Sarah J Maas

Sarah J Maas

About Author

Sarah J Maas began to develop the world of Throne of Glass on www.fictionpress.com at the age of 16 and soon received tens of thousands of views. Ten years later, in 2012, her novel was published for the first time. Maas is a Disney fan and it was while listening to the Cinderella score that the original idea for the series came to her what if Cinderella was fleeing from the ball because shed done something really bad, what if she was an assassin and had tried to kill the prince? Over the ten years she worked on the story it has evolved into an epic fantasy rather than a Cinderella retelling, but the books are peppered with references to everyones favourite fairytale.

Sarah J Maas is originally from New York and currently lives in California

Author link

www.sarahjmaas.com;www.sjmaas.livejournal.com;www.facebook.com/THRONEOFGLASS;www.twitter.com/SJMaas

Interview

CROWN OF MIDNIGHT

BLOOMSBURY CHILDREN'S BOOKS

SEPTEMBER 2013


Bestselling US author Sarah J Maas spoke to us about writing the Throne of Glass series and fulfilling her dream of becoming a published (and hugely successful!) author. Her second book in the series, Crown of Midnight, has just been published in the UK by Bloomsbury.


Q: We hear you're heading to the UK in October. Are you looking forward to visiting us?

A: I am SO excited for my UK tour, you have no idea! I love the UK, and each time I've visited, I've come away so, so inspired. To be going for a book tour is a freaking dream come true, especially since I visited the UK way back in the early days of daydreaming about Throne of Glass (that trip was hugely influential), and it's just this surreal full-circle type thing.

I'd love to visit Glastonbury Tor, even just for a few moments - I visit every time I come to the UK, and it's just a magical, wonderful place.


Q: How has being a published and successful writer changed your life?

A: Well, it's wonderful to be able to write full-time. To do what I love for a living. Few people get to do that, and I thank the Universe every day for it. And as for the success.... Ha. I still spend my days in yoga pants and old t-shirts, still binge-watch my favorite tv shows, and drink far too much coffee. Though I'm grateful for the success (more grateful than I can ever say, actually), it hasn't changed much of my day-to-day life (which is a good thing).

Throne of Glass was always the book that - if given only one chance to get published - I wanted to see on a shelf. But I was fully prepared to have to publish another book if TOG didn't work out - I had three other manuscripts in the wings, ready to go. Fortunately, TOG got published - and one of those other manuscripts, A Court of Thorns and Roses, is actually going to be published as well (starting in 2015)!


Q: You originally published Throne of Glass online - would you recommend other new writers do that?

A: Well, in 2002 I was 16 and I didn't even know I wanted to be published. I didn't even know if I could write an entire novel at the time. I just knew I loved to write. I had no one in my daily life that was reading or writing fantasy, so I put it on FictionPress because I just wanted to know if the story was worthwhile - if anyone would ever want to read it.

Turns out, a lot of people wanted to read it. But I didn't consider getting it published until years later - when I had books and books worth of material and fans begging me to get it published. These days, I think FP is a great place for aspiring writers to get feedback and have fun - so long as youre careful about protecting your story from would-be plagiarists.


Q: You've said the series was inspired by Cinderella - what's your favourite fairytale? Were there any stories you were obsessed by as a child?

A: I've always loved fairy-tales and folklore from around the world. 'East of the Sun, West of the Moon' is probably my favorite (along with 'Beauty and the Beast'), but I've also always loved 'Vasilisa The Beautiful' - mostly because it features my all-time favorite character from folklore: Baba Yaga. She's terrifying and mysterious and cunning and still fascinates me now (and inspired the race of witches in the Throne of Glass series).


Q: How long have you been writing about Celaena? Was there one character you read that helped inspire her? Did you always know her heritage (as revealed at the end of Crown of Midnight)?

A: I've been writing about Celaena since I was 16, but I technically got the idea for her a few months before that - when I was 15. So I guess I've been thinking about her for almost twelve years now.

Celaena kinda just walked right into my head the moment I had the idea for the series. Though I think she was also the product of my love for Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Kill Bill, Han Solo from Star Wars, and Disney princesses, as well as my desire to write/read a book where the heroine got to do all the 'fun' things that boys usually get to do: kick butt, kill monsters, save the world.

I knew her heritage from the get-go and knowing it helped me figure out her character arc, secret motivations, etc, and also leave little clues for the reader before her secret was even revealed.


Q: Did you feel the need to undertake any research into assassins or self-defence classes, say, to get into Celaena's head?

A: I usually rely on my best friend and fellow author, Susan Dennard, who is a bit of a karate/ninja master. If I need to know what it feels like to get punched, or survival tips, or anything biology-related (she was a marine biologist, too), I'll call her up and pick her brain.


Q: How hard as a writer is it to kill off some big characters (as happens in this book...)?

A: Hard. Unspeakably hard. I get so emotionally attached to my characters that I feel what they feel when they go through awful stuffwhich meant that while I was writing those horrible scenes, I was a total wreck in my 'real' life. My husband was seriously disturbed.


Q: Crown of Midnight is the second book in the series - but it can also work as a stand-alone novel. Was it hard to achieve that?

A: I actually never wrote it as a standalone novel - if it is that way, it's just because I got lucky. The backstory that I wove in was there just because it was on the characters' minds - so I'm pleased to hear that people can read it without having read book one!

I can't tell you much about book three but I will say that it follows the characters on their journeys, as well as some new characters, and will be out in Fall 2014.


Q: How many more books do you plan to write in the series?

A: I think there are going to be six or seven books in the series - it depends on how large the cast of characters grows and what direction they take it in. Right now, I know how it all ends, but I also like to listen to my characters and my gut, and if they decide they want to go in another direction, I'll follow them.


Q: The books have an 'other world' setting - if you could visit part of this world for a day, where would you spend it?

A: I don't think their world is particularly happy, so I'm not sure I'd want to visit any of it, but I would like to (from a safe distance) see the stygian spiders (who are introduced in the second novella, The Assassin and the Desert). Theyre so creepy and lovely and cool. If I couldn't see them, then I'd just want to wander the streets of Rifthold and see all the shops and markets.


Q: Do you like to read fantasy, as well as writing it? Any favourites?

A: Of course I do! I have so many favorite authors that I'm probably going to forget some, but they include (this also includes non-fantasy writers): Megan Whalen Turner, Nalini Singh, Sharon Shinn, Melina Marchetta, Garth Nix, J. R. Ward, Karen Marie Moning, Alex Bracken, Susan Dennard, Philip Pullman, Leah Cypess, J. K. Rowling, James Clemens, Anne Bishop, Terry Brooks, Lloyd Alexander, Peter S. Beagle, Robin McKinley, and Patricia A. McKillip.


Q: Where do you like to write best and what's your best time of the day for writing?

A: I have an office at my house, which is my Writing Cave. It's got a desk and a couch and books and books and books, my walls are hung with my favorite posters and fan-art, and it's full of trinkets and baubles from all my adventures around the world. It's the only place that is 100% mine, and I love every moment that I spend in it.

As for my favorite time of day to write, Im definitely an afternoon/evening/night writer. I'm useless creatively in the mornings, so I usually reserve them for 'admin' work - answering emails, phone calls, social media, etc.. But after lunch (and lots of coffee), I dive into writing for the day.


Q: What are you writing now?

A: I'm working on the third book in the TOG series, and gearing up to write the fourth!


Q: What do you do to relax when youre not writing?

A: Read (tons and tons of books), marathon tv shows (I recently got addicted to Teen Wolf), and just hang out with my husband and dog. I love to travel and go out, but I'm a homebody at heart, so I love just chilling in my PJs on the couch (so glamorous, I know).


Thank you Sarah J Maas for answering our questions!

Image: Josh Wasserman

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