Title: Sisters of Misery
Author: Megan Kelley Hall
Publisher: Kensington Trade, August 2008
Paperback: 308 pages
ISBN-10: 0758226799
ISBN-13: 978-0758226792
1. First off, congratulations on the big novel sale! Give us the elevator pitch. What’s your book about?
Heres’s my elevator pitch:
Modern Day Witch Hunt is Ignited When “Gossip Girls” Meets “Practical Magic.”
What happens when a hazing prank goes terribly wrong and a young teenage girl goes missing? The debut suspense novel, SISTERS OF MISERY, brings us inside a small, seaside town near Salem, where Maddie Crane, the teen protagonist investigating her eccentric cousin’s disappearance, ignites the wrath of the Sisters of Misery – a powerful high school clique, whose activities mirror the witch hunts of the seventeenth century. Hawthorne is a town filled with secrets and the supernatural. Stories hidden for decades come to light after Cordelia’s tragic disappearance. Cordelia’s mother, Rebecca, descends into madness while internal struggles amongst Maddie’s family members are all consequences of the supernatural “gifts” that they possess. Maddie Crane must choose between the allure and power of the Sisters of Misery and her loyalty to her beloved cousin and her own family. Fans of Alice Hoffman, Jodi Picoult and Stephenie Meyer will be haunted by this story of three generations of women and their struggles against each other and a town ruled by fear.
2. Most new novelists have an interesting story to tell about their journey to publication. What’s yours? Did you use an agent? Make sure to tell us about the day you found out you’d sold a book.
I am an independent literary publicist. I started Kelley and Hall Book Publicity in 2004 with my sister and mother because of our love of books and our realization that there were so many good books being overlooked. Our small Boston-based company has run successful campaigns for all kinds of authors-from self-published debut authors (like Brunonia Barry of THE LACE READER), to New York Times bestselling authors.
However, my personal path to publication is unique. I started out writing for magazines like Glamour, Elle, American Baby, Boston Magazine, MetroSports and Working Mother (to name a few), but never had a published novel or an agent. At 32, I had a series of strokes that eventually lead to open heart surgery. During that nine hour procedure I “technically” died for 96 minutes-as in, my heart was stopped and all brain activity quieted while they performed the surgery. Even after the surgery (which was only second in severity to a heart transplant) was successful, the doctors couldn’t guarantee what, when or how my brain would recover. I could have easily slipped into a coma, become paralyzed, suffered amnesia-the horrific scenarios were endless. Thankfully, I came back in the same mental state I was in prior to surgery. It was a success!
In my recovery stages, I was extremely limited in what I could and couldn’t do. Since I had a full sternotomy and needed to heal, I wasn’t allowed to lift anything over 5 pounds and my mobility was restricted because of the intense pain. And yet, I remained determined to fulfill my dream of becoming a published author. I used my four month recovery period to work on the manuscript I’d been fiddling around with for years. Within a year, I had an agent at a top NY literary agency and a two-book deal with Kensington Books. My book, SISTERS OF MISERY, is the cornerstone of Kensington’s new YA division.
3. Do you have another book in the pipeline? What are you working on now?
My next book a follow-up to SISTERS OF MISERY. It’s called THE LOST SISTER. Here’s the teaser for the next book
The Lost Sister
Sisters are born, not chosen.
Determined to start over after the disappearance of Cordelia LeClaire, Maddie Crane moves to a prestigious Maine boarding school far away from her hometown of Hawthorne, Massachusetts and the Sisters of Misery-a powerful group of girls whose hazing pranks set off a chain of horrific events.
Beware the sister betrayed.
But when an unmarked envelope arrives at Maddie’s dorm containing an ominous tarot card, Maddie realizes that some secrets won’t stay buried. When another one of the Sisters of Misery disappears, Maddie knows she must return to Hawthorne and face the fears of her past…and those she betrayed.
4. What’s your writing process like? Morning writer, night writer, or something in between?
I’m a pressure cooker writer. I let things swirl around in my head until the words completely overflow onto the page in one long steady stream. Usually, my best work is at night. I think I’m channeling my college days-the time when I’d work night into day, day into night in an attempt to finish term papers that I’d been putting off writing for an entire semester.
I think I still do my best writing in the middle of the night. I like being awake while everyone else is asleep. It’s almost as if I can tap into their dreams if I listen closely. I’ve always been a night owl and now it’s definitely helping with my work. When the world quiets down, the stories in my mind have the opportunity to come out to play.
5. There seems to be an unusually high percentage of writers who own cats. Here at the The First Book, we’re doing a study to find out if there’s a direct relationship between writing success and cat ownership. Do you own a cat? If so, tell us about him or her. If not, tell us what you have against cats.
I’m definitely a dog person. In my lifetime, I have had two airdales, a golden retriever, a pug, two yorkies, a soft-coated wheaton terrier (and a partridge in a pear tree…ha ha). We had two cats growing up and they both just recently passed away at age 17 and 19. That was a pretty good life span for cats; I think that made them at least 120 in people years. Never really bonded with them, though. They did their thing, I did mine. It was a peaceful cohabitation, despite the fact that I can’t stand cat hair.
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