Kendare Blake Q&A: ‘In Every Generation’ Revisits Buffy the Vampire Slayer
The Stakes Have Never Been Higher
The first in an all-new series by New York Times best-selling author Kendare Blake continues the world of Buffy the Vampire Slayer featuring the next generation of Scoobies and Slayers who must defeat a powerful new evil.
A new Slayer for a new generation…
Frankie Rosenberg is passionate about the environment, a sophomore at New Sunnydale High School, and the daughter of the most powerful witch in Sunnydale history. Her mom, Willow, is slowly teaching her magic on the condition that she use it to better the world. But Frankie’s happily quiet life is upended when new girl Hailey shows up with news that the annual Slayer convention has been the target of an attack, and all the Slayers―including Buffy, Faith, and Hailey’s older sister Vi―might be dead. That means it’s time for this generation’s Slayer to be born.
But being the first ever Slayer-Witch means learning how to wield a stake while trying to control her budding powers. With the help of Hailey, a werewolf named Jake, and a hot but nerdy sage demon, Frankie must become the Slayer, prevent the Hellmouth from opening again, and find out what happened to her Aunt Buffy, before she’s next.
Get ready for a whole new story within the world of Buffy!
In Every Generation (Volume 1)
Kendare Blake
Disney Hyperion
Buy In Every Generation from Amazon
Kendare Blake is the author of several novels and short stories, including the Three Dark Crowns series, Anna Dressed in Blood series, and the Goddess War series. Several of Blake’s fiction projects have been optioned for media adaptations. Find her author website here.
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Q&A With Kendare Blake
Q: Disney Hyperion Publishing and author Kendare Blake’s (“Three Dark Crowns” Series) In Every Generation is the first of a YA trilogy that serves as both a spinoff and a pseudo-sequel to the popular television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Except that the focus this time is on someone very unique—the new slayer isn’t only a slayer. She’s also a witch. Now, Blake is offering some more details on her plan for the trilogy...
“Yeah. So, it’s a trilogy. When I wrote the first book, I kind of thought of it as crafting Frankie Season 1. So Frankie being called as a vampire slayer, developing her own group of Scoobies, having her first big bad, and then the overarching questions would be what happens to the slayers? What is the slayer legacy? What is the fall out from this? And who is ultimately behind it? And more of that will come out in book two and then be resolved by book three.”—Buffy the Vampire Slayer Author Kendare Blake Talks Spinoff Novels (Bleeding Cool)
Q: First of all, I want to say how much I enjoyed being back in the Buffyverse! You clearly have a lot of love for BtVS as your writing captured the essence of the original while still being something completely unique. How did you find your stride?
“It’s weird, but the stride was there already. Like the Buffyness inside me had been lying dormant all these years just waiting for its moment. Returning to Sunnydale (even a lower-elevation, New Sunnydale that was somehow rebuilt out of that sinkhole—this is the part where we suspend our collective disbelief!) was the most fun I’ve had in front of a word processor.”—Interview: “In Every Generation” Author Kendare Blake on Crafting the Next Chapter of the Buffyverse (Laughing Place)
Q: Congratulations on In Every Generation! It honestly was hard to put down, and it brought me back to the original feel of when I first found the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series.
“Thank you AGAIN! That’s precisely what I was aiming for: that classic Buffy feel. That’s what I wanted more of: the quips, the camaraderie, the exasperated Watchers. The bitchin’ fight scenes.”—Interview: Talking ‘In Every Generation’ With Author Kendare Blake [EXCLUSIVE] (Nerds & Beyond)
Q: Not sure if you can tell us, but I’m always curious when an author gets to write a new iteration of an existing property or franchise: How did this book come about? Did Hyperion come to you? Did you come to Hyperion? Did you have to take a Buffy trivia quiz? Would love you to spill the tea.
“I will spill all of the tea! Which in this case is not much tea, and a very well mannered, English type tea, very tame: One day my fabulous agent emailed and said the Buffy team had approached her and asked if I would like to write this series. I screamed WHAT THE WHAT and then cursed the timing because I had just signed contracts on my new projects, and had specifically padded my schedule so I would have time to cool down and switch gears from Three Dark Crowns. BUT OBVIOUSLY I had to do this.
“So, they sent over the proposal, which was a short synopsis laying out the concept, introducing Frankie, telling me who else would be in it, and about the attack on Slayerfest and Buffy and the other slayers presumed dead, and then I got on the phone with the editor (the absolutely amazing Jocelyn Davies) and we hashed out a way that would fit it into both of our schedules and hit deadlines, etc.
“I was still…trepidatious about whether I could do it in time (I only had a few months) and I was nervous as hell about dipping a toe into the Buffyverse because the Buffyverse is SACRED. And I’d never written for an Intellectual Property before, so I asked a lot of questions about what I could and couldn’t do.
“Wait, that’s not true. I wrote a story for the X-Files once. And they had stipulated that Fox Mulder couldn’t swear, so you know, specific rules, and I wanted to make sure I didn’t break any. I left Xander out of an entire draft because even though I needed him, I hadn’t explicitly been told he could be in it. Like, at first I was very careful about coloring inside the lines.
“Anyway, they gave me pretty free rein, though the original pitch synopsis did end with them having a very dramatic moment and then going out for pie, and I love pie, so I kept that part and the New Scoobies go for pie after they fight their Big Bad.”
—Chosen Ones, Vampire Slayers, and a Return to the Buffyverse: An Interview with Kendare Blake (Brazos Bookstore)
Q: It’s obvious you’re a huge fan of the show because it comes through on each and every page. What element of your own personality or interests did you want to bring to the Buffyverse? What part of In Every Generation is 100% Kendare Blake?
“None of it, I swear! I tried to keep myself out as much as possible. My only job was to be a Buffyverse vessel, to recapture the tone and feel, to grab that nostalgia and hold tight. I tried to structure the book like a pared down season of the show, with episodic monsters of the week and smaller arcs tied into the overarching mystery. It was great fun cooking up a new Big Bad! Buuut, something was bound to sneak in, so Frankie’s eco-witching, that’s kind of me. And there’s a scene in a demon bar that takes place away from New Sunnydale, and that scene had bits of my voice and proclivities. But only bits.”—Kendare Blake talks ‘In Every Generation,’ being a ‘Buffy’ vessel, and why she wants to bring Wesley Wyndam Pryce back (Subjectify Media)