This interview originally appeared in the July/August 2024 Horn Book Magazine as part of the Publishers’ Previews: Debut Authors, an advertising supplement that allows participating publishers a chance to each highlight a book from its current list. They choose the books; we ask the questions.

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Is Charles a Daydreamer? Or is the enigmatic building manager who has befriended him actually a dragon? And just what sort of battle has Charles gotten himself into in this debut fantasy?

Photo: Melissa C. Beckman.

1. Who was your dragon?

I had a flight of dragons. Glory is an amalgam of many people and experiences. At that age, so many people are bigger than you can imagine.

2. In writing the story, how did you keep the levels of ­reality straight for yourself?

This was never an issue. Writing in first person, I was Charles. Everything was real unless I/he said otherwise. The more dangerous questions were: who could Charles tell about his experiences, and what were the consequences?

3. Favorite monster from literature?

I think trolls would be at the top of the list because their nature is extremely difficult to pin down. They can fill any skin. In the old Nordic folklore, the word for troll was used almost interchangeably with giants, monsters, elf-kin, etc. One thing we do know is that they are usually no friend to daylight.

4. Where and when was the most haunted you have been?

I think this happened when I was four. My mom and I were at her friend’s place in Rochester, New York, where I grew up.  One night, I wandered into the dining room alone, streetlights outside the only illumination. I saw myself reflected in a window. My doppelgänger reached out and knocked over a glass bottle on the sill. Then it looked at me and screamed. Of course, I ran away. I still think about it sometimes when things fall and break.

5. What book turned you into a writer?

No particular book, but the two I go back to most often are Reading like a Writer by Maxine Prose and Neil Gaiman’s short story collection Fragile Things.

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