Most writers are nerds just like us, and Meg Kassel is here to discuss her favorite fandoms and how they inspired her novel Black Bird of the Gallows.
Related: Meet a harbinger of death in exclusive Black Bird of the Gallows excerpt by Meg Kassel
About ‘Black Bird of the Gallows’
A simple but forgotten truth: Where harbingers of death appear, the morgues will soon be full.
Angie Dovage can tell there’s more to Reece Fernandez than just the tall, brooding athlete who has her classmates swooning, but she can’t imagine his presence signals a tragedy that will devastate her small town. When something supernatural tries to attack her, Angie is thrown into a battle between good and evil she never saw coming. Right in the center of it is Reece — and he’s not human.
What’s more, she knows something most don’t. That the secrets her town holds could kill them all. But that’s only half as dangerous as falling in love with a harbinger of death.
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Author Meg Kassel discusses her inspirations for ‘Black Bird of the Gallows’
Creative people need inspiration! There wasn’t one big thing that sparked my debut novel, Black Bird of the Gallows, and none of my favorites influenced my writing directly, but all the things I’ve been passionate about over the years have contributed to my writing. They still do! So here are some TV shows, video games and comic book series that I love so much, I sometimes am lucky enough to dream about.
As a middle schooler and teen, I loved comics and I still do. I subscribed to X-Men (Jim Lee’s series), but I’d still buy a copy every month from the comic book store so I’d have a reading copy and one sealed in plastic! I also have a collection of Eastman and Laird’s original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics.
These days, I get my comic fix from the Saga series, by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples. If I ever get to a Comic Con where they are exhibiting, I’m going to fangirl all over Fiona Staples. Her artwork — it’s so gorgeous. And the story of parents from two warring societies fighting to keep their daughter safe sucked me in immediately. It’s definitely dark with some graphic content — so, a caution for younger readers.
A TV show I’m all about is Syfy’s The Expanse. This series is based on novels by writing team Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck under the pen name James S. A. Corey. I admit, I haven’t read the books yet (very bad of me!). When I started watching the show, I didn’t even know there were books.
If it’s space sci-fi, my interest is going to be piqued anyway, but THIS SHOW, guys. It’s everything I love about space drama with complex plots, an amazing cast and really cool space fighting. As a fan of Battlestar Galactica and Firefly, I got hooked and stayed that way. You have to pay attention to this show, there are so many threads. SO looking forward to season 3 in 2018.
Okay, I debated sharing this one, because I’m an adult and all, but a series I loved as a kid and still do to this day is Voltron. I was a little kid in the ’80s, but I remember the original cartoon series, Voltron, Defender of the Universe. It was my favorite, along with Thundercats, and the theme music is permanently scored into my brain.
Yes, I had the toys. Yes, I had crushes on those Paladins, but anyway, when I saw Netflix and Dreamworks were rebooting the series, I was hopeful, and Voltron, Legendary Defender had me binge watching until two in the morning.
My last one is The Legend of Zelda. I’ve played this latest offering from Nintendo, Breath of the Wild, twice through and love it. The gameplay is so engrossing, and it’s not graphically violent, so I can play with my six-year-old present. I like it as much as the iconic, Ocarina of Time.
There’s just something about the storyline that lies at the heart of all Zelda games. It’s classic good vs. evil, the relationship between Zelda and Link is always obscure. Sometimes they’re portrayed as a couple, sometimes more as siblings. Sometimes, as in Breath of the Wild, it’s completely ambiguous. I like that question hanging there about these heroes who are born again and again through the ages, to fight evil. I hope Nintendo never answers it.
So that’s a short list of my fandoms. Things I wear T-shirts of and buy collectibles of. Yes, even though I’m technically an adult.
About the author
Meg Kassel is an author of paranormal and speculative books for young adults. A New Jersey native, Meg graduated from Parson’s School of Design and worked as a graphic designer before becoming a writer. She now lives in Maine with her husband and daughter and is busy at work on her next novel. She is the 2016 RWA Golden Heart© winner in YA.