K.C. Tansley stops by the blog to talk about her new book, THE GIRL WHO IGNORED GHOSTS!
INTERVIEW
Hi Kourtney! Congratulations on the release of the new book!
Thank you! Thanks so much for having me as a guest here on your blog.
Please describe THE GIRL WHO IGNORED GHOSTS in five words.
YA time travel murder mystery.
Many novels are inspired by a question—is there one that sparked the story? Where did the idea for THE GIRL WHO IGNORED GHOSTS come from?
Theme wise, my big question is what if belief creates reality. What if what we believe alters our perception? And so what we take as reality may not actually be reality.
For Kat, she has to actively lie to herself to make herself believe ghosts don’t exist. It’s like when you believe you’ve lost your keys. It doesn’t matter if they are actually sitting right in front of you on your desk, you can’t perceive them there because you’ve convinced yourself they are lost. That’s how powerful belief can be. I wanted to play with that concept and see where it could go.
Kat Preston, the heroine of THE GIRL WHO IGNORED GHOSTS, has the gift/burden of seeing and being able to communicate with ghosts. If you were her best friend, what would you tell her?
If I were Morgan (her best friend), I would probably tell her that I understand wanting to be careful with the ghosts, but that she has to live a little more. To stop being so cautious and controlled because life is short and these ghosts all have regrets that hold them back. They need reckonings to get closure on their lives. So I’d tell Kat to make her mistakes and to try to live a life that she could look back on and smile.
There are so many words out there to call ghosts and "Unbelievables" is one that is new and unique, where did the term come from and why did you use it?
This goes back to the theme of the book. Belief colors reality. What you believe impacts what you perceive in the world. I wanted to come up with my own term for all the supernatural stuff. Unbelievables sounded cool and really drove home the idea that they are the things that many people can’t believe exist, but they do exist. I wanted to explain why some people can sense ghosts (the believers) and some cannot (unbelievers). Because they don’t believe, unbelievers cannot see the unbelievables.
What’s your favorite part about writing about ghosts and time travel?
I can go anywhere and have anyone talk to Kat. She can talk to her ancestors. Instead of flashbacks, I can write these scenes as they unfold. It’s so much more powerful for readers. It allows me to do more on the page and makes these stories incredibly fun to write.
What can we expect from you next?
With The Unbelievables series, I am working on the sequel. The first draft will be done in August. I’m hoping to get a second draft done this winter and send that off to my publisher and see what they think. The have an option on the next book in the series, so let’s hope they love it.
I have an adult speculative fiction series that I write under my real name, Kourtney Heintz. I am working on the sequel to The Six Train to Wisconsin. I have a tentative publication date of fall 2016.
The Girl Who Ignored Ghosts
The Unbelievables #1
K.C. Tansley
Publication Date: August 1, 2015
Genre: YA Paranormal
Kat Preston doesn’t believe in ghosts. Not because she’s never seen one, but because she saw one too many. Refusing to believe is the only way to protect herself from the ghost that tried to steal her life. Kat’s disbelief keeps her safe until her junior year at McTernan Academy, when a research project for an eccentric teacher takes her to a tiny, private island off the coast of Connecticut.
The site of a grisly mystery, the Isle of Acacia is no place for a girl who ignores ghosts, but the ghosts leave Kat little choice. Accompanied by her research partner, Evan Kingsley, she investigates the disappearance of Cassie Mallory and Sebastian Radcliffe on their wedding night in 1886. Evan’s scientific approach to everything leaves Kat on her own to confront a host of unbelievables: ancestral curses, powerful spells, and her strange connection to the ghosts that haunt Castle Creighton.
But that’s all before Kat’s yanked through a magic portal and Evan follows her. When the two of them awaken 129 years in the past with their souls trapped inside the bodies of two wedding guests, everything changes. Together, Kat and Evan race to stop the wedding-night murders and find a way back to their own time—and their own bodies—before their souls slip away forever.
Now Available!
About the Author
K.C. Tansley lives with her warrior lapdog, Emerson, on a hill somewhere in Connecticut. She tends to believe in the unbelievables—spells, ghosts, time travel—and writes about them.
Never one to say no to a road trip, she’s climbed the Great Wall twice, hopped on the Sound of Music tour in Salzburg, and danced the night away in the dunes of Cape Hatteras. She loves the ocean and hates the sun, which makes for interesting beach days. The Girl Who Ignored Ghosts is the first book in her YA time-travel murder mystery series.
As Kourtney Heintz, she also writes award winning cross-genre fiction for adults.
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"What you believe impacts what you perceive in the world."---That's so true. And to take that further, perception is reality. In other words, what someone perceives--whether it's true or not--is their reality. That's probably the root of much miscommunication. We need to be better aware of how someone has perceived what we said. The only way to do that is to ask. But we're often so busy formulating our next sentence that we fail to do so.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny, if we just stopped to check in with each other before reacting much conflict could be avoided. But we tend to take our perception as reality and not get that 5 people can have 5 different takes on the same conversation/event.
DeleteIt's funny how much perception impacts reality. Five people can have five completely different takes on the same action/conversation. All they have to do is stop and check in with each other on things. I think that would definitely help. But then you run into the problem of people lying so it's difficult to say what is and isn't true.
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