Today we are very excited to share an interview with Author Stephanie Willing (West of the Sea)!
Meet the Author: Stephanie Willing
Stephanie Willing is a debut writer and an award-winning audiobook narrator who hasn’t been able to find good Tex-Mex food since she left her home state. She has an MFA in Writing for Young People from Lesley University. Originally from Texas, Stephanie now lives in New Jersey with her family, and she never misses an opportunity to visit the dinosaurs at the American Museum of Natural History.
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About the Book: West of the Sea
When her mom disappears from their small Texas town, paleontology-loving Haven is determined to find her. But as she uncovers truths about her mom’s identity, Haven also uncovers a monstrous family secret. Her mom can take the shape of a human and, in the right environment, also turn into an amphibious creature known as a kitskara. And now that she’s growing up, Haven is discovering she has this ability, too. This newfound identity is her only clue to help her track her mother and bring her back home.
And so she, her older sister Margie, and her new friend Rye set off on a road trip across Texas’s Gulf Coast to her late grandparents’ abandoned home, where they’re sure her mom has disappeared to…along with plenty of family secrets.
Infused with a deep love of fossils and Celtic mythology, West of the Sea is a lyrical, heart-filled coming-of-age story for fans of cryptozoology—and anyone who has struggled to find their place in the world when they feel different.
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~Author Chat~
YABC: What gave you the inspiration to write this book?
When I was a senior at Texas Woman’s University, my roommate and best friend Kimberly took me home to visit her family’s wheat farm three hours west. I was struck by the incredible beauty of the landscape out in Baylor County—rust red dirt, an ocean of blue sky, and so much quiet everywhere. That night when I saw the wheat fields under the moonlight, it looked just like the sea, and I thought, “What if there were mermaids out there?” It was the seed for my story, and while the plot changed a lot (for example, instead of mermaids there are kitskaras, an invented Texan shape-shifting cryptid), the love for Texan landscapes and the idea of a water creature far from home remained.
YABC: Who is your favorite character in the book?
I really love the main character, Haven. I think she’s so brave. She keeps her sense of humor and her core self while dealing with a mentally ill parent. Then when her mother disappears, and Haven herself transforms into something “monstrous” she realizes really quickly that she needs help, and when it’s offered, she takes it. That’s really hard to do! She makes it an active choice to be honest about what she’s going through, in contrast to her father who pretends everything is fine while their home life deteriorates.
It’s really easy to hide all the hurt and fear inside and try to deal with it alone. I love that Haven recognizes who she can be herself with, and that she’s brave enough (eventually) to open up and be her full self.
YABC: How do you know when a book is finished?
I wrote this book and “finished” it three times before getting an agent, and then revising two more times. Then we sold the book, and about 50% of the book changed after that. I loved what I wrote before, and I love what the book is now. So…I have no idea! I’m grateful for the team of people who saw the story inside my story and helped me simultaneously peel away the layers and enlarge it.
YABC: What research did you do to write this book?
For the prehistoric research, I visited The Whiteside Natural History Museum in Seymour, TX twice. They were amazing both times and let me go behind the scenes to look at their fossils, showed me how they store and clean them, and how they care for the living reptiles in their collection. I also went to the American Museum of Natural History in NYC to walk through their dinosaur exhibits and get a clearer understanding of the different eras.
For the mythology aspects, I read a lot about selkies, finfolk, other Celtic folklore. Back in 2017 (I have been writing this book a looooong time) I was lucky enough to do a voice over job in Scotland. While I was there I had an amazing driver named Sandy on the Isle of Skye who doubled as a tour guide, and he swore up and down that he’d seen Nessie. It was really important to him, and it made the myths feel as real as the Dimetrodon and Seymouria fossils I’d visited!
YABC: When did you know you wanted to be a writer?
I’ve experienced a lot of imposter syndrome in the many passions I pursue. I’m a dancer, audiobook narrator, actor, and writer. The one thing I never doubted was my ability to write. That’s been the bedrock inside of me for as long as I can remember. I had a lot of learning to do about craft, story structure, getting down to the grains of sentence parts—all of those things have brought me much closer to the kind of writer I aspire to be. But I’ve always had an ability to bring something authentic to the paper, and I trust that. There was no “moment” for me.
YABC: What type of scene do you love to write the most?
YABC: What word do you have trouble overusing? “Suddenly, …” It’s my word! I want to denote that SOMETHING JUST HAPPENED and that word is my easy signifier. Now I know to just leave it in while drafting and that (more than likely) I can just delete it later but it’s better not to fight it while writing.
YABC: What is your favorite writing space?
We recently bought a home in New Jersey, and I juuuust made a cozy little writing space in the basement for myself near all our bookshelves and soft rugs. When I really need to really focus, I’ll go to a nearby coffee shop where there is nothing to do but write. I do a lot of writing at coffee shops.
YABC: How do you plan to celebrate the launch of your book?
We planned a release party on August 15th at my (formerly) local bookstore Astoria Bookshop and an afterparty with a bunch of friends. That’s the best thing—celebrating this book coming out with people who have supported me and asked about it for years.
YABC: What is your favorite holiday or tradition and why?
I really love Christmas because I get to put lights up everywhere. If you can’t tell yet, I’m all about cozy, and there’s just nothing better than twinkle lights in every room. Could I have them up year round? Of course I could, but I love the specialness of bringing them out for the holidays. We also inherited a huge Christmas Village collection from my mother-in-law, and this year we’re going to try to put some of that out too. They also light up so that’ll make me happy when it’s dark and cold outside.
YABC: What other age group would you consider writing for?
Literally all of them. Sometimes a poem demands to be written (that’s what it feels like), and that author voice is mine now as an adult. It would be another dream come true to write a picture book—which, to me, feels like writing poetry. Every word matters, and the storytelling must be efficient and evocative while leaving space for the illustrator.
I also have a story simmering that I thought was for middle-graders that I am beginning to suspect is actually adult fiction told from the protagonist’s POV when she’s a tween and when she’s an adult.
YABC: What’s up next for you?
Next is a middle-grade horror novel about a ballet boarding school that promises to deliver “perfect” students by the end of the first semester, and for generations, they have. But this year, the entering class has an advantage—they know what lurks inside the school walls. The girls will have to figure out how to outwit the monsters before the first Nutcracker performance, or lose their souls like all the students before them.
Title: West of the Sea
Author: Stephanie Willing
Cover Artist: Dion MBD
Release Date: August 15, 2023
Publisher: Viking Children/Penguin Random House
Genre: Contemporary Fantasy
Age Range: Middle Grade (ages 8-12)
