The Ghost in the Garden follows a girl from the city of Calgary who moves with her family to a country home, where she encounters a mysterious girl lurking in the family’s garden. What character did you enjoy writing for? Was there one that was more challenging to write for?

I loved writing for Fitz. His sense of friendship and loyalty, as well as being someone who both loved and was frustrated with living in a smaller city, felt a lot like myself when I was younger. In order to direct my friends to my house growing up, my directions always ended with “just turn right at the sheep farm.” Take this, and throw in a dash of my own boys’ senses of humour, and you have Fitz in a nutshell.

In contrast, Tabitha, being so far removed from what kids are like these days, she presented more of a challenge. Tabitha is more of an ethereal presence in the story, but she still needed to feel grounded in reality; someone Sophie could actually talk to and see as a possible friend. It was a bit of a fine line to walk as a writer. 

How did the mystery develop for this story? Did you plan it before writing or did it develop organically?

For this story, I wrote it around a time when my own kids were dealing with a lot of change in their lives. Not only were the three of them all back in in person school, but we had moved twice in short succession, and they were starting a new school, with a whole new peer group. I wanted to look at these challenges, but, on top of that, my daughter asked if I could write her a good ghost story. So, I asked myself, what would it look like if a kid moved to a new town, and into a haunted house? The rest of the story grew organically from there.

Is this the first book in the series? If so, when is the next book coming out and what can your fans expect in the next story?

Sorry to tell you that, as of right now, Sophie’s story ends with this book. If you want to know how she fared once school starts in the fall, or where she and Fitz go next, maybe, if people ask nicely enough, I can tell you. But I do not have plans for a sequel.

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Original source: https://literarytitan.com/2024/03/11/turn-at-the-sheep-farm/