1. I absolutely love that y'all took out daylight throughout Nightfall! It gave the book a whole new level of scary for me. How did you come up with this idea?
PK: I always think back to camping. The forest is so beautiful and great during the day, and then at night it’s downright terrifying – just like Nightfall.
JH: When I was a freshman at Yale, my girlfriend and I explored this old abandoned floor at the top of a gothic tower. There were no windows on the floor. It was insanely dark. I couldn’t see anything. We got totally lost. At first it was fun in a kind of campy way. Then it started to get really scary when we could not find a way out. That experience has always stayed with me.
2. Which character was your favorite to write?
PK: There are scenes involving all characters that I love, but I guess I really liked thinking about Kana, because of what he’s going through. I guess I should stop there so I don’t spoil the book!
JH: No question for me, the answer is Marin. She is just such a badass. She is tough and brave and stubborn. She isn’t perfect. She has a hard time admitting when she has made a mistake. But her determination and ferocity is what saves them. She was inspired in part by my wife, Kasia, who is a doctor, a triathlete, and a scrappy immigrant from Poland. I didn’t know my wife when she was 14, but I kind of imagine her this way. I loved writing Marin.
3. I felt like the ending was very open ended, are there plans for a sequel?? *Crosses fingers!!*
PK: We wrestled with the ending a bit, and settled on the current one because it felt the most satisfying for this story. We’ve absolutely discussed a second and even third book (we even have several thousand words for each book), but whether they get written depends on our readers!
JH: We deliberately left the end kind of ambiguous and open ended because we wanted to create room for a sequel if we ever decide to write one. Right now we are working on a book that is set in the same world – it involves Furriers and Desert Landers – but it is not about Marin and Kana per se. But yes, at some point, it would be fun to write the conclusion of their story.
4. Actually speaking of sequels I would love a novella detailing the backstory of the, as I call them, Night Dwellers. Can you share anything about their background?
PK: Good questions! We’ve written a little bit about the Night Dwellers backstory and the arrival of a furrier, 14 years before the current book opens. We’re thinking of expanding that, but again, it depends on what our readers want.
JH: Okay we will give you a little more of a glimpse. This is an exclusive that we have shared with no one else, but our editor: During the fourteen years of Day, Soraya and her people hibernate below ground in vast, natural caverns that are an offshoot of the main canyon. This cave system extends throughout the entire island, and many areas are unmapped. None of Soraya’s people has ever made it through the entire cave system. There are rumors of the caves extending under the seabed so far that they reach other islands. Most of the Night creatures hibernate for the full fourteen years, in comfortable wooden containers lined with leaves and covered with branches torn from trees. Soraya started her hibernation several months later than she should have. This, of course, was because of Kana and her efforts to leave him with the Day Dwellers. Postponing hibernation, as Soraya did, is forbidden. It is also both dangerous and painful. Even small amounts of ambient light can be toxic for the Night creatures.
5. I know sometimes in co-authored books each author will write certain characters, was this the case for you two?
PK: No – Jake and I don’t divide up scenes or characters – doing it this way ensures that the book feels seamless, as if written by just one person.
JH: What Peter – whom I call, Kujo – says is true. But there are characters, or elements of characters, that seem to come more from one of us than the other. For example: I feel that Kujo had a really powerful sense of who Kana was and what the transformation was like for Kana. I feel like I had a strong sense of what Marin’s relationship was like with her mother and Line. Kujo, has twins himself (age 4), so he had a strong sense of how the twins (Marin and Kana) related to each other.
6. If you are each currently working on something new, can you share any details?
PK: Sure! We’re currently working on another book set in the Nightfall world, although it will feature different main characters and a different part of the world (closer to the Desert Lands). Though the plot will be different, I think you’ll see that it’s the same type of taut, atmospheric read, populated with some of the people you’ll remember from Nightfall – like the furriers. It’s tentatively called Edgelands.
JH: I will just add that Edgelands is all about an island at the edge of the world that operates as a gigantic funeral parlor. That’s all!
Okay I have to say it, this interview is one of my all time favorites! I love the exclusive that Jake shared! Just that tiny bit really wrapped up so many questions, but at the same time opened up even more! I am really hoping with everything inside me that we get to see that second and third book and Edgelands! I mean a gigantic funeral parlor??!! That's got me written all over it!
Peter & Jake thank you so much for stopping by and sharing so many amazing details. Nightfall was darkishly delicious and I can't wait for everyone to devour it!
BTW guys love the Kujo nickname!
Find the Authors:
Publisher: G.P. Putnam's and Sons Books for Young Readers
Release Date: September 22nd, 2015
Purchase: Amazon
The dark will bring your worst nightmares to light, in this gripping and eerie survival story, perfect for fans of James Dashner and Neil Gaiman.
On Marin’s island, sunrise doesn’t come every twenty-four hours—it comes every twenty-eight years. Now the sun is just a sliver of light on the horizon. The weather is turning cold and the shadows are growing long.
Because sunset triggers the tide to roll out hundreds of miles, the islanders are frantically preparing to sail south, where they will wait out the long Night.
Marin and her twin brother, Kana, help their anxious parents ready the house for departure. Locks must be taken off doors. Furniture must be arranged. Tables must be set. The rituals are puzzling—bizarre, even—but none of the adults in town will discuss why it has to be done this way.
Just as the ships are about to sail, a teenage boy goes missing—the twins’ friend Line. Marin and Kana are the only ones who know the truth about where Line’s gone, and the only way to rescue him is by doing it themselves. But Night is falling. Their island is changing.
And it may already be too late.
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