Michelle Krys lives in Northwestern Ontario with her husband and son and works part-time as a NICU nurse. She loves reading (duh), is a massive celebrity gossip junkie, loves music she can dance to and bad reality television, belly laughing, baby-breath, rainy days, and driving with the windows down (except on rainy days). She also loves smart humor but still laughs at fart jokes. Her debut YA, Hexed, comes out on June 10, 2014 with Random House, with the currently untitled sequel and separate standalone book Dead Girls Society set to follow in the future. You can find her at her website or on Twitter (@MichelleKrys). :)
A: Definitely a bizarre mixture of both. After nearly two and a half years since signing the book deal, I'm overjoyed that the waiting is almost done. But at the same time, after all that build-up, there's a lot of pressure for the book to be incredible. That's nervous-making!
I'm traveling to Toronto for two days during release week to meet up with bloggers, which I'm really, really excited about. I don't have any plans for release day in particular, but judging by my missing ARCs and chapter samplers and my husband's sneaky smiles, he's definitely up to something.
Q: I scanned through some really nice reviews of Hexed (to avoid spoilers because I haven't read it yet) and saw more than a few mentions of how funny the book was. In a book about witches and witch hunters and sorcerers, how important was it to add those moments of humour?
A: I didn't go into writing HEXED with the intention of it being a funny book, but as Indie developed as a character, she revealed herself to have a very snarky, sarcastic sense of humor and things just sort of . . . turned out the way they did. I'm glad people are finding it funny!
Looking at it now with a bit more perspective, I do think the humour adds some nice levity to all the seriousness of the book and gives it a bit of a fun vibe.
Q: I read in a previous interview you did that after watching The Craft you started an amateur witchcraft club, and I will totally confess to doing something very similar after watching that movie. What drew you into that movie so much? Was it the magic, the ability to do anything and everything, the power?
A: The knee-high socks? ;)
Besides that, I think it was the escapism factor. Being relatively uncool myself at the time, I really identified with the whole idea of outcasts turning to witchcraft to improve their lives. It was fun to dream about what powers like that could do for me. (Of course they all went a little bit off the rails in the end, but I didn't pay attention to that part.)
Q: As an author from Canada, and with Hexed taking place in L.A., do you have any future book ideas that take place in Canada? Do you think there's pressure on Canadian authors to write books set in Canada? Or is it more about where the story idea takes you?
A: There is a little bit of pressure to write books set in Canada, but like you said, it's all about what's best for the story. For HEXED, that was Los Angeles.
Having said that, I do have a story in the works that's set in Nova Scotia. It's something I work on in between projects, and I hope to have more time to devote to it soon because I'm a little bit in love with it!
Q: Have you enjoyed being a debut author this year? Are there any books (besides your own) that you would recommend?
A: It’s been an incredible year! One of the highlights has definitely been all of the great friends I've made. I've found 'my people'. In terms of book recommendations, I have only about a million of them. Speaking of 2014 debuts only, I particularly loved SIDE EFFECTS MAY VARY by Julie Murphy, TRUST ME, I'M LYING by Mary Elizabeth Summer, FAR FROM YOU by Tess Sharpe, and LANDRY PARK by Bethany Hagen.
Thanks so much to Michelle for stopping by and to Lindsey at Random House Canada for setting up the interview. Check out Hexed when it comes out next month! :)
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