For three teenagers, dark mystery has always lurked at the corner of the eyes and the edge of sleep.

Beautiful Morgan D'Amici wakes in her trailerpark home with dirt and blood under her fingernails.

Paintings come alive under Ondine Mason's violet-eyed gaze.

Haunted runaway Nix Saint-Michael sees halos of light around people about to die.

At a secret summer rave, the three teenagers learn of their true, changeling nature and their uncertain, intertwined destinies.

Riveting, unflinching, beautiful, BETWIXT shows a magic as complex and challenging as any ordinary truth.

Tara Bray Smith was born and raised in Hawaii. She graduated from Dartmouth College and received her MFA in non-fiction from Columbia University's School of the Arts. She now divides her time between New York City and Dusseldorf, Germany.

What was the most important piece of advice you ever received?
Tell the truth. People won't trust you if you do not tell the truth. My father gave me this advice when I was very young, though if we apply this to fiction writing, which is by its nature an act of make-believe, we must ask, what is truth in fiction? Is there such a thing? I think there is, but it's like that hackneyed description of pornography: you know it when you see it.

Who would be your ideal date – they can be real or fictional, alive or dead…?
Depends on the planned activity! I would -- very boringly -- have to say my husband, Thomas, who is up for nearly everything. Even though he grew up in a small western German city on the Rhine, on his first visit to Hawaii with me, where I grew up, he was willing to kayak, under the scorching Hawaiian sun, for about twelve hours along the sheer cliffs of the impassible Napali Coast on the northern face of the island of Kauai. The tops of my feet were blistered, and his knees too! I call that romantic!

Vanilla or chocolate?
Passionfruit.

Who is your favourite author?
Coetzee ... Nabokov ... Mann ... depends on what I've just read. I have many favorite authors at the moment.

Can you tie a knot in a cherry stalk with your tongue?
Yes, I can.

Where’s your favourite place in the whole world?
In bed, reading.

What’s the weirdest thing that’s ever happened to you?
My whole life has seemed kind of weird to me.

What was your first pet and what was it called?
My black cat, Limerick.

Are you scared of anything?
I'm scared of most things. Give me a situation; there will be an aspect of it I am afraid of.

Mexican or Italian?
Food? Football players? Art? Beaches? Sky? I love me some tacos...

The most famous person I’ve ever met is…?
Barack Obama.

MORGAN D’AMICI
There are two sides to Miss D’Amici – the beautiful, funny, flirtatious Morgan.  And the dark, dangerous girl who takes things that aren’t hers, just because she can.  The girl who wakes up in her trailer park home with blood under her fingernails and no idea how it got there.

ONDINE MASON
Ondine is the girl who never cries, not even when her family moves to another state without her. Sure it was her choice to stay on in Portland so that she could finish senior year, but to not shed a tear, is that normal? It's certainly not 'normal' that under the violet gaze of those same eyes paintings seem to come alive.

NIX SAINT-MICHAEL
With no family, no home and no idea where to turn he’s been running since he was fifteen-years-old. But no matter how far he goes he can’t escape the fact that he sees haloes of light around people about to die. Death seems to be everywhere he looks and it's only the effects of ‘Dust’ that can help deaden the darkness.

EXTRACT: Betwixt (Download Pdf)

WALLPAPER: Betwixt (Download Jpg)