Q&A with Christine Virnig

 

Photo by Ember & Birch Photography

 

 

Christine Virnig is the author of the new middle grade novel A Bite Above the Rest. Her other books include the new middle grade book Waist-Deep in Dung. A former physician, she lives in Madison, Wisconsin.

 

Q: What inspired you to write A Bite Above the Rest, and how did you create your character Caleb?

 

A: After writing a couple middle grade nonfiction books, I really wanted to try writing a middle grade novel. I knew I wanted it to be spooky (because those are my favorite kinds of books to read!), but I struggled to come up with a good enough idea.

 

Then one day a character, Caleb, just popped into my head. The poor kid was walking around with a wooden stake in his back pocket because he was terrified he was about to encounter a vampire or witch or werewolf.

 

I immediately thought he seemed like a pretty cool main character, but he became even cooler once I realized that nobody around him was afraid. I was immediately filled with a slew of questions—Who was this kid? Where was he? Why wasn’t anyone else scared?—and A Bite Above the Rest came out of my attempt to answer these questions.

 

Q: Did you know how the story would end before you started writing it, or did you make many changes along the way?

 

A: I had no idea how A Bite Above the Rest would end when I started writing!

 

The book begins shortly after Caleb moves to Samhain, Wisconsin, a fictional tourist town where it’s Halloween 24/7. It’s a place where Halloween decorations stay up all year round, people wear costumes every single day, and the town hall is only open during “vampire hours.”

 

Fairly quickly, though, Caleb begins to suspect that hidden amongst the costumed humans are a bunch of real vampires and werewolves and witches. Caleb sets out to uncover the truth, and I uncover the truth with him. I was halfway through writing my first draft before I knew whether Caleb’s suspicions would turn out to be right… or wrong.

Q: How did you create the town of Samhain, and how important is setting to you in your writing?

 

A: I created the town of Samhain while trying to figure out why my main character, Caleb, was the only one who was afraid of the vampires and witches and werewolves that he saw all around him.

 

By making Samhain a tourist town where costumes were as normal as jeans and a t-shirt are in mine, it made sense that Caleb could suspect real vampires and witches to be lurking amongst the fakes. Hiding in plain sight.

 

And setting is super important to me when I write! I’m not one of those people who can visualize scenes in my head like a movie (if I close my eyes and try to picture an apple, I see nothing but a greyish blob), so I need to really think through all the details of a setting to make it feel real to me.

 

Q: What do you hope kids take away from the book?

 

A: Honestly, I just want them to have fun reading it. My biggest dream is that a reluctant reader somewhere will be given a copy of A Bite Above the Rest, they’ll be inspired to actually open it up thanks to Jordan Kincaid’s amazing cover art, and then they’ll realize that reading isn’t so bad. In fact, it can actually be *gulp* rather enjoyable.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I’m working on a middle grade novel with a ghost main character and I’ve also started writing picture books—which is a super fun new challenge!

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: Yes! A Bite Above the Rest isn’t my only middle grade book with a 2024 pub date. In March, Waist-Deep in Dung: a stomach-churning look at the grossest jobs throughout history came out. It contains a buttload of history, medicine, and oodles of gross facts. If you love to laugh while you learn and you aren’t afraid of a bit of ew, check it out!

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb