Jacqueline West, "Black Point" (Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2026)

Summary

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Podcast Summary: New Books Network

Episode: Jacqueline West, "Black Point"
Date: July 29, 2026
Host: Rebecca Buchanan
Guest: Jacqueline West

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Rebecca Buchanan interviews acclaimed children’s and YA author Jacqueline West about her latest young adult novel, Black Point (Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2026). The conversation delves into the inspirations, themes, and writing process behind a story set in a small, struggling Wisconsin riverside town grappling with environmental, social, and generational change. West offers insights on portraying realistic horror, the interweaving of Nordic mythology, and the importance of community, memory, and identity in her book.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Synopsis and Setting of "Black Point"

• Jacqueline West introduces Black Point as a fictional town "clinging to the bluffs above the water" on the Upper Mississippi River, characterized by its deep Swedish roots and facing both environmental and economic decline (01:18).
  • Lucia, the protagonist, comes from a family with generational ties to the town and is devoted to preserving its legacy, working closely with her grandfather at the Viking Museum.
  • The plot intensifies when outsiders purchase the town’s abandoned hotel—the source of many local ghost stories—stirring up secrets locals hoped would remain buried.
  • Quote:

    "Things are not going to go well for anybody." (Jacqueline West, 02:53)

2. Inspiration: Landscape, Change, and 2016's Impact

• West draws inspiration from her own experiences living in a small midwestern town, though noting hers is "about 17 times larger" and "far less homogeneous" than Black Point (03:24).
• The fragile beauty of bluffs and recurring flooding influenced her focus on climate change and the town’s resistance to change, both environmental and social.
• The political events of 2016 exposed hidden local attitudes, fueling the novel’s thematic exploration of how well we truly know our communities:
  • Quote:

    "...walking around town thinking, do I know you? I guess I don't." (Jacqueline West, 05:25)

3. Nordic Influence & Research

• West, herself part Swedish, wanted to explore both pride and discomfort with Nordic ancestry as Scandinavian iconography is increasingly co-opted by extremist groups (06:28).
  • She discusses researching Norse mythology, especially focusing on Viking religious practices and artifacts for the Viking Museum, drawing on resources like the Danish Museum.
  • The Viking theme for the museum developed organically, replacing an earlier idea of a pirate museum, once she realized "the museum had to have a deeper connection to the actual lore and past of the town" (08:35).

4. Character Development: Lucia and Max

• Lucia:
  • A "slightly odd," bookish, and intellectual 17-year-old who feels increasingly out of step with her lifelong friends but intimately connected to the older generation through the museum (09:35).
• Max:
  • A rare outsider and peer, initially met with mistrust, who represents possibilities beyond the insular world of Black Point.
    • Quote:

      "...there's this whole world of other people out there... who might have more in common with me, even though they're not from my landscape." (Jacqueline West, 10:50)

5. Writing Process & Structure

• West’s process is slow, revision-heavy, and always starts with writing first drafts longhand, creating maps and notes by hand (12:01).
  • She identifies as a "pantser" (writing by the seat of her pants), discovering the story as she goes, rarely outlining in detail.
  • A pivotal moment of clarity came on a drive when she envisioned the book’s alternating structure: Lucia’s present-day narrative interspersed with letters from Neil, a boy arriving in the 1980s (13:50).
  • Writing Letters:
    • The alternating structure was planned and built organically; Neil’s letters provide an outsider perspective on the same setting, "revealing things to the reader that Lucia doesn’t know" (13:47).

6. Intertwining Past and Present through Letters

• Though not typically a fan of timelines or letters in fiction, West found the dual perspective essential for balancing the insider versus outsider viewpoints (17:24).
  • Setting Consistency: The town’s landmarks and family names appear in both narratives, enhancing the sense of enduring tradition and the weight of history.

7. Climate Change as Real-world Threat

• Historical floods and environmental data inform key events—West researched actual flood years and markers using NOAA data (19:57).
  • The setting and its vulnerability are both literal and symbolic, highlighting how tradition and denial can collide with unstoppable forces of nature.
  • Quote:

    "There's even one of those posts in the town that shows the height of floodwaters. My town has one of those posts too... So as you're leaving town, you're always conscious of, wow, the water has sometimes been this high." (Jacqueline West, 20:19)

8. Legacy, Community, and Resistance to Change

• The novel explores how families with long histories in a town can drive both generosity and exclusion, creating small-town power structures that resist outside influence (22:27).
  • Quote:

    "They've been here for five generations. You're a newcomer... how dare you come in and try to change what we're already doing..." (Jacqueline West, 23:21)

9. Writing Horror for Young Readers

• West aims to harness the empowering aspect of horror, where the "scary things" serve as tools for readers to face fears from a place of safety (25:07).

  • Unlike movies, books let readers control their experience, making horror participatory and less traumatizing.
  • Quote:

    "If you get to play with them through fiction, then you have that little bit of power over it." (Jacqueline West, 25:39)

• Realistic vs. Supernatural Horror:

  • Black Point is rooted in real-world fears—community cruelty, climate catastrophe, the consequences of denial—rather than supernatural threats (28:09).
  • The ghost stories in the novel are actually a "benign force," whereas the true horror comes from human actions.

10. Evolving Manuscript: Surprises, Changes, and Organic Growth

• Elements such as more scenes involving Lucia’s peers and the abandonment of the pirate museum idea were added during revision (29:39).
  • The ending and some key actions changed significantly as West discovered new directions while writing.

11. Final Thoughts and Future Work

• Advocates for supporting local libraries and independent bookstores.
  • West mentions upcoming appearances at Midwestern book festivals and teases a new standalone middle-grade project set "in more of a fantasy fairy tale y kind of nebulous past" (32:26).

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Notable Quotes

• On Small Town Secrets:

  “Things were happening, I mean, all around me, in my own experience and also, you know, all over the country. I know that really made, yeah. Made me feel like, wow, do I know my own neighbors? I thought I did.”
  (Jacqueline West, 05:25)

• On Writing Horror as Empowerment:

  “If you get to play with them through fiction, then you have that little bit of power over it.”
  (Jacqueline West, 25:39)

• On Climate Anxiety:

  “The dread of climate change, of what are we doing to this planet... Things like the potential cruelty of fellow humans. Like, that is the scariest thing in the world to me. It's far scarier than anything supernatural.”
  (Jacqueline West, 28:23)

• On Family Legacies in Small Towns:

  “There's a lot of goodness to that... But it does also potentially create an oppressive sort of control... those family legacies have both such a positive and a potentially negative impact with that idea around change, which, of course is one of the biggest themes of the whole book...”
  (Jacqueline West, 23:00)

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Key Timestamps

• 01:18 — Jacqueline West’s synopsis of Black Point
• 03:24 — Inspirations: landscape, climate, small-town attitudes post-2016
• 06:28 — Nordic heritage and research for authenticity
• 09:35 — Character dynamics: Lucia and Max
• 12:01 — West's writing process; longhand, revision, "pantser" approach
• 13:47 — Structural breakthrough: Lucia’s POV and Neil’s letters
• 17:24 — Purpose and craft of the dual-timeline structure
• 19:57 — Climate change: integrating real flood research and data
• 22:27 — Old family legacies and the challenges of community change
• 25:07 — Writing horror for young readers as empowerment
• 28:09 — Real world horror vs. supernatural; the true dangers in the novel
• 29:39 — Narrative elements that evolved during writing
• 32:26 — Upcoming projects, book festivals, urging library support

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Memorable Moments

• West admitting the museum was nearly a "pirate museum," then realizing the deep need for a less whimsical, more place-rooted identity (08:35).
• Her candid explanation that the most frightening parts of her novel are "not supernatural, but very, very real—climate change, and what people are capable of doing to each other" (28:23).
• Description of her meticulous, notebook-driven drafting process, and the joy of drawing maps of fictional towns (12:15).
• Discussion of flood markers as ever-present reminders of the river’s threat and the ways these literal markers punctuate local memory (20:19).

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For Listeners

Jacqueline West’s Black Point promises a compelling blend of mystery, social inquiry, local legend, and contemporary fears—anchored in a vivid, nuanced sense of place and community. Her insights into writing, research, and the emotional landscape of horror for young readers will resonate with fans of literary YA, folklore, and anyone captivated by the complexities of small-town life.

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Find "Black Point" at your local independent bookstore or library.
Look for Jacqueline West at Midwest book festivals in Fall 2026 and stay tuned for announcements of her upcoming middle-grade fantasy title.

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Transcript

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[Jacqueline West]

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[Jacqueline West]

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[Jacqueline West]

Welcome to the New Books Network.

[Rebecca Buchanan]

Hi, this is Rebecca Buchanan, host at New Books Network, and today I'm here with Jacqueline west to talk about her latest novel, Black Point. Jacqueline, thanks for being here with me today.

[Jacqueline West]

Thank you so much for having me.

[Rebecca Buchanan]

Could you start by giving us a synopsis about what Black Point is about?

[Jacqueline West]

Sure. So Black Point is a tiny fictional town on the upper Mississippi River. It is kind of clinging to the bluffs above the water. And it's like many small Wisconsin towns, it's facing environmental and more and more economic problems as the years go by. So it's just kind of clinging literally to the hillsides above the water. My main character is a girl named Lucia who has lived there all her life. Generations of her family go back in this place. So she's got deep roots, and she also has this deep love for the place and just wants to preserve it and if possible, even restore it, you know, to former glory, when it was really a thriving little riverside town. And her grandfather owns and runs the Viking Museum of Black Point, Wisconsin, which is also kind of Lucia's life's work. It is this place where they sort of mythologize their ancestry. The town is very Swedish and preserve all this history. And. And so, yes, she has a lot of connections to the past of this place. And in the town there is a now defunct hotel like so many of these little towns that are no longer, you know, important tourist or trade destinations have. Which has been empty for decades. And there are all these local ghost stories about the place. And then some outsiders, people from Minneapolis, move in and buy the hotel, which shakes the town. First of all, that outsiders are here now, you know, having control over this important piece of local history. And then as these People begin to renovate the old hotel. They discover some secrets about the town and about its past that some locals had hoped would stay hidden forever. But now that those are kind of rising to the surface, things are not going to go well for anybody. So that's Blackpoint.

[Rebecca Buchanan]

I love that last. Things are not going well for anyone. Can you talk a little bit about how this book came to be? Like how this, you know, how you decided to write about this sort of small town? Yeah, sure.

[Jacqueline West]

So I should mention right away I live in a small Midwestern town, although mine is not at all like Black point. It's about 17 times larger, first of all, and it's far less homogeneous. And I'm on the Minnesota side of the river, which is a big deal, but. But there are several little towns that I kind of used inspiration, although none of them are exactly like the town I've concocted in this book. But I find that landscape so beautiful and so fragile. This area between the river and the bluffs where. I mean, I live in a town that floods every summer, and every year it seems to happen higher, more frequently. The weather gets more extreme, and so things right along the river are under constant threat. And so that was one of the opening pieces for me, was wanting to write about climate change's impact on a time tiny town that's really afraid of change of all kinds, that doesn't really want outsiders there, that doesn't want their own traditions to change. And now here's this change that nobody can control or prevent coming to alter the town. So that was one of my beginning places. I often start with the setting and I am just a sucker for an abandoned Victorian building. So wanting to play with the hotel like that, with the ghost stories. There's always a ghost story in a historic hotel. So those were my starting pieces, and I kind of had those in the back of my brain for a very long time, more than a decade now, but didn't know what I wanted to do with those. And then in 2016, the political things that happened in this country really gave me a push forward because. And I know that this is a privileged position, but I was not having to come into constant awareness of the kinds of attitudes that are still so present. And I think especially in small towns where we'll be polite to each other on the surface, but underneath, there are things you might not see or expect. And with some things that happened in 2016, it was like the curtain had been pulled back and suddenly things were happening, I mean, all around me, in my own experience and also, you know, all over the country. I know that really made, yeah. Made me feel like, wow, do I know my own neighbors? I thought I did. Just walking around town thinking, do I know you? I. I guess I don't. I guess I really don't. And I think that was kind of the engine that made the story start for me. My main character is kind of in that position here. She is so rooted in this town and so loving of it and then discovering things about it that she never knew, that she doesn't want to know, but now having this reality kind of exposed to her in a way she can't avoid.

[Commercial Narrator]

Yeah.

[Rebecca Buchanan]

So throughout this book there is a lot of sort of Nordic history, mythology. Can you talk. I'd love for you to talk a little bit about that and like the Reese, some of the research that you did to put this book together. Because as someone who has that ancestry and loves that kind of thing, I love that. So, yeah, can you talk a little bit about that? For sure.

[Jacqueline West]

So me too. Part of my family is Swedish and. And yeah, there's always been a little bit of family fascination with that. And I'm in a Scandinavian part of Minnesota, so there's always that. There's sort of that local pride, that ancestral pride. And now what's happening is this kind of co opting of Norse and Scandinavian mythology and imagery by some far right groups, which is kind of adding this weird new thread to that mix where when you meet someone who's really into Nordic lore who has a runes tattoo, you're like, are you Norwegian or are you something else? So that was part of the idea that went into this. And then as far as research goes, I mean, Viking lore has been so twisted throughout time by the retelling of these often completely unwritten stories. And most of the written work we have about Vikings came from outsiders, people who were observing them. So who were people who were under attack or who were seeing them as so strange and so different from their own culture that it's hard to take a lot of that as literal. But there are some amazing historical collections, obviously. And one that I relied on a lot was the Danish Museum, which has changed their website now. But while I was writing, this book had a fantastic section on Viking religious practices, ritual sacrifice, all the religion and cultural stuff that was so fascinating that I drew on while writing this. And then of course, I had to do lots of research about Viking weaponry, Viking tools, all the things that would have been collected in this Viking museum, more than I ever wanted to know. About seaxes and shields. And now I've mostly forgotten it.

[Rebecca Buchanan]

But. So did you go into this knowing you wanted to have that sort of Viking, the Viking lore, that Viking history in there, or was this something that sort of came as you were like, okay, I want more and more of this in there as I'm writing?

[Jacqueline West]

Yeah, that definitely developed over time. At first, I think it was even a different kind of museum. At first I think it was a pirate museum, which is even more out of place in Minnesota or Wisconsin. But then realizing after, I mean, I was in early chapters still, but no, realizing that the museum had to have a deeper connection to the actual lore and past of the town. And then when I realized, oh, of course, like, it's a Viking museum, this is this super Scandinavian little town. These are even the objects some of them, you know, their ancestors brought here that all of it made so much more sense. So I'm very glad went with Viking museum, not pirate museum.

[Rebecca Buchanan]

So, like, let's talk a little bit about your character, like Lucia, but who Lucia is. And she also meets Max, who's this sort of outsider who comes into town and is really becomes really important to her and sort of your story. So can you talk a little bit about them and who they are and how they kind of come developed and came. To be.

[Jacqueline West]

Sure, yeah. Lucia is, Yep. She's a 17 year old girl growing up in this very small town. And her, her social life revolves a lot around her grandfather and his friends, the oldies, because these are the guys she helps out at the museum. And all of them have been like these grandfather figures to her since infancy. And often in a town this small where if you are a slightly odd kid in any way, and she is, you know, she's very bookish and she's very, yeah, intellectual in her way. So she's not necessarily going to find a bunch of teenagers who she feels like, oh, I fit in with this group. Instead, she's kind of hanging out with the old guys. She does have some local friends as well, who of course, again, she has known all her life. Because this town does not change, at least not if it can help it. But those relationships, I think she is realizing as she matures, are feeling a little more uncomfortable to her, a little more like, I don't actually necessarily fit with you or agree with you or understand you anymore. And so when Max arrives, here's this person who, first of all, it's so rare for her to get to know someone her own age who she hasn't already known since they were toddlers. So the fact that he is an outsider makes him. It's kind of threatening and kind of, you know, untrustworthy to her, kind of unwelcome. Here's this guy, you know, like I said, moving in and changing things. He's not part of town. At first, even her grandfather thinks he's probably, you know, shoplifting or vandalizing something in the museum, because why is a teenage boy in here by himself? So Lucia approaches him with a lot of that distrust. But then the recognition of, oh, there's this whole world of other people out there, people my own age, people who have interests in art or in history, who might have more in common with me, even though they're not from my landscape, they're not from my home. Yeah. He kind of opens up that possibility to her. Yeah. So that's Lucia and Max.

[Rebecca Buchanan]

So can you talk a little bit about your process in writing? Like, your process, you know, you. You alluded to it more, but, like, can you talk a little bit about that process? Like you said, you sort of start with studying for you, you know, in this. But. Yeah, what is that? Like, what is your writing process for this book, at least?

[Jacqueline West]

Sure. My process is fairly consistent from book to book. The most consistent things are I am very slow, and I am an obsessive reviser and rewriter. And I write all my first drafts longhand. So there are notebooks behind me on my shelves here where I have my opening notes about black points, where I even drew a little map of the town where everything is ink on paper. And that is the only thing that works for me with writing a first draft. If I try to do it on my computer, I immediately get stuck by the possibility of perfection, by the temptation to edit. Whereas if I can let it out on paper and know it's going to be messy, and it can just be immediate and physical and free. That's what works for me. But again, it's slow. It's much slower than just typing would be. So I write my first drafts that way, and then I revise and revise and revise. And usually, because I'm also not an outliner, I'm a pantser. I have to discover the story as I go along. And so when I begin, I don't necessarily know what point I'm aiming for. Usually I can. I think it's an E.L. doctorow quote about it. You can just see as far as the headlights of the car. You know, writing the book is like driving at night. And that's definitely how It. It feels like I can see a little way ahead of me, but not all the way to the end. And again, that's the only thing that works for me. If I outline with too much detail, then I tend to write in a very plodding, explanatory way. So with this book, though, something happened that doesn't normally happen where I had my setting in mind. I had my opening people. I knew the places and some of the themes that I wanted to weave into it. And then one day as I was driving from Minnesota into Wisconsin, I had one of those flashes which I wish happened with every book, but they don't. But where I suddenly could see the first, maybe half of the book all outlined in my head. I knew exactly how I wanted to structure it. And up until this point, I hadn't really seen the way into the story. But now, suddenly I knew, oh, I'm going to have chapters in the present day told through Lucia's first person point of view. This, you know, kid who's rooted in the town right now. And then there are going to be letters from a boy named Neil, a teenager who arrived in Blackpoint in the 1980s. So distant history now, but who's going to reveal things to the reader that Lucia doesn't know. So the reader is going to get a window into things that were happening in town in the past before the main character does. And then as she puts it all together later in the story, the reader will kind of have put those pieces together simultaneously, hopefully. So that was such an exciting moment because suddenly, yeah, I knew what I was gonna do. I knew what the first half, at least, of the book was gonna look like, and I could finally get started. Like I said, it doesn't usually happen.

[Rebecca Buchanan]

I wanted to talk about the letters, but I have to ask you. So if you write in longhand, then you. You don't. You just go right through. You start at the beginning and just sort of go through and.

[Jacqueline West]

Well, I don't. I never make it to the end of the book because I don't know what's gonna happen. Usually I'll write the first several chapters and then realize, oh, that's. That's not working, or, oh, this has to change. Then I'll often go back and rewrite those first chapters by hand. This, again, very slow. But get to that point where, again, I feel like, okay, now I'm drafting fresh material. And then there will be again some point where I realize, okay, I've got enough now to start at least to want to preserve it. Somewhere else and then I'll type it in and I'll revise as I do that and then I'll keep drafting again in my little notebook on the side. But yeah, no, it's very cyclical. I never get an entire first draft written by hand neatly all the way through. Now it's much more piecemeal than that.

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[Rebecca Buchanan]

terms I want to talk. Can we talk a little bit more about those letters? Because that was something I wanted to ask you about. I really, I love, you know, letters throughout a book at any point. So. Yeah. Can you. I mean, maybe there isn't more to it than what you said there, like that inspiration for them. But yeah, can you talk a little bit about those and, and crafting that, you know, that move between the past and the present and giving us that little.

[Jacqueline West]

Sure. Yeah. So unlike you, I'm often annoyed by letters in a book. I mean, I've read many epistolary gorgeous novels where the whole thing is letters and it's done beautifully. But often when I have to move between timelines in a story, I feel annoyed. As a reader, I just want to see stay with the thing that's already pulling me along with the character I'm in their head. Don't yank me out of it. But here that was one of both my main fears and main goals, was trying not to annoy the reader that way, was trying to give them two characters that hopefully they will like, understand, sympathize with. Even though they're seeing the town from such different perspectives. And that was the structure that I really had to rely on. And that, yeah, the main goal of it was, so here's a local. Local townie, a person who's so implanted here that she can't really see the place with fresh eyes. And here's a newcomer, an outsider, this other kid who's very different from her, lived in a different time, but who sees the town from such a different perspective. So that was the main goal and. Yeah, that was having that consistent setting in between the two and thinking about, okay, exactly how much would have changed and how much wouldn't. In a town of this size and this population over, you know, 30, 40 years, there's a lot that is consistent. Cause this is a place that people don't leave. A lot of things stay the same. And so then those little hints could be implanted in Neil's letters. Things like names that the reader might recognize might not, but that Lucia would, and landmarks that the reader might already recognize. Lucia definitely would. So, yeah, it was such a fun way to get to, you know, disclose the mystery piece by piece.

[Rebecca Buchanan]

Yes. And make it historical.

[Jacqueline West]

Right, because the 80s are historical.

[Rebecca Buchanan]

So what is, you know, like, along with those, you know, the letters are from a specific year. Right. Like 1980. What is it? Sick. 85, 86. Like, so one of the things that you brought up is like the climate change. And throughout this we hear about, like, specific. Because the town during the summer is flooding. Right. And there's concern with that. So did you just sort of randomly pick years? Did you go and look at, like, these are years. Can you talk a little bit? Because that's really important too. Like the flooding. What is happening. The climate. What is happening with our climate right now and that kind of thing in the river.

[Jacqueline West]

Yes. Yeah, that was another area where I did. Yes. Real world research. And the. There are sections in the book where certain historical floods are mentioned. There's even one of those posts in the town that shows the height of floodwaters. My town has one of those posts too. But it does not show the years of the highest water. It just shows the foot. So as you're leaving town, you're always conscious of, wow, the water has sometimes been this high. The water has sometimes covered the entire road. So that was one of the pieces that I did some research using, what was the website, I think it was noaa, that had detailed and interesting flood year heights and locations. And you could get really granular with the data. So in the sections of the book where Certain historical floods are mentioned and things happened in town because of those floods. Those are all real years where the water was exceptionally high in this area. And the flood of record that so many people still even remember and talk about 1965, where the water got extremely high along the upper Mississippi and really damaged some little towns. And there was another gigantic one, the flood of the century in the 1880s. And now, like I said, we're just seeing that high water every year. So not to the same height, but the frequency is so much more. So, yeah, there's definitely a pattern to notice there when you do that kind of research.

[Rebecca Buchanan]

Yeah, I know I was. And I have, growing up in Minnesota, I know those little sort of flood markers. And I was like, I know those flood markers. Yeah. And I remember some really sort of. Well, around there, but also. Yeah. Some other places where there's been some really scary kind of flooding that happens. And. Yeah. So you have this town, you know, you have. You also, because you mentioned. Because we jump back and forth between, you know, this, the 80s and present day, you also have these adults who were not always adult. Right.

[Jacqueline West]

They were younger.

[Rebecca Buchanan]

They were sort of part of this town. So can you talk a little bit about that? Kind of like how you set up this town. Right. Like it. You have these town founders. You have these people who have always. And grow. I live in a small town right now. And so there is that. Like, there's certain names that we know. Right. Like, those are the people in that town. So can you talk a little bit about that and that structure and those. The oldies, the adults.

[Jacqueline West]

Yes, yes. I think it's such a. It's such a powerful force. Anyone who has lived in a small or smallish town will have experienced that. That there are certain old family names. And often those people have not just been around forever, but have intentionally done all kinds of, you know. Yeah. Humanitarian and political things to preserve or elevate that town. They have donated huge amounts of money to certain buildings or parks are named after them. You know, they've left land to the town. There's a definite feeling of giving back. And so I think for families like that that do decide, I'm just going to stay here. This is my little kingdom. Maybe I'll go away for education or employment, and then I'm going to come back and I'm going to reinvest everything in this town and I'm going to preserve my legacy and my children will carry it forward. There's a lot of goodness to that. That's a lot of the lovely stuff that's around me in my little town is thanks to families like that. But it does also potentially create an oppressive sort of control, a feeling of like, nope, these are the only real people. They've been here for five generations. You're a newcomer. You don't. I mean, how dare you come in and try to change what we're already doing or what someone else has already done or take the name off of something that someone else put there. It's always been there, so. Which, of course, it hasn't. All of it is you built on things, on stories and history that were here long before. But I feel like, yeah, those family legacies have both such a positive and a potentially negative impact with that idea around change, which, of course is one of the biggest themes of the whole book is which kind of changes are worth fighting and why, and which kind of changes are impossible to fight. Which kinds of changes are we fighting just because of fear and for no other reason? So, yeah, that whole family history and legacy is tied up in that, I think, idea for sure.

[Rebecca Buchanan]

So one of the things I wanted to ask you about is writing horror, right? Like, you write horror and especially, like, YA and middle grades. Can you talk a little bit about that? Like, I don't know if why horror is the right question, right? But, like, you know, like about, like, like talk about. I would love to hear a little bit about horror and also, like, how do you think about, like, how you presented to a young audience or in a younger audience to want them to keep engaging with it, right. And not be like, I don't ever want to, you know, like, you know, like, there's always the one who's like, I saw that movie at a way too young age and now I never want to watch horror again or something like that.

[Jacqueline West]

Yeah, no, I totally understand that because I was that kid. Like, there are movies I saw and wish I could pull back out of my brain, but I. I feel like that's such a difference between books and movies where, like, I have several movies that give me that feeling, like, oh, I was too young for that. Wish I could erase that. With books, the ability to be in control, not just to stop reading, but, like, you're participatory. It's your imagination, you know, helping construct these things and see them the way that you want to. It's so much more a powerful position to be in. And so, I mean, I tell kids at schools when they ask, why do you write scary stories? It's because I'm a total Chicken. I have so many fears. And as a kid was absolutely, I mean, the most overwhelmed, shy, anxious, overactive, imagination child, but also always drawn to those scary things. Because if you get to play with them through fiction, then you have that little bit of power over it. You get to, you know, keep creeping into the dark and going, oh, I'm still okay. I'm gonna go a little bit farther. Oh, I'm still okay.

[Rebecca Buchanan]

Okay.

[Jacqueline West]

This is actually kind of fun. I'm gonna go a little farther. So that's definitely what I'm trying to do. For young readers when I'm writing a scary story. It's never my goal to traumatize a child. It's never my goal to make them wish they hadn't read something they just read instead. I'm writing for all the kids like me. And I think there are a lot who get to face their fears or just the concept of fear to get to explore their own courage or resilience through the lens of a character and then feel stronger because of it. Feel like the world is maybe even a little less scary because those things are survivable. So. But I also tell kids at schools like, this is one of the most fun ways to deal with your own fears. Like, everything that's creepy in my book is something I am horrified of. The deep water. There's a scene in a flooding cave. Like, things that would absolutely panic me. But I get to put my characters in these situations and have them survive most of the time. But I get to take power over those fears, use them colors on a canvas.

[Rebecca Buchanan]

It's.

[Jacqueline West]

It's really fun and empowering to get to play with them that way.

[Rebecca Buchanan]

Well, and with Blackpoint, at least you, you know, a lot of people will write horror and it'll be super. There'll be some kind of supernatural horror. But there isn't supernatural horror in this. Right. Like, it is very much rooted in reality. Right. We're not, we don't have. I mean, you know, there is one woman who can sort of like. Or people. The. The town story is that she can sort of see into the future. But there's always that, like. But that's sort of rooted in reality too. Right. That's not this like, supernatural esque thing. Yeah. So is that important to you too? Was that important in Blackpoint that this was a story where all of a sudden it wasn't some, you know, there's like the ghost stories and all that, but it wasn't all of a sudden. Okay.

[Jacqueline West]

Yeah, yeah, no, I. With this book, I was definitely exploring some of my deepest fears. I mean, there are the things that are. That are more surface fears for me. Things like, yes, in deep water, the dark, big fish. But then there are the things that are so huge that fear even seems like too small a word. Things like the, you know, the dread of climate change, of what are we doing to this planet, you know, and future generations. Things like the potential cruelty of fellow humans. Like, that is the scariest thing in the world to me. It's far scarier than anything supernatural. And so, yeah, that is a layer I wanted to put into this. The ghosts. All the ghost stories in the hotel end up actually being kind of a benign force, maybe even a helpful one in the end, while it's the things that humans have done that's the real horror here. And that was, yeah, absolutely intentional. That was me just going, okay, here's what really, really frightens me. I guess I will explore it.

[Rebecca Buchanan]

So are there things I always like to ask this, like, in writing that completely changed once you started really getting, you know, like, big, that you can. That you feel you can talk about without, you know, spoiling things you don't want to spoil? Right. Like, yeah. Are there any sort of big changes that you were like, oh, this is not gonna work. I mean, you mentioned the pirates, Right. The Pirate Museum and that kind of thing. But is there anything else that.

[Jacqueline West]

Oh, yeah, the Pirate Museum was a big one. There is a scene near the opening of the story that gives the reader more of a window into Lucia's life with her own social cohort, like her with a bunch of fellow teenagers from the town. What are they doing these days and how are they part of the town's traditions and legacies? Which was not there from the beginning. And I realized eventually how important that was to show that this is something that's, you know, that's ongoing, that future generations, other people are getting involved in, to carry on these. Yeah. These traditions, these identities. So that wasn't always there. There are a couple of big things at the end that I can't give away that completely changed as I was writing because, like I said, with no outline, I'm often just surprising myself. So. So things ended in places and with kinds of action I didn't expect. And I'm so grateful that they did because they kind of evolved organically into a way I think is much scarier, which is good, but also a way that felt like it wove back into the heart of the story that tied back into the setting into the heart of the themes that I'm working with. And I was just like, oh, that's it. Now it makes sense. And sometimes you know when you're missing it, but you don't know what it is until you get there. And so that was definitely what happened with the final scenes of the book.

[Rebecca Buchanan]

As you were talking, I wanted to ask too, when you wrote, did you write the letters, like, as you were writing each chapter, did you write. Did you know you were going to do those and write them separately? Or did you. Were you like, okay, I've got this chapter. Here's what I want people to know about what's going to happen next.

[Jacqueline West]

Like, yeah, I'm very chronological, so I tended to write those letters in between the chapters with Lucia. And so sometimes it did become like a puzzle, like, oh, what can I reveal here? But not too soon. Oh, what's going to be echoed then in the next chapter in the present? So there was a little bit of sliding things around lately. But no, if I had tried to go through and just write all of Neil's letters sequentially, I would have been absolutely lost, because without. Without a super clear outline and I did not have one, I wouldn't have known how to structure that. Instead, they did. They did grow out of the things that were happening in the Lucia chapters, which then influenced the Neil letters. And so, yeah, that is how they. They built on each other.

[Rebecca Buchanan]

Yeah. And then they can sort of influence where you're going next and that kind of thing. So, yeah. So my final question is self promotion. Right. So the book comes out in what, End of July? Right. We're till what? Like, the book comes out next week, 28th, so people can go get it. But anything with the book, anything else you're working on, what do you want people to know?

[Jacqueline West]

Oh, well, sure.

[Rebecca Buchanan]

Thank you.

[Jacqueline West]

Yes. I hope you will find the book at your favorite independent bookstore or at your local library. I serve on my local library board, and just public libraries are such a gift. And especially in a smaller town like mine, it is just like the heart of the community. So if you find the book at your library or request it from your local library, I am delighted. I am going to be. If you happen to be in the Midwest, I'm going to be at several Midwestern book festivals this fall and summer. I will be doing the Minnesota Children's Book Festival here in Red Wing in September and Untitled Town in Green Bay in late September, with more to come. The next thing that I'll be releasing after this book, I'm going back to Middle grade and it hasn't been officially announced yet, so I can't talk too much about it. But it is a standalone. It is something I'm so excited about. It's the first thing I've ever written that's said in the past. Really, that's not Almost all of my work is in the present, with little portals to possible other realities. But this is in more of a fantasy fairy tale y kind of nebulous past and letting myself just have that treat to go as a fantasist and explore that has been really fun. So I will eventually share all the news about that on all of my websites and social stuff.

[Rebecca Buchanan]

Yeah, awesome. Thank you so much again. Jacqueline west about her latest novel Black Point. Thanks for talking with me on New Books Network.

[Jacqueline West]

Oh, thank you again. This was so much fun. Thank you. Thank you for listening to this episode of the New Books Network. We are an academic podcast network with the mission of public education. If you liked this episode, please share it with a friend and rate us on your preferred podcast platform. You can browse all of our episodes on our website newbooksnetwork.com Connect with us on Instagram and BlueSky with the handle ewbooksnetwork, and subscribe to our weekly Substack newsletter at newbooksnetwork.substack.com to get episode recommendations straight to your inbox.