Book Tour| A Bite Above the Rest – Christine Virnig

Today I’m posting my interview with Christine Virnig for the release of A Bite Above the Rest. I have this interview for the book tour hosted by TBR and Beyond Tours. My post is a couple of days late after a hectic weekend, but I’m still really excited to share this interview. Keep on reading to find out more about this book!

A Bite Above the Rest by Christine Virnig
Genre: Middle Grade
Publishing Date: August 6, 2024

A boy moves to a Halloween-themed town only to realize there may be more to the tourist trap than meets the eye in this fast-paced romp of a middle grade novel perfect for fans of The Last Kids on Earth and Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library!

When Caleb’s mom decides they are moving to her childhood home in Wisconsin, Caleb is not thrilled. Moving schools, states, and time zones would be bad enough, but Mom’s hometown is Samhain, a small and ridiculously kitschy place where every day is Halloween.

Caleb is not a fan of Halloween when it only happens once a year, so Halloween-obsessed Samhain is really not the place for him. How is he supposed to cope with kids wearing costumes to school every single day ? And how about the fact that the mayor is so committed to the bit that City Hall is only open from sundown to sunup to accommodate his so-called vampirism? Sure enough, Caleb becomes an outcast at school for refusing to play along with the spooky tradition like the other sixth graders. Luckily, he manages to find a friend in fellow misfit Tai, and just in time, because things are getting weird in Samhain…or make that weird er .

But there’s no way the mayor is an actual vampire, and their teacher absolutely cannot really be a werewolf—right? Caleb discovers Samhain is so much stranger than he ever could have imagined. As one of the only people who realizes what’s happening, can he save a town that doesn’t want saving?

Book Links

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Author Interview

What inspired you to write A Bite Above the Rest?

                After writing two middle grade nonfiction books, I knew I wanted to try my hand at writing a novel next. But I had no idea what to write about until the main character of A Bite Above the Rest just popped into my head one day. The poor kid was walking around with a wooden stake in his back pocket because he was terrified that he’d run into a vampire or witch or werewolf at any moment. I immediately thought he seemed like a pretty cool main character, but he became even cooler once I realized that nobody around him was afraid. But why was he the only one?!? I had to write the story to find out!

What has been the favorite part of your publishing journey so far?

                Meeting other authors! Despite being a hopelessly awkward introvert, I’ve made so many writer friends over the years whom I’ll cherish forever.

If you were a character in A Bite Above the Rest, what kind of character would you be?

                I would 100% be Caleb, my main character. He and I are so much alike—we’re both anxious, unsure of ourselves, and we share the same (admittedly rather juvenile) sense of humor.

Describe A Bite Above the Rest in five words or less.

                Vampires, werewolves, humor, and heart

What is your favorite quote from A Bite Above the Rest?

                This is a great question… and a tough one. I don’t think I have a favorite quote, but one that epitomizes my main character nicely without requiring any explanation is: I’d nearly had the pudding scared out of me by a cat!

What do you hope readers take away from your story?

                Honestly? I just want them to come away with the knowledge that reading can be fun!

Could you give us 5 random facts about A Bite Above the Rest (think the story, writing, publishing, anything that comes to mind)?

  1. The first several drafts of A Bite Above the Rest were written in third person, and then I changed the whole thing to first!
  2. Like Caleb, I don’t actually like Halloween that much. (The one exception: the candy! I LOVE the candy!)
  3. It wasn’t until I was halfway through writing my first draft that I finally learned whether or not there were any actual monsters in my story.
  4. Shadow—the black cat in the story—is inspired by my own black cat, Scout.
  5. I loved the spooky setting of A Bite Above the Rest so much that it inspired me to write a picture book about a haunted house, which my agent then sold 🙂

Tour Schedule

During this tour some amazing bloggers and bookstagrammers talked about A Bite Above the Rest! You can check out their posts by clicking here for the tour schedule.

About the Author

Christine Virnig is a former physician who now spends her time writing gross-but-educational middle grade nonfiction, spooky-but-funny middle
grade novels, and picture books that feature inanimate objects as the main characters. Her three books to date include: A Bite Above the Rest, Dung for Dinner, and Waist-Deep in Dung.

Author Links

Website
Instagram
Goodreads

A big thank you to Christine for taking time to answer my questions! I always love hearing more about a book from the person who wrote the whole thing. This definitely makes the reading experience more fun. I really need to read more middle grade, so A Bite Above the Rest will be on my TBR soon.

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