Photo Content from Katherine Harbour
The author of Thorn Jack, Briar Queen, and Nettle King. (The Children of Night and Nothing series) Pretty good Painter and terrible gardener. Loves Faery, the Gothic, Victorian writers, the female surrealists, botany, and myth & folklore. My aunt once dated a Beatle, my father loved to read Mark Twain, and, if I was brave enough, I'd explore all those haunted woods and houses.
What was the greatest thing you learned at school?
Writing! The physical education teacher at my high school was subbing in English class and told us writing was like creating a game, with characters and a world of your own devising.
What was your favorite book as a child and why?
Writing! The physical education teacher at my high school was subbing in English class and told us writing was like creating a game, with characters and a world of your own devising.
What was your favorite book as a child and why?
My favorite book when I was young was Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden. Loved the garden. Loved sullen Mary, and Dickon, who spoke to animals.
Tell us your most rewarding experience since being published.
Tell us your most rewarding experience since being published.
My most rewarding experience since being published was receiving my first compliment from someone who had loved the books.
In your newest book, NETTLE KING; can you tell my Book Nerd community a little about the novel?
Nettle King wraps up the saga of Finn and Jack and the Fatas. I wrote each book with a theme: Thorn Jack was a Gothic fairy tale; Briar Queen was a heroic quest; Nettle King is more of a horror story.
For those who are unfamiliar with your series; NIGHT AND NOTHING, how would you introduce it?
My Night and Nothing series is set in upstate New York and it’s about a girl who has recently experienced a terrible loss and finds herself in the company of a dangerous young man and a tribe of ancient spirits disguised as a family called the Fatas. The song by Twenty One Pilots, Heathens, describes the Fatas perfectly.
What was one of the most surprising things you learned in creating Finn?
One of the most surprising things in creating Finn was her relentless curiosity. And her decision at the end of Nettle King was unexpected.
Which of your characters do you feel has grown the most since book one and in what way have they changed?
The character I feel that grew the most was Finn, who learned to cope with her sister’s loss and navigated what could only be described as a complicated relationship. She wakes from a sort of hopeless slumber and becomes a warrior.
What book would you recommend for others to read?
The book I’d recommend? Only One? I’m going to cheat and say my favorite series is Time of the Dark by Barbara Hambly; anything by Tanith Lee; my favorite YA fantasy is The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater; and my current fav read is Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo. If you love faeries, I’d recommend Little, Big by John Crowley and The Perilous Gard by Elizabeth Marie Pope.
What part of Finn and Jack did you enjoy writing the most?
What I love most in writing Finn and Jack’s scenes was their conversations, which are very coded, as Finn is cleverly trying to figure Jack out and Jack is trying to hide things.
What was the single worst distraction that kept you from writing this book?
In your newest book, NETTLE KING; can you tell my Book Nerd community a little about the novel?
Nettle King wraps up the saga of Finn and Jack and the Fatas. I wrote each book with a theme: Thorn Jack was a Gothic fairy tale; Briar Queen was a heroic quest; Nettle King is more of a horror story.
For those who are unfamiliar with your series; NIGHT AND NOTHING, how would you introduce it?
My Night and Nothing series is set in upstate New York and it’s about a girl who has recently experienced a terrible loss and finds herself in the company of a dangerous young man and a tribe of ancient spirits disguised as a family called the Fatas. The song by Twenty One Pilots, Heathens, describes the Fatas perfectly.
What was one of the most surprising things you learned in creating Finn?
One of the most surprising things in creating Finn was her relentless curiosity. And her decision at the end of Nettle King was unexpected.
Which of your characters do you feel has grown the most since book one and in what way have they changed?
The character I feel that grew the most was Finn, who learned to cope with her sister’s loss and navigated what could only be described as a complicated relationship. She wakes from a sort of hopeless slumber and becomes a warrior.
What book would you recommend for others to read?
The book I’d recommend? Only One? I’m going to cheat and say my favorite series is Time of the Dark by Barbara Hambly; anything by Tanith Lee; my favorite YA fantasy is The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater; and my current fav read is Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo. If you love faeries, I’d recommend Little, Big by John Crowley and The Perilous Gard by Elizabeth Marie Pope.
What part of Finn and Jack did you enjoy writing the most?
What I love most in writing Finn and Jack’s scenes was their conversations, which are very coded, as Finn is cleverly trying to figure Jack out and Jack is trying to hide things.
What was the single worst distraction that kept you from writing this book?
Social media was the single worst distraction that took up writing time. But it needs to be done and I just…can’t….stop looking at Pinterest.
What are some of your current and future projects that you can share with us?
I have three projects in the works:
The Night Kingdom-A Gothic fantasy set in a fictional Victorian world where three young people team up against a criminal organization with supernatural origins.
A November Haunting-Set in the south in 1975, about a group of friends who discover that a terrifying childhood encounter in the garden of an abandoned plantation was not ghosts, but two monsters, two lovers, from different mythologies.
Tattersleeves-A fantasy about a young woman who must flee into a forest haunted by wytches and devils, her only companions boys from a neighboring reform school.
TEN FAVORITE CHARACTERS FROM YOUR BOOKS
“Harbour makes love, suffering, and sacrifice the most poignant parts of her worlds, and readers with even the barest knowledge of fairy lore and legends will be pulled deep into this tale of sharp magic and its ruthless children. ” ―Publishers Weekly
"...for those who like their fairy tales dark, enthralling, and even a wee bit disturbing. Katherine Harbour's storytelling is nothing short of masterful!" —Fresh Fiction
"Now (Tam Lin) emerges again, artfully recreated by debut novelist Katherine Harbour." —Barnes & Noble Bookseller's Picks for June
jbnpastinterviews
What are some of your current and future projects that you can share with us?
I have three projects in the works:
The Night Kingdom-A Gothic fantasy set in a fictional Victorian world where three young people team up against a criminal organization with supernatural origins.
A November Haunting-Set in the south in 1975, about a group of friends who discover that a terrifying childhood encounter in the garden of an abandoned plantation was not ghosts, but two monsters, two lovers, from different mythologies.
Tattersleeves-A fantasy about a young woman who must flee into a forest haunted by wytches and devils, her only companions boys from a neighboring reform school.
TEN FAVORITE CHARACTERS FROM YOUR BOOKS
- 1) JACK-So he’s the dark, brooding boy who fell in with the wrong crowd and fell for an immortal girl with a black heart. He was born in Victorian Ireland and his father was a spiritualist/exorcist.
- 2) FINN-Inspired by my favorite heroines: From Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, to Scout in To Kill a Mockingbird, and Jane from Jane Eyre. She’s drawn to Jack because she has a little bit of a self-destructive streak.
- 3) CALIBAN-Named after the beastiy character in Shakespeare’s The Tempest, he’s the ongoing baddie. He was once an honorable Celtic prince—until he met Reiko Fata
- 4) REIKO-The queen of air and darkness. An immortal mean girl whose possessiveness for Jack endangers everyone.
- 5) PHOUKA-a punk girl who starts out as Reiko’s lieutenant. She’s a trickster. She has a mother of a secret.
- 6) ABSALOM-Speaking of tricksters, Absalom is a shapeshifter boy/girl. He’s Robin Goodfellow, Ariel from The Tempest. And his true form is only hinted at at the end.
- 7) MOTH-Moth is a hero, a mortal boy who has been manipulated by the Fatas for centuries. He’s, for a bit, a light side reflection of Jack.
- 8) CHRISTIE-Finn’s best friend, faithful, and about to fall for a girl who will upend his world. He also finds out he’s a witch.
- 9) SYLVIE-Finn’s best friend. An aspiring actress—her mom is a Japanese actress—she learns, instead, she was born for something else. That something else involves weapons.
- 10) ANNA-the youngest character. She, too, loses a sister, and matures a little, from a child. She reads Tarot cards and is a little out of the world.
What are 4 things you never leave home without?
The four things I never leave home without are boring: my money; my phone (because it has memos of future stories on it; my Burt’s Bees chapstick; and my keys with my key ring of a Gothic rabbit.
What event in your life would make a good movie?
My life is also very boring. Maybe my childhood, when I was a tomboy and getting into scrapes. And there was the time my friends and I saw a shadowy figure gliding before an abandoned school…
Tell me about your first kiss
Again, childhood, when a boy whose name I don’t remember smashed a kiss on my mouth and I shoved him. No romance at ten-years-old.
What do you usually think about right before falling asleep?
Before falling asleep, I usually worry about stuff.
What is something you think everyone should do at least once in their lives?
I think anyone should travel at least once in their lifetime. Preferably to another country, but also in your own if you can’t go far.
Where can readers find you?
Readers can find me at any one of my social media accounts: Twitter @katharbour, my Facebook Page at Katherine Harbour; my website Katherineharbour.com; my Instagram Katherine Harbour, and my blogs on Blogger. My blog Dark Faery/Black Rabbit contains Thorn Jack short stories.
The mesmerizing conclusion to the Night and Nothing series—part Buffy the Vampire Slayer and part Alice in Wonderland—finds Finn fighting against the land of the dead.
When her beloved Jack disappears, Finn vows to find him—even if it means a daring odyssey into the land of the dead. But saving Jack comes at a terrible price: a dangerous fissure has opened, giving the dead access to the true world.
The lines between worlds are more blurred than ever. Finn’s sister, Lily, recently returned from the Ghostlands, seems to bear no scars from her time there. But then their friend Moth returns from Sombrus, the magical house once owned by Seth Lot, bearing shocking news. Something evil—a fearsome creature bearing a striking resemblance to Jack—has escaped Sombrus and is now stalking Fair Hollow, killing everyone it encounters, transforming them into terrifying Jacks and Jills and recruiting the Unseelie.
It will not stop until it gets what it wants . . .
The four things I never leave home without are boring: my money; my phone (because it has memos of future stories on it; my Burt’s Bees chapstick; and my keys with my key ring of a Gothic rabbit.
What event in your life would make a good movie?
My life is also very boring. Maybe my childhood, when I was a tomboy and getting into scrapes. And there was the time my friends and I saw a shadowy figure gliding before an abandoned school…
Tell me about your first kiss
Again, childhood, when a boy whose name I don’t remember smashed a kiss on my mouth and I shoved him. No romance at ten-years-old.
What do you usually think about right before falling asleep?
Before falling asleep, I usually worry about stuff.
What is something you think everyone should do at least once in their lives?
I think anyone should travel at least once in their lifetime. Preferably to another country, but also in your own if you can’t go far.
Where can readers find you?
Readers can find me at any one of my social media accounts: Twitter @katharbour, my Facebook Page at Katherine Harbour; my website Katherineharbour.com; my Instagram Katherine Harbour, and my blogs on Blogger. My blog Dark Faery/Black Rabbit contains Thorn Jack short stories.
When her beloved Jack disappears, Finn vows to find him—even if it means a daring odyssey into the land of the dead. But saving Jack comes at a terrible price: a dangerous fissure has opened, giving the dead access to the true world.
The lines between worlds are more blurred than ever. Finn’s sister, Lily, recently returned from the Ghostlands, seems to bear no scars from her time there. But then their friend Moth returns from Sombrus, the magical house once owned by Seth Lot, bearing shocking news. Something evil—a fearsome creature bearing a striking resemblance to Jack—has escaped Sombrus and is now stalking Fair Hollow, killing everyone it encounters, transforming them into terrifying Jacks and Jills and recruiting the Unseelie.
It will not stop until it gets what it wants . . .
Praise for NETTLE KING
"...for those who like their fairy tales dark, enthralling, and even a wee bit disturbing. Katherine Harbour's storytelling is nothing short of masterful!" —Fresh Fiction
"Now (Tam Lin) emerges again, artfully recreated by debut novelist Katherine Harbour." —Barnes & Noble Bookseller's Picks for June
You can purchase Nettle King (Night and Nothing #3) at the following Retailers:
And now, The Giveaways.
Thank you KATHERINE HARBOUR for making this giveaway possible.
1 Winner will receive the NIGHT AND NOTHING Series (3 Books in Total) by Katherine Harbour.
Exploring the land of the dead sounds interesting!
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