IN DEPTH


Author Interview Kat Ellis


(Carol Voderman went to school there), and though she studied English and creative writing at Manchester Metropolitan Universit, she never thought she could become a professional author: “I didn’t really know what I wanted to do aſter uni. I knew I liked writing, so I thought I would just do that for three years and figure out my life at the end.”


She bounced around a few jobs aſter graduation—in local government, communications and IT—and at 25 decided to “really give this writer thing a crack”. She did not necessarily sit down to become a YA author, it was just that she happened to be reading a lot of YA at the time. She says: “I’m glad I did [write YA], though. It’s a category that seems like it is constantly expanding and bringing something new and fresh. I think about what was catego- rised as YA when I was a kid, and it was very narrow. Now it’s broad and it can be really sophisticated, which makes sense given how switched-on teens are today.”


“Scream”—yes, it is frightening, but it also has in-jokes about the genre. Ellis says: “Having Lola as the daughter of a famous horror director allowed her to know about all these tropes, and allowed me to have her comment on them and play with it in a meta way. She’ll be looking at something scary and say, ‘Well, here is where in a horror film the girl should run, but doesn’t.’ So, she’ll run.”


Moving house Harrow Lake is the start of a two-book, six-figure deal with Penguin Random House Children’s. Ellis’ first two titles were published in the UK by Cardiff-based indie Firefly Press. Ellis is benefiting from the full might of the PRH publicit and marketing machine, with a massive social media campaign, a future spot on the Zoella Book Club and a clever “video nast” proof, which arrives in a Blockbuster video bag and is packaged to resemble a VHS cassete (above). She is grateful for the PRH experience, but not neglectful of her roots. She says: “It has been a different experience. PRH does have the abilit to do a big market- ing push and I was really blown away by the proofs. But there are similarities, too. Both PRH and Firefly have been hands-on and enthusiastic about working with me. And it was a good start working with Firefly. They took a shot on me as [mine] was the first YA title they ever published; it was a big show of faith.”


Ellis grew up in Rhyl, a seaside town in north Wales


The wallpaper looks the same as before, peeling, but no more than it was. Just a corner of the sheet furled delicately back on itself. Then I see it. The paper is moving. No


Book Extract


10 27th March 2020


—something under it is moving. The beetle- lines covering the wallpaper warp and shift, some thing making the paper bubble as it moves towards the peeling corner.


I didn’t really know what I wanted to do after uni. I knew I liked writing, so I thought I would just do that for three years and figure out my life at the end


Location, location, location When writing, Ellis starts with the seting first. Which shows, as the claustrophobic Harrow Lake itself seems a fully realised world, a character in itself. But it is in Indiana, which is a long way from Rhyl. “I did give a thought to seting it in the UK, but it did seem natural to put it slap-bang in the middle of America,” she says. “Obviously, a lot of those horror film tropes come from America. But geting outside of my comfort zone is part of the process, so I have to explore my surroundings and not just take things for granted—which I might do if I set it in north Wales.” She adds that small towns work beter in horror: “If you think of Derry in [Stephen King’s] It, you have a rural small town in Maine, a kind of place that may be vaguely familiar to readers, but at the same time is unfamiliar. If you were seting a horror novel


in New York, there would be a lot, maybe too many, refer- ence points familiar with most people. But you can create whatever kind of climate you want in a small town—it’s its own litle pocket of evil.”


Imprint Penguin Publication 09.07.20 Format PB (£7.99), EB (£4.99), Audio ISBN 9780241397046 Rights UK & Commonwealth, translation Editor Emma Jones Agent Molly Ker Hawn, The Bent Agency Designer Jacqui McDonough, Alex Murray (illustration)


I hear it, too. A rustling, snapping sound. I should move, scuttle out of bed and


get away from this place—or at least turn the light on—but I can’t. Can’t move, or make a sound. A thin shadow crawls from between


the sheets of wallpaper. Stretches, thin as a blade, until it’s as long as my forearm. Then it bends and starts tapping at the


wall around it. Like an antenna, or the leg of some giant insect. Tap-tap-tap-tap-TAP . . . I try to scream. It comes out as a moan,


low in my throat. Then, as though drawn by the sound, another long shape emerges next to the first. Oh God. Oh God. They’re not insect legs—they’re fingers. Long, blade-thin fingers, dancing across the wall.


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