The dark and gothic world of Ari Berk continues to unfold in the second book of his UNDERTAKEN trilogy: MISTLE CHILD. Fittingly, Berk confesses to writing through sleepless nights to create this story of ancient necropolises, restless spirits and powerful dark artifacts…

YOUNG ADULT: What is your earliest memory involving writing?

ARI BERK: The earliest real writing I can remember doing was a story about meeting the Loch Ness Monster (which I was a little obsessed with as a kid), written in the fourth grade. I recall Pegasus also made a brief appearance in that story. The curious thing about it, looking back, was how many of its motifs in I am still interested in: folklore, monsters, mysteries, place narratives, the otherworldly, the Celtic. I am still fascinated with these topics and you’ll find them in my writing still. On a recent trip to Scotland, I finally visited Loch Ness and learned I was right about most of the things in my childhood story (except Pegasus). Regardless of its veracity, this tale is currently locked in a vault in a secret location and, so long as I am alive, will never see the light of day.

YA: Tell us a little bit about your latest work. What does Mistle Child bring to the UNDERTAKEN trilogy?

AB: In Death Watch (book one) we saw a more american-gothic world, set in a sea-port necropolis. In Mistle Child, we go further back into older and stranger lore concerning the dead. The story goes to a much weirder and more medieval place: a house of ghosts where even the dead are haunted by their past.

YA: Take us through a typical writing day for you.

AB: For me, it is usually a writing night. During the day is when I do my research, pouring through old books and manuscripts, archeological records…whatever I need for the project I’m working on. I will also arrange the resources I’ll need later so that when it’s Writing Time, I can start quickly and not have to look for things. Around 11pm is when I begin to settle into writing properly. The house has to be quiet. I begin by looking over the writing from the previous night, tightening it up, adding a bit here or there. This serves as a warm up. Then I start with the next bit. A new chapter, or fleshing out new dialogue. When I’m done, usually around 3am, I’ll wander the house, sometimes read a bit, or watch something mindless, before bed. This is because if I try to sleep right after writing, it’s hard to shut off the writing-brain…sort of like when you drive all day and then when you finally close your eyes, you can still see the road coming at you.

YA: Can you describe the path to getting this trilogy published? What were the challenges? What was easy about it?

AB: My experience with this trilogy was very unusual. But, I had already had seven or eight books published, all with major presses, so that was certainly a help. I remember I had lunch with a then VP of Simon and Schuster in New York. I was asked what I was working on. I showed him a photo of the artifact that is the death watch in the novel. I told him the brief outline of the story and gave him the first chapter. That was it. Sold. I wish everything sold that easily! The challenge came after, in actually writing an entire trilogy. That was both the most wonderful and the most difficult work I’ve ever done.

YA: If you hadn’t become an author, what path would your career have perhaps taken?

AB: Well, I already have another career. I am a professor of Mythology and Folklore at Central Michigan University. I had thought this would be my only one. But once the writing started (my first book was published in 2003), it was hard to stop. If, for some reason, I could no longer write, I would go back to art, to drawing and painting. In the near future, I will very likely be illustrating one of my next children’s books…so we’ll see how that goes!

Silas Umber has finally come into his own as the Undertaker of Lichport when a mysterious invitation calls him beyond the marshes to Arvale, the ancestral manor of the Umbers. There, his extended family endures, waiting for a living Undertaker to return and preside over the Door Doom, an archaic rite that grants a terrible power to summon and bind the dead in judgment.

As Silas assumes the mantle of Janus, the Watcher at the Threshold, deep below the earth in the catacombs and sunken towers, grim spirits grow restless at his arrival—hungry for freedom and eager for vengeance against a family with a long history of harsh judgments. Now, Silas must right an ancient wrong and accept that even a house of ghosts can be haunted by its past—for in matters of family, we are who we were.

Find out more about Ari Berk and the Undertaken trilogy at www.ariberk.com