Ally Wilkes: On the Difficulty of the Second Novel

Ally Wilkes, the Bram Stoker Award–nominated author of All the White Spaces, grew up in a succession of isolated—possibly haunted—country houses and boarding schools. After studying law at Oxford, she went on to spend 11 years as a criminal barrister. Ally now lives in Greenwich, London, with an anatomical human skeleton and far too many books about Polar exploration. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram.

Ally Wilkes

Photo by Sophie Davidson

In this post, Ally discusses writing her new historical horror novel, Where the Dead Wait, her advice for other writers, and more!

Name: Ally Wilkes
Literary agent: Oli Munson, AM Heath
Book title: Where the Dead Wait
Publisher: Atria/Emily Bestler Books
Release date: December 5, 2023
Genre/category: Historical horror
Previous titles: All the White Spaces
Elevator pitch: A Victorian Arctic explorer returns from a disastrous expedition in disgrace. Thirteen years later, he must return to this haunted landscape to rescue his former second-in-command, and dig up the secrets of his own cannibal past.

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What prompted you to write this book?

I’ve always been fascinated by the history of Polar exploration: there’s just something about the thrilling tales of survival—and hubris—in the days when you could literally travel “off the edge of the map.”

My debut novel, All the White Spaces, dealt with a 1920s expedition to Antarctica, and whilst I was writing it, I was itching to take on the other side of the globe, with its lost expeditions and polar bears and ghastly history of survival cannibalism. I started dreaming about a sort of companion novel, where I could tell a very different type of story, but include all the elements I love to read about and couldn’t quite fit into All the White Spaces!

How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?

There’s a truism amongst writers that the second novel is “difficult,” and I hadn’t realized quite how difficult it was going to be! When I first met my agent in February 2020, I walked in with a printed version of what I thought would be my second novel. While the characters and setting were the same (the 1800s Arctic), the concept was wildly different. It dealt with an Area X-style zone of weird geographies and looping landscapes—and time—surrounding the North Pole, and more than once I had to construct elaborate 3D maps out of paper and sticky tape to try to understand the story I was telling. In retrospect, this was a sign that it wasn’t working at all.

I stripped the idea back to character and setting, and spent the next year rewriting the entire novel with a more eerie, gruesome, supernatural bent that would chime thematically with this tale of cannibal pasts and scattered bones. Thankfully my agent and editor (this was the second book of a two-book deal) couldn’t have been more patient and supportive throughout the process—and, of course, I had All the White Spaces to work on as it went through its own publication journey.

So, while I started writing my “difficult second novel” in the summer of 2019, Where the Dead Wait didn’t get sent off to my publisher in its current incarnation until July 2022!

Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?

At a fairly late stage in the process, when ARCs and covers were being put together, we realized that the book’s original title just didn’t quite work. It was too oblique, and didn’t really capture the reader’s interest. So, I spent an interesting few days brainstorming for a new title. I’m really pleased with Where the Dead Wait, as it conveys the story and has an excellent double meaning, but somewhere I have a notebook covered with pages and pages of titles that I hope find a good home someday …

Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?

Apart from rewriting it from the ground up? (laughs)

What do you hope readers will get out of your book?

I hope that they feel the chills of the Arctic and the sense of creeping dread—of course, it’s a horror novel!

On a wider scale, it was important to me to talk about some of the ways in which colonialism impacted both the Arctic and its indigenous population. I was pleased to work with a sensitivity reader who specializes in historical Inuit-European encounters, and on a slightly different note, I was also fascinated to read about the history of Black whaling captains in the North American whaling trade. So, while recognizing my own privilege and position as a white British author, I hope I’ve done my best to shine a small light on these areas, too.

If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?

Sometimes the only way out is through, and that applies to sticky, tormented novel rewrites just as it applies to so much else in life. It’s a truly daunting process to start tearing up something you’ve written, and looting it for parts, but you have to trust the process. Keep at it—even if it’s only a little at a time, so you don’t get overwhelmed—and sooner or later, the pieces will come together.

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