meg! As a fellow eldest daughter, I always sympathized with Meg’s journey as I read the books. I wanted to translate that to a modern setting, where I wondered what kind of worries an eldest-daughter-Meg would have in today’s world. Of course, in Little Monsters, this version of Meg March isn’t worrying about getting an advantageous marriage that will save her sisters from poverty—but in what way would things like poverty and caring for her sisters still be hers to worry about? I knew I wanted to explore that in my retelling!

KATE: Meg’s friend, John Brooke (aka Brooks) knows a lot about seam cities. I am super intrigued by the idea of these. Can you give readers here a bit of a taste for what a seam city is and why you chose to set Little Monsters in Salem vs one of the other cities?

MAIRE: A seam city is one that sits on the “seam” between worlds. In communities like these, the veil is thin, and the monstrous, mythical, and magical walk side by side with humans. Humans who aren’t part of these magical communities, though, only have vague memories of the monstrous things they see after they leave or move away—or they find other ways to explain away what they saw. But in a seam city,
anything can happen—especially close to Halloween! As far as why I chose Salem, I wanted to choose a city in Massachusetts, since Louisa May Alcott (the author of the original) was from Concord. Salem, as the resident spook city of Massachusetts, seemed like the perfect fit!

KATE: Your story, an absolute fun fantasy to read, also touches on some realistic topics such as the foster care system, first crushes, teenage jobs and responsibilities, and social rumors, to name a few. How were you able to balance these to create such an exciting tale?

MAIRE: First of all, thank you! I’m glad that came through. It was so important to me to write about things kids are really facing. I felt like the other stakes of the story (the monstrous part) wouldn’t mean nearly as much without compelling internal stakes. Meg’s biggest worry isn’t that she’s a monstrous, but that she’s unsure what her family will look like, and who will stay in her life.

KATE: When writing a retelling, how much flexibility is there in creating something new vs using what’s familiar? For example, in Little Monsters we meet familiar characters from the classic such as the four March sisters, yet you’ve definitely added a spin by making them each their own form of monster. If readers wanted to write their own retellings of beloved stories, what tips or advice do you have for them?

MAIRE: I would say don’t worry too much about staying close to the source text! There are so many retellings of our favorite stories (Little Women included) that I think it’s more important to honor the source text where we can, but take liberties wherever and whenever. The point of the retelling is to have fun! You won’t please everyone, and that’s okay—one of the many other retelling will be for them instead. And
you will find some readers that absolutely fall head over heels, which makes it really worth it all.

KATE: It’s often fun to read about the baddies of a book, and in your story we aren’t always sure who the baddie is! How fun was it for you to write an antagonist that keeps the readers guessing?

MAIRE: It was SO much fun. No spoilers, but the antagonist of this story might be my favorite one I’ve written…ever. I find that young readers especially love an interesting villain, and they are my favorite people to write for. They have such interesting questions, and they always seem to take the time to understand all the characters (even the villains). I can’t wait for them to discover this one!

KATE: Without revealing spoilers, can you describe your writing process and, can you give us an example of something you cut, changed, or reworked from draft to publication?

MAIRE: I actually wrote this draft in four days! I wanted to see if I could write something that quickly. Very little changed between that draft and the version we submitted to publishers. After we sold the book, though, I did some reworking of the world building to make sure nothing was too complicated. For instance, I had a whole sequence of scenes in which I’d gotten the phase of the moon wrong. Since the
story relates so much to the full moon on Halloween, I had to rework a lot of that!

KATE: I love that the four sisters have different monster abilities. If I got to transform into one of them, I’d be Beth for sure, since I’d want wings! In Little Monsters we get to witness Meg dealing with what it means for her to be a monster. I’m curious if fans will get to see future books where the other sisters get to showcase their monster sides?

MAIRE: This one I can only say hopefully yes! I have a tentative idea for each sister, each in a different seam city
community, and… we’ll see.

KATE: Thank you for taking the time to share the inside scoop on Little Monsters. Is there something beyond Salem you can hint at? Perhaps a new project in the works?

MAIRE: I am in the process of deciding on my next thing in middle grade right now, so there isn’t much I can say about that genre. However, I do write in a lot of spaces, and I have a really fun follow-up to my cozy romantasy (for grownups) as well as something horror-adjacent I can’t wait to talk about! Stay tuned for some more monstrous middle grade from me, though—I’m definitely eager to stay in this space.

KATE: Where can readers best find you if they want to reach out?

MAIRE: I am online at maryeroach.com or on Instagram @maryeroachauthor. I love to hear from readers, so please reach out, or tag me in a picture of Little Monsters!