Cold Lake author Judith Graves has more to celebrate this Halloween than the traditional ghosts, ghouls, and trick-or-treating. Halloween also marks the digital release of Spirited, an anthology featuring 13 spooky stories, including Strangeways vs. The Wraith, Grave's ghost hunting story set in a re-imagined version of New York City in 1913.
Graves' story is in good company. The anthology also includes bestselling authors like Candace Havens, Shannon Delaney, and Linda Joy Singleton, all authors of young adult (YA) paranormal fiction.
“The cool thing about it is that there are three Alberta authors in the same book as New York Times bestselling authors, which is a real kick in the pants for us,” Graves said.
Proceeds from the anthology will go towards National 826, a literacy-based charity in the U.S. Graves added she and the other two Albertan authors featured in the books have teamed up to raise funds for Alberta-based literacy programs for the print release of the book in March.
“That charity is for the states, so the three of us —me, Dawn Dalton, and Halli Dee Lilburn — are all from Alberta, so we are going to have a launch party in March when the print version comes out,” Graves explained.
“All the proceeds from sales in that time are going to go to Alberta literacy-based organizations — the Writer's Guild of Alberta has a youth writing camp, so it's going to that, plus there is another one called YouthWrite.”
Graves is the author of Under My Skin, first in the Skinned series, a paranormal YA series set in Redgrave, Alberta, “a fictional Alberta town, a lot like Bonnyville or Cold Lake, but nothing is as it seems. The town is full of mysteries and paranormal creatures.”
She explained her story included in Spirited was “kind of a cool leap” for her.
“It's a steampunk story,” she said. “There is a girl, a ghost hunter. She has a ray gun that shoots silver-infused holy water, and there are lots of clockwork, gears, automatons, and ghost hunting.”
A prolific writer, Graves is preparing for the release of her second novel, the follow up to Under My Skin, due out in December of this year, as well as working on television projects. She is also the organizer of the Crossroads Blog Tour, bringing together 15 YA paranormal authors in various blogs over between Oct. 22 – 29.
Graves explained she has been writing all her life, saying, “I started as a singer/songwriter, writing songs, poetry, and then short stories, and from that, to novels. Without writing, I would be insane. Writing is a way to express myself and my thoughts. For me, it's always been about words.”
Working as a school library technician in Cold Lake, Graves is in a unique position to see the effects of literacy on children and to see them inspired by the same things that inspire her writing.
“I see the kids I used to be,” she said. “They're the ones taking out unexplained phenomena books, they're taking out the vampire or werewolf books, or strange, mysterious places, fairy tales, folklore. I've always gravitated towards stuff like that. When I started creating stories, it seemed really natural to create stories based on monsters.”
The Spirited e-book can be purchased on Oct. 31 at leapbooks.com, and readers can follow the Crossroads Blog Tour at judithgraves.com.
