Posts Tagged fantasy

WNDMG Author Interview with Meg Eden Kuyatt

By on May 19, 2025   /   Author Interviews, Diversity  

WNDMG Author Interview with Meg Eden Kuyatt

When I fell in love with the prose in Meg Eden Kuyatt’s first novel, Good Different, then learned she was writing a ghost story of sorts, I. COULD. NOT. WAIT!
I had the esteemed pleasure of sitting down to interview Meg. Here’s the inside scoop on both the author and her book…

KATE: Our Mixed-Up-Files readers would love the inside scoop on your latest novel-in-verse, The Girl in the Walls. Can you tell us a bit about where the idea for this story came from?

MEG: I tend to start my stories in a feeling. This one started when I saw something very upsetting happen to someone I cared about. I tried to write about it directly, but when that didn’t work and felt a little too real, I knew I needed to try another angle (like Emily Dickinson, to tell it slant). I started asking what if questions, like: what if V could time travel? What if she met a ghost? The ghost helped bring this magic wonderland world of the walls, giving me distance. It also gave me an outlet for me to process all my feelings, giving an option for what I could be like if I held onto them forever and didn’t try to work through them. That warning made me really want to work through my feelings all the more and find healing on the other end.

KATE: I love that you write books which make me cry (I’m looking at you too, Good Different). And by this, I don’t mean you write emotional books, I mean you write books with big emotions. How easy is it for you to tap into a young character’s emotions while creating universal connections to your readers?

MEG: Thank you so much, Kate! That’s the part I feel like is my strength. As an autistic person, I feel things so big, and so channeling those feelings into my characters is easy. I just write what I’m feeling now, and what I felt at that age (often they’re very similar things, just maybe wearing different outfits). When I ask things like: what am I struggling with now? What did I struggle with then?, I try to be as specific as possible, and ironically, the more specific we are, the more universal we get because we’re tapping into the human experience.

KATE: In discussing some of those emotions just a bit further, I think many readers will be able to relate to Valeria, a girl who has been hurt by the actions and comments of others. Afterall, who hasn’t wished someone else a taste of their own medicine? How did you decide this would be her driving force?

MEG: I write what I’m feeling and struggling with in the moment. I knew I needed to write this book when, like V, I was hurt and angry at someone else. I knew I needed to try to see them with more empathy. But to get there, I knew I needed to be honest with where I was in my feelings and let that fuel the story.

KATE: You have two characters giving Valeria art guidance – one who says to draw art as you see it. Another who says to draw art as you feel it. When you write, which advice registers closest for you?

MEG: I think there’s truth to both, for V and for my writing. We need to be informed by what we feel, but also what is true. Sometimes these intersect, but sometimes feelings are unreliable narrators, so we need to open our eyes to get perspective and ask, what is true?

KATE: There’s a great parallel in your novel between ghosting someone and being a ghost oneself. Talk to us about how you wove in the concept of being seen.

MEG: I think as the story progresses, V realizes she’s been holding in feelings, but so has the house—to embody how the family has been holding in hurt from generational trauma and ableism. When we’re ghosted, it hurts, and if we don’t acknowledge those feelings, if we don’t move forward, we can become ghosts in a sense, trapped in a cul de sac of looping feelings. We can also give that as an inheritance to the next generation. And if we don’t acknowledge those feelings, they build and fester and get worse. They wound, and can create really malignant patterns for the generations to come. In a few ways, this becomes a literal threat V has to deal with, because as things escalate, they can become real obstacles. I wanted V to break those generational patterns and pave forward another option.

KATE: We often hear about family curses. How important was it for you to make this story generational?

MEG: That was the main thing I wanted to explore here: generations. What do we inherit from our families? The people who dig at us the most, is it in part because we see ourselves in them? What legacy do we want to leave forward? How can we take the good and oppose the evil in the legacies we inherit?

KATE: It’s often fun to read about the baddies of a book, and your baddie is certainly up there on that list! How fun was it for you to write this antagonist?

MEG: Not fun! 😉 But very healing. Sometimes you have to write very real things, that aren’t necessarily fun, because they hit a little too close to home. But it’s really important. It was fun, in a sense, exploring the complexities of the antagonist: the yes, but what if…?

KATE: You and Valeria share many things in common, I’m sure, one in particular is being neurodivergent. Can you tell MUF readers about neurodivergence and how this connection to Valeria helped you in your story development?

MEG: I’m neurodivergent and I don’t know what it’s like to not be ND. I used to try to write neurotypical leads to satisfy a previous agent, but I learned I’m a bad actor, and don’t know what it’s like to be neurotypical! So I write what I know, and my best writing is what I know. For V, I particularly wanted to channel my insecurities as a neurodivergent person in a neurotypical world, how I have so much joy in who I was created to be until something happens and someone makes me doubt myself.

Especially because in Good Different, Selah grows to love her autism, I wanted to show the other end, because it’s not always that simple. Usually there’s a mix of joy and internalized ableism. I don’t want people to stop at Selah’s story and think we’ve “fixed ableism.” It’s still there, all the more obvious by RFK Jr’s recent disturbing comments. There is joy, but there’s also a lot of hurt, and for kids struggling with that, I wanted them to see themselves in V’s story, and see it doesn’t have to end there.

KATE: Can you describe your writing process and, can you give us an example of something you cut, changed, or reworked from draft to publication?

MEG: Goodness, so much changed. The basic bones of the emotional arc have always been there, but there were pranks that had to get cut, lots of conversations between the ghost and V, a lot of internal poems..I was really challenged by my editor to focus, to escalate, and keep things active, since I can get so lost in my head sometimes.

KATE: Thank you for taking the time to share the inside scoop on The Girl in the Walls. Is there something beyond Valeria’s world you can hint at? Perhaps a new project in the works?

MEG: I’m so excited to have a Good Different companion novel in the works currently called PERFECT ENOUGH, and a YA with two autistic leads (that I’ve been working on for over ten years now, so it’s such a joy to know it’s coming out into the world)! Being undiagnosed for most of my life, I’m really enjoying exploring what it means to be autistic and how to be a healthy autistic person in a neurotypical, often ableist world. So we’ll see where that leads me as I play with future ideas!

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

MEG: megedenbooks.com! I love hearing from readers!

 

Lightning Round

 

And….no MUF interview is complete without a lightning round, so…

Favorite place to write? – patio, or Chick-fil-a

Dark chocolate or milk chocolate? – dark chocolate all the way

Superpower? – flying! or timetravel.

Rollerblades or bike? – bike!

Dream job when you were a kid? – being an artist or a manga-ka

House pet? – cat

Favorite piece of advice for writers? – persist!

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Interview with Kiyash Monsef, acclaimed author of Bird of a Thousand Stories!

By on March 17, 2025   /   Author Interviews  

Book cover of BIRD OF A THOUSAND STORIES by Kiyash Monsef

Kiyash Monsef’s much-heralded debut, ONCE THERE WAS, introduced a fascinating concept: what if mythical beasts existed, and they needed veterinary care to survive? That book also introduced the vet-in-training, Marjan, who undergoes a series of trials to find her path in this dangerous and mysterious world. Marjan is back in Kiyash’s incredible new book, BIRD OF A THOUSAND STORIES – but as he details here, readers can dive right in and be richly rewarded.

Kiyash also discusses his writing process, mythological inspirations, and what’s next for Marjan (and him)!

I loved how the back cover lists ONCE THEIR WAS as a “companion” book to BIRD OF A THOUSAND STORIES. While the rich backstory of the first book adds so much to this one, I found that a reader could pick up this book and dive right in. Was that important for you to do, and how did you work to accomplish it?

I call the two books siblings, and that’s always how I wanted to approach writing BIRD OF A THOUSAND STORIES. It was very important to me that each book could stand alone. I know that reading time is precious, and I don’t want to ask for too much of it. If a reader is willing to give their time, attention, and imagination to one of my books, I want to honor that gift by giving them an experience that is satisfying and complete, and doesn’t demand that they immediately read the next book. Or, conversely, I don’t want to demand that a reader first read three other books before they can understand what’s going on in my latest story.

To accomplish this, I had to ask myself what background information a reader would need in order to understand the events and the relationships in BIRD OF A THOUSAND STORIES, and then find elegant ways to briefly seed that information so that everything makes sense. The biggest challenge was making sure that a reader would know just enough at the right moment, without paragraphs of infodumping. I think there are one or two instances where you might come across a word or a reference that hasn’t been explained yet, but I actually like a bit of mild disorientation as part of the reading experience, as long as you get your answers eventually (which you will).

I’ve read that ONCE THERE WAS started as a series of loosely-connected episodic short stories, and I’m sure that initial approach impacted your writing of that book. How did writing BIRD OF A THOUSAND STORIES differ from that approach, and did you have a preference between the two? (Also – as a fellow pantser, your books give me hope!)

ONCE THERE WAS has episodic roots in its DNA, and I think you can still feel that cadence in its storytelling. I love that about that book, but I always knew that I wanted my second book to be a more tightly-woven and fast-moving story. My approach to writing BIRD was quite different from ONCE, and it had its own evolution. I came up with an outline of sorts, and then I blasted through a first draft very quickly. Very little of that first draft other than some characters and a general sense of narrative momentum made it into the final version. There were a few story beats that stuck around, and some broad strokes ideas about the finale, but the second draft was really a second first draft.

The second time around, my process was more measured. I had a solid outline before I started writing, and I more or less stuck to it, and I think it hews pretty closely to what’s in the actual book.

Which is not to say that I have abandoned the pantser approach. I actually think having that improvisational ethos to draw on was amazing in a more structured creative framework, and there are plenty of moments and scenes where I kind of waved my hands at some idea in my outline, and then let the pantser take over when it came to actually executing those ideas. I think I’m discovering that I’m happiest writing somewhere in the middle of the spectrum. Taking an early structural approach means you can build a deeper and more complex story, and you can write with intentionality. But I also believe that if I’m not surprising myself at least some of the time, it’s probably not interesting enough. So there is a plan, but there are also pants.

You have an incredible facility for creating fairy tales that feel as though they’ve existed forever. The acknowledgments section lists a few of your inspirations for these tales, and I especially loved your reference to the mythologist Michael Meade’s words: “It’s an old song. You can’t hurt it.” Have you thought about future writers taking your stories and running with them – and if so – how could you see them reimagined? In poems? Songs? Something else…?

First off, thank you for reading the acknowledgements! It warms any author’s heart to know that someone read those last couple pages. In ONCE THERE WAS, the fairy tales were all original creations, but the central fairy tale in BIRD is in fact drawn from a very old story with roots in many languages and cultures, and I wanted curious readers to know that. Particularly for a book that looks at the ways that stories endure and change over time, I thought it was important to pull back the curtain just a tiny bit to show that process at work.

As far as other writers retelling these stories, stories want to be told, and I think the stories in these books are no different. I do hope they can endure in some form or other, whether it’s poetry, song, or spoken by the light of a campfire. My secret, mischievous hope is that everyone forgets that I wrote them, and that they just kind of get added to the canon of stories that have always been around. That would be the coolest.

The relationships between Marjan and her friends feel heightened in this book, as do the stakes for Marjan’s actions. How did you work to deepen these connections throughout this book and raise the stakes for Marjan’s success (especially as they impact her friends)?

I have to give a lot of credit to my editor, Kendra Levin, who is THE BEST, for pushing me to raise the stakes from the start. Every time I got to a choice point, I had that note in my head, and so I was always asking, what’s the worst thing that could reasonably result from this choice? And because Marjan can be impulsive, we tend to see those stakes play out throughout the book. As far as Marjan’s friends, I just really like them all as people, so I really wanted to spend more time with them. As a result, the connections that Marjan has with them get deeper and more complex this time around.

In particular, her relationship with Malloryn, who’s Marjan’s roommate, confidante, and also possibly a witch, sort of took on a life of its own. Malloryn is so much fun to write, because she just comes very naturally to me, and her motivations and needs are always crystal clear in my mind. And as a writer, I think you need to trust your characters above all else, because they are the heart and soul of the story. So even if I think I know exactly where the story’s going, when Malloryn’s on the page, I kind of have to loosen the reins and let her cook, so to speak.

There’s a lot of talk among writers and teachers and librarians about older middle-grade books and the need for books that bridge the gap between MG and YA. Both of your books feel like they can be read and loved by readers of any age, but they seem especially perfect for those readers who can be overlooked in early MG and YA. Is that something you’ve thought about or are hearing from readers? Does that impact your writing?

I have heard this from a few people. I’m happy to know that these books fill a need, and hopefully they’re helping to keep young people engaged with the wonders of reading. At the same time, I try not to think too much about categories, or about writing to a particular subset of readers. My own middle grade reading was Stephen King and HP Lovecraft, so I’m not an authority on what defines the middle grade category. As a young reader, I was intuitively very conscious of when I was being “written to.” I always wanted to encounter a story on its own terms, and not filtered through what someone else thinks is age-appropriate, either in content or in complexity of language or story. I try very hard to write stories that I would have liked when I was younger, but also stories that I would read tomorrow, and that, more than the conventions of middle grade or young adult, is my guide.

You state that, to your surprise, you’ve now written two books. What’s next on the horizon for you and the incredibly rich world you’ve created?

I’ve got more stories to tell in the world of ONCE THERE WAS and BIRD, and I know I will get the chance to tell them at some point. At the moment, though, I’m poking at some different ideas — different worlds, different characters. It’s amazing to be in a position to be thinking about a third book, and I’m trying to approach this moment with openness to the wide range of possibility that it offers. But for fans of Marjan and her friends, fear not. There are more stories, and they’ll find their way into the world. Stories have a way of doing that.

Author photo for Kiyash Monsef

Kiyash Monsef is an Emmy Award–nominated producer and director; a writer of short stories, videos, comic books, and games; and a designer of innovative conversational and voice interface experiences. He’s the author of Once There Was, which was a finalist for the Morris Award, and Bird of a Thousand Stories.

BIRD OF A THOUSAND STORIES is available at bookstores everywhere.

You can see more purchase options at: Simon & Schuster.

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Author Interview with Siobhan McDermott

By on March 7, 2025   /   Author Interviews  

Author photo and cover for Paper Dragons book 2: Rise of the Sand Spirits by Siobhan McDermott

Middle grade fantasy continues to be a huge hit with my 5th graders. They are always eager for a new series, so I jumped at the chance to interview author Siobhan McDermott about the newest entry in her Paper Dragons series. In book one, Paper Dragons: Fight for the Hidden Realm, Zhi Ging is desperate to leave the unwelcoming village of the Glassmakers and win an invitation to train as a Silhouette—and perhaps gain immortality.

When she is offered an unheard-of second chance, she must balance her new-found excitement with the distrust and skepticism of her fellow Silhouettes. But her new underwater school, Hok Woh, has bigger problems and even bigger secrets, and Zhi Ging and her fellow Silhouettes soon find themselves in the middle of a battle for the future of Hok Woh and all six provinces.

While Fight for the Hidden Realm leaves readers on a bit of a cliffhanger regarding Zhi Ging’s next steps, readers can rest assured that book two, Paper Dragons: The Rise of the Sand Spirits, picks up the pace and jumps back into the action immediately! And speaking of action, let’s jump into the interview!

Interview with Author Siobhan McDermott

Katie: You are sharing a hoop with a Silhouette-aged student who loves fantasy novels. What is your quick elevator pitch for why they should read the Paper Dragons series?

Siobhan: Paper Dragons takes place in a magical underwater school and is jam-packed with delicious dim sum, ageshifting immortals, lightning-breathing dragons, and one extremely greedy duckling. For fans of folklore, I’ve sprinkled little nods to both Irish myths and Chinese legends throughout Zhi Ging’s world!

Katie: What surprised you the most when writing book two?

Siobhan: How much fun I had! The ideas for book one had been swirling around in my mind for over two decades before I wove them together into Zhi Ging’s story. When I first opened a blank word doc for book two, I was a little nervous about coming up with brand new characters and challenges. Instead, I’m really happy to say that book two features my all time favourite Chau: a magical version of mochi that I now desperately wish was real.

Cover for Paper Dragons: Search for the Hidden Realm by Siobhan McDermottKatie: Teachers often tell students to “Write what you know?” How have you been able to use “what you know” and your own life experiences to write such immersive fantasy?

Siobhan: Thank you! For me, it’s all about taking what you know and giving it a magical twist. I truly believe there’s only two words you need to kick start your imagination: “what if.” All you have to do is apply “what if” to any ordinary, mundane part of your life and it can trigger ideas that end up forming brand new fantasy worlds. For example, when I was growing up in Hong Kong I would often get ferries between islands. I’d spend most of those journeys peering down into the waves thinking “there’s so many buildings on land, what if there’s some underwater too. . .” That one idea stuck in my head for over twenty years, ultimately becoming Hok Woh: the underwater school made entirely from glass where children train to become immortal.

Katie: You mention in your first author’s note that the jellyfish didn’t appear until your first rewrite. If all writing is rewriting, how else has revision shaped your stories?

Siobhan: Oh, entire buildings, characters, and plotlines have vanished and morphed over my multiple rewrites! In fact, of the 43 chapters in the published book, only 3 have remained the same since my very first draft. It might initially feel tough, but killing your darlings is one of the most freeing parts of writing. You also don’t need to kill them permanently, not really. Every single sentence I cut gets saved in a secret doc with a word count that runs into the tens of thousands. Sometimes, it’s just about finding a better home for your initial idea. A couple of chapters I cut from book one were polished up and tweaked to form the foundations of a major moment in book two. The idea that inspired those original chapters works much better here than it ever did in book one! For any ideas you don’t reuse, being able to glance at them in the secret doc can also help remind you of how far your writing has come between drafts.

upside down jellyfishKatie: If you had your own personal jellyfish assistant, what type of jellyfish would you choose and why? (My personal favorite are the Pacific Sea Nettles, pictured, for their insistence on swimming upside down.)

Siobhan: Oh excellent choice! I think I’d have to go with the Lion’s Mane Jellyfish. They’re the largest species out there and their tentacles can stretch over 100 feet high. I’m pretty short myself so it’d be great to have one to help me reach the books on the top shelves the next time I’m at the library.

Katie: Switching gears, can you tell MUF readers about your path to publication? I know you’ve been involved in publishing for a long time. What led you to write for kids?

Siobhan: Of course! I’ve always loved middle grade books, particularly anything with a large dollop of magic. After a few years doing PR for non-fiction titles, I was lucky enough to land a role working with some incredibly talented children’s authors. Travelling around the country with them, hearing first-hand how they navigated that labyrinth between an initial spark of an idea to a published novel was incredibly eye opening. Quite a few of them still worked full-time too — with one hero of an author writing incredible fantasy books between shifts as a midwife. Chatting with them encouraged me to stop simply filling notebooks with ideas then leaving them to collect dust. Instead, I began scribbling after work and at weekends, plotting out a story that 10 year old me would have loved to read.

Katie: What advice would you give to fledgling MG authors?

Siobhan: Read as much new MG as you can! We all have our childhood favourites, the stories that made us want to become writers, but it’s so important not to rely on these as your only benchmark. There’s been some truly incredible MG writing published over the last few years (across all genres) and you’re doing yourself a huge disservice if you don’t read them. Take a look at the covers of books you loved growing up, then look at the covers now filling bookstore shelves. The artwork will be noticeably different, with illustrators and designers showcasing new styles and techniques, so why wouldn’t you expect the contents of these books to have also transformed across those same decades? Obviously certain themes are timeless, and a lot of great stories will share common ideas and emotions, but if you really want to write MG that sparks the imagination of readers, you have to understand how it’s constantly evolving. Don’t let your bar of what counts as “good” be solely guided by classics, it should be equally influenced by your contemporaries.

Katie: What are some of your favorite middle grade books or series?

Siobhan: How much time do you have?! Some middle grade books I’ve recently read and loved include:
Inkbound: Meticulous Jones and the Skull Tattoo by Philippa Leathley
Artezans: The Forgotten Magic by L.D. Lapinski
The Whisperwicks: The Labyrinth of Lost and Found by Jordan Lees
Heartseer: The Tale of Anise Star by Rowan Foxwood

If you’re a speedy reader and want a middle grade series with a few titles already published, you can’t go wrong with:
The Nevermoor Series by Jessica Townsend
The Amari Series by B. B. Alston
The Greenwild Series by Pari Thomson
The Cosima Unfortunate Series by Laura Noakes

Katie: Is there anything else that you would like readers to know about the Paper Dragons series? (Like, how long are you keeping us in suspense until book three??)

Siobhan: Ha! I’m working on book three as we speak so, hopefully, you’ll only be kept in suspense a teensy bit longer. I’ve had a sneak peek of the artwork Vivienne To, my illustrator, has dreamt up for the third cover and I’ll just say readers are in for a TREAT! It’s stunning.

Katie: No MUF interview is complete without a lightning round so …

Lightning Round

Yellow graphic lightning boltCoffee, tea, or bubble tea?

Oh definitely bubble tea! Either matcha with classic tapioca or a peach white tea with strawberry popping boba.

Class you’d most like to take at Hok Woh?

I think it’d have to be Calligraphy. That particular tutor (who you’ll meet in book two) was so fun to write! They very quickly prove their classes are about much more than just pretty writing. Instead, it’s all about different ways of communicating – particularly hidden messages and secret codes.

Favorite dim sum order?

Has to be a plate of char siu cheung fun (叉燒腸粉)! Pieces of bbq roast pork wrapped inside a silky rice noodle. I’ve been known to eat a second or third helping all by myself!

Dream job when you were a kid?

For years all I wanted to do was sell ice cream. I only changed my mind when I realised I’d end up eating it faster than I’d sell it.

Superpower?

I’d love to be able to speak every language in the world. I’ve been travelling recently and quite a few of the museums and galleries I visited didn’t allow phones/photos. I had to guess what a lot of displays were saying and research them afterwards. I’d also love not to have to rely on translation apps when looking at menus — although my gamble in Taiwan with a dish that Google claimed was “flesh of the moon” turned out to be delicious!

Katie: Finally, where can readers find you if they want to reach out?

Siobhan: You can find me on Instagram at @siobhanmcd91

Katie: Thanks so much, Siobhan! Eager readers don’t have long to wait, as book two in the Paper Dragons series, The Rise of the Sand Spirits, slithers into mailboxes and bookstores everywhere on March 11, 2025!

Headshot of author Siobhan McDermott, photo credit Helen ScanlonBiography:

Siobhan McDermott was born in Hong Kong and grew up on a steady stream of stories filled with Chinese legends and Irish folklore. She now lives in the UK and continues to order dim sum in Cantonese tinged with a distinctly Dublin lilt. Paper Dragons: The Fight for the Hidden Realm is her debut novel and was chosen as Waterstones Children’s Book of the Month. The story was inspired by moments across her life: from childhood ferry trips between Lantau Island and Hong Kong, to travelling around Taiwan, Italy and Spain.

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