Katharine & Elizabeth Corr on Finishing the The Witch’s Kiss Trilogy with The Witch’s Blood

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Recently, sisters Katharine and Elizabeth Corr finished their popular The Witch’s Kiss trilogy with its final installment The Witch’s Blood and faced some conflicting feelings. 

“On one hand, we’re really proud of what we’ve written, and kind of amazed that we’ve had three books published in less than two years,” said Kate of the fast-paced and character-driven Sleeping Beauty retelling.

“On the other hand, we’ve spent so much time with Merry and Leo and the rest of our characters— so much time in their world— that saying goodbye to them was really sad,” said Liz. “It’s sad thinking that we’ll probably never write about them again.” 

“But never say never!” Kate said, adding that the experience has been “an exhilarating journey with a really steep learning curve,” and that it taught them, among other things, the importance of advance planning.

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“The Witch’s Kiss was originally envisioned as a stand-alone,” she said. “So when our publishers asked for more, we had to figure out how that story arc could be taken further.” 

“We were able to pull it off, but it was a lot of work,” Liz added. “Next time we’ll be more far-sighted hopefully.” 

The sisters said it took them some time to move on after finishing the trilogy. 

“Sending off the final email approving the last few proofreading corrections was pretty emotional,” Liz admits. “That was it. We were done.” 

“There’s always a gap between the writer or writers finishing a book and the date it hits the shelf— there has to be time for printing and binding and so on,” Kate explained. “We finished writing and editing in November. By the time The Witch’s Blood came out in the U.K. in March, we’d mentally got some distance from the story and characters.” 

Liz added that, following the series’ completion, the sisters felt ready to move on to new stories. 

“We’re working on a couple now, and we’re already pretty excited,” she said. “There are so many new characters that we want to develop as well as new worlds for us to explore.”

Liz said she and Kate are now working on a middle grade story— a fantasy with “a strong Narnia vibe.” 

“It’s fun because we’ve imagined an entirely new world for our characters to inhabit,” she said. 

They are also working on another YA novel together, although it’s high fantasy this time. 

“I’ve also had an idea for a younger middle grade project which I haven’t quite got round to telling Liz about yet,” Kate said. 

“Funny you should say that,” Liz responded. “I’ve just come up with a YA idea that I haven’t quite got around to telling you about yet!” 

“We’ve both written alone in the past, so [going solo] is a possibility,” Kate explained. “I’d like to do something purely historical, which Liz is less interested in.” 

Liz said that she’s more likely to write something that is humorous. 

“A fantasy Bridget Jones, maybe,” she said. “I absolutely love everything written by Terry Pratchett— I could see myself writing something along the same lines as the DiscWorld novels.” 

Even so, the sisters said that they’re sticking together for the time being. 

“It’s less scary and much more fun!” Kate said.

The Witch’s Blood is now available in the UK for purchase and hits shelves in the US on June 12th 2018.

Find Katharine & Elizabeth Corr online at www.corrsisters.com, and on Twitter at @katharinecorr and @lizcorr_writes.

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