It fascinated me that the city’s history and local legends have blurred together, so it’s hard to know where the stories end and the truth begins. It has such a distinctive feel, from the delicious food and humid heat to the incredible creepy locations. I visited New Orleans in 2012, and I was captivated by the city. Someone is killing people in the style of New Orleans myths, and Mina has to figure out what’s going on before she becomes the latest victim. Things take a turn when she finds a dead body at work. That gives her the opportunity to reconnect with her sister as well as scaring the tourists. Mina goes to the city to visit her estranged sister and she enjoys all of the creepy things New Orleans has to offer, even getting a job at a horror movie mansion. Mina and the Undead is a Gothic YA murder mystery set in 1995 New Orleans. What can you tell us about Mina and the Undead? The main different was that I had deadlines to work to, and I found that really motivating! When I was just writing for myself and the desire to get an agent one day, it was easy to keep moving the end date. Getting published didn’t really change my method. The story usually keeps the main shape I intended, but I make a lot of changes and introduce new elements along the way. I do quite a lot of plotting and research until the story starts to feel real and I get too excited to delay writing any longer! After that, I plot as I go along. I’ve always been a mixture of a plotter and a pantser. How did publishing your first book change your process of writing?

It slows down the writing process when I’m always itching to edit what I’ve just written and make it as good as it can be. Not long after that, an author called Jean Ure came to visit my primary school and asked who wanted to write a book like her. I’ve wanted to write a book since I knew that was a job people could do! I remember my mum telling me that Enid Blyton wrote the Famous Five books and that was it for me. When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?

Mina and the Undead by Amy McCaw