Today it gives the Speculative Fiction Showcase
great pleasure to interview Victory Witherkeigh, whose novel The Demon had its debut on October 1,
2024.
Welcome back to the Speculative Fiction Showcase. We’re here to discuss your latest novel The Demon, which is a companion novel to your first, award-winning novel The Girl. How does The Demon relate to The Girl?
Thank you! It feels great to be back. I wrote my debut novel, The Girl, as a companion book to my second novel, The Demon, which will be released on October 1, 2024. For those who read The Girl, the story will pick up right from where she was standing, so to speak, and there may be a few characters who make another appearance in the demon’s story.
Why did you want to write a novel from the point of view of the demon?
When I reached the end of The Girl, I realized I had more questions about the characters and their journey. I wanted to explore the deeper complexities of what it means to “come of age,” as I felt so many of the stories stop just as high school ended. Plus, I always felt like something was missing in the traditional possession of horror stories in the assumption of what the entities want when they possess people.
What part does Filipino/PI mythology play in The Demon and how has it influenced your imagination of the demon’s character?
There are still so many deities and legends across the Pacific Islands to explore. People forget that the over seven thousand one hundred islands that make up the Philippines never had a united state before colonial rule. There are many islands whose language dialects and pre-colonial history show they interacted more with the other Pacific Islands, allowing certain myths and stories to carry on through the various cultures. This permitted the magic and memories of the demon’s character to be as complex and imaginative as the islands’ history.
How do you humanize – or make relatable – a character who is a demon?
As I mentioned, I always found it interesting that in all the horror writings and stories I’d read, there really wasn’t a perspective from the view of the entity. I think breaking the character down to the initial situation helped me as the writer - this cosmic entity has essentially been in a holding pattern for hundreds of years, cut off from their ‘old’ way of life. That type of isolation always has consequences for everything - regardless of the class or level you once had. Nothing stays the same, especially when you leave.
How much did you draw on the mythology you remembered from childhood as compared with your own research?
I used both as much as I could. Obviously, the stories I remember as a kid helped influence the characters I liked or remembered to start my journey in writing the books, but I knew I needed to review the research out there as an adult because family stories can always have extra embellishments that are not part of the original myths and legends.
Why is it important to include that mythological element and how does it differ from the standard tropes of YA Fantasy?
I needed to include these mythological elements in my stories to add to the diversity of non-Western tropes in genres like YA fantasy. Exploring a world like this allows my characters to explore the journey of early adulthood and what it can mean to embrace or run away from one’s cultural identity. As people transition to the reality of what it means to be considered a “legal adult,” there are a lot of mistakes and bumps in reconciling what you thought you wanted and the fantasy of what you thought would happen.
What impact does your identity as a Filipino-American have on your writing process and your experience as an author?
My multiple cultural identities allow me to showcase a different world point of view from all readers of my stories. I hope it allows for different avenues for people to learn new perspectives or even find themselves in new ways in my writing.
Tell us more about the themes of colonization/colonialism and what part they play in The Demon.
I wanted to give the demon a firsthand understanding of what it means to be the product of multiple generations of family trauma, especially when people accuse her of being the cause. The journey of one’s identity only comes about as we explore our cultural and familial history to see what generational traumas may still carry their scars and consequences through our DNA, regardless of our intentions.
How much does the story deal with inner demons and what part do these play in relation to the fictional demon of the title?
Oooh, I love you picked up on that! Even The Girl and The Demon’s titles have a purpose to the story. It is easy for adults to forget the trials and tribulations of growing up. We can easily just try to tell kids the answer to the problem instead of remembering that the lessons can’t or won’t stick until that child’s brain experiences enough to receive and take in that message. While the demon needs to face her own shortcomings, yes, those shortcomings can be just as objectively stereotypical and horrible and predictable because that’s what happens when we go out into the world. We face predicaments where we pick the wrong people to love, don’t put enough faith in our self-worth, or encourage toxic relationships. Those tropes exist because we repeat those mistakes, regardless of how much information is online. So the titles of the books are open as an archetype that people can see or even remember when they didn’t make the “adult” decision.
Why did you choose to focus on the experience of going to college as opposed to attending high school?
I chose the experience of going to college because I often felt that high school romanticized college and adulthood so much that it appeared to have an instant happy ending. I wanted to have a story that explores the consequences of getting to the place you thought you always wanted to be and having it not work the way you wanted. It’s one of the biggest life lessons for young adults—how do you adapt when life doesn’t go the way you planned?
How far has your approach to writing changed since you wrote The Girl?
Oh man, writing The Demon was a completely different approach than The Girl. For The Girl, I was a complete ‘pantser,’ writing and rewriting whatever I felt with no plan. The Demon was a full ‘plotter’ exercise - writing a fully detailed outline and deadlines was a brand unaccustomed exercise in structure and editing for me.
What are you
working on now?
I just got back
from a research trip for another book and may use NaNoWriMo to help inspire me
to put my research notes on paper…after a nap.
BookBaby | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
About Victory Witherkeigh:
VICTORY WITHERKEIGH is an award-winning female Filipino/PI author from Los Angeles, CA. Her debut novel, The Girl, was published in December 2022 with Cinnabar Moth Publishing. The Girl has been a finalist for Killer Nashville’s 2020 Claymore Award and was long-listed in the 2022 CIBA OZMA Fantasy Book Awards. The Girl won Third Place for YA Thriller in the 2023 Spring The Bookfest Awards. Her creative content creation for her Author TikTok also won First Place in the 2023 Spring The Bookfest Awards for Creative Content. She has short story print publications in horror anthologies such as Supernatural Drabbles of Dread through Macabre Ladies Publishing, Bodies Full of Burning through Sliced Up Press, In Filth It Shall Be Found through OutCast Press, and Nightmare Fuel’s 2022 Edition: Objects of Horror, etc.
Photo credit: Kat Goodloe
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