Happy release day to The Witches of Bone Hill by Ava Morgyn! Ava is a YA and adult author who resides in Houston with her family. We’re so excited to have Ava on our blog today to talk all things writing!
Hi Ava! Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your new novel, The Witches of Bone Hill?
Hi Kaylee and thanks for having me! My name is Ava Morgyn, and I am the author of YA novels, Resurrection Girls and The Salt in Our Blood, as well as my upcoming adult debut, The Witches of Bone Hill, which releases September 26th and is about a pair of sisters who inherit a Victorian mansion and discover the haunting secrets behind their family’s legacy. I live in Texas and have been writing in one form or another most of my life. I tend towards contemporary stories with magical elements and dark themes or gothic undertones.
How long did it take you to publish your first book? What did that journey look like?
Well, it kind of depends on what you consider my first “published” book. The third novel I wrote—a YA dystopian—was published for a time by a tiny indie publisher called Sapphire Star whom I queried on a lark after getting fed up with all the agent rejections I was receiving. Later, after I acquired representation, I had a novel picked up by Jolly Fish Press, another indie publisher. Unfortunately, they sort of imploded right after my release. Then, Resurrection Girls and The Salt in Our Blood were acquired by Albert Whitman & Company, who was still an independent publisher but certainly the largest I’d signed with. And finally, I sold The Witches of Bone Hill to St. Martin’s Griffin after pitching them a proposal based on an inquiry their editor sent to my agent. So, it’s been kind of a long and winding journey more than a straight shot out of the gate. But I think it’s important for writers not to hold too many expectations when they go into this and to avoid comparing themselves to others. Everyone’s experience is unique, and your journey to success will be yours, which is all that really matters. The main thing is to persevere and engage in copious self-care along the way.
Is writing your full-time career? On average, how much time a day do you spend writing?
I have always considered writing my full-time career even when it technically wasn’t. Which basically means that I have given it center stage in my life and sacrificed a lot of other potential pursuits in order to continue writing. At this time, writing is my day job, which is how I prefer it because I find dividing my energy too many ways to be unsustainable long term. I spend most of my day writing, but that probably looks a little different from what you’re imagining. I have a lot of interruptions that can’t be helped, and I take short breaks to clear my palate. A fair bit of my time will go into research as well, which varies from novel to novel and chapter to chapter.
I see your other two novels are YA fiction. Is writing YA any different for you from adult fiction? Do you have a preference between the two (writing-wise)?
I wrote YA exclusively for many years and harbored a strange resistance to writing adult fiction for reasons I still can’t explain. But I’m so glad I got over it because as it turns out, I really love writing adult fiction. There are some differences between YA and adult in my experience, one of them being pacing—YA is very fast-paced—and the other being subject matter. It’s not so much that there are subjects which are off limits in YA. It’s more that you will have to handle them with a greater degree of care and responsibility. I think that you can lean into certain things with adult fiction and be a little more raw. I also think you can explore things in ways that aren’t possible in YA because you have that room in the manuscript and that expectation of a certain maturity level. Of course, there are exceptions to every rule, and this is just based on my own experiences. I love both genres, but I find adult to be a bit freer.
The publishing announcement for The Witches of Bone Hill mentions the book involves Nordic witchcraft. What kind of research did you have to undertake while writing this novel?
I really relished the research I had to do for The Witches of Bone Hill because it is subject matter I personally find fascinating. I enjoy researching witchcraft and magical or occult practices of any kind, and I also like to learn about history, especially anything from the Renaissance and Middle Ages all the way back to the Bronze Age. So, this was squarely in those crosshairs. Prior to this book, I hadn’t explored modern Heathenry very much, and certainly hadn’t looked into ancient Nordic magical practices. So much of what I discovered was really new to me. And I found the existence of Volvas—ancient Viking seeresses—and their practice of magic, known as Seidr, to be truly inspiring. These were well-regarded women in their communities, and their role was important and significant and undeniably mystical. As I read about them, I found myself holding a deep regard for who they were. Ultimately, my novel is contemporary fiction, and I kind of took that seed of what the Volvas were and tried to reimagine it after hundreds of years of migration and history and change, but I still tried to treat them with dignity and respect, even though I was plucking them out of the context of their original time and place. I hope that shines through.
Do you have any other writing projects on the horizon you can tell us about? If not, do you have a dream writing project you’d like to work on someday?
Well, I definitely have other writing projects on the horizon. I don’t how much I’m allowed to say, but I can tell you that I have a second adult book coming out from St. Martin’s Griffin at the beginning of 2025 called The Bane Witch. It explores a family of modern witches who harbor an ancient fairy gift—or curse depending on how you look at it—that binds them to poisonous plants. I’ll say no more than that! And I am working on the beginnings of a third adult novel that I hope to pitch to them soon. I also have another YA novel on sub right now that’s set in the Great Smoky Mountains and involves two characters who were lost together in the wilderness for nine traumatizing days as children and reunite in adolescence.
Can you provide links to any websites or social channels you’d like readers to follow?
You can always find me at www.avamorgyn.com
You can follow me at the following social media links:
Instagram— https://www.instagram.com/avamorgyn/
Twitter— https://twitter.com/AvaMorgyn
Facebook— https://www.facebook.com/avawrites
Pinterest— https://www.pinterest.com/AvaMorgyn/
You can subscribe to my very-cool-not-at-all-annoying newsletter here (where I always provide exclusive offerings): https://www.avamorgyn.com/amcontact
