Author Kelly Andrew On Writing & Her Debut Novel "The Whispering Dark"
We talk craft, Deaf representation in literature, and more.
Welcome to one of my dreams come true, friends.
It all started when I was 10 years old.
It was a weekend afternoon, and my Godmother came to visit me for my birthday. She gifted me a gorgeously decorated storage box she’d filled with the complete works of Judy Blume, a reading pillow, and a blue, hardcover notebook with a single silver star at its center.
We retreated to the dining room. Normally, I would have partaken in sipping tea and chatting with the ladies, but I remember having a feeling that the notebook was a special one, and that, unlike other notebooks, I should fill it with a story.
So, I let my tea go cold and wrote my first “book” about a little girl named McKenzie.
I haven’t stopped writing since.
I recently joined a focus group in which we discussed and explored the concept of a life’s purpose. I’m positive one of my life’s purposes is to be a storyteller.
Another, I’ve discovered, is to listen to other peoples’ stories.
I especially enjoy listening to the stories of creative writers. I love reading almost as much as I love writing, and dreamed that one day I would have the opportunity to talk with fellow writers who’ve accomplished the ultimate goal of sharing their words with the world and go beyond what they’ve put on the page; to ask what drew them to a particular story, and about the inner workings of their craft.
Beyond My Byline serves as a creative outlet, a place where I can explore and play. I also hoped it would serve as a place where I could connect with you, the reader, but also with people who share my deep, all-consuming passion for words.
Needless to say, I am beyond thrilled to kick off my very own author interview series as a way to do just that.
This series is a long time coming. I’ve been planning for months. But when it came to which author I wanted to feature first, it was a no-brainer.
Kelly Andrew and I met on Twitter, before the pandemic. I’d immersed myself in writing threads, searching hashtags, and, eventually, connected with a group of aspiring novelists. I’ve since deleted my Twitter, but we’ve kept in contact over the years.
To say that I was happy when she announced that The Whispering Dark was being published would be an understatement. I felt a kinship with Andrew because I knew her before - before she was published, before she had an agent. I saw all of her posts about the editing process. I had as near a seat to the front row of her process as I could get through the internet.
I have a tradition that, every year, on my birthday I browse the shelves of Barnes and Noble. Last October 27th, I saw The Whispering Dark out in the wild. I sent her a picture and my sincere congratulations.
Later that night, Mark gifted me a stack of books. One of them was a hard copy of The Whispering Dark.
It was so good, I purposely read it at a glacial pace so I could savor every page, every paragraph. I didn’t want to say goodbye to the story’s main characters, Delaney and Colton. Little did I know, it wasn’t goodbye, but rather, “see you later.”
When I reached out to Andrew and asked her if she would be interested in answering some questions for my newsletter, she replied that she “would be honored.”
Kelly, if you’re reading this, thank you.
The honor was mine.
On The Whispering Dark:
For those who haven’t read The Whispering Dark just yet, can you give us a summary of the book?
KA: Absolutely! The Whispering Dark is about a college freshman named Delaney Meyers-Petrov, a scholarship student at a university that teaches its students to cross the veil between worlds. Profoundly deaf, Delaney struggles to acclimate to the demands of university life. She also butts heads with a mysterious undergraduate TA named Colton Price, who seems to crop up at all the worst times. When several students turn up dead, Colton and Lane are thrust together in a search to uncover the truth.
What sparked the inspiration for Delaney and Colton’s story?
KA: The ideas for The Whispering Dark were pulled from several places, but the original spark came from an old journal I found in my parent’s attic. I’d written in it when I was seven years old, and there were multiple entries about a boy no one could remember ever having met. I started to wonder what would have happened if that boy had been a ghost. From there, the rest of the story slowly fell into place, although it was several years before I sat down to write.
The story explores the possibility of parallel universes and has paranormal themes. What sort of research, if any, went into this book?
KA: Because this is a contemporary universe and so closely identifies ours, I spent a LOT of time researching. I wanted to make the magic feel almost like science, so that you could believe it would happen in a Boston just like ours. Most of the research was on ley lines and the prominent landmarks that can be found on them.
I also read a number of different takes on multiverse theory in order to decide what rules I wanted to set for the world I was building. I would say, however, that the most heavy-handed research was on human anatomy, in order to write the most anatomically correct body horror sequences. It sounds gross, but it was fascinating.
Given the nature of dark academia, I always knew I wanted to do some heavy nods to mythology, too. I initially started by tying in the story of Orpheus and Eurydice. I love the lore of Orpheus going down into the underworld to bring Eurydice home, and there is a huge tribute to that story in act III of The Whispering Dark. It’s my favorite scene, and probably one of the few that stayed the same from the novel’s conception. There are also some nods to Virgil’s Aeneid, which is one of my favorite epics. Colton is also shown doing a project on Dante’s Inferno, which has some pretty heavy-handed tie-ins.
Oftentimes, writers create characters they see themselves in. You and Delaney share the same hearing loss. In what other ways are you and Delaney similar? How are you different?
KA: I love this question because I’ve found that a lot of readers tend to assume that Delaney and I must be very similar due to the fact that we share the same profound hearing loss. I think this is a testament to how important accurate representation can be. In reality, Lane and I are nothing alike, although I do wish I had an ounce of her fashion sense.
I would say Colton and I are far more alike. We’re a bit prickly and we’ve got some shared neuroses, and we’re reluctant hockey fans. But I do think that no matter what you write, you end up putting a little of yourself in each character.
Delaney has a cochlear implant, but she seems to see and understand the world better in the quiet. Can you speak to the significance of this, and how you wanted to approach Delaney’s hearing loss as it relates to the overall story?
KA: I also wear a unilateral cochlear implant, but I only wear it so I can stay plugged into the people around me. My partner and my children and my extended family all hear, and so do my friends. The implant helps me keep up with them, but my preference is silence. I find it easier to focus in the quiet, and the sound input becomes sensory overload very quickly. Lane is the same—for her, she finds solace in the quiet moments. I wanted to let her silence be profound enough that she hears things beyond the reach of sound. In this case, she hears voices from beyond the veil.
For those interested, what are some other titles you feel have exceptional deaf representation?
KA: Some of my favorite Deaf authors are Sara Nović and Alison Stine. Sydney Langford’s debut novel, The Loudest Silence, hits shelves in the summer of 2024 and is one to look out for as well.
It’s always emotional for a writer to finish a novel and give it to the world. But in this case, you weren’t saying goodbye to Delaney and Colton, just “see you later.” Your upcoming release, Your Blood, My Bones ties into The Whispering Dark. What can you tell us about this new story, and how do Delaney and Colton tie into it?
KA: The events of Your Blood, My Bones take place six months after the fiery finale of The Whispering Dark. The story follows a girl named Wyatt as she becomes trapped in an old farmhouse with two of her former childhood friends. Although much of the story occurs in an undisclosed location in Maine, Wyatt is originally from a tight-knit coven in Salem, Massachusetts. Her cousin—from the same coven—is a side character in The Whispering Dark. When things get a little too intense for Wyatt to handle, she may or may not turn to her cousin and the rest of The Whispering Dark crew for help. It’s kind of like calling Ghostbusters—Delaney and company have firsthand experience dealing with powerful ancient entities.
On Writing:
What does a day in the writing life of Kelly Andrew look like?
KA: My writing process varies from day to day. I’m a mother to two small children, which means the writing often takes place wherever I can squeeze it in. Usually, that’s on car naps, in pick-up lines, or late at night while everyone sleeps.
When I’m on deadline, I become a little more protective about my writing time and map out a schedule where I can devote entire days to work. Those days usually involve a carefully curated playlist, a whole lot of coffee, and frequent stretch breaks.
Do you consider yourself a pantser or a plotter?
KA: I call myself a discovery writer, which I suppose falls more in the category of pantsing. I like to feel out the story as I go, but at any given time I’m pulling from a loose outline. Usually, I plot in two- or three-chapter chunks. If I go too far, I start to feel locked in, and my brain doesn’t love that. It bears mentioning that I’m a very character-driven writer, and so a great deal of my story ends up being informed by how I feel my characters would respond to various catalysts. Sometimes it’s difficult to see what that looks like until I’m actively writing a scene.
How do you go about starting a project?
KA: I love a good trope as much as the next person, and most of my ideas are born from wanting to explore a particular plot device. I love stories where two people who don’t like each other all that much are pushed together by external forces, and so with Delaney and Colton, I started by drafting a scene where the two of them are arguing in the library. The rest of the book fell into place from there.
In my sophomore novel, the two protagonists cropped up much in the same way. I knew I wanted to subvert the childhood friends-to-enemies trope, so I drafted a scene where they came face to face after several years apart. Those little starter scenes are like dropping a pebble into a pond—the rest of the story ripples out from there.
What is your editing process like?
KA: Being a discovery writer means my first drafts often make sense to no one but me. I’ll make wild creative decisions halfway through, I’ll scrap characters, I’ll add new ones, and I’ll do a complete 180 with the plot. That means the editing process is extremely messy. I spend a lot of time doing sweeping developmental edits to nail down the story, and more often than not it takes several painstaking rounds of revisions. I liken it to solving a Rubik’s cube—you have to keep twisting and turning until all the colors fall into place. Maybe one day I’ll write a draft correctly the first time, but that hasn’t happened yet!
What are 3 of your must-haves to set the tone for a writing session?
KA: When I’m writing at night, I have an artificial sunlight lamp that I keep right by my face. This is a must for me—if I don’t have it, there’s a good chance I’ll wake up in the morning with a keyboard imprint on my face.
I try not to drink caffeine during the late-night writing sessions, but I usually cave somewhere around the midnight mark and spike my cocoa with coffee.
My third must-have is total silence. I love to get in the zone with a good Spotify playlist, but once I’m working I get distracted by the slightest sounds.
What is the best advice you can give writers battling a bout of writer’s block?
KA: My writer’s block advice is two-fold. First and foremost, I fully believe in the magic of refilling your well. When I get stuck, I pause for a day or two and read something else. I tend to stay away from reading in the genre I’m writing in, but I find that my creative output is better when there’s also creative input.
My second bit of advice would be to push through the block as best as you can. This doesn’t work for everyone, but I personally find that I have to keep going even when it’s ugly. It doesn’t need to make sense, and it doesn’t need to be pretty, it just needs to be done. You can always revise!
Lastly, if you could pull an Alice in Wonderland, but instead of stepping through a looking glass, you can step into a book, which would it be, and what role would you play in the plot?
KA: Most of the books I read take place in dark and deadly worlds, and so I’m not so sure I would be brave enough to step into any of them. If I had to choose, I would probably visit Lyra Belacqua’s Oxford. I read Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials when I was very young, and I used to wish I had a little shapeshifting animal companion like Pantalaimon. As for what part I would play in the plot, I think I would have made an excellent witch.