Book Blitz: The Truth Spell (Werewolf High #1) by Anita Oh

Excerpt:

He looked so different in the moonlight, and it struck me how the years apart had aged him. He’d lost the roundness of his cheeks, but what he’d lost in baby fat he’d gained in muscle. He seemed to tower over me, all broad shoulders and toned arms.

“Why did you leave?” I asked him, unable to play it cool any longer, to pretend I didn’t care. “Where were you? I’ve been mourning for you all this time and you’ve been off playing polo and eating souffles. What, don’t rich people have phones? You couldn’t have sent a message?”

“It’s complicated, Lucy. You don’t understand.”

“Of course I don’t understand. You were dead. I don’t understand how you could be someone’s friend and let them sit through your funeral.”

As I yelled at Sam, the anger drained out of me, and I was left feeling sick and tired. I wrapped my arms around myself, shivering.

“Just tell me, Sam. Tell me what happened. Tell me why.”

Q&A With Author Anita Oh

Q. How did you come up with the idea for Werewolf High?

A. I really wanted to create a world that I’d enjoy hanging out in. When I think about my favourite stories, they’re mostly based in schools – stuff like Harry Potter and Buffy, as the most obvious examples. I think schools are a great setting because you’re forced into constant contact with all sorts of different people, which mostly sucks in real life but is great for creating dramatic scenarios in a book. Plus, I love werewolves! So it seemed like a good idea to combine the two.

Q. The series is Werewolf High but the first book is called The Truth Spell – that sounds more like witches than wolves!

A. The werewolf pack is at the heart of the series and the main story focuses on the wolves, but when you throw witchcraft into the mix, there’s no end to the fun stuff that can happen. When I was first developing the series, I decided I’d like to play around with a different trope in each book, body swaps and soul bonds and so on, and a truth spell was perfect for the first book, when everyone still has something they want to hide.

Q. Is the main character a werewolf?

A. Lucy is an ordinary human girl. She comes from a poor family where she’s had to take responsibility for her younger siblings, so she’s had to be a practical, logical sort of person, and she finds it hard to accept magic and werewolves. She also struggles being at such an elite boarding school, where people throw money around. It’s a totally different world for her.

Q. What do you find the hardest part of the writing process?

A. I have a chronic illness, so everything is hard all the time, but the hardest thing is keeping to a schedule. Just sitting down to do something every day is really difficult, sometimes impossible, but if you do a little bit and then a little bit more, gradually it builds up. I’ve spent a lot of time feeling sorry for myself and making excuses but it gets to the point where if you want to do something, you have to do it. My sister’s a writer and she said to me, quit your dillydallying and write your book already, sheesh! Most people I know are like one day I will do this or I’ll do that someday, but if she wants to do something, she just does it – travel the world or become a writer or whatever. When someone like that is standing in front of you, it’s hard to make excuses for yourself.

Q. What do you do for fun?

A. Mostly, I chase my dog around the house while pretending to be T-Rex. She’s a beagle, so she doesn’t know that the T-Rex has tiny little arms that can’t possibly catch her, so she’s super fast and good at evasive manoeuvres but I will get her one day!