by Zoe Kalo
Genre: YA Gothic/Multicultural
Release date: February 15th 2017
Summary:
An isolated convent, a supernatural presence, a dark secret…
17-year-old Paloma only wanted to hold a séance to contact her dead father. She never thought she would be kicked out of school and end up in an isolated convent. Now, all she wants is to be left alone. But slowly, she develops a bond with a group of girls: kind-hearted Maria, insolent Silvy, pathological liar Adelita, and their charismatic leader Rubia.
When, yet again, Paloma holds a séance in the hope of contacting her father, she awakens an entity that has been dormant for years. And then, the body count begins. Someone doesn’t want the secret out…
Are the ghost and Paloma’s suspicions real—or only part of her growing paranoia and delusions?
On sale for only $0.99 at Amazon through February 21st!
Interview
with Zoe Kalo:
What
was your inspiration for Chameleon?
Like Paloma, I was partly educated in a convent school
run by Catholic nuns. The convent was also an orphanage for girls, and actually
some of the girls—Ramona and Sylvy—were based on real people. Adelita and Rubia
were pure creations of my imagination. I did attempt to do a séance in one of
the classrooms once, an act that made me end up in Madre Superiora’s office…but
I didn’t get kicked out…nor experience a ghost. J
Some
of the scenes in the book depict the nuns in a very negative w
ay. Can you
comment on that?
Some of the nuns are nice, others…not so nice. That’s
just the way it was. Except for Madre Superiora, all of the nuns in my book are
based on real nuns. Madre Estela, Madre Julia, Madre Margarita were all real.
Yes, Madre Julia with her giant wooden spoon, real. It may seem hard to
believe, and certainly it would be tough to believe nuns can behave like that
nowadays. But remember the story takes place in 1970s Puerto Rico. Catholic
nuns were very strict back then, their disciplining methods cruel, but this was
considered normal.
How
long did it take you to complete the book?
On and off, about two years. But the story and characters
simmered in my mind for years before then.
Did
you have to do a lot of research?
I did a tremendous amount of research on psychopaths and
psychopathy, and a fair amount on natural drugs found in tropical forests,
though I ended up using only a tiny fraction of the material. I also consulted
a police officer for the parts about police procedural and interrogation.
You
like to use mimic writing, don’t you?
Yes, I do! I used it in Daughter of the Sun when the protagonist was drugged, and also in
this book in the climax with Paloma. The writing becomes erratic and stream of
consciousness because it reflects and mimics the altered mind of the character.
No commas, no punctuation, one run-on sentence after another. I love using this
literary technique but sometimes it can be confusing for the reader, so trying
to find a balance can be very challenging.
Did
you listen to any particular kind of music while working on the book?
I sure did! I can get quite obsessed about that,
listening to the same compositions again and again. This was my music list for Chameleon… all of them haunting,
mysterious and dark!
Beethoven’s Figlio Perduto: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wuo6PUeyHmA
(Performed by Sarah Brightman)
Mozart’s Requiem in D Minor: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qiMcXzfm9Mg
Agnes Obel’s Riverside: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjncyiuwwXQ
Revenge Series soundtrack: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOgHd_iM5ok
Interview with the Vampire soundtrack: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6aPxaCpP78
About the Author
A certified bookworm and ailurophile, Zoe Kalo has always been obsessed with books and reading. Reading led to writing—compulsively. No surprise that at 16, she wrote her first novel, which her classmates read and passed around secretly. The pleasure of writing and sharing her fantasy worlds has stayed with her, so now she wants to pass her stories to you with no secrecy—but with lots of mystery. She lives amongst cats and books in Belgium, and is the author of the Cult of the Cat young adult fantasy series and the Retribution novella series for adults.
Sign up for her newsletter at www.ZoeKalo.com and get her exclusive short story “Irkalla.”
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