GVN: Hello Ciera! Thank you for making time to speak to Geek Vibes Nation about your debut novel, Finch House. Could you start out by telling our audience a bit about yourself and your novel?
Hi! Thanks for wanting to speak with me! Sure, of course. I’m Ciera, I’ve been writing stories for as long as I can remember and I’m super glad that I get to share them with other people now. I also like ice cream and plants.
Finch House isn’t about ice cream or plants, but it is about a brave young girl, Micah, who risks going into a haunted house she’s been told to stay away from, partially out of curiosity but mostly to look for her missing grandfather who she’s about to move away from for the first time in her whole life.
GVN: How did you come up with the idea for Finch House? How did the story evolve over the course of writing the novel?
The idea first came to me at first because of my grandparents’ very scary basement, believe it or not. Even though I know what’s down there (just old furniture and laundry), the wide open door and the steps leading down into the dark have never failed to send a little shiver up my spine, even after all this time. I combined that mysterious space and staircase with a love of and fascination for Victorian houses, and Finch House was born.
Over the course of writing, I think the story really became less of a story about just a haunted house and what’s going on it and more about the people who live in the periphery of it, whether inside the remodeled version or people in the past who’ve visited or little girls who have always been curious. The human element really became my goal instead of the spookiness.
GVN: I love how you centered the core relationship of the novel around the grandchild/grandparent dynamic. What went into that decision? Did you draw from real-life experiences with your own grandparents?
Thank you! Yes, I’ve been lucky to have really great grandparents all around, including great-grandparents who were in my life for a long time, and I’ve tried to be as close as I can with all of them. Grandparents, to me, are often the backbone of a family, and seeing them interact with the youngest members often says a lot about a family or family dynamics. Having one of the most important people in Micah’s life be her pop pop just felt right, especially when it came to having her learn to accept that she would have to be apart from him soon and driving her actions forward in the book.
GVN: The titular house of the novel is very spooky and has a lot of terrifying lore built around it in the novel. Did you draw any inspiration from any real-life haunted houses?
No, actually! I’m pretty easily scared, so I try to stay away from any real-life scary stories. I was inspired by a few fictional ones, though, most notably the book White is for Witching by Helen Oyeyemi and The Haunting of Hill House tv show by Mike Flanagan.
GVN: Micah is such a sweet, caring, and determined heroine. What went into her creation? How did she evolve over the course of writing and revisions? Did she surprise you in any way?
I love Micah, and she was a lot of fun to write. She came to me fairly fleshed out in the beginning but definitely ended up surprising me along the way with even the smallest things, from being a bit more scared in certain situations than I thought she’d be to the level of empathy that she tries to give others and the varying degrees of it that she offers different people, herself included. At her core, though, she remained pretty headstrong in the things she believed were right and good and what was important to her.
GVN: The novel has great supporting characters. What went into their creation? Do you have a special trick for creating unforgettable secondary characters?
Most of my characters tend to pop into my head as at least 70% themselves, which is nice but means I can never quite remember how they got there. In terms of special tricks, honestly, I just try to treat them and write them like real people. They’re fictional, yes, but that doesn’t mean they should be perfect. They should still be flawed and messy and frustrating because they’re human, and I think the best characters are, obviously, relatably human—even if they’re not actually humans.
GVN: The novel addresses serious topics such as loss, prejudice, housing practices, and family secrets. Why did you think it was important to include these serious themes and messages in the story?
I felt it was important to include them because they were true. In this story especially, but also for plenty of people and families in real life. As much as we, as adults might want to shield younger people from some things in the world, I don’t think that hiding the truth is the right way to go about doing so. I think being able to speak plainly, but still age-appropriately, about important topics is beneficial to understanding the world in all of its ups and downs, and the better equipped we are to talk about something, the better equipped we might be to understand it or act on it.
I don’t think anyone does anyone else any favors by beating around the bush, most of the time. Honest, thoughtful communication, especially in stories, is the way to go, in my opinion.
GVN: Was there anything that you had to cut out of worry that it would be too frightening for the middle-grade audience?
Not a ton, but there was a scene that sticks out to me the most that involved an older, grandmotherly type of woman who Micah encountered in the house and who treated her kindly that could sort of… shapeshift into a handful of pretty terrifying forms. I think my editor suggested I cut that bit just because of how creepy some of those forms got, especially when paired with lots of deep, dark shadows in a long, empty hallway.
GVN: Can you tell us about what you’re working on next?
Sure! I’m currently working on my second middle grade, which involves a summer camp and my favorite home state cryptid. I’m also working on a YA that’s centered around two girls who used to be best friends and are now very much rivals in the cross-country scene.
GVN: Where can our readers connect with you online?
I’m on Instagram @cierasburch and, of course, on my website at cieraburch.com.
About The Book
Encanto meets Coraline in this spooky middle-grade story that deals with family ties, fear of change, and generational trauma as it follows a girl who must convince an old, haunted house to release its hold on her and her family.
Eleven-year-old Micah has no interest in moving out of her grandfather’s house. She loves living with Poppop and their shared hobby of driving around rich neighborhoods to find treasures in others’ trash. To avoid packing, Micah goes for a bike ride and ends up at Finch House, the decrepit Victorian that Poppop says is Off Limits. Except when she gets there, it’s all fixed up, and there’s a boy named Theo in the front yard. Surely that means Finch House isn’t Off Limits anymore? But when Poppop finds her there, Micah is only met with his disappointment.
By the next day, Poppop is nowhere to be found. After searching everywhere, Micah’s instincts lead her back to Finch House. But once Theo invites her inside, Micah realizes she can’t leave. And that, with its strange whispers and deep-dark shadows, Finch House isn’t just a house…it’s alive.
Can Micah find a way to convince the house to let her go? Or will she be forced to stay in Finch House forever?
The Finch House will be available for online and in-store purchase on September 5th.
Author Bio
Ciera Burch is a lifelong writer and ice cream aficionado. She has a BA from American University and an MFA from Emerson College. Her fiction has appeared in The American Literary Magazine, Underground, Five Points, Stork, and Blackbird. Her work was also chosen as the 2019 One City One Story read for the Boston Book Festival. While she is originally from New Jersey, she currently resides in Washington, DC, with her stuffed animals, plants, and far too many books. Visit Ciera at CieraBurch.com.
Writer. Video Essayist. Film/TV Critic. Pop Culture Enthusiast.
When he isn’t writing for Geek Vibes Nation or The Cinema Spot, Tristian can be found typing away at one of the novels or screenplays he’s been working on forever.
