Kira Snyder, Author of Book: The Parish Mail Series – Dead Letter Office
YA: When did you decide to start writing?
Kira Snyder: I’ve written my whole life, starting with those stories and plays that every kid makes up. I majored in drama in college, focusing on playwriting, and later turned to computer game design. A company move took me from Silicon Valley to Los Angeles, where I transitioned into screenwriting. I currently write for the Syfy TV show “Alphas,” and before that wrote on “Eureka” and the cult hit vampire drama “Moonlight.” Dead Letter Office has given me the chance to combine many elements of my background, which has been a ton of fun.
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YA: Tell us a little bit about your latest work.
Kira Snyder: Dead Letter Office is an urban fantasy/Southern Gothic tale set in contemporary New Orleans, a city full of mystery, magic, and ghosts. As the story begins, we meet our heroine Celia right after she’s moved to the city following her father’s death in Afghanistan. On Halloween, in the midst of bizarre supernatural upheavals, Celia meets the mysterious Luc and finds a hundred-year-old letter apparently addressed to her. The letter contains clues to a murder that has just happened in the present day, and Celia races to solve it with Luc and her other new friends Tilly, a practicing witch, and Donovan, the son of a police detective.
YA: What are some of the qualities in your latest work that set it apart from what’s currently out there on the market?
Kira Snyder: Dead Letter Office is “active fiction,” which means you make decisions for the heroine at a few key points: does Celia go to a swanky Halloween party with the popular clique? Or does she hang out in the French Quarter with a quirky new friend? Which clue should she pursue? Does she chase a suspect or wait for the police? This interactivity allows you to shape your reading experience, letting you play detective along with Celia and determining her emotional choices. You can’t do this with a regular novel.
Also, since Dead Letter Office is part of an episodic series; in addition to each case that Celia solves, there is a larger “mythology” connecting the multiple books, complete with hints and teases. So readers who like TV-style multilayered stories and watching character arcs unfold will particularly enjoy DLO and the other Parish Mail books. I hope so, anyway!
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YA: What attracts you to the Young Adult genre specifically?
Kira Snyder: I love the universal, primal questions YA fiction deals with. Who am I? What’s my place in the world? How do I relate to my family, my friends? Who will I choose to love? Can I choose? Those kinds of big emotional issues are deeply satisfying to write and read about.
I also appreciate how YA is not hung up on genre pigeonholes. So long as you tell a good story, the audience for YA books doesn’t care if you mash up supernatural, romance, light horror, mystery, and comedy all in one book… which is great because that’s exactly what I do in DLO.
YA: Who would you count among your strongest influences for your latest work, and why?
Kira Snyder: As a detective in a supernatural world, Celia’s got the DNA of both Veronica Mars and Buffy the Vampire Slayer – I really admire those smart, resourceful, kind characters created by Rob Thomas and Joss Whedon. The imaginative world-building of Neil Gaiman and China Mieville was also influential, as well as that of the amazing magical realist writers Italo Calvino and Jorge Luis Borges. And Suzanne Collins was a writer I looked to especially for structure: the ending of every single chapter of The Hunger Games trilogy drives you to keep reading.
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YA: Who or what do you hope not to be compared to?
Kira Snyder: I’m new to this world – Dead Letter Office is my first book – so no complaints or concerns here. I’m happy for any comparisons!
YA: Do you have pursuits outside of young adult fiction?
Kira Snyder: As I mentioned, I’m a TV writer, which is my full-time job. I also have written screenplays and would love to try my hand at comics as well. Game design holds a continuing appeal, and I play videogames when I can find the time. I also recently picked up the ukulele! I’m not very good (I’m sure my neighbors agree), but it’s super fun to play.
Heidi R. Kling: click here
Liz Maverick: click here
