To celebrate the re-release of The Key of Amatahns by Elisabeth Wheatley,Inkspelled Faery is hosting ten days of visiting your favorite authors as they talk about their very first novels, topped off by an all- day Facebook party with fun, games, and giveaways. Check out the full line up of authors and don’t forget to join the Facebook party on the 25th!
My Debut Novel: The Seventh Magpie
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Sometimes you must give up what you value most
to gain what you want even more.
Princess Catrin is just a child when her mother vanishes, leaving her a cryptic legacy: a priceless magical book and the warning that if Catrin ever loses it, she’ll surely die. But she is a young woman on the brink of a whole new life when, in a moment of defiance, she forgets that warning and triggers a catastrophe that shatters all her hopes.
Stricken with grief and guilt, and seeking a way to correct her terrible mistake, Catrin risks everything on a dangerous bargain. Too late, she realizes just how much more she has to lose. With advice from a half-mad witch and help from companions she meets along the way, Catrin embarks on a desperate quest to defeat seven riddling Magpies—magical tricksters who can shapeshift into anything or anyone—and win back her book or face losing everything she holds dear. With each step the stakes get higher, and there are secrets she still doesn’t suspect. How much is Catrin willing to sacrifice to finally unmask the Seventh Magpie? A dark fairy tale of loss and renewal. |
My Answers to Elisabeth's Interview Questions
Elisabeth: To start us off, can you sum up your first novel in a tweet, 140 characters or less?
A queen's disappearance. A magical book. A lost love. A deadly game of riddles with all at stake. Can Princess Catrin regain what she lost?
Elisabeth: What are you most proud of in this title?
I'm pleased with a lot of the language of the book. I was aiming for a style that was minimal yet lyrical and full of imagery, and I think the book achieves that. I'm also proud of the book's climax and resolution. The story starts out seeming like a simple, predictable fairytale, but it gets gradually deeper and more complex until the unexpected twists and deep emotional impact of the end.
Elisabeth: Do you think your writing has changed since your debut? In what way?
Well, I started The Seventh Magpie when I was 19, wrote the majority of it in my early 20s, but didn't finish and publish it until I was 49. So my writing certainly changed and matured over the duration of writing the book. A lot of the simplicity of the style, the use of archetypal characters, and the inclusion of some of the standard fairytale tropes were dictated by the book's genre. Now that I am working on other novels--fantasy, sci fi, and paranormal, but NOT fairytale--I'm enjoying the freedom to develop much more complex and multi-layered characters and plots, and to explore the world building more deeply.
Elisabeth: If you could give one piece of advice to yourself when you were writing your first book, what would it be?
Don't give up. It's okay if you get to places where the writing or the plotting or the structure is bad. It doesn't mean that you're a bad writer and it doesn't mean that you can't do it. It just means that you haven't figured out the right approach yet. Every aspiring writer gets to that stage at some point in every work in progress. The thing that turns "aspiring writers" in to "real writers" is that when they reach that point of doubt, the real writers don't give up. They keep on doing the work and improving their skills until they figure it out. Be a real writer. Persevere!
Elisabeth: Worst piece of writing advice anyone’s given you?
One of my teachers back in high school told me I should give up writing fiction and concentrate on journalism, because there was no money in fiction. Even at the time (way back in the 1980s), I thought that was remarkably short-sighted. First of all, I don't think anyone who has any awareness of the publishing world at all goes into fiction writing because they think it's the best way to make money. They go into it because they are passionate about it, and can't imagine NOT doing it. Second, it wrongly equates the two careers, as if someone who is suited to and passionate about one would automatically be good at the other. And third, of course, with so many newspapers and magazines struggling or closing down, print journalism isn't exactly a booming career choice either.
No matter what advice anyone ever gives you about your writing, you have to measure it against your own creative instincts and not follow it blindly. What may work for someone else might not work for you. If the advice seems reasonable, you can try it out. But be prepared to change it or ignore it completely if you find that it doesn't coincide with how you envision your work.
A queen's disappearance. A magical book. A lost love. A deadly game of riddles with all at stake. Can Princess Catrin regain what she lost?
Elisabeth: What are you most proud of in this title?
I'm pleased with a lot of the language of the book. I was aiming for a style that was minimal yet lyrical and full of imagery, and I think the book achieves that. I'm also proud of the book's climax and resolution. The story starts out seeming like a simple, predictable fairytale, but it gets gradually deeper and more complex until the unexpected twists and deep emotional impact of the end.
Elisabeth: Do you think your writing has changed since your debut? In what way?
Well, I started The Seventh Magpie when I was 19, wrote the majority of it in my early 20s, but didn't finish and publish it until I was 49. So my writing certainly changed and matured over the duration of writing the book. A lot of the simplicity of the style, the use of archetypal characters, and the inclusion of some of the standard fairytale tropes were dictated by the book's genre. Now that I am working on other novels--fantasy, sci fi, and paranormal, but NOT fairytale--I'm enjoying the freedom to develop much more complex and multi-layered characters and plots, and to explore the world building more deeply.
Elisabeth: If you could give one piece of advice to yourself when you were writing your first book, what would it be?
Don't give up. It's okay if you get to places where the writing or the plotting or the structure is bad. It doesn't mean that you're a bad writer and it doesn't mean that you can't do it. It just means that you haven't figured out the right approach yet. Every aspiring writer gets to that stage at some point in every work in progress. The thing that turns "aspiring writers" in to "real writers" is that when they reach that point of doubt, the real writers don't give up. They keep on doing the work and improving their skills until they figure it out. Be a real writer. Persevere!
Elisabeth: Worst piece of writing advice anyone’s given you?
One of my teachers back in high school told me I should give up writing fiction and concentrate on journalism, because there was no money in fiction. Even at the time (way back in the 1980s), I thought that was remarkably short-sighted. First of all, I don't think anyone who has any awareness of the publishing world at all goes into fiction writing because they think it's the best way to make money. They go into it because they are passionate about it, and can't imagine NOT doing it. Second, it wrongly equates the two careers, as if someone who is suited to and passionate about one would automatically be good at the other. And third, of course, with so many newspapers and magazines struggling or closing down, print journalism isn't exactly a booming career choice either.
No matter what advice anyone ever gives you about your writing, you have to measure it against your own creative instincts and not follow it blindly. What may work for someone else might not work for you. If the advice seems reasonable, you can try it out. But be prepared to change it or ignore it completely if you find that it doesn't coincide with how you envision your work.
If you thought this was fun, drop by the Facebook party going down on the 25th for more interviews with your favorite Fantasy authors as well as games and goodies galore!
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