#5Questions

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Author Bio (via Website)

Kendare Blake is an import from South Korea who was raised in the United States by caucasian parents. You know, that old chestnut. She received a Bachelor's degree in Business from Ithaca College and a Master's degree in Writing from Middlesex University in London. She brakes for animals, the largest of which was a deer, which sadly didn't make it, and the smallest for which was a mouse, which did, but it took forever. Amongst her likes are Greek Mythology, rare red meat and veganism. She also enjoys girls who can think with the boys like Ayn Rand, and boys who scare the morality into people, like Bret Easton Ellis.

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Title: Anna Dressed in Blood

Author: Kendare Blake

Publication Date: July 5th 2012 (original publication date October 17th 2011)

Publisher: Orchard Books

Cas Lowood has inherited an unusual vocation: He kills the dead.
So did his father before him, until he was gruesomely murdered by a ghost he sought to kill. Now, armed with his father's mysterious and deadly athame, Cas travels the country with his kitchen-witch mother and their spirit-sniffing cat. They follow legends and local lore, destroy the murderous dead, and keep pesky things like the future and friends at bay.
Searching for a ghost the locals call Anna Dressed in Blood, Cas expects the usual: track, hunt, kill. What he finds instead is a girl entangled in curses and rage, a ghost like he's never faced before. She still wears the dress she wore on the day of her brutal murder in 1958: once white, now stained red and dripping with blood. Since her death, Anna has killed any and every person who has dared to step into the deserted Victorian she used to call home.
Yet she spares Cas's life.

1. How did you get into writing?

Through reading, I suppose. I read voraciously as a kid. It just flowed naturally as the next logical step. Plus, teachers make you.

2. When starting a book how much of it comes straight from your imagination and how much is research?

As far as plot, it's 90% imagination and 10% drawing from other sources. I try to make my settings accurate, but I'm also not above twisting them to meet my needs, so I'd say those are 50/50. I don't research overmuch. 

3. Who is your favourite character you have written and why?

I can't pick favourites. I love them all for different reasons. Athena because she's so damn tough and has such a wicked, noble heart. Cassandra because she's a warrior, going through the stuff she does and handling the responsibility that comes with it. Cas because he's a secret sweetheart. Anna because she's a tragedy but not tragic. And all their friends and loves too. Even the villains. Except the Obeahman. He was a dick.

4. Do you go into a book knowing how you want it to end?

Not usually. I thought Anna would end in Lake Superior. I knew how Antigoddess would end because I wanted to nod to the Iliad and end it similarly. Halfway through writing Girl of Nightmares, I suspected which was it would go. But I rarely know when I start. I think Antigoddess is the only one so far. At least of the published ones.

5. What 5 books would you recommend for your readers?

The Red Tree by Caitlin R Kiernan
NOS4A2 by Joe Hill
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
IT by Stephen King
The Iliad & The Odyssey by Homer, Translated by Richmond Lattimore. I know that's technically two, but they're so excellent.

If you haven't done so already why not check out our review of Anna Dressed in Blood?