Blogtour: What Walks These Halls by Amy Clarkin

Raven O’Sullivan doesn’t remember what happened in Hyacinth House five years ago. Her father died during a paranormal investigation there, and she’s pretty certain it’s her fault. Her brother Archer can't resist the opportunity to go back and investigate. But everyone has their secrets, and they all lead back to Hyacinth House …

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I'm so pleased to be on the tour for this twisty, terrifying book! Ireland has such a great heritage of ghosts and spooks and this is a great addition. 

I don't want to give too much of the story away, as others on the tour will be doing that, but I had the chance to have a brilliant chat with Amy! We had a great time, and hopefully you enjoy it too.

Hi Amy! Thanks for coming to hang out with us today.

Can you introduce yourself to our readers?

Hi! Thanks for having me. I’m Amy, I’m a bisexual, disabled (I have a chronic illness, M.E., and I’m hard of hearing) writer from Dublin, Ireland. What Walks These Halls is my debut novel and I adore all things witchy, spooky, and caffeinated.

Tell us a bit about the book. What inspired you to write it?

What Walks These Halls is a YA novel about a team of Paranormal Surveyors investigating a haunted house in a fictional town in Wicklow, Ireland. Raven and Archer’s father died investigating Hyacinth House five years before — Raven doesn’t remember what happened, but she’s pretty certain it’s her fault. Her brother, Archer, wasn’t there that night, and is desperate for answers. So when he’s asked to investigate the house, he can’t resist saying yes, even if Raven wants nothing to do with. Archer and the rest of PSI: Éabha, who has grown up seeing and hearing things no one else does; Davis, who relies on science and logic when dealing with the paranormal; and Fionn, their tech whiz, start to investigate, but everyone has their secrets, and they all lead back to Hyacinth House…

I started writing WWTH during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. My condition makes me high risk, and I initially spent fifteen months shielding in my family home while the vaccines were being developed. I was terrified, lonely, and I wanted to write a story to escape into, to give the days I was well enough to do things a sense of purpose. Then, one day, my sister told us the house she was buying was sale agreed subject to a surveyor’s visit. I joked ‘hey, imagine if they said “well the house is structurally sound but there’s a ghost in the attic.”’ We laughed, the conversation moved on, but I couldn’t get the idea of a team of Paranormal Surveyors out of my head. And that was the seed WWTH grew from – a single, throwaway comment that just captured my imagination so completely. I’ve always loved a good ghost story, as well as gothic fiction, so the idea of an old haunted manor, a group filled with secrets, and dark hallways filled with shadows and dread captured my imagination immediately.

Plotter or pantser?

Can I be annoying and say plantser?! I spent a few months researching parapsychology, ghost hunting, clairvoyancy, and pretty much everything to do with ghosts and spirits before I started writing to help develop the ideas and internal logic for WWTH. As I researched, the different characters started to form in my mind, as well as key plot beats and specific scenes I knew I wanted to include. Before I started drafting I had a breakdown of the tools and protocols PSI use in investigations, the internal logic of how ghosts work in WWTH, detailed character sheets on each of the characters and how they relate to each other, and a series of plot points to link together as I wrote.

And then I started writing. While the protocols, internal logic and character outlines stayed the same, how those characters chose to act within the plot was… not always what I had planned. I ended up following certain threads that came to me as I wrote, and sometimes a character would push to make decisions I hadn’t expected them to make (Éabha might be mild mannered and polite in the book but she was definitely the pushiest about what decisions she wanted to make while I wrote!). So I guess I could say I have the head of a plotter but the heart of a pantser?

What are some of your favourite books/what are you reading now?

Aaaah ok trying to contain myself here is going to be difficult! There are so many books I am in awe of. I adore Erin Morgenstern’s writing, and her two books The Night Circus and The Starless Sea are some of my all-time favourite stories; I re-read them at least once a year. Spellbook of the Lost and Found by Moira Fowley is another comfort read of mine, and Deirdre Sullivan’s books are powerfully moving and utterly beautiful. In particular her book Perfectly Preventable Deaths manages to be both incredibly funny and pure YA horror. I love a mythology re-telling, and Natalie Haynes’s books are wonderful feminist re-tellings of Greek Myths that focus on the women in the ancient epics. Her latest, Stone Blind, a re-telling of Medusa’s story, is breath-taking and filled with dry, wry humour. Finally, Leigh Bardugo’s Six of Crows duology is a series I love – reading Kaz Brekker’s disability representation actually helped me finally take the step to get a cane to use as a mobility aid after hesitating for months. I named it Kaz.

I’m currently re-reading Sarah J Mass’s Throne of Glass series — I find it hard to read new books when I’m working on a project, and Celaena is a comp character for a project I’m working on, so I’m re-reading the series alongside some non-fiction books about the history of pirates for… reasons.

This is a very 'spooky' book, do you have any spooky hobbies yourself?

So, full disclosure: I am actually very easily scared! So while I would love to go explore a haunted house or two, I would probably be too terrified to cross the threshold. I’m not sure if these quite count as spooky, but I read tarot, have a fondness for crystals, and am constantly lighting candles. I always have a candle lit while I write, most often scented ones that correspond to the season or the atmosphere of the book I’m working on.

Oh my gosh, we have to have a chat about tarot sometime! I keep trying to convince O'Brien to publish a deck, but no luck yet sadly. Back to the novel! What Walks These Halls is your first novel. Are you planning any more? Sequels or new stories? Can you tell us anything about them?
Ooooh yes please, I love chatting tarot!! WWTH is officially a standalone book, but I don’t think I’m quite ready to step away from PSI just yet. I think there’s still stories to tell there, both for the characters’ personal lives as well as more cases for PSI to investigate, so I would love to get the chance to revisit them one day. I’m also in the early world building stages of a fantasy book that I would currently describe as Treasure Island x She Ra and the Princesses of Power, so fingers crossed that makes its way out of my head and finds itself on bookshelves one day!

And my regular last question: Who is your favourite Muppet?

Ok I LOVE this question. I have to say, I relate to Beaker a lot due to the general air of panic that engulfs him at all times. But, purely based on A Muppet Christmas Carol, I think I need to say Rizzo because, like him, in most settings I too am here for the food.

Amy, thank you so much for those wonderful answers! I can't wait to read She Ra Island when it publishes. (I'll even give you that title for free!)

Follow the rest of the tour and keep an eye out for the book, available now!