The Girl Who Could See by Kara Swanson

Science Fiction, Dystopian, Coming of Age

Today I’m pleased to introduce my friend and very talented fellow author, Kara Swanson, whose newest book, The Girl Who Could See, releases this week and has already earned some five star reviews. I asked Kara some questions about the story, and I’m sure you agree it sounds like a great read. Definitely on my TBR!

Bev: Tell us a little about yourself.

Kara: I’m 20 years old, and I spent the first sixteen years of life in the Jungles of Papua New Guinea, as the daughter of Christian missionaries. When I was 17, I coauthored and published a fantasy novel called Pearl of Merlydia. Now, a few years later, I’m releasing my own novel, The Girl Who Could See.

Bev: What inspired you to write “The Girl Who Could See”?

Kara: The inspiration for my stories usually comes in vague ideas, or a character pops into my head, or from the lyric of a song. The inspiration for TGWCS however, was not nearly so vague. Two sentences appeared in my thoughts that had me desperate to find out what story lay there:

They say every child had an imaginary friend. Mine never left.

Bev: Tell us how you came up with the beautiful cover, and what the images mean.

Kara: That cover is the brilliance of my designer, Jenny at Seedlings Design Studio (). She is fantastic to work with and so talented! I gave her the basic details about my novella and what themes I pictured being shown on the cover, and after some back and forth, we had the basic comp down for what you see! Then Jenny finessed it, and voila!

The cover has a combination of several images overlaid and sculpted. We’re seeing it all through Fern’s (my main character) silhouette. The idea was to show the contrasting worlds that Fern sees, by having them displayed through her. Looking through her eyes, if you will.

Fern is basically treading this thin line between modern LA and a parallel world that is a desolate wasteland. Little does she know, by opening a “rift” between these two worlds, she is letting something into hers. A creature that wants to destroy earth, just as it has destroyed the other world.

Bev: Is there a Bible verse that the story centers around?

Kara: Not necessarily, as this is speculative fiction. However, there are several spiritual themes/allegorical undertones, including blind faith, trusting in the impossible, accepting the existence of a savior the rest of the world refuses to believe exists, and self-sacrifice. Is this going to be a series?

Bev: Is this going to be a series?

Kara: Nope! It’s a stand-alone novella. However, I have tossed around the idea of doing an accompanying novella from the perspective of my main character, Tristan. The cover would be similar, but with a male silhouette instead of a female one, and with the landscapes switched. Her city world shown through his face, and his desolate world on the bottom. It’s just an idea at this point, though!

Bev: What are you working on next?

Kara: I have about six different novels that are either finished or in revisions. One of my favorites of those is called Skyridge. It’s an urban fantasy/paranormal about a girl who is the daughter of a fallen angel, born with wings on her back and a destiny to destroy the world on her shoulders—but she has other plans. It follows her journey away from the darkness of her heritage, and to join the very creatures she’s been bred to hate: the angels.