Interview with Kate Williams for The Babysitters Coven

The Babysitters Coven (The Babysitters Coven #1)

by Kate Williams
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Release Date: September 17th 2019

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Witches

Synopsis:

Adventures in Babysitting meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer in this funny, action-packed novel about a coven of witchy babysitters who realize their calling to protect the innocent and save the world from an onslaught of evil. 

Seventeen-year-old Esme Pearl has a babysitters club. She knows it's kinda lame, but what else is she supposed to do? Get a job? Gross. Besides, Esme likes babysitting, and she's good at it.

And lately Esme needs all the cash she can get, because it seems like destruction follows her wherever she goes. Let's just say she owes some people a new tree.

Enter Cassandra Heaven. She's Instagram-model hot, dresses like she found her clothes in a dumpster, and has a rebellious streak as gnarly as the cafeteria food. So why is Cassandra willing to do anything, even take on a potty-training two-year-old, to join Esme's babysitters club?

The answer lies in a mysterious note Cassandra's mother left her: "Find the babysitters. Love, Mom."

Turns out, Esme and Cassandra have more in common than they think, and they're about to discover what being a babysitter really means: a heroic lineage of superpowers, magic rituals, and saving the innocent from seriously terrifying evil. And all before the parents get home.

Can you briefly describe THE BABYSITTERS COVEN and the characters? 

THE BABYSITTERS COVEN is a YA novel is about Esme Pearl, a teenage babysitter with superpowered spells, a pit bull, and a killer wardrobe. When one of Esme’s babysitting charges gets kidnapped on Halloween, she has to call on her best friend Janis, her dog Pig, and the new girl Cassandra to help her find the missing kid, save the world, and get home before the parents do. Esme and Janis love fashion and pop culture, while Cassandra loves fighting and her bad attitude, but what they have in common is that they’re all pretty brave and know their way around the mall. 

Who would you say is your favourite character from the story and why? 

Pig, the dog. She’s actually based off my dog, whose real name is Rosie but who we call ‘the pig.’ Much like fictional Pig, real-life Rosie has a farting problem, a head like a cement block, and the biggest, purest heart on the planet. 

How did the story occur to you? Did you find inspiration anywhere? 

Ok, so this is a long story, but I will try not to meander (too much): Many years ago, Rookie magazine (RIP) published a story by Hazel Cills called “Don’t be a babysitter,” and it was all about horror movies where, to put it gently, not nice things happen to the babysitter. I read that article and thought, “Ha! I should write a YA novel called The Babysitters Coven, where the babysitters fight back because they’re witches.” The idea just seemed really funny to me, plus I’m a pop culture junkie, so I loved the thought of writing something that put a new twist on a referential trope. 

However, for a long time, TBC just stayed as my joke book as I labored under the false pretense that I needed to write something “serious” so that I would be taken “seriously” because writing is “serious business.” I kept trying to write all these different things that weren’t fun to write and that didn’t feel like me and it felt like banging my head against a wall. It was super frustrating, and I got really down on myself because I kept starting projects and not finishing them. I thought that maybe I wasn’t really capable of doing this thing that I’d always said I wanted to do, which was to write a YA novel. 

Then, in 2014, I went to Mexico City, and on Día De Los Muertos, met up with a friend to take a boat through the Xochimilcan canals. We stopped at Isla de Los Munecas, which is this strange little island where the trees are filled with dismembered dolls that are supposedly possessed with the spirit of a little girl who drowned nearby. When the boat stopped, we all put on masks before we climbed out, so that that the ghosts couldn’t identify us and follow us home. (For some reason, I made the decision to use the bathroom there, and it was the most terrifying pee of my entire life because I had to take off my mask to find the toilet in the dark.) After that, we went to a cemetery. It was 3am, but the place was packed with entire families, vendors and mariachi bands. We drank tequila and set off fireworks, and the whole graveyard was filled with incense and smoke and singing. It was one of the most magical nights of my life, and on the boat ride out, I started talking to my friend, who is a director, about writing. He told me that he had learned to go with the ideas that seemed to choose him, instead of chasing the ones that always seemed just out of reach. Right then and there, I decided that I was going to start working on The Babysitters Coven as soon as I got home. I did just that, and five years later, here we are! 

Also, as a I can tell, none of the ghosts followed me home, thank god. 

If you could choose one song to describe your book, which one would it be? 

“Just a Girl” by No Doubt 

If your book was going to be made into a movie, who would play your characters?

Esme would be played by Heathers-era Winona Ryder, Janis would be played by The Cosby Show-era Lisa Bonet, and Cassandra would be played by Girlfight-era Michelle Rodriguez. Brian would be played by Ludacris, Dion would be played by Bobby from Twin Peaks, and Pig would be played by Rosie. 

Fall is here or almost here, and we love to go out and find our perfect cosy spot. What drink and place do you think will go with your book to have a perfect book date?

Iced coffee, because Esme drinks iced all year round. And this book is best enjoyed at the mall food court, or while sitting on the curb outside of your favorite thrift store. 

Can you recommend your readers any other books in case they are left hungry for more once they finish THE BABYSITTERS COVEN?

My all time favorite book is “Witch Baby” by Francesca Lia Block. It is ‘90s perfectness. 

What’s next for you? 

Book 2! It has a title and a first draft, and plus new characters and a lot more Pig!

I'm a YA write or die, originally from Kansas but now living in California. 

I've written for Cosmopolitan, NYLON and Seventeen, amongst other magazines, and worked with brands including Urban Outfitters, Vans and Calvin Klein. 

The Babysitters Coven is my first novel, but fingers crossed it won't be my last.

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Dream Boy by Madelyn Rosenberg & Mary Crockett

Dream Boy
by Madelyn Rosenberg & Mary Crockett

Publisher: July 1st 2014
Release Date: Sourcebooks Fire

Rate: Enjoyed it (4,5 stars)

Synopsis:

Annabelle Manning feels like she’s doing time at her high school in Chilton, Virginia. She has her friends at her lunchtime table of nobodies. What she doesn’t have are possibilities. Or a date for Homecoming. Things get more interesting at night, when she spends time with the boy of her dreams. But the blue-eyed boy with the fairytale smile is just that—a dream. Until the Friday afternoon he walks into her chemistry class. 

One of friends suspects he’s an alien. Another is pretty sure it’s all one big case of deja vu. While Annabelle doesn’t know what to think, she’s willing to believe that the charming Martin Zirkle may just be her dream come true. But as Annabelle discovers the truth behind dreams—where they come from and what they mean—she is forced to face a dark reality she had not expected. More than just Martin has arrived in Chilton. As Annabelle learns, if dreams can come true, so can nightmares.

Dream Boy is one of those books that makes your imagination flow from the very first page and where dreams come to true. 

Annabelle is one of those girls full of imagination, something that can help a girl who's living in the middle of nowhere. Dreaming specially about a boy, the perfect one for her, might seem harmless, but imagine Annabelle's reaction when her perfect boy suddenly walks into her science class.

Having the perfect boy for a girl, the one you dream and wish for, is hard to resist and when Annabelle decides to give in to a dreamy relationship with him, dark things start to lurk and threaten to shatter her world. Because crossing the lines between the dream world and the real one left an open door for her dream boy, but also to something darker waiting to be released.

Mary and Madelyn have wrote an amazing and mind-blowing story for all those dreamy YA fans out there who are always fantasizing. In Dream Boy, readers have the opportunity to live through Annabelle and see her dreamland and the intensity of it all transcends from the pages to the reader.

However, what brings the story to another level is the intensity and chemistry between the three characters main characters, how the relationship between Annabelle and her dream boy and Annabelle and Will, her best friend, changed and developed and how both authors brought both worlds together from time to time throughout Annabelle's story. It's simply magical and something that makes the reading highly enjoyable.

Dream Boy definitely met my expectations and went beyond what I was expecting to find in its pages. Full of romance, intense, dreamy and funny, Dream Boy explores the realm of dreams and what means to have what you dream for, with its dark side lurking in every page. There's also a lot of action and a final battle that will make your emotions go crazy. 

The story completely fascinated me and the mystery and dreamy side of it all didn't prevent me to the shocking and unexpected ending. 

I highly recommend this book to all YA readers. Explore Annabelle's real and dream world and prepare to get sucked into this dreamy, suspenseful and romantic story. 

1) During high school, my fashion sense was seriously off-kilter. I once sewed closed the neck of a sweatshirt, roped a drawstring around the waist, and wore it as a pair of pants.

2) I suck at cooking. Luckily my mother-in-law is a retired home economics teacher who feels compelled to cook at lot and send us entire meals. (I'm pretty sure she worries that without her intervention, my kids might exist on peanut butter and apple slices. And I'm pretty sure she's right.) 

3) The first book Madelyn and I tried to write together was a romance between a psychic and a werewolf. 

4) My first real job after graduate school was as a museum director.

5) As a little kid, I used to make jibberish sounds, convinced that I was speaking a language. It just happened to be a language that no one (including me) knew.

6) I wail uncontrollably when I watch movies, tv shows, even commercials.

7) I played saxophone in high school. 

8) I've published two books of poetry through university and art-house presses that have won national awards. 

9) My name was supposed to be James Alan and I was supposed to be a boy. 

10) I had a dog I loved very much who was just like Spice in Dream Boy.

Mary Crockett likes turtles, licorice, and the Yankees. Madelyn Rosenberg likes cats, avocados, and the Red Sox. Luckily they both like the weirdness of dreams (and each other) enough to write novels together. The friendship has survived three moves, six kids and countless manuscript revisions. Madelyn lives just outside of Washington, D.C. Mary remains in the mountains near their hometowns in southwestern Virginia. You can find them on Twitter @marylovesbooks and @madrosenberg or their blogs at www.marycrockett.com andwww.madelynrosenberg.com.

Win (1) paperback copy of Dream Boy by Madelyn Rosenberg & Mary Crockett (US/CAN Only)

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Cover Reveal: Owning Violet by Monica Murphy

We are so excited to share Monica Murphy's cover for her upcoming sexy contemporary romance, OWNING VIOLET, coming from Random House Bantam. Check out how gorgeous it is!

Owning Violet

by Monica Murphy
Publisher: Bantam
Release Date: December 2nd 2014

Synopsis:

The Fowler sisters are New York City’s darlings, heiresses to the Fleur Cosmetics Empire. Quickly put up on a fame hungry pedestal only for the media to lie in wait, eager to tear them down, these three very different young women soon find love in the most unexpected places…

Violet Fowler is the good sister. She works hard at her family’s cosmetics company, is faithful to her boyfriend and never causes any trouble. Until Zachary disappoints her yet again with a promotion that will take him to London—and away from her. 

His leaving sets a new fire within her. What’s the point in being so good when no one else ever is? 

Someone within Fleur Cosmetics wants that London promotion and will do anything to get it, including throwing temptation in the path of the not-so-faithful Zachary. Ryder McKay came from nothing and has fought every step of the way to his position at Fleur. And now the mysterious charmer has set his sights on Violet. If it worked for Zachary, it could work for him. 

Seducing the good Fowler sister is easy. What Ryder doesn’t count on is how much Violet makes him feel. What started out as revenge soon becomes something deeper. Can Ryder go through with his plans to deceive Violet? Or is he only deceiving himself?

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Monica Murphy is a native Californian who lives in the foothills below Yosemite. A wife and mother of three, she writes New Adult and contemporary romance for Bantam and Avon. She is the author of One Week Girlfriend and Second Chance Boyfriend.