Interview – Christine Virnig, author of A BITE ABOVE THE REST

I had the great luck to get to read an early copy of Christine Virnig’s latest middle-grade – a Halloween themed adventure set in the very unique town of Samhain,Wisconsin. And, even though Halloween is still a few month’s away, I’m sure my interview with Christine is going to have you itching to break out the wax vampire fangs and your best monster lawn decorations.

Please tell us a little bit about A BITE ABOVE THE REST.

First of all, thank you so much for taking the time to interview me! I really appreciate it!

A Bite Above the Rest is about a kid who moves from California to Samhain, Wisconsin, a tourist town where it’s Halloween 24/7. Halloween decorations stay up year-round, people wear costumes every day, and the town hall keeps vampire hours, of all things. Being the new kid is hard enough on its own, but then a terrifying encounter with the mayor causes Caleb to wonder: Could there be more to his new hometown than meets the eye? Could real vampires and werewolves and witches be hiding amongst the fakes? He immediately sets out to uncover the truth, aided by his quirky new best friend, Tai.

The premise of this book is super interesting and super fun. What inspired you to write this story?

I was inspired to write A Bite Above the Rest from the moment the main character, Caleb, popped into my head one day. The poor kid was walking around with a wooden stake in his back pocket because he was terrified that he’d encounter a vampire or werewolf or witch at any second. But as scared as he was, nobody around him was frightened. They were all just going about their business as though nothing was wrong. I was immediately filled with questions—Who was this kid? Where was he? Why was nobody else scared?—and A Bite Above the Rest was basically my attempt to answer these questions.

You tackle some very real issues in this book. A parent’s death, a new town, bullying, and anxiety among others. What do you hope readers will take away from Caleb and Tai’s adventure?

I actually didn’t write A Bite Above the Rest with any lessons or take aways in mind; my only goal was for readers to have fun reading it. But despite this, I do hope that Caleb and Tai’s adventure will show kids that we can all be brave when we need to be, especially when we’ve got a good friend at our side.

Caleb and Tai do a lot of research on monsters. Werewolves, vampires, witches, and merfolk all play a part in this book. Do you have a favorite scary being? If so, what about them do you love?

Probably vampires?? I find their lore absolutely fascinating, and I love the idea of living f-o-r-e-v-e-r.

I have always been terrible at coming up with Halloween costumes/decorations. The thought of doing it every day is exhausting to me, so I really appreciated Caleb’s approach. What about you? Are you a Halloween superfan? Do you have a favorite costume from your childhood? Do you go all out decorating your house now?

Apart from the candy, I actually didn’t like Halloween that much when I was growing up. A large part of this dislike was the costumes; they always made me feel awkward and exposed. I still feel this way as an adult, so I’m a huge fan of Caleb-style punny costumes myself. This year I think I’ll go as a fork in the road!

And no, I don’t go all out decorating my house for Halloween. But thanks to the throngs of spiders that LOVE living by our front door, we’re at least bound to have a bunch of very authentic-looking spider webs hanging about 🙂

Will you tell us a little bit about your writing process? In particular how did you go about tackling this story?

My writing process for fiction is supremely inefficient. As soon as I come up with an idea—which might be a character, a setting, a theme—I brainstorm just enough so that I can start writing, and then I let the characters do their thing. This writing style is definitely fun (for example, I didn’t know if Caleb’s suspicions about his new town would end up being real or not until I was halfway done writing, which meant I got to be surprised too!), but it does mean I need to do a lot of revising and rewriting once I finally finish my first draft.

We know no writer is created in a vacuum. Could you tell the readers about a teacher or a librarian who had an effect on your writing life?

Yes! When I was first considering writing for children, I asked the youth librarian at the public library in Verona, Wisconsin to point me towards a few of their most popular middle grade titles. Among others, she grabbed How They Croaked by Georgia Bragg. This nonfiction book was my first introduction to the world of FUNNY nonfiction, and it inspired me to write my first two books: Dung for Dinner and Waist-Deep in Dung. I wish I knew that librarian’s name so I could thank her for unknowingly giving me the inspiration I needed to just start writing.

A Bite Above the Rest ends with Caleb getting some worrying information. Can you give us a hint about what we can look forward to next from you?

Of course! As much as I’d love to revisit the world of Caleb and Tai and Samhain at some point—and I already have some ideas!—my next book is another standalone that I hope fans of A Bite Above the Rest will really love. Slated to come out in late 2025, it features a cast of ghostly main characters who attend Phantom Academy, a school for underaged ghosts. I also have a picture book coming out sometime in the next few years, but those details are still hush hush.

Christine Virnig is a fan of books, candy, spooky stories, poop jokes, and coffee…in no particular order. As a former physician, Christine now spends her days writing books, reading books, and working at a library where she is surrounded by books. Christine lives in southern Wisconsin with her husband, two daughters, a ridiculous number of dust bunnies, and one incredibly lazy cat. You can visit her on the web at ChristineVirnig.com.

A BITE ABOVE THE REST is out now and available for purchase here or at your favorite bookstore. You can follow Christine on at her website or on Instagram.

Are you ready for some Halloween fun? If so, let us know in the comments.

Patricia Bailey

Patricia Bailey is the author of the middle-grade historical novel The Tragically True Adventures of Kit Donovan. She blogs here and at her website www.patriciabaileyauthor.com.