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Starting over in a place that's haunted by death...
Kara Foster thinks the hardest thing about moving to Japan will be fitting in as an outsider. But dark secrets are stirring at her new school. When Kara befriends Sakura, a fellow outsider whose rebellious nature sets her apart from the crowd, she learns that Sakura's sister was the victim of an unsolved murder on school grounds. And before long, terrible things begin to happen...
The Waking trilogy concludes with A Winter of Ghosts
. Kara's life in Japanese prep school has been a whirlwind of terror, as a demon's curse keeps waking up ancient, evil creatures to torment her and her friends. When a student goes missing during a visit to a mountain forest, Kara and her friends are sure the curse has struck again. This time, it's a demon of winter, whose power is more chilling than anything they've encountered so far. And then it gets worse: the demon kidnaps Kara's boyfriend, Hachiro, with whom she's just starting to fall in love. Desperate to save him, Kara ventures back into the snowy woods, where dark forces await her...
This frightening trilogy will have readers glued to the page and scared to go to sleep.
"Randall describes the scenery, the culture, the characters, even their clothing, with heartfelt details. The story has suspense, mystery, and horror. It will be a great hit with fans of manga, anime, or Japanese culture." - School Library Journal
"A well-structured tale of ancient spirits who exact revenge upon humans. A brisk Japanese adventure." - VOYA
"The Waking: Dreams of the Dead starts as the dream of everyone who has ever wanted to travel to an exotic, far-away country to start again, and weaves a nightmare based in rich Japanese culture and myth. I can't wait until it is released and I can recommend it to my readers." - Amelia Atwater-Rhodes, author of In the Forests of the Night and Persistence of Memory
Crawl on over to The Waking website.
Check out my interviews with the author: here and here.
Read the books in order:
Dreams of the Dead
Spirits of the Noh
A Winter of Ghosts
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Posted on 7/21/2011
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Little Willow - Bildungsroman
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I was recently interviewed at The Book Base. Thanks for reading!
How long have you been a blogger?
I’ve been blogging at Bildungsroman for close to 8 years now.
Approximately, how many books do you read every year?
I average about a book a day, so I read around 300 books a year, more if you count scripts and screenplays.
What were your favourite books as a child?
My favorite books as a child included The NeverEnding Story by Michael Ende, Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery, The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin, The Fairy Rebel by Lynne Reid Banks, and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. I was also a huge fan of The Baby-Sitters Club by Ann M. Martin.
What are you reading at the moment?
I recently finished My Not-So-Still Life by Liz Gallagher, her inspired follow-up to her wonderful debut novel The Opposite of Invisible. I am about to begin Boys, Bears, and a Serious Pair of Hiking Boots by Abby McDonald, which I picked up because, like the protagonist, I am a vegetarian and environmentalist (though she is even more “green” than I am!) I am also reading, re-reading and memorizing three scripts as I prepare for projects which are about to go into production: a webseries, a short film, and a world premiere play. (I’m an actress.)
If you had to pick one, what’s the best book you’ve read in the last twelve months?
To name only one book I’ve read this year as an overall best would be like a parent trying to pick a favorite child and feeling as those she neglected the others. The only way to make it easier is to categorize:
Juvenile fiction, realistic: The Summer I Learned to Fly by Dana Reinhardt
Juvenile fiction, fantasy: Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu
Detective mystery meets mythology: A Hundred Words for Hate by Thomas E. Sniegoski
The paranormal meets mythology: Spirits of the Noh by Thomas Randall (The Waking, Book Two)
Historical fiction meets the paranormal: The Secret Journeys of Jack London, Book One: The Wild by Christopher Golden and Tim Lebbon
Realistic teen fiction: Doggirl by Robin Brande
The end to a series, realistic teen fiction: Real Live Boyfriends by E. Lockhart (the fourth and final Ruby Oliver book)
Non-fiction: Self-Management for Actors by Bonnie Gillespie
Who are your three favourite authors?
Christopher Golden, Thomas E. Sniegoski and Lewis Carroll.
Which book has had the greatest impact on your life?
You pose another difficult question! It would probably be any and all of my favorite childhood books: The Westing Game, The NeverEnding Story, Anne of Green Gables, and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Also, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Each reflects a different part of me, as a person and as a writer. Each holds a piece of my heart because I connected to them so strongly, and those connections remain strong to this day.
Which books are you most eagerly anticipating?
The Fallen 3: End of Days by Thomas E. Sniegoski, Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark: Emerson Blackwood’s Field Guide to Dangerous Fairies by Christopher Golden and Guillermo del Toro, The Secret Journeys of Jack London: The Sea Wolves by Christopher Golden and Tim Lebbon, The Waking: Winter of Ghosts by Thomas Randall. Also, The Lost Crown: A Novel of Romanov Russia by Sarah Miller, which was released last month and is patiently waiting for me to read it on a day with no interrupt
If you think I'm busy, you should see Christopher Golden's schedule. As I type this, he is probably in the middle of writing one book, revising another, and plotting a third, each of which are diametrically different from the others. He has authored or co-authored over 100 novels, novellas, short stories, comics, graphic novels, and more. Christopher writes every single day, no matter what. I greatly admire his writing talent as well his dedication to his craft.
For his latest series, The Waking trilogy, he has adopted a pen name: Thomas Randall. In our previous interview, he explained why he used the pseudonym. In today's chat, he reveals more about the history and mystery of his haunting new series.
The first book of The Waking has a haunting title and premise: Dreams of the Dead. Have you ever been visited by lost loved ones in dreams?
I have, in fact. I should point out that I think there's a difference between dreaming about someone you've lost and actually having the feeling that they have touched you in some way. I'm a born skeptic, but it isn't that I don't want to believe...it's that I do. I want to be convinced, but I'm always a bit dubious. Yet sometimes things happen that are difficult to deny. I had at least two dreams about my father after he died where it truly felt as though he wanted to let me know that he was at peace. He had led a life that on the surface would have seemed quite happy, but his final years were spent unmoored from the kind of fundamental relationships most people rely on. Papa was a rolling stone. He died of cancer and suffered a lot at the very end. But when I dreamed about him--and in the dream I knew I was dreaming and that he shouldn't be there because he was dead--it really felt to me that he wanted to let me know that he was okay, now. I woke up feeling such relief...I still missed him horribly and grieved his death (that hasn't changed at all in more than twenty years and I doubt it ever will). But I felt like he was watching over me and wanted to set me at ease. As much as I loved him and as fun as he was to be around, you always had the feeling you were "out of sight, out of mind" with him. So to wake from that dream and feel like he had made this effort to comfort me was very powerful. Now, I'm the kind of person who tends to believe this sort of thing is all bull, and I'm aware that it was probably just my subconscious doing all of this work to deal with my feelings about his death. But maybe it wasn't. And, honestly, "maybe" is enough to lighten your heart.
In The Waking: Dreams of the Dead, Kara is an American girl newly transplanted to Japan. How did you balance the realistic storyline - the move, the culture shock and subsequent adjustments - with the supernatural storyline?
Fortunately, I didn't have to go to any great lengths there. To an American, Japan is exotic and mysterious, its culture and its folklore strange and different. In fiction that is the perfect sort of environment in which to set a supernatural story.
The second book in the trilogy, Spirits of the Noh, will be out in May 2010. Have you seen any Noh plays performed?
I wish I could say that I had, but actually I have never had the opportunity. I would love to see one. Better yet, I'd love to see one in Japan. What fascinates me the most about Noh theatre is the extraordinary discipline involved. The actors don't rehearse together, but perfect their roles in private and then put them together like a sort of living puzzle, like each of them has a part of the story but only when they come together will it become clear. And there is no room for improvisation. In many ways it's more ritual than theatre, and I'm intrigued by that.
In
The next-to-last stop on the Thomas Randall blog tour is Galleysmith. Have a taste:
Galleysmith: Is there a character in literature you wish you created? Why?
TR: Harry Potter, so I’d be filthy rich. :) All right, no, I’m joking. But it’s not far off. I wish I’d created Hermione Granger, because she’s made a generation of the world’s kids think it’s cool for a girl to be smart. Thankfully, no one else needs to create her, because JK Rowling’s already done it. Hermione rules.
Galleysmith: What five things do you need when writing?
TR: Arrogance and humility in equal portions. Faith in yourself. At least one other person who loves and has faith in you. A copy of Strunk & White’s THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE. And chocolate. Lots and lots of chocolate.
Wondering what a day in the life of a writer might be like? Click here to read the Galleysmith interview in full.
Follow
The Waking blog tour to learn more about
Dreams of the Dead, the first book in this thrilling YA series, and its author, Thomas Randall. The two-week tour wraps up tomorrow!
Monday, September 28th: An interview with Little Willow at
BildungsromanTuesday, September 29th: Author Q&A with
Courtney SummersWednesday, September 30th: The Mind of a Girl, a guest blog about writing from the female POV, at
readergirlzThursday, October 1st: Strange Girl in a Strange Land, a guest blog about researching Japanese culture, at
lectitansFriday, October 2nd: An interview at
Sarah's Random MusingsFriday, October 2nd: An interview at
Steph Su ReadsMonday, October 5th: The Cold Open, a guest blog about writing mysteries, at
Books By Their CoverTuesday, October 6th: An interview with
Kim BaccelliaTuesday, October 6th: An interview with
Book Chic Wednesday, October 7th: An interview at
Presenting LenoreThursday, October 8th: An interview at
GalleySmithFriday, October 9th: Last stop with Kelsey at
Just Blinded Book Reviews
Today's stop on the Thomas Randall blog tour: Presenting Lenore! Take a peek:
Kara and her father move to Japan after her mother dies. Why are authors always killing off mothers?
Bad childhoods? :) Just kidding. It's very practical, to be honest. Writers often kill off both parents, forcing the young protagonists to make their own way in the world. It's a classic conceit of children's literature. If the reader is identifying with this character, the first thing you've done is made the reader understand the peril the character is in...what would THEY do without their parents to take care of them? Many of the greatest stories in children's literature simply wouldn't happen if the parents were around to take care of the young protagonists.
In killing off just the mother, which is another common tactic, you've similarly denied the main character something, but it's a different something. Fathers are often seen as more distant or befuddled or less caring than a mother would be. That's not the case with Kara and her father in THE WAKING, but even in this trilogy, there's a comfort and an understanding that Kara might receive from her mother that her father has a difficult time providing. Not to mention that in order for them to both feel cast adrift while starting anew in this strange land, they need to feel loss. The absence of Kara's mother is just as important to the story as the presence of her father. So, no, it's not a conspiracy against moms. :)
Keep reading! Click here to visit Presenting Lenore.
Follow
The Waking blog tour to learn more about
Dreams of the Dead, the first book in this thrilling YA series, and its author, Thomas Randall.
Monday, September 28th: An interview with Little Willow at
BildungsromanTuesday, September 29th: Author Q&A with
Courtney SummersWednesday, September 30th: The Mind of a Girl, a guest blog about writing from the female POV, at
readergirlzThursday, October 1st: Strange Girl in a Strange Land, a guest blog about researching Japanese culture, at
lectitansFriday, October 2nd: An interview at
Sarah's Random MusingsFriday, October 2nd: An interview at
Steph Su ReadsMonday, October 5th: The Cold Open, a guest blog about writing mysteries, at
Books By Their CoverTuesday, October 6th: Author Q&A with
Kim BaccelliaTuesday, October 6th: An interview with
Book Chic Wednesday, October 7th: An interview at
Presenting LenoreThursday, October 8th: Special post for Michelle at
GalleySmithFriday, October 9th: Last stop with Kelsey at
Just Blinded Book Reviews
On Friday, Thomas Randall dropped by two blogs,
Steph Su Reads and
Sarah's Random Musings. Take a peek at their interviews:
Steph asked: Dreams of the Dead is, in a sense, a vampire story. What is your favorite vampire story?
Thomas Randall: Wow. There are so many that I love. Richard Matheson's I AM LEGEND. Stephen King's SALEM'S LOT. Anne Rice's original INTERVIEW WITH THE VAMPIRE. Bram Stoker's DRACULA. The classics are classics for a reason. I also love the novel THE LIGHT AT THE END by John Skipp and Craig Spector. Brian Lumley's NECROSCOPE books. Of more recent books, Charlaine Harris's Sookie Stackhouse novels [what inspired the TV show True Blood] are huge, huge fun.
Read the entire interview. Sarah asked: What advice would you give to aspiring writers?
Thomas Randall: If one person tells you that you stink, don't listen. If the only person who tells you that you're good is your mom, don't listen to her, either. Accept that the urge to write does not make you a writer and that you probably have a lot to learn. (We all do.) Study Strunk & White's THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE. Read a lot. Write a lot. Find people who will give you *honest* criticism. You'll know the difference, no matter how much it frightens you to admit it. Go to conventions where writers and artists and editors gather. Meet people. Learn about the business as well as the craft. Realize that only a relative of handful can make a living writing and be realistic about whether or not you can handle that kind of stress, and if you can, then go for it.
Read the entire interview.Learn more about the new thriller
The Waking: Dreams of the Dead at
http://www.thomasrandall.net
STRANGE GIRL IN A STRANGE LAND
Guest post by
Thomas RandallWritten for
LectitansConfession time: I've never been to Japan. The absolute best thing about the early feedback on THE WAKING: DREAMS OF THE DEAD is that I seem to have convinced people otherwise. But I'm not going to lie to you, my friends. The Miyazu City that exists in the pages of this trilogy exists only in my mind. Sure, a great many things that you'll encounter in the book are real--landmarks and shrines and even street names--but this isn't the real Miyazu City.
Though that shouldn't come as a surprise. Most writers invent versions of the cities in which they set their stories, even cities they know well. You take what is useful, discard what you don't need, and do your best to get the sense of the place...its atmosphere. When it's a place you've never been, a place you're unlikely to be able to afford to visit on your own dime, what makes the presentation of a setting feel realistic are the details you choose to include. And details, of course, require research.
If you live in Miyazu City, you'll certainly know that the version of the place that exists in THE WAKING is fiction. But if you live there....sssshhh, don't spoil it for everyone else.
When I set out to write THE WAKING trilogy, I knew the basic story. American teenager Kara Harper and her professor dad are still mourning the death of Kara's mother two years after their loss. Her dad has been teaching Japanese language at an American school, and Kara has grown up with the dream of someday visiting the country. Her father has not only taught her the language, but instilled in her a fascination with the nation and its culture. In the aftermath of her mother's death, Kara and her father begin their life anew in a Japanese community where few gaijins visit. She is the only non-Japanese student at her new school, and her father the only non-Japanese teacher.
Sometimes research feels like a chore, but not on these books. I jumped right in with both feet. My first job was, of course, to figure out where it would all take place. I thought of inventing a city (as Kara's school, Monju-no-Chie, is invented), but as I surfed page after page online, printing up dozens (at first) of pages about schools in Japan, I ran across an article about the three most beautiful places in the country. One of them, Ama-no-Hashidate, immediately caught my interest. A long spit of land that juts out into Miyazu Bay, its white sand beaches are striped up the middle with a dense wood of black pines. From certain vantage points--scenic overlooks--visitors turn their backs to the bay, bend over, and view Ama-no-Hashidate through their legs. Upside down, against the blue water, it is said to look like a bridge across the heavens.
It seemed a peaceful place, and I liked the idea of the beauty and tranquility there. The shore of the bay, in view of Ama-no-Hashidate, seemed the perfect place to set the story of this American girl trying to live in a new country, and adapt to a new culture. And the perfect place for evil spirits and curses, among other things.
The research only began there, of course. What followed was a crash course on Japanese education, school uniforms, fads and hobbies, and behaviors in a culture so different from my own. I had always known that traditions would be different in Japan, but so many things surprised me. Japanese students have a period of time at the end of each school day (and before mandatory club meetings) when they clean their schools. Every day. When they enter the school, they remove their shoes and place them in small cubbies, donning slippers that are worn at all times while in the building. I loved learning about what Japanese parents put in the bento boxes their kids take to school for lunch and the details of various festivals, such as Toro Nagashi, during which lanterns are set afloat in the bay, each representing a loved one who has died the year before. I wanted to know what they might eat for snacks, what their traditions are when going to the beach, how boys and girls behave together, how they celebrate their holidays--and I wish I *didn't* know what they put on their pizza.
Seriously. I hope one day to visit Japan, but I will not be eating pizza there.
I enjoyed every moment of discovering life in Japan with Kara Harper, and I hope you'll enjoy it, too. It's the perfect thing to lull you into a false sense of security before the really creepy stuff starts. After all, THE WAKING: DREAMS OF THE DEAD, begins with murder. You'll understand, I hope, that I didn't do any first hand research on that.
Learn more about the new thriller
The Waking: Dreams of the Dead at
http://www.thomasrandall.net
What started off as a dream of going to a private school in Japan quickly turns to a nightmare. Kara Foster is an American who finds that her dreams are turning into nightmares and even more scary is that other kids at her school are having them too. Plus, students are showing up dead. Another student Sakura, claims it's the ghost of her dead sister. She thinks her sister is demanding payback from those who are responsible for her death. Add a lush Japanese countryside and a Japanese urban legend. The Waking: Dreams of the Dead is sure to keep readers turning the pages. Check out more of my review at YA Books Central.
Guest blog for readergirlz written by Thomas Randall, author of The Waking: Dreams of the Dead
THE MIND OF A GIRL
I don't presume to know the mind of a girl. That's the key, I think, to being a man and writing from a female perspective. There is no formula I apply to figuring out what to write, what her thoughts are, what she might say or do in a given situation. Any guy who writes about female characters really has only one chance at doing it right, only one trick in the bag: osmosis. I've been told I write girls well. I have no idea whether or not this is true, as I am not a girl. I wouldn't presume (there's that word again) to make any such claims. But if it's true--if the women and girls who've told me that aren't just being nice in the way that the friends and families of so many doomed, deluded, and eventually humiliated American Idol contestants tell them they can sing--then osmosis is the only explanation I can come up with.
I suppose I've absorbed a certain amount of awareness of "girl-think" over the years, but it doesn't feel like anything I actually KNOW. It feels like instinct, to me. If that's true, there are a lot of women I should thank for that.
My parents were divorced when I was young, but even before that, my father wasn't around very much. My brother and I were raised by our mother and frequently left in the care of our sister, which meant we were surrounded by her many girlfriends almost constantly. Two of her best friends were straight. I've joked many times over the years that I was raised by a passel of lesbians. While it isn't true that they raised me, my sister and all of her friends--straight and gay--and my mother, of course, had a huge influence on me. From a very young age, being so constantly surrounded by girls made me far more comfortable with them than I was with guys. As I passed through middle and high school, I always had a girlfriend, but I was also THAT GUY, the one in all of the 80s movies, who the girls would tell their problems and ask for advice about other guys. It didn't seem odd to me at the time that I had such close relationships with girls, but looking back on it in later years, I realize some of my male friends probably thought I was some alien creature.
Even now, I am always more at ease communicating with women than with men. There's so much swagger when you get a bunch of guys in a room, so much bluster, and I have no patience for that. There's a wisdom that comes with maturity, and it seems to me that girls acquire that a lot faster than boys. Some men never find it.
So, does all of that mean I know how to write from a female perspective? Nahhh.
The truth is, I don't ever--ever--think about it. I don't hesitate or worry that I've somehow entered alien territory just because I've got to put thoughts in the head or words in the mouth of a female character. If my female characters are strong, intelligent, gutsy girls, I think that's more a testament to the girls and women I've known in my life than it is to my skill as a writer. If my female characters--like Kara Harper in THE WAKING: DREAMS OF THE DEAD--are smarter and wiser than the boys, tough and capable and full of love all at the same time, there are a lot of women I should thank for that, including my wife and my sister and my mother, and so many friends from my youth and from adulthood, doctors and lawyers and teachers, writers and artists and moms.
I lied to you before, just a little. It's true that I don't think about writing from a female perspective as a challenge...but I do think of it as a responsibility. There are enough girls in fiction who set a poor example. If there are guys reading my books, I want to make sure that they see girls the way *I* see them. And for the female readers...well, I'd love them to see themselves through my eyes as well, so they'll never underestimate how amazing they can be.
I don't presume to know the mind of a girl. But I don't mind giving them a peek inside mine.
- TR
To learn more about
The Waking series and the just-released first book,
Dreams of the Dead, visit
ThomasRandall.net and follow the blog tour:
Monday, September 28th: An interview with Little Willow at
BildungsromanTuesday, September 29th: Author Q&A with
Courtney SummersWednesday, September 30th: A guest blog about writing from the female POV at
readergirlzThursday, October 1st: A guest blog about researching Japanese culture at
lectitansFriday, October 2nd: Q&A at
Sarah's Random MusingsFriday, October 2nd: An interview at
Steph Su ReadsMonday, October 5th: A guest blog about writing mysteries at
Books By Their CoverTuesday, October 6th: Q&A with
Kim BaccelliaTuesday, October 6th: An interview with
BookChic Wednesday, October 7th: An interview at
Presenting LenoreThursday, October 8th: Special post for Michelle at
GalleySmithFriday, October 9th: Last stop with Kelsey at
Just Blinded Book Reviews
Two YABC folks, Little Willow and Kim Baccellia, are taking part in the blog tour for
Thomas Randall, author of the phenomenal new YA thriller
The Waking: Dreams of the Dead. We hope you'll check out the book and follow the tour as it travels from blog to blog!
Monday, September 28th: An interview with Little Willow at
BildungsromanTuesday, September 29th: Author Q&A with
Courtney SummersWednesday, September 30th: A guest blog about writing from the female POV at
readergirlzThursday, October 1st: A guest blog about researching Japanese culture at
lectitansFriday, October 2nd: Q&A at
Sarah's Random MusingsFriday, October 2nd: An interview at
Steph Su ReadsMonday, October 5th: A guest blog about writing mysteries at
Books By Their CoverTuesday, October 6th: Q&A with
Kim BaccelliaTuesday, October 6th: An interview with
BookChic Wednesday, October 7th: An interview at
Presenting LenoreThursday, October 8th: Special post for Michelle at
GalleySmithFriday, October 9th: Last stop with Kelsey at
Just Blinded Book ReviewsFor more information on the series, visit
ThomasRandall.net
