A hallmark of a great writer is the ability to capture our imaginations in an unexpected way. Kirsten Bakis did just that with her highly-acclaimed debut, Lives of the Monster Dogs. That 1997 novel created a fantastic world in which speaking dogs (with 19th-century Bavarian fashion tastes) find themselves the toast of the town in contemporary NYC.
Bakis’s long-awaited second novel, King Nyx, delivers us to an equally interesting place. It’s the winter of 1918, Anna and Charles Fort (based on historical figures) find themselves quarantined on the island estate of an eccentric millionaire. Charles is a world-famous expert on unexplained phenomena, but it’s Anna who steps out of his shadow to attempt to solve the mystery of why three girls have gone missing from the island. Get ready for a page turner.
A Hudson Valley resident, Bakis took some time this week to answer a few questions about her books, the art of writing, and life in general.
Did you always dream of being a writer?
Literally, since I was three years old. I used to walk down the street when I was a kid, narrating my life in my head, thinking, “She walked down the street. A fine, cold rain was falling. A bus roared past, splashing her.” I pictured the words printed out, with punctuation.
Meanwhile, I wouldn’t be paying attention to where I was going and would bump into a parking meter. If it had been a different era, maybe I would have been diagnosed as neurodivergent. Back then it was usually just: “Daydreams, doesn’t finish her homework assignments, not living up to her potential…” That kind of thing.
I’m glad I wanted so badly to be a writer because, for all the ups and downs, I’m very aware that I have my dream job. I’m very grateful for that every day.
Lives of the Monster Dogs combines contemporary realism with fantastic elements in a truly original way. Was there a genre you were aiming for, or did you have to invent one in order to write Monster Dogs?
That’s a good question! I think I was influenced by really old science fiction, like Frankenstein and H.G. Wells. I don’t know if I was aiming for anything except to get the story “right.” How I knew what “right” was, I don’t know how to explain.
It took seven years to write. I just had a sense of what it had to be – sort of like a light shining in the distance – and I just tried to fumble my way towards that. It was a very internal process. I don’t want to say it was instinct, because it was a lot of work, hours spent trying one thing, then another. But there was something like instinct leading me on, that’s how it felt.
For your new novel, King Nyx, were you trying to conjure a similar sensibility or break out in a new direction?
For King Nyx, I was thinking a lot about plot. What I mostly wanted to do was write a page-turner. I love reading and also find it intense and challenging for a lot of reasons, one being just time constraints. As a single mom, I really appreciate when a book has momentum and pulls me forward with suspense. That’s what I was hoping to do.
I think it has a similar sensibility to Monster Dogs in some ways, a gothic feel and a certain amount of over-the-top-ness, which is partly because that’s the way my mind runs, and those are some things I enjoy as a reader.
Readers might notice that the book takes place during the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918 and that you wrote it in the heart of the more current epidemic. Was this connection intentional?
During the years since I wrote Monster Dogs, I drafted several novels, and they were all set around that time period, so I had already done a lot of research and kind of mentally lived in that era for a while, but the specific choice of that epidemic year was definitely influenced by the Covid pandemic.
Like a lot of people, I was reading about the Spanish Flu and thinking about what it must have been like, what was similar and what was different. It must have been a scary time. I remember my grandmother, who was in high school in Estonia in 1918, telling about a classmate who was in school one day, caught the flu, and was dead by evening.
During our pandemic, when it was hard to get groceries, I somehow wound up with a fifty-pound bag of flour and I baked bread for myself and my kids every day and used up that entire bag. I have memories of my grandmother baking bread, so I was definitely thinking about her that year.
From your perspective, are there any aspects of the practice of writing you would stress as singularly important?
Everyone is different, I think one really important thing is bringing your attention to your own practice. For example, setting a goal for a week and then carefully observing, without judgment, whether you’re able to reach it. If not, what got in the way?
The point being not to make yourself do any specific thing, but to discover what works for you. What’s really helpful for me, and a lot of people I’ve worked with, is having a writing group or accountability buddy – someone you check in with regularly to discuss how the past week went and set goals for the next one. Friends make you feel less alone in the process!
People who put in hours reading and writing do get somewhere over the years. Ones who don’t, don’t. The path to getting a novel finished can be so crazy and rocky, you can get lost in swamps and stung by bees and wander off in the wrong direction. But if you keep moving forward on the path somehow, in spite of the very reasonable voices in your head telling you to give up, you do actually get somewhere. At least, that’s how it is for me and for many people I’ve worked with.
You live in Croton-on-Hudson which seems to have a lot of 19th century connections (aqueduct, railroad, etc.) is this part of the appeal?
That’s interesting! You know, I kind of ended up here by accident. We were moving out of a rental in Ossining and had to find a new place, and we had dogs at the time. They were very nice dogs, but they were large and there were three of them, so basically there was one landlord in all of Westchester who was willing to take a chance on renting to us, and we’ve been here ever since.
But Croton is a nice town, it does have that 19th-century feel to it, and we’re right in town where it’s very walkable. It has a history of being home to artists and lefties. There’s a hill that used to be called Red Hill because of all the communists who lived there in the early 20th century. Edna St. Vincent Millay once lived here, and Isadora Duncan. Lorraine Hansberry is buried in the beautiful old cemetery next to our library. Her headstone is shaped like an open book, and you can often find small offerings that have been left on it–smooth stones, or pens, or flowers.
Feel free to talk about kids, pets, chickens, if you like!
I love to talk about kids and pets and chickens! I have two amazing teenagers who both have enjoyed growing up in Croton, although Charlotte, who is fifteen, is counting the seconds until she can move to New York City. Which is how I felt at her age, so I understand. Theo, on the other hand, likes it here and wants to stay, which is similar to how my sister felt.
We have a dog, Lily, who is a boxer/pitbull mix, who gets me out walking every day, and two cats, Dusty and Bob. The chickens are four retired laying hens and their names are Guinevere, Snowflake, Esther, and Princess Beelzebub, mostly named by children, where the best names come from!
What else do you like about living in the Hudson Valley in the 21st century?
I think the Hudson Valley is beautiful! I love being able to hop on the Metro North train and go into NYC. But, having lived in the city for many years, I also really appreciate having a yard, walking my dog on wooded trails, and having a little garden.
I guess it just feels like home, I feel lucky to be able to drive by places from my childhood and point them out to the kids. My parents and sister live ten minutes away. I hope it provides my kids something that feels like a solid home base, that they can launch themselves from, but come back to when needed. Maybe even bring their own kids to one day.
Continuity is comforting.
Both King Nyx and Lives of the Monster Dogs are available at your favorite local bookstore and online.
For more info on readings, writing classes and more, see kirstenbakis.com.
Join the family! 
