Today I am welcoming the delightful and brilliant
Dianne Salerni, whose new historical and spooky YA CAGED GRAVES came out on May
14th, the same day as THE SWEET DEAD LIFE!
As you will see in our
interview, Dianne and I have known each other since we were both debut authors
in the inaugural Sourcebooks Fire YA imprint. We met at the Sourcebooks Fire
launch party at Books of Wonder in NYC, where we were treated to the musical
renderings of Tiger Beat, the only all YA author band, with our then editor
Daniel Ehrenhaft on guitar and Libba Bray singing vocals. I know, right?!
Here’s the summary of CAGED GRAVES:
The year is 1867, and seventeen-year-old Verity Boone is excited to
return from Worcester, Massachusetts, to Catawissa, Pennsylvania, the hometown
she left when she was just a baby. Now she will finally meet the fiancé she
knows only through letters! Soon, however, she discovers two strangely caged
graves . . . and learns that one of them is her own mother’s. Verity swears
she’ll get to the bottom of why her mother was buried in “unhallowed ground” in
this suspenseful teen mystery that swirls with rumors of witchcraft, buried
gold from the days of the War of Independence, and even more shocking family
secrets.
You had me at Verity’s name and at ‘rumors of
witchcraft,’ Dianne!!
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| Dianne at Sarah Ann's caged grave |
And here’s Dianne’s bio:
Dianne K. Salerni is an elementary school teacher living in Chester
County, Pennsylvania with her husband and two daughters. Dianne's first novel,
We Hear the Dead (Sourcebooks 2010), recounts the true story of Maggie Fox, a
teenaged girl credited with the invention of the "séance" in 1848 and
the founding of spiritualism as a nineteenth century phenomenon. A short film
based on We Hear the Dead and titled The Spirit Game premiered at the 2013
Cannes Film Festival. Her second novel, The Caged Graves, out now with Clarion
Books, is inspired by a real historical mystery in the mountains of
Pennsylvania. She is currently working on a middle grade fantasy series for
Harper Collins, with the first book, The Eighth Day, due to be released in the
Summer of 2014.
And now for a little conversation with Dianne.
Read to the end (of course you will!) because Dianne is also doing a giveaway
for a CAGED GRAVES t-shirt. Pretty awesome!
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| Dianne and me at Books of Wonder |
Joy: You and I
met when we were both part of the inaugural list of Sourcebooks Fire—me with
DREAMING ANASTASIA and you with WE HEAR THE DEAD. Tell us what’s been going on
since 2010!
Dianne: I spent a
big chunk of 2010 writing THE CAGED GRAVES, revising another
historical/paranormal novel, and looking for an agent. I signed WE HEAR THE
DEAD in 2009 un-agented, but I realized I had no negotiation skills and really
needed professional advice. It took several months and many revisions of my new
manuscript, but I was lucky to land with Sara Crowe of Harvey Klinger, Inc. Her
first sale for me was actually the second book I sent her, THE CAGED GRAVES.
Since then, I’ve written another historical and then ventured into a
contemporary fantasy which Sara sold in a 3-book, pre-empt deal with HarperCollins,
putting all my other projects on hold.
Joy: Both WE HEAR
THE DEAD and THE CAGED GRAVES can be categorized as historical fiction. What
draws you to this genre?
Dianne: I find
history fascinating. There is so much (in our self-centered technological hubris)
that we’ve forgotten about our past. For instance, did you know that the
railway and public transport system in our country used to be far superior to
what we have now? When my grandfather was 10 years old, he could travel by
trolley from his rural town to a larger town fifteen miles away for mandolin
lessons (yes, mandolin). Today, there is NO way to travel between those towns
except by car. A small boy could not do
it alone, like my grandfather did in the 1920s. In some respects, we’ve gone
backwards!
When you add a
little bit of spooky alongside our forgotten past, you have an irresistible
combination (for me).
Joy: I know
there’s this great story behind the idea for THE CAGED GRAVES, and in fact you
just
wrote about it for Huffington Post. Can you
tell us the brief version of the real life graves that inspired your new novel?
Dianne: These two
caged graves are located in an abandoned cemetery near Catawissa, Pennsylvania.
They are maintained by the local historical society, which has been unable to
uncover a satisfactory explanation for them. The graves belong to two women who
were sisters-in-law. They died within a couple days of each other in 1852.
Suggested explanations for the cages include protection from grave robbers or
animals, pure decoration, and other, weirder, and more paranormal reasons. No
one alive today knows the real answer.
Joy: How would
you describe Verity Boone?
Dianne: Verity is
an outspoken and strong-minded 17-year old girl (by 1867 standards) who returns
to her hometown after being raised by distant relatives for 15 years. She is
coming home to take part in an arranged marriage to a young man she knows only
through letters. She expects that everything will go her way: Her homecoming
will be joyous and romantic, her fiancé will be charming, her father will be
welcoming, and she will impress the rural townspeople with her sophisticated
city ways. Of course, nothing goes as planned, especially when she discovers
her mother is the subject of malicious rumor and buried in a caged grave
outside the cemetery grounds.
Joy: Give us the
down and dirty elevator pitch for THE CAGED GRAVES. Why should we read it?
Dianne: THE CAGED
GRAVES is a mystery and a romance in a historical setting. Verity’s arranged
marriage is the 19th century equivalent of meeting somebody online
and then discovering they aren’t what you expected. And when Verity digs into
her family’s history to vindicate her mother, she uncovers ugly secrets –
jealousy, greed, and murder.
Joy: You and I
chatted some about the balancing act of teaching, family, and writing. How do
you do it?
Dianne: Sometimes,
I do it badly. I get my teaching, grading, and planning done, and I get my
writing done, and my family is very patient with me when they have to pick up
the slack. I absolutely couldn’t do this without the full support of my husband
– who cooks dinner and cleans and chauffeurs the children so I can write. And
when my husband travels for work, my daughters pitch in. They are my pit crew
and my biggest advocates.
Joy: Your
previous novel WE HEAR THE DEAD has had some thrilling film developments. Can
you talk about that? Can we all come to Cannes with you? If we ask nicely?
Dianne: Ha! I
wish I could have gone to Cannes myself! WE HEAR THE DEAD was adapted into a 10
minute short film called THE SPIRIT GAME. It premiered at Cannes in May of this
year, and the producers will be pitching the premise of the film as a potential
television program about the three Fox sisters who ran a séance business in the
1850s. They are, supposedly, frauds, but one sister’s uncanny ability to
envision the darkest secrets of their clients reveals a true supernatural
power. The movie trailer is available
HERE
Joy: What’s
coming next for Dianne Salerni?
Dianne: Next up
is a departure from ghosts, historicals, and teens. I am working on a Middle
Grade contemporary fantasy series for HarperCollins. The first book, THE EIGHTH DAY, is about a 13
year-old boy who discovers an extra 24 hours between Wednesday and Thursday –
and a mysterious girl hiding in the house next door who exists only on that
secret day.
THE EIGHTH DAY is expected to release in the Summer of 2014. A
synopsis can be found
HERE – and
I’d like to note that my husband whipped up a last minute trip to Mexico last
summer, just so I could climb the Sun Pyramid of Teotihuacan as research for
the conclusion of this book.
Lightning round:
- Twizzlers or M&Ms? ~M&Ms without
a doubt. I have no interest in Twizzlers.
- Ghosts or witches? ~Ghosts every time.
- Favorite guilty pleasure TV? ~SUPERNATURAL. I
love to ogle, um, watch those Winchester boys.
*Joy’s note: Oh
the Winchester brothers. Austin author Cynthia Leitich Smith has a similar
opinion. Just ask her. It took me awhile to stop seeing the one as Dean from
Gilmore Girls. But once I did…
- Perfect summer day? ~Sitting by my
goldfish pond, with the pool nearby in case it gets too hot, writing on my
laptop
- Book(s) you’d take to the desert
island? ~Oh crap. Can I
bring my Kindle? Please don’t make me choose!!!
- Wine or whiskey? ~Whiskey for sure.
- Favorite ghost story/movie? ~ This is going to
seem weird, but I’ve got to pick THE GHOST AND MR. CHICKEN, with Don Knotts
(1966). It’s got a haunted mansion with a murder/suicide story, a painting of a
beautiful woman pierced in the throat with gardening shears (the painting
bleeds!), a secret passage behind the fireplace, a tower room, and an organ
that plays by itself. What’s not to love?!
*OMG, Dianne—My
brother and I loved that movie! Also Don Knotts in The Amazing Mr. Limpett,
which is not a ghost story but is right up there with Finding Nemo in our
book! Also, let me add here that another
movie, without Don Knotts, that I love is THE GHOST and MRS. MUIR, which as a
kid I found to be deliciously romantic. (I didn’t use that phrase as a kid. But
if I did, I might have said that.)
Want to win a
CAGED GRAVE t-shirt? Enter here!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
