GHOST FALL COUNTDOWN: Kara on Book 2

Kara Dennison and Rob Shearman, two extremely dark and terrifying writers.

When we were wrapping up the first Owl's Flower book, Ginger pointed out to me -- not wrongly -- that it was a bit slow. I don't necessarily see that as a bad thing for a romance series origin story, nor do I think she was putting it forward as a bad thing. It's important the we know from Day One that the drama in Herne and Iris's life doesn't come from a turbulent relationship haunted by uncertainty and unstable emotions. That's not who they are.

Going forward, however, we knew we could go bigger and badder and weirder with the books. Ginger has a very kinetic style, and I love writing action sequences. I also love writing dark and weird -- and creating a pantheon whose deities can be from any era, any beliefs system, and any tier of reality means we can really go to town with our creations.

When I was younger, I was inspired by a sort of odd blend of Douglas Adams, Brian Jacques, and C.S. Lewis. Now, as a published writer, I find myself retaining a bit of that, but with a healthy helping of influence from Junji Ito and the more fantasy-skewed works of Richard Matheson and Stephen King. Published I've turned out lately include medieval knights having existential crises in Heaven, giant petrified elder gods in space, haunted video games, and a retelling of an old Poe story that ends with someone getting stabbed with shards of mirror.

So a Halloween story with ghosts sounded right up my street.

I don't think Ghost Fall is grim per se. Overall, Owl's Flower isn't grim. It's sweet, it's sad sometimes, it's funny quite a bit (I hope), and it's got some mystery and some scares and some intrigue. But despite my love of the macabre and Ginger's willingness to run with it, it's never going to become one of those stories completely. Not with a core made up of a barista and an owl-shifter with anxiety.

That said, I hope this story gives you some scares. I hope it makes you think. I hope it gets you even more interested in the characters. And I hope it makes you excited for the third book, which is underway and will be a Valentine's Day story.

See you Tuesday -- don't forget to get Ghost!