We both have Jamaican heritage and have lost older family members who migrated to the UK, so we started to think about the particular customs of Jamaican migrants of the Windrush generation who kept cultural elements from home including burial rites. The Dead Yard (or Nine Night) is something akin to a wake but takes place before the funeral. As the name suggests, it occurs nine days after a person has passed away. The person’s spirit is said to depart to the afterlife at this point. But this custom, which has a spookiness to it, got us thinking: what if a spirit of a family member didn’t depart on the ninth day. What if they stuck around and haunted a poor kid from the current generation? That was the premise for the Dead Yard series.

What we’ve also been able to do with the series premise is share with a wide audience some of the incredibly creepy duppies (evil spirits) of folklore from many islands of the Caribbean. We start with a creature who specifically feeds on children – which was the perfect villain to introduce for a middle grade series – Ole Higue.

There’s a lot of overlap between the islands of the Caribbean. We’re like one big family with a shared history, shared cultural practices and shared cuisine. So when Pardina, who was raised in St Lucia, first heard about this project she knew she wanted to be a part of it! Growing up, she’d heard all the folktales from her older family members, stories about creatures with different names but the same superstitions. In St Lucia, Ole Higues are soucouyants, Bohiques are obeah men or gadè, duppies are gajé and a Dead Yard is a Nine Night. But the behaviours are the same – we mourn our dead by celebrating their lives, our recipes are shared recipes throughout the region, and our scary stories and superstitious warnings are passed down from generation to generation.

Writing this story came easily to Pardina. She remembered being a preteen and learning to love her culture at the age where everything to do with adults was decidedly uncool, so writing Jermaine’s journey as it went from exasperation to belief came easily to her. She remembered the spooky stories her grandaunt would tell her, of spirits and the people they tormented. She also remembered the many Dead Yards she’d attended in her town, and how when she’d lost her own family members, what it meant to come together as one for each other.

We hope that this story has captured all of these themes, and will invite kids in our community to reconnect with their heritage in new and interesting ways, as well as welcome newcomers to our beautiful Caribbean Culture. The Jamaican motto is Out Of Many, One People and the St Lucian one is The Land, The People, The Light – we hope our people shine in this story.

1. The cover is really striking, what sort of process was involved in creating it and do you get free reign on the colours and effects?

Thank you! I was given a rough cover mock-up that included the title, which made things a lot easier. I was told the image should take place at night and that ghostly green and fiery reds would be the core elements of the cover. I came up with a few ideas to complement said colours. So, to some degree, I had free reign on how I went about it and what effects would best sell the idea were up to me. Trying to sell nighttime with different colours was a lot of fun.

2.What are your tools of choice for designing and creating book cover art?

I use Clip Studio Paint and a Huion Kamvas 22 drawing tablet. Sometimes I burst out the pen and pencils just to draw ideas out faster in a cheap sketchbook, but I will admit that is rare.

3. What was the trickiest part of illustrating Dead Yard Seeds of Doom?

Having to pay REALLY close attention to window styles of buildings in London. I know that sounds silly, but at one point, I had a lot of references to buildings around Shepherd’s Bush Market. I have never been to London, and things as simple as windowsills can make or break selling a location, believe it or not. Just researching London in general was the hardest part.

4. Who was the most fun to draw and what sort of inspiration do you use to bring a fictional character to life?

Assad was the most fun to draw because he’s always in a state of extreme distress. If everyone was scared, he had to appear even more scared. When it comes to bringing a character to life, I often start with how I think they will dress and give them one or two key emotions that best describe their most common emotional state. Knowing how they style themselves can give you more insight into how they may act or their interest. Then, from there, you can better understand and envision them acting out scenes from the book.

5. Do you have an early design of one of the spreads or the cover you can share with us?

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The first book in the Dead Yard series, Dead Yard: Seeds of Doom is out now.  Many thanks to Jasmine and Ashley from Storymix and Markia the illustrator for introducing us to this new series!