J Tedore asked Peternelle van Arsdale:

We are a Year 6 class, Mawsley CP School, England. we have been reading your book, 'The Beast is an Animal' for World Book Day today and have some questions for you... Were did you get your inspiration from? Have you written any more scary books? Was your book "The beast is an animal" based on a real-life story? Why did you want to become an author? What are your favourite type of books...?

Peternelle van Arsdale Hi there, I'm so happy to hear that your class is reading THE BEAST IS AN ANIMAL! I hope you're all enjoying it. My inspiration largely comes from classic fairy tales, especially the ones in which there are a lot of gray areas between "good" and "bad." I was also a bit inspired by the vampire stories that I loved as a child and teen. One of my favorite books as a child was Bram Stoker's DRACULA. I've written another novel that is also dark fairy tale: THE COLD IS IN HER BONES. I decided to write the kind of novels that I would have loved. I am a book editor and hadn't thought to write books of my own, but I was very much inspired after reading Philip Pullman's trilogy, HIS DARK MATERIALS, which I absolutely love.

flag