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Media Q&A:

How did you come up with the idea for Mist and Shadow?

I was actually watching The Vampire Diaries when the idea sparked in my head in 2014. In an early episode the main character hands her friend a glass bottle, and her friend has a psychic vision. I immediately thought it would be cool to have a YA novel with a main character who was psychic.

A lot has changed since then. My main character Daphne is no longer psychic, but teams up with one to try and meet the evil that is rising up in her small town. At the start of the novel Daphne is starting to see things out of the ordinary, and learns later that she’s able to see ghosts which are hanging out all around us, just unseen.

What was the writing process like?

I officially started the first draft in May 2016 in preparation for a novel workshop I’d be taking that fall at the University of Wisconsin – Green Bay. I finished it at 56,000 words that November. After a few months break, I returned to the novel and rewrote it from the beginning until I had around 80,000 words, which is standard length for a Young Adult novel. By then I was working full-time so lot of my writing was done on Sundays when I had the most brainpower. After continual revisions using feedback from the college workshop and my beta readers, plus professional editors, the finished novel now sits at almost exactly 75,000 words.

What was your path to publication?

My initial dream like any writer was to get a sweet traditional publishing deal right out of the gate with a blockbuster movie adaptation following that, of course. How the traditional publishing path works is that writers who have a completed manuscript research literary agents who are looking for their type of genre or story, and then send a query letter and a book sample to that agent. The agent can then choose to reject the query or ask to see more. Literary agents who take on a writer will pitch the book to major publishing houses, who in turn will either say no or offer a publishing deal.

I started querying agents in the summer of 2018. Ultimately, 43 query letters to literary agents over the course of two years were either rejected or went unanswered, which is also a rejection, though I did have one request to see more. During all of this I kept revising the novel and tried, unsuccessfully sometimes, not to be completely discouraged and fatigued by the whole process since I also loved the story and had received great feedback on it.

In the summer of 2020 I scaled back and tried submitting to a few small publishers directly who didn’t require literary agents, which eliminated one gatekeeper at least. I also researched hybrid publishing but it was really too expensive and their services were often booked for the next year or two.

Finally, at the end of 2020 I made it my New Year’s resolution to seriously pursue self-publication. While it’s been a lot of work, which included hiring a professional copy editor and proofreader, designing my book cover, formatting the book, creating a website, and trying to find the best marketing techniques, it was a dream come true to hold the printed copy in my hand.

What is your novel about?

When we meet Daphne Cole, she’s a normal if somewhat forlorn high school senior living in Long Haven, Virginia who’s troubled by vivid nightmares of a girl who crashes her car after being attacked by a shadowy creature in the dead of night. Since Daphne has always had nightmares, she deals with it like always and just wants to move forward. But after a reluctant visit to a psychic who claims the car accident actually happened that summer, Daphne soon learns that the shadowy creature is part of a growing threat that only she and the psychic will be able to stop. A once-dormant portal is starting to open, and more evil creatures will be coming. Why it’s happening or who’s behind the opening of the portal, they don’t know.

Besides dealing with this threat, Daphne takes another step into the unseen supernatural world around her when she starts to see ghosts everywhere she goes, each with their own histories and long-held pain. While her mentor warns her that helping ghosts move on is a complicated task, Daphne is drawn into helping one ghost whose brother is a classmate. Soon she’ll realize just how accurate that warning was.

What does the title mean?

The Mist in the title represents the ghosts, which are called shades in the story. Shades are humans who have remained behind after their deaths due to strong feelings of unfinished business, or pain over how they died. While they remain they are only a “shadow” of who they were, remembering only a little about their lives. They are so focused on their reason for remaining behind that it’s practically impossible to hold a conversation with them. Shades are full-color and mist rises continually off of them.

Without spoiling too much, the Shadow of the title represents the dark creatures of the novel, who were once human but after death are no longer so.

What’s next after Mist and Shadow?

I’m currently working on the sequel to Mist and Shadow. The series will be a trilogy.

How can readers follow you?

Readers can follow me on my Instagram @Kaylin.Wise, Goodreads page, and Amazon Author page. I’ll be sharing fun stuff on my blog at www.KaylinWise.com/blog. Readers can also sign up for my mailing list. I don’t send emails out very often, but will share important updates as they happen.