It’s that way for Billie with the Freedom Riders in Night on Fire, Callie and Jeremy and their rigid dystopian world in Dreambender, Frances and the Scopes Trial in Monkey Town. We meet them at a turning point, faced with a decision or a crisis that crowds in on them, grabs their attention, and forces them to act. It was that way for me, and it’s that way for my characters. I once read that we’re shaped by what happens when we’re thirteen-no longer children but not yet adults, in that awkward and exciting time when we become ourselves. With Poe, I had thought I would write a historical novel and was surprised to find I was writing a horror story.Ī. So I guess you could say that I don’t pick the genre it picks me. Typically I’ll stumble across something in a book, and it will send me spinning off into a story. I love reading about music, history, sports, all kinds of things. How do you decide which one to work in next?Ī. Just a quick preview: When Poe returns, David isn’t the only one who’s angry.

Then one day, in a rickety house with a secret room, his spirit is summoned by the anger of a young man named David Cray.

Using a method he discovered when researching his horror stories, Poe suspended himself between life and death, where he ended up trapped for 150 years. I decided to resurrect Poe, take him to modern-day Baltimore, and give him the glorious death he deserved. Found in a Baltimore tavern, sick and incoherent, Poe was taken to a hospital, where he died muttering the word “Reynolds.” That’s all we know. He lived so long ago that when he was born, Thomas Jefferson was president.īut what fascinated me the most about Poe was his death, which itself was a mystery. Poe was amazing! He invented three genres: mysteries 50 years before Arthur Conan Doyle, science fiction 50 years before Jules Verne, and horror 100 years before H.P. What inspired you to write about Edgar Allan Poe?Ī. We were lucky enough to chat with Ronald about Edgar Allan Poe, writing children’s books, and Room of Shadows. Who is the Raven who is taking responsibility for these violent pranks? And why do the pranks resemble Poe’s stories? Suddenly he’s having strange dreams about the room and the house, and violence seems to follow him wherever he goes. Bored, David discovers a secret room with an old-fashioned desk, a chest, and a carving of a raven. So after he beats up school bully Jake Bragg, his mom grounds him in their creepy new house. Here’s a brief synopsis: Ever since his dad left, David Cray has had anger issues. Ronald Kidd has written several books for Albert Whitman, but it’s his latest novel, Room of Shadows, that is perfect for Halloween.

Monkey Town by Ronald Kidd