Why did you write Lily’s Monster?

I’d had success with my previous ghost novels The Hunting Ground  and Breathe, but I wanted to wait until the right idea suggested itself before I embarked on a new story. In the end, a couple of aspects came together. First, I became interested by the poverty of mid-19^th century farming families in certain parts of Kent, and how they lived their tough lives. I wondered what it would be like if a ghost had experienced only that tough life. Would they want to get away from it or return to it? 

I also wanted this time to imaginatively conjecture what the Afterlife, if it exists, might be like in much bigger way than before. Too often ghost novels never explore the world of the dead itself. I’d done so in a  smaller way when I created the Nightmare Passage in Breathe. This time I wanted to go deeper. If we could go into the World of Death before we die, what would death look like? Cold, dark, grey and uninviting? Or something far more interesting?

I was also curious what our bodies might be like in such an afterlife. The same as our living bodies? Or altogether stranger?

All of that came together when I created the menacing Kryss'sa'nikt in Lily’s Monster – an entity so terrifying that the living cannot even say its name without shaking.

Holly, my main character in this novel,  is also, I think, a deeper, more complex, personality than the leads in my previous ghost novels. She’s dealing with her own inner demons, and it was interesting to watch how they collided with the spirit living in Gant House.

Here is a fascinating early idea for the front cover the Fox and Ink team student team came up with for Lily’s Monster, working with artistic designer and illustrator Jana Heidersdorf.  (You can see more of Jana’s other excellent work here:  janaheidersdorf.com.)  

Right from the beginning the team knew they wanted Lily herself in the image, but also elements of the swirling, tentacled Kryss'sa'nikt.

It’s fascinating to see how these ideas evolved, and as always sometimes what is left behind in cover design is often the most interesting part. But you have to make hard choices finally. You also have to simplify. 

Initially the design team went for this swirling final cover, painted by Jana Heidersdorf.

However, it was ultimately decided that as rich and evocative as it is, this cover appealed perhaps more to middle-grade readers than teenagers.  This was confirmed when I took the image to schools to see how they reacted to it. They liked it – but thought I was aimed at younger readers.

The final image – retaining Lily, but with a more photographic aspect – got a sharper response altogether.

You can argue, perhaps, that it’s a less creative in many ways from the initial design concepts, but it definitely appealed to teenagers when shown to them. What’s your view on other ways the cover might have gone? How would you have designed it?