Mother-daughter YA duo P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast have been writing together for nearly two decades. Their new book, Draw Down the Moon, kicks off a fantasy duology set in a school filled with dark magic. We asked P.C. and Kristin to discuss their collaboration and how it’s evolved over the years.
Kristin Cast: We have been writing together for—
P.C. Cast: Oh God, since 2005.
Kristin: Yes. So, like 50 years, if my math is right… We’ve gone from House of Night to Sisters of Salem to Draw Down the Moon and the Moonstruck series. How exactly has that evolution been for you?
P.C.: As your mother and also as your [writing] partner, it’s way, way different than it was. For House of Night, you were 19, when we started 50 years ago.
Kristin: I look really good. [Laughs.]
P.C.: Then, you didn’t do any of the writing.
Kristin: I did a lot of editing and teen voice stuff because I was, in fact, a teenager.
P.C.: I was teaching high school at that time, and I didn’t think I’d have any problem with capturing teen voices… As soon as I started writing House of Night, I slipped back into my 1970s teenager.
Kristin: For Draw Down the Moon, it hasn’t been so much “how would a teenager say this?” as “what’s true to that character? What would that character say?” Since you were in the classroom and I was a teenager when we started the [House of Night] series, it was very much the voice of the early 2000s.
P.C.: It’s so nostalgic for the, you know, 80-year-olds who read it when they were 16. [Laughs.]
Kristin: Remember? [Laughs.] We’ve always been really good at creating relatable characters. That’s one of the reasons that the House of Night series was so successful. But I think now, with Draw Down the Moon, we have to keep that in mind even more, because we aren't falling back on any of the pop culture or verbiage.
P.C.: Yeah, it’s a lot different now that I'm not immersed in the classroom and now that you’re not a child. But also, we literally write together instead of you just editing.
It’s different because with Draw Down the Moon, we divided up the two main characters. And each of us chose a main character who we envisioned best.… I saw Wren, the heroine, from the very beginning, and I think you saw Lee, the hero, from the very beginning.
Kristin: With Draw Down the Moon specifically, it was easier to figure out who was writing each chapter because Lee and Wren, while they have a relationship, they are doing very different things at the Academia.
P.C.: And they have drastically different kinds of magic.
Kristin: With Sisters of Salem, sometimes, it was harder to figure out who was writing what because a lot of times, both of the girls were present in the scene or they were doing very similar things, just in two different locations.
P.C.: They tended to have the same motivations too, and in the Moonstruck books, Lee and Wren have slightly different motivations and families.
Kristin: I feel like our writing style is always growing and evolving.
P.C.: I think what happens is that the longer we write together, the more obvious it is that we need to play to each other’s strengths. And that’s what we continue to do.
Kristin: We’re real smart. [Laughs.]
P.C.: Do you enjoy returning to a school setting?
Kristin: I like a school setting. It’s sort of like locked-room mysteries, the ones where you’re in one location and so now everything is operating within this one space.
P.C.: I like it because it’s an automatic cast of characters… and I like a school setting too, because I miss teaching.
Kristin: I also love that Lee and Wren and their friends are older. This is the summer after their senior year.
P.C.: We’ve put them all on an island. It’s very isolated. There’s no Wi-Fi.
Kristin: It’s a walkable campus. Everything is self-contained. Dealing with cell phones in a book can be really challenging, because so many things are like, “Well, just Google it.”
P.C.: Or, “Well, why don’t you call them?”
Kristin: The island’s cloaked, so only people who’ve been there know that it’s there.
P.C.: That part was very Mists of Avalon-y.
Kristin: What was your favorite part of writing process or favorite scene?
P.C.: I like Wren a lot. Wren’s best friends are some of my favorite secondary characters. I really liked developing the secondary characters in this book. And then that continues big-time through [Moonstruck book two] Give Up the Night.
Kristin: Sometimes, you will get a secondary character from Wren’s point of view before Lee has come to them.
P.C.: I liked that part a lot because it makes me feel like I can kind of go a little rogue. Which is why we had to start writing chapter-by-chapter outlines.
Kristin: What kind of inspirations did you lean on for Draw Down the Moon and the Moonstruck world?
P.C.: In the Moonstruck world, I already had Wren in my mind when we first started brainstorming about that series. She immediately came to me. And she was inspired by when Kristen Bell was doing all the teenage stuff.
Kristin: Veronica Mars.
P.C.: I felt like [Wren and Kristen Bell] have a lot in common. They kind of look alike a little bit. And they have a lot of the same personality traits.
Kristin: And about the location… we live in the Pacific Northwest and we set it there.
P.C.: Remember the crazy thing that happened when I was driving around [Pacific University’s] campus?
Kristin: Oh, yeah.
P.C.: We had made up Crossroads Courtyard: a big, round cobblestone courtyard in the heart of [the Academia’s] campus that had paths leading from it to the dormitories, to the main hall, the whole thing. I was walking around and all of a sudden, I stumble on this huge, round cobblestone area.
Kristin: Yeah, that was neat. I remember you sent me pictures.
P.C.: And the island is based on the islands here, what the coast looks like and what’s all around us.
What’s your favorite thing about Lee?
Kristin: My favorite part of him is his feelings, like actually getting to explore his emotions on the page and watch him heal and figure all of that out along the way.
P.C.: I really like male characters who are emotionally mature and in touch with that.
Kristin: He’s in touch and multifaceted, and I like that you get to see that because sometimes you can get stuck in these meathead-y types of dude bro guys.
P.C.: Ugh.
Kristin: And even if you appear that way externally, there’s something more going on internally with everything.
P.C.: I like that Lee and Wren don’t take themselves too seriously. They love to play.
Kristin: We just turned in the second book, Give Up the Night, to our editor and in typical P.C. and Kristin Cast fashion, we left a way back into the world. We already have a spinoff book for one of the characters in mind.
P.C.: And what do you have coming next, Kristin?
Kristin: Next, I have in June the release of my first young adult thriller. It’s called Seasick and it’s set on a mega yacht at sea with a group of people and they are getting murdered. And in January 2025, I have my first adult romantasy that comes out, and that’s very exciting. And you have an adult book coming out in January of 2025, don’t you?
P.C.: I have a book that I’m really looking forward to getting into readers’ hands. It’s about the ancient Celtic queen Boudicca and what happens with her. I loved writing it. I can’t wait for it to release. And then I’m also excited about some new ideas percolating but can’t really say more just yet!
Draw Down the Moon (Moonstruck #1) by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast. Wednesday, $20 Apr. 2 ISBN 978-1-250865-16-8
