Hillary Monahan talks to Hyable about her debut young adult novel Mary: The Summoning and crafting horror stories.
Tell us five random facts about yourself.
I go to Disney World every year (sometimes twice a year.)
I have the movie Young Frankenstein memorized.
I read Where the Wild Things Are so many times as a kid, the book fell apart.
I’m ophidiophobic. (Snakes scare me.)
I love animals but have a particular soft spot for elephants and will donate money to elephant rehabilitation.
Tell us about your journey to becoming a writer.
I decided I’d be a writer young — like, really young. Four? Five? My grandmother was a freelance writer (you know those cranky old lady Maxine cards from Hallmark? She was the original writer for that line.) I remember her sitting in the front room of the house working on a four-hundred pound typewriter that could double as a blunt-force weapon. If I made too much noise and interrupted her, I risked Grandma Wrath.
I was an only child with a mother who worked two or three jobs at any given time to float the family, so I spent a lot of time in Gram’s writer cave. It was a way of life for me, so when writing contests came up in school or at camp. I’d enter. Often, I’d win. Probably because every time I wrote something my grandmother would eyeball it and tell me all the ways it was broken and how I could improve it.
Fast forward twenty-five years. I talked about my writerly aspirations with my best friend, Lauren Roy (who’s out through Ace Books with Night Owls) and we decided to co-write a book together. It’s the book that got us our agent, Miriam Kriss. While that book is sitting in a drawer somewhere, waiting for its time to shine, we’ve since both written other stuff. My first solo project was Mary and here we are.
Describe your novel in five words.
Bloody Mary haunts teenaged girls.
Why did you choose to write about Bloody Mary?
Because I love horror and I wanted to do that “write what you know” thing. Three things scared me as a kid: Bloody Mary in the mirror, Ouija boards, and Light as a Feather, Stiff as a Board. When I first got the inkling to write a horror story, I decided Bloody Mary was perfect fodder — there was some stuff out there about it, yes, but not a lot. That was good enough for me. I didn’t actually mean to write YA, but the urban legend is so perfect for the age bracket that I couldn’t fathom it belonging anywhere else.
The story is incredibly scary! How hard was it to craft the tension and suspense in the story? What are the challenges in writing a horror/thriller?
I wouldn’t say writing the scares themselves was hard but keeping a steady incline toward a big finish? Very difficult. That was something I worked on a lot with Tracey, my editor — rearranging the scare scenes in the book so that the stakes got higher haunting after haunting. And I think that sums up what I think is the hardest part of a book like this: timing. There is nothing that can take someone out of a horror book quicker than too many lulls between action scenes. On the other hand, you can’t over saturate the reader with violence and gore because that’s also a turn-off. It’s a tough balance.
You give some hints, in the form of letters, to Mary’s back story in this novel. Will we get the whole story by the end of the series? Any more hints you can give us about why Mary is so angry?
You will get the whole story, yes. Mary: Unleashed sends our protagonist back to Mary’s hometown to uncover the events that made Mary the monster in the mirror.
And while I can’t give too many hints without giving away plot, I can say that at the time I drafted the original Mary, I was watching a lot of Japanese horror. The Ring, The Grudge. She’s a very typical angry ghost in some ways.
Do you have things you need in order to write (i.e. coffee, cupcakes, music)?
COFFEE AND QUIET will be the name of my autobiography, I think. Coffee every day all day, and I’m not good at working with too much ruckus around me. As such, you will never see me drafting in a coffee shop. I tried once and I think my laser-beam stare creeped out the rest of the customers.
Where’s your favorite place to write?
In my office at home with the door closed and my smelly basset hound friends by my feet.
What character do you relate most to?
Probably Anna. She’s smart, she’s tough, she’s sassy. She tells Jess to knock it off when Jess gets out of line. All things I respect in an individual.
What is easier to write: The first line or the last line?
Oh, the first. You have all that bubbling enthusiasm for the project. The words are full of possibility. To get to the last line you have to get through the dreaded MIDDLE of the book. The Middle is where many-a-good manuscripts go to die.
What one YA novel do you wish you had when you were a teen?
Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein. I love that book. So important. So beautifully written. I’ve recommended it to everyone I know — YA reader or not — because it’s just that compelling. It got such a visceral reaction from me. No other young adult book has hit me that hard save for maybe Elie Wiesel’s Night way back in the day.
What are you working on now?
I’m finishing up Mary: Unleashed this month. From there? I have a few ideas, but the one taking up the most brain real estate is based on the Japanese shinigami lore. Very creepy stuff with a lot of possibility for exploration.
About ‘Mary: The Summoning’
There is a right way and a wrong way to summon her.
Jess had done the research. Success requires precision: a dark room, a mirror, a candle, salt, and four teenage girls. Each of them–Jess, Shauna, Kitty, and Anna–must link hands, follow the rules . . . and never let go.
A thrilling fear spins around the room the first time Jess calls her name: “Bloody Mary. Bloody Mary. BLOODY MARY.” A ripple of terror follows when a shadowy silhouette emerges through the fog, a specter trapped behind the mirror.
Once is not enough, though–at least not for Jess. Mary is called again. And again. But when their summoning circle is broken, Bloody Mary slips through the glass with a taste for revenge on her lips. As the girls struggle to escape Mary’s wrath, loyalties are questioned, friendships are torn apart, and lives are forever altered.
A haunting trail of clues leads Shauna on a desperate search to uncover the legacy of Mary Worth. What she finds will change everything, but will it be enough to stop Mary–and Jess–before it’s too late?
Mary: The Summoning releases on September 2. You can pre-order a copy from Amazon, Barnes and Noble or Indiebound.
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