Friday Feature, Interview & Contest: When All the World Sleeps by Lisa Henry & J.A. Rock

Thanks so much to Book Reviews & More by Kathy for having us, and to everyone following the tour. Today, J.A. interviews Lisa!

Hi! I’m J.A. Rock. Today, as part of our When All the World Sleeps blog tour, I’m interviewing my incredibly talented co-author—the dark, depraved, and torture-happy Lisa Henry. Who sometimes sends me candy.

Lisa, we’ve both said that WHEN ALL THE WORLD SLEEPS is probably our favorite collaborative work. Why do you think this is?

LH: I love the atmosphere in this book. It’s almost melancholic. I think we really hit the right pitch with this book. I love our characters. I think Daniel and Bel are among the most interesting characters we’ve created, and I think they’ve had to work harder than any of our other characters to be together. And I hope they’re memorable.

J.A.R: We didn’t outline the book at all. We started with the idea of a sleepwalker who’d murdered the guy who bashed him and now chains himself to the bed so he won’t hurt anyone else, and we ran with it. Did anything surprise you about the direction the story took?

LH: What surprised me was how easily this one came together. We didn’t seem to send as many “So, what happens next?” emails. This just flowed. I don’t think I was surprised by any of the directions we took — we’ll go wherever the crazy takes us — but I was surprised by how often I’d catch myself re-reading what we’d already written. Usually when I write a book I have several stages:

1. The book is written. I love it! Yay!
2. The book is about to be published. I hate it and everything about myself.
3. The book is out there. It’s actually okay!

But with WAtWS I’ve loved it the entire way through. I hope that’s a good sign.

J.A.R: We’ve been writing together for a year and a half now. Do you think we’ve changed in the way we work or in what we write?

LH: Well, we’ve developed a hive mind. It’s crazy how in sync we sometimes are. And I think we’re getting more ambitious. I mean, we occasionally plan things now, like plot points and character backgrounds. Every day we’re becoming more and more like real writers. And discovering Google Docs was a bit of a Eureka moment for us, right? Technology. We’re all over it.

J.A.R: God, yes. What a lifesaver. If you had a sleepwalking condition, what do you think you would you do in your sleep?

LH: I would like to think that I would be an artist, and discover this fabulous talent that I never knew I had. But I would probably still only be able to draw stick figures. I was reading somewhere that people emailing in their sleep is an actual thing now. That would probably be me. Sending unintelligible emails to everyone I know, just like I do in my waking hours.

J.A.R: We have a wide range of parents in our books. In THE BOY series, we’ve got the extremely accepting Erin Fields versus ice cold Laura Moredock. In WAtWS, Daniel’s parents place their concern about what others will think over the wellbeing of their son. In our WIP, the MC hates his father so much he fantasizes about killing him. Do you like writing parents? Is it more fun writing cool parents, or parents who screw their kids up for life?

LH: Laura Moredock was incredibly fun to write. What a horrible, horrible woman! But, you know, she’d never see it that way. She really thinks she’s doing the best for her son when she’s actually been undermining his confidence his entire life.

Parents are complicated. I mean, I think it’s fairly normal to hate your parents when you’re a teenager for RUINING YOUR LIFE…or maybe that was just me and all my friends. I also think that most of us are lucky enough to grow up to realise that our parents are human as well, and that they generally did an okay job.

In WAtWS, I think Daniel’s parents have just given up. They don’t know what to do to help Daniel, apart from offering him money to go to a treatment facility where he’ll basically be locked up. Daniel thinks that they just want him gone. I don’t know if he’s right or not.

J.A.R: As you write, do you get very emotionally invested in the characters and what they’re going through, or are you more of a detached puppeteer type of writer?

LH: I am an evil puppeteer. While I get a little bit emotionally invested, mostly I just rub my hands together like a supervillain as I make terrible things happen to good people. Also, I’ve seen our online chats when we write. I know you do the same thing.

J.A.R: Has working on MARK COOPER VERSUS AMERICA and our PLAYING THE FOOL series converted you to the light side? Or is your heart still full of darkness?

LH: My heart will always be full of darkness. I can’t believe you’re even asking that question.

J.A.R: I’m just messing with you. Everything we’ve written together has a dog in it. Everything. Which is our best dog character?

LH: Andy from The Good Boy. Hands down. Or possibly Boofhead. Or Trip. The Good Boy was full of awesome dogs. But then I’m fond of Petey the Safety Dog in When All the World Sleeps. Does he count?

J.A.R: Of course. And what a fine dog Petey is, indeed. Much better than that horrible bobcat or whatever you showed me that taught Australian children not to walk in front of traffic.

LH: His name was Hector the Safety Cat, may he rest in peace.