We caught up with KATHRYN LEFROY to discuss her book The Secret of the Stone, a story of friendship, family and navigating your way in the world.
What can you tell us about your new book The Secret of the Stone?
At its heart, this is a story about friendships and family, and the challenges of navigating those relationships when everyone has their own needs, desires, and agendas. But it’s all wrapped in a fast-paced adventure filled with crazy antics, sinister villains, iconic San Francisco settings, and plenty of humour and heart. Plus, it’s packed with young heroes doing cool things, saving each other, and probably also saving the world.
I’m beyond excited to finally share this book, as writing it was an absolute blast. I hope readers get swept up in the story and have just as much fun reading it as I did creating it!
What inspired the magical elements in this book?
I had the idea for this book after watching one of those massive budget superhero movies. It got me thinking: What if regular kids had the chance to dabble in the world of superheroes by gaining (for a limited time) some kind of power. But instead of getting cool powers, they accidentally ended up with the most useless ‘superpowers’ known to humankind. While I didn’t want them to have silly powers throughout the whole story, that was definitely the inspiration for the jumping off point.
What kind of mischief do Olive and her friends get up to with the stone?
When Olive, Theo, and Lola first stumble upon the stone, they have no clue it can grant wishes – resulting in some pretty absurd wishes being granted. But once they discover the true power it holds, the trio can’t resist pushing the limits to see just how far the magic can go. The fun doesn’t last long, though. As others begin searching for the stone, the stakes rise, and the trio must think carefully about each wish they make. Their choices grow harder, and soon they face life-altering decisions that could not only destroy their friendship but put their lives – and the lives of others – in danger.
If you could have any wish granted – what would it be?
Ooh, that’s a tough question! But I think it would be the ability to make time stand still while I could keep doing things. Most of the time it feels like there aren’t enough hours in the day…
What are some of the biggest lessons Olive and her friends learn in this story?
As well as the external factors that the kids are up against (the baddies, bullies, parents not understanding them, etc.) the kids face some really tough internal challenges when it comes to deciding what they should wish for. When I was writing the book, I kept coming back to the superhero adage, ‘with great power comes great responsibility’. I wanted to show that just because they had a wish-granting stone, it didn’t mean all their problems would disappear – every wish had a price. In fact, many of their wishes ended up creating even bigger challenges. They constantly had to scramble to adapt, trying to make sense of the chaos each new wish unleashed, realising that having power didn’t necessarily mean having control.
The idea of a constantly changing reality is something I struggled with as a kid – and honestly, it still challenges me today. But as Olive’s grandmother says in the story, ‘The only constant we have is change.’ So, while this book is, above all, a thrilling adventure, I also hope it helps readers see that change doesn’t have to be scary. Some changes can be an exciting adventure, if you choose to see them that way.
What was your favourite part of writing this book?
I approached this book very differently from my other novels. With those, I had everything planned out before I started writing. But for this one, I just sat down and began with chapter one. All I had in mind was the frog idea – and funnily enough, that chapter hasn’t changed much since I wrote it years ago. So, my favourite part of writing this book was the sense of freedom and spontaneity at the start. Did it stay that way? No, definitely not. It turns out I’m not great at just ‘going with the flow’ when writing, so after getting stuck near the end of act one, I stepped back and made a plan. That helped me push forward and not give up on the story.
Another thing I loved was setting the story in San Francisco. I started writing it just after moving away, having lived there for eight years. I still adore that city, so it was a real joy to spend time there again – even if it was just in my imagination.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Kathryn writes novels, screenplays, articles – and the occasional shopping list. She has a PhD in marketing, several screenwriting credits, and her stories have appeared in magazines, journals and online. She spends way too much time in conversation with imaginary characters, and not-so-secretly wishes she lived in a dance movie.
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