(M MG M) Interview- Kathryn James

I want to thank Kathryn James for being a part of the March MG Madness and for stopping by to answer a few of my questions. Be sure to check out my review to learn more about Kathryn's MG book Mist.

Q. What three words best describe your MG novel Mist? 
Urban Fantasy with Elven

Q. In one sentence, tell readers why they should read your book. Come on, really sell it!

After a mysterious Elven boy kidnaps her sister and takes her through the mist to the dangerous world beyond, brave but unlikely hero Nell has got just one day to pull off a breath-taking dare-devil rescue.

Q. Now, using as many sentences as you like, could you tell us a bit more about Mist?

Mist relates the story of how quiet worrier Nell rescues Gwen, her popular alpha-girl sister, from the clutches of a rogue Elven, out to try and regain his place in our world.

Although the Elven are seen as dangerous, unpredictable and not to be trusted by the Watchers, who are the only humans to know of their existence, Nell comes to realise that there’s a lot more to them than that. When Elven boy Evan helps rescue her sister, she learns that the Elven have a reason for wanting to come back to our world, but history, fear and prejudice will never allow that to happen.   

The story continues in January 2013 with Frost, where Nell and Evan have to literally save the Elven world all by themselves.

Q. Where did the idea behind Mist come from? 
Some of the ideas for the Elven came about when I was working with gypsy and traveller children. Learning about gypsy life gave me the idea to write about a secret people who live amongst us, but that most people don’t know about. There’s quite a few similarities between the travellers and the Elven – both are mistrusted and misrepresented sometimes. Both have a love of gold and sparkly things. Both have striking looks and can be proud and tough.

The idea for their world through the mist came about when we were walking in Grisedale forest in the Lake District, whilst on holiday.

I love forests, they’re so beautiful but also spooky. And as we walked I saw an eerie mist through the trees. And I remembered all the myths that say ‘don’t walk through a mist in the woods because you’ll come out in a different world, and when you try to go back you’ll find that although you think only a few minutes have passed, you’ll be old and grey.

When I hear myths like that I always try to work out why a mist should lead to somewhere else – is it a bridge between dimensions? How would such a world have formed? Why would you get old in a day - is the mist world poisonous, or does time run differently there?

So after seeing the mist in the forest, I began to work out what lay beyond, who did it belong to, and what would happen if a human girl had to go in there for some reason. 

Q. Why Middle Grade Fiction? why did you choose to write MG fiction and what do you love best about reading and writing MG?

When I started out writing I didn’t choose MG especially, but that’s how it came out! I suppose it’s because there is something very special about MG books. There’s more action and less worrying about things. I’m not saying that deep emotions and problems aren’t tackled because they are, brilliantly in lots of cases, but they’re written with a lighter, simpler touch that I like.

Also the emphasis is often on fantasy which I love. Real life books are fine, but I like to escape into another world when I write or read.   


Q. Why do you think MG appeals to such a wide audience, from very young readers to adults like you and I? 
I think its because the heroes of MG fiction are at that magical moment in their lives, poised between childhood and young adult, where all the magic still happens but there’s more depth to the stories and more complex characters.

Q. What’s your current favorite MG book? Your favorite MG book of all time? 

I’m just rereading The Mouse and his Child at the moment, which I read years ago, and was prompted to get out again after the death of the author Russell Hoban. I’d forgotten how beautifully and simply it’s written, and how funny in places. I can’t actually remember how it ends, so it’s like I’m reading it for the first time.

I tend to have lots of favourite books, so here’s a few. The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. Loved it as a child and still love it – the idea of going through a wardrobe into Narnia, what’s not to love? We have a meadow near us, with a path through it and a lamp post, and when it snows it looks just like Narnia.

Also the books by Alan Garner – the Weirdstone of Brisingamen (it has the most brilliantly terrifying account of an underground journey through a very narrow tunnel that I have ever read, especially if you’re claustrophobic like I am!) and the follow up the Moon of Gomrath. And a stand alone book called the Owl Service, which is very strange and odd, but quite addictive.

And I loved One hundred and One Dalmatians, by Dodie Smith. I can’t see a Dalmatian dog now without immediately thinking of that book.

I know I’m going to shock everyone here, but I wasn’t keen on Harry Potter. *runs for cover* I don’t know why. I read the first one alongside my son at bedtime, and really I should’ve liked it, but didn’t. I could never see what all the fuss was about.

Q. If you could switch places with any MG character from any book, who would it be?
Well, it wouldn’t be the boy in the Weirdstone of Brisingamen who goes through the tight tunnel (see above). But I wouldn’t mind being Artemis Fowl and getting to know the Fairy community below ground. Or perhaps Tiffany Aching in Terry Pratchett’s series that starts with The Wee Free Men, because I love the world he’s created in the Disc World, and I especially like the witch characters and Tiffany.

Q. Who’s your favorite MG villain? who do you just love to hate or hate to love?

Cruella De Vil, from One Hundred and One Dalmatians is everything a villain should be. She skins puppies and wears them as a coat – you cannot beat that! She also has the best villain name ever.

Q. If you were to create/bake a Mist cupcake, what flavor would it be or what would it taste like, and what would you call your tasty masterpiece?

This is my all-time favourite question!

My cupcake would have a dark chocolate sponge, rather like the dark bark of a fir tree in a great Northern forest. At its heart there would be a filling of black cherry jam, to signify the warmth at the heart of the misunderstood Elven.

The icing would be an exuberant swirl of white blonde flavoured with vanilla - the same colour as an Elven’s hair. And decorating it would be a dark chocolate-drop, cut in half and set at angle to each other, to signify the Elven’s charcoal, slanting eyes.

I would call it the Evan River cupcake, after the Elven who helps Nell in Mist.

OK – I now want a cupcake! Someone please give me a cupcake! No one? Then I shall make some for myself.

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed answering these questions – and bye for now.

Be sure to stop by the March MG Madness home post and enter the big month long giveaway to win a box of MG books, including a signed copy of Mist, and swag! You can earn extra entries in the big giveaway by answering a question whose answer can be found in the interview above...go HERE to enter

Find the author: Website / Goodreads / Twitter / Facebook
Purchase: Amazon 

Kathryn writes full time.She has worked with gypsies and travellers documenting their lives.Mist draws on and is influenced by her work with this community.Kathryn lives in Leicester with her family.She has one cat and three hensand is aunty to two dogs. 

(M. MG M.) Review- Mist by Kathyrn James

Be sure to check out my Interview with Kathryn James and enter the March MG Madness Giveaway for a chance to win a signed copy of Mist and a signed bookmark!

TITLE: Mist                                        SERIES: Mist #1 AUTHOR: Kathryn James               PUB DATE: 9/1/11 PUB: Hodder Childrens Books         FORMAT: pb, 327 pgs SOURCE: from author in exchange for honest review

A chilling fairy-tale thriller for 10+ girls. Midnight: a mist-haunted wood with a bad reputation. A sweet sixteen party, and 13 year old Nell is trying to keep her sister, spoilt birthday-girl Gwen, out of trouble. No chance. Trouble finds Gwen and drags her through the mist. Only Nell guesses who’s behind the kidnap - the boy she hoped was her friend, the cute but mysterious Evan River. All those fairy stories Nell’s grandmother told her about girls being stolen by fairy folk are true. The Elven are beautiful as starlight, fierce as wolves, and cold as ice. And they want their world back. The fight has been raging for centuries. Nell’s grandmother should know, she’s a Watcher, the ones responsible for imprisoning the Elven in isolated iron-bound camps in Siberia. Only Evan, his fanatical older brother Fen, and a handful of Elven children are still free. Fen, hellbent on revenge, keeps Gwen in their wolf-guarded stronghold deep in the mist. The price for her safe return? The release of all the Elven – but the Watchers will never agree. Only Nell can save Gwen. Time is twisted through the mist: if Nell stops longer than a night and day, a hundred years will hit her as soon as she returns and she’ll be old and withered before she’s even lived. The clock is ticking. 

THREE WORDS: Hauntingly Beautiful & Spellbinding

MY REVIEW: Kathryn James’ Mist has enchanted and captivated me completely. If this book were an Elven hoping to lure me into its magical otherworld, well, I’d blissfully follow it into the mist, with dancing feet and all ;)

Thirteen year old Nell has always felt a bit different, like an outsider, even in her own family. She isn’t close with her father, her mother is always busy at work and her soon to be sixteen year old sister, Gwen, is too busy being the Queen Bee of school, surrounded by her adoring friends, to care about her awkward little sister. Nell is friendless, until she meets mysterious, pale Evan River; the boy nobody seems to notice or remember and who lives beyond the mist in the woods. Nell grew up listening to her Nan’s stories about young girls being abducted by the fairyfolk, but she thought they were just old wives tales…that is until Gwen disappears during her sweet sixteen party in the woods, attacked by a white wolf and taken by a tall, pale boy into the mist. Nell then knows that the old stories are true and she too must travel beyond the mist to rescue her sister, but time is running out.

With a truly fantastical and enthralling story, a wonderfully compelling main character and stellar writing, Mist definitely delivers and does not disappoint. James weaves an exciting story full of mystery, intrigue, romance, heartache, poignant real life situations and razor sharp humor.

There’s a fabulous fairytale like quality to Mist, but the fairytale Kathryn James tells is delightfully dark and eerie in the most stunning and startling ways. I really loved the chilling and haunting setting and tone James has created. James begins the book with a short tale- The Curse of the Lost Girls- and I was simply hooked after this first page! James’ world of the Elven is breathtaking, vivid and full of the unexpected. She has created such a layered and well-developed setting that a part of me desperately wants to find my own mist in the woods to follow, just in case this Elven world is really real…*whispers* and I totally believe it is!

One of the things that I loved most about this book is the main character Nell. Nell is so endearing and impossible not to love. There’s a very natural awkwardness to her when the book begins that I think many readers can relate to; she’s a superbly crafted character. She’s has a fantastic acerbic wit, she’s very clever and in many ways she’s quite mature for her age, yet she still feels like a thirteen year old girl. She makes for a believable heroine because she’s brave, but she’s not afraid to show her fear. I love the fact that she goes on this journey, this dangerous mission to save her sister, not knowing if she’ll succeed or if she’ll even survive and fully believing her sister wouldn’t do the same for her, but she does it anyway because she knows she’s the only one who will, she simply knows she must. Nell also grows a great deal throughout the book; her character goes from a shy, awkward girl to a young woman, who is sure of herself and confident in her abilities.

Evan Rivers is a charming and mysterious character that readers will have no problems becoming attached to. The more Nell interacted with him, the more I wanted to get to know him…and the more I loved and wanted to see the two of them together. Nell and Evan have such an effortless and bright spark between them.

Kathyrn James also does an excellent job of exploring the very fragile and treacherous world of teenage girls. If you've ever been a teenage girl or around teenage girls, then you know how mean, hurtful and confusing girls can be, especially those in cliques or social groups, and James writes about this with very thought-provoking honesty. With Gwen, James has created a very spoiled, vain, shallow Queen Bee teenage girl character, but she’s anything but cliché and turns out to be quite surprising, which I loved.

Nell’s journey is a thrilling and heart pounding one; I felt like I was on this journey with her and not just reading about it. Through Nell, James took me to some unexpected, amazing and fantastical places and I loved every minute of it.

MY FINAL THOUGHTS: Kathryn James’ Mist shines with imagination, excitement and dark beauty. This is a fantastic and must read MG book for any fantasy lovers, especially those who love fairytales with a wicked twist. I loved this book and cannot wait to read the sequel!

MY RATING

5/5 Cupcakes

Be sure to check out my interview with the lovely Kathryn James and stop by the March MG Madness page to enter the big giveaway for a chance to win a box of MG books, including a signed copy of Mist.

Find the author: Website / Goodreads / Facebook / Twitter

Purchase: Amazon