Interview with T. Kingfisher, author of SNAKE EATER

With a remote desert setting, a house brimming with secrets, a wonderfully eclectic cast of characters including desert spirits and gods, SNAKE-EATER has all of the rich, dark fantasy elements as well as humor and heart that make Kingfisher’s novels unforgettable and unputdownable. And if you’re new to Kingfisher, this one is for fans of The Wood-Wife by Terri Windling, The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo and Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse.

We’re delighted to feature this interview with T Kingfisher!

What inspired you to write SNAKE-EATER? 

I’ve always loved the desert. I lived in Arizona for a number of years and missed it fiercely, and  one day I found myself writing about a dog lying down on the porch, thinking about dusty roads  and saguaros and little quail scurrying along the side of the road, and the rest just kind of fell into  place as I wrote.  

What about the fantasy and horror genres appeal to you as a writer? 

I’ve never been able to get the hang of realistic fiction. After a point, I start to think “You know  what would solve this? Ninjas. Or dragons.”  

Your writing is a combination of creepy and humorous. Why the balance between laughter  and unease? 

It’s a combination of two things. First of all, many humans in terrible situations make jokes. (See  also the entire run of M*A*S*H*.) It’s how we cope with things. But also you can’t rachet up  the tension on something indefinitely. There comes a point where the spring is wound as tight as  it will go. So you need to release a little tension for the reader so you can start ratcheting it up  again, and I find that humor’s the best way to do that. 

SNAKE-EATER features an eclectic bunch of women. What qualities are important for  your heroines?  

I think they just have to feel real to me. Most of them are flawed, but like people I know are  flawed, they’re not concealing some terrible evil secret, they’re just tired and overstressed and  trying to do too many things. I don’t sit down and plan out their characters in advance, they  mostly reveal themselves on the page, so it’s an organic process.  

What are some recurring themes in your fiction writing? 

Nature, definitely, particularly nature seen in weird lights. (My readers occasionally say things  like, “Okay, you ruined ladybugs in the last one, what are you ruining in this book?) Newly  single women alone in a scary house with their pet is my quintessential horror scenario, but  animal companions show up a lot in my work. 

Found family is an important theme in SNAKE-EATER. How would you define what  found family is? 

I’m never quite sure at what point friendship tips over into found family. For me, it’s the people  who, when I say, “God, I just don’t want to be around people for a bit,” don’t count. The ones  who can sit at the table with you, both of you on your phones or with a book, and you don’t feel  the need to entertain each other. You can just exist in the same space without it taking effort. 

On the other hand, there’s a lot to be said for the kinds of friends who, if you call them up at 3  AM and say, “I have this dead body here…” will say “Do you want me to bring tarps and lye or  do you have some there already?”  

Regardless of the definition, SNAKE-EATER is definitely a book about finding your people  when your own family has failed you, the people who think you’re fine as you are. And maybe  also have tarps and lye if the situation arises. 

You often write about nature in your books. Do you do a lot of research to incorporate  these details and if so, what is your research process? What is something you learned that  surprised you while researching SNAKE-EATER? 

Heh! No, I’m an enthusiastic amateur naturalist and I generally have to stop myself from putting  too MANY details. I really want to tell everyone about saguaros and creosote and all kinds of  things, but if you do too much, it risks bogging the story down. But I did learn the interesting fact  that while scorpions have very poor vision, they’re quite sensitive to green light.  

You are an avid birdwatcher. What about the roadrunner intrigued you to give it such a  starring role in your latest novel? 

Roadrunners are dinosaurs. Seriously. They are freaky little carnivores. The Warner Brothers  cartoons did them a disservice because people assume they’re like a weird harmless mini-ostrich,  but in actuality, every time the coyote blew himself up, the roadrunner would be cheerfully  stripping meat off his corpse. I have heard so many stories about horrible things people have  seen roadrunners do—lying in wait to pick small birds off a feeder, or getting into a nest of baby  rabbits and…well. They’re very much an example of a species that, if they were bigger or we  were smaller, would go from being funny to being terrifying.  

Who was your favorite character in SNAKE-EATER to write? 

Oh, Grandma Billy, by leaps and bounds. Her interplay with Father Aguirre was a total delight.  

You are a very prolific writer and write for both adults and children. What is your writing  process? 

I get up, I get something to drink, I stare at the garden for a few minutes, then I sit down at my  laptop and write a thousand words. More if I’ve got it in me, but a thousand is pretty much the  minimum. I have to get 4-5k done a week or all the plates I am spinning will collapse.  

What is the main message you hope readers will gain from reading your new novel? Oh, goodness. I don’t know if there IS a message as such. Maybe to respect the desert? It is  spectacular and unique and pretty much everything wants to kill you. It’s also vanishing at a  horrible rate due to development because it’s n..ot like a rainforest where you can SEE that it’s  full of life. Everything is much more subtle and underground.

—

T. Kingfisher is the New York Times bestselling and Hugo Award–winning author of fantasy, horror, and occasional oddities, including What Feasts at Night, Nettle & Bone, What Moves the Dead, Thornhedge, A House with Good Bones, and A Sorceress Comes to Call. Under a pen name, she also writes bestselling children’s books. She lives in New Mexico with her husband, dog, and chickens, and does not trust roadrunners. For more information, visit www.redwombatstudio.com.

SNAKE EATER

From New York Times bestselling and Hugo Award–winning author T. Kingfisher comes an enthralling contemporary fantasy seeped in horror about a woman trying to escape her past by moving to the remote US desert―only to find herself beholden to the wrath of a vengeful god.

With only a few dollars to her name and her beloved dog Copper by her side, Selena flees her past in the city to claim her late aunt’s house in the desert town of Quartz Creek. The scorpions and spiders are better than what she left behind.

Because in Quartz Creek, there’s a strange beauty to everything, from the landscape to new friends, and more blue sky than Selena’s ever seen. But something lurks beneath the surface. Like the desert gods and spirits lingering outside Selena’s house at night, keeping watch. Mostly benevolent, says her neighbor Grandma Billy. That doesn’t ease the prickly sense that one of them watches too closely and wants something from Selena she can’t begin to imagine. And when Selena’s search for answers leads her to journal entries that her aunt left behind, she discovers a sinister truth about her new home: It’s the haunting grounds of an ancient god known simply as “Snake-Eater,” who her late aunt made a promise to that remains unfulfilled.

Snake-Eater has taken a liking to Selena, an obsession of sorts that turns sinister. And now that Selena is the new owner of his home, he’s hell-bent on collecting everything he’s owed.

BUY HERE

Tags: featured, women writers

Category: On Writing