Q&A with Michael Pryor

It’s finally here! Today is the official release day of the highly anticipated sequel to Gap Year in Ghost Town, which is Graveyard Shift in Ghost Town! We had the pleasure of hearing the first couple of chapters read aloud by Michael Pryor himself at Introverts’ Night Out, and we also did a little Q&A with him for all of you to check out as well.

Seriously, we couldn’t be more excited to see what happens next in the spooky and funny adventures of our two favourite Melbourne ghost hunters, Anton and Rani! And how cool is that cover?! LOVE. IT.

Anton Marin and Rani Cross team up again to fight the ghosts that are plaguing the city. And now there’s a vicious ghost-hunting faction in town as well. A highly entertaining sequel to the smart, snappy and funny Gap Year in Ghost Town.

So, how’s my gap year going? Is it giving me a taste of the ghost-hunting business or is it just dumping me into situations where I could end up dead, or worse?

Lingerers. Moaners. Thugs. Weepers. So many ghosts. Not enough graveyard shifts in a night.

When an extreme ghost plague descends on the city, Anton and Rani must work overtime to keep the city safe and to find the source of the new aggressive ghost outbreak. And it amps up to another level after ghost hunters become the hunted.

Anton and Rani will need all their wits and wiles about them if they are to manage the ghost influx, get to the truth about the Elsewhere and navigate the night with all their limbs intact.

Graveyard Shift in Ghost Town is thoroughly entertaining and full of nail-biting ghostly action and adventure.

If you were a ghost and had the choice of haunting any particular location, where would you most like to haunt?

I’m torn between two extraordinary Melbourne landmarks: the State Library and the National Mutual Building. Many people would know the State Library and its magnificent domed Reading Room, but the National Mutual building, even though it’s in the middle of town opposite the Town Hall, is a bit more mysterious, a superb Gothic Deco gem that has some gobsmacking architecture, perfect for haunting.

What does your outlining / plotting process look like?

I start with lots of thinking (very important!) which graduates to jotting down fragments of dialogue, character quirks, plot idea, location possibilities and the like. Eventually I sit down to write out a prose summary of what’s going to happen, trying to keep it to half a dozen pages or fewer. I’ll then condense this further to a point form summary which becomes my guide throughout the writing. I liken my eventual outline to a series of stepping stones. I hit the major plot points, but in between it’s fluid, with lots of room to move …

If you could get any author (who’s no longer alive) to ghost-write your memoir, who would you choose to write it?

I’d go with PG Wodehouse, the author of the Jeeves and Wooster series. He was one of the funniest writers ever, and I’d like a memoir everyone could laugh at.

What are some of the spookiest books that have kept you reading into the early hours of the morning?

Stephen King’s ‘The Shining’ gave me a real case of the heebie jeebies but I couldn’t put it down. Shirley Jackson’s ‘The Haunting of Hill House’ is truly terrifying and very different from the TV series. Oh, and when I read ‘The Lord of the Rings’ for the first time, the appearance of the Black Riders in the Shire got me seriously frightened.

What has been the most fun part of writing Graveyard Shift in Ghost Town?

Meeting the characters from ‘Gap Year in Ghost Town’ again. When writing, I get very close to my characters, and it’s sad if, when finished, I never meet up with them again. A sequel lets me enjoy their company again, and then document their lives, their friendships and their adventures. Lots of fun.