Author Interview: Sylvia Izzo Hunter
Sep. 12th, 2014 02:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jpskewedthroneToday, we have an author interview with Sylvia Izzo Hunter, author of the recently released novel The Midnight Queen from Ace! I asked her to introduce herself and the book, and here's what she had to say. Welcome her to the blog! And leave any questions you have in the comments section.
1. Introduce yourself.
Hi! I'm Sylvia, and I like to make stuff up. (But I will not be making stuff up during this interview.) (Much.) I live in Toronto -- please don't talk to me about Rob Ford -- and by day I work as a managing editor slash code monkey in non-profit scholarly journal publishing. I've been married for ::does subtraction in head:: 17 years this coming December; I have a 12-year-old daughter. I play the piano and the clarinet quite badly, and sing quite well. My husband and I used to have two pet hedgehogs. (Fun fact: hedgehogs have hair, not fur. My husband's allergic to animals with fur.) I really like cheese and olives, and really don't like eggplant.
2. Give us the "Hollywood Pitch" of your new book, two sentences max. (Such as: "This book is Harry Potter crossed with Silence of the Lambs, with a touch of Dumbo thrown in!")
If Jane Austen wrote about magic and conspiracy theories in a Europe where Christianity never really took off.
3. Now give us a more in depth description of the book. What makes this book cool? What will make it stand out on the shelves?
Well, the thing that really makes it stand out on the shelves is nothing to do with me -- it's got the most gorgeous cover I've seen in ages. Honestly, I first saw the cover concept way back in about February, and I am still not over how beautiful it is. I am incredibly fortunate! (The cover designer's name is Diana Kolsky. I have never met her but she's obviously awesome.)
One thing I think is a bit different about the world of TMQ is that magic isn't occult, it's part of everyday life; but that doesn't mean it isn't sometimes mysterious and baffling. Another thing that several reviewers have remarked on -- and it makes me happy, because this was definitely intentional -- is that while this is a coming-of-age tale and a hero's quest in some ways, it's not at all an invincible-hero/es-saving-the-day-in-splendid-isolation story. It's a story about people working together to tackle a really daunting problem, and growing together in the process; it's a story about families, both the ones that shape you as you're growing up and the ones you choose for yourself.
It's also got music in it, because for me music is a lot like magic.
4. What was the hardest part of writing the book, the part you struggled with most (without spoilers)? What part of the writing was the most fun (without spoilers)?
Hands down, the hardest part was figuring out the plot. Whereas characters and settings present themselves to me with, a lot of the time, very little effort on my part, I have to sit down and brainstorm plots and work them out and try to think them through to make sure they make sense from the antagonists' perspective and aren't boring and aren't, you know, second-order idiot plots. It's a lot of work, you guys.
The most fun was probably making up satisfyingly realist expletives for the characters to use when startled, frightened, angry, frustrated, etc. ("Horns of Herne!" "Apollo, Pan and Hecate!") Also, I just really enjoyed spending time with some of these characters. They feel quite real to me after all this time.
5. Explain your writing ritual: Must have you have coffee or tea or something else? Music or silence? Any special desktop items or totems helping you write?
Insofar as I have a writing ritual, it involves getting up before everyone else is awake and/or staying up after everyone else has gone to bed. I prefer quiet, but if I waited for the flat to be quiet I'd never get anything written at all!
These days I do most of my writing at the kitchen table, on my little hand-me-down laptop (little is a feature for me, not a bug, because I have tiny little T-Rex arms and comically small hands); I quite like to have a cup of tea at hand. When the weather's chilly, I like to write while wearing my favourite fuzzy pyjamas and my fuzzy socks with the owls on them.
I do have a desktop familiar, although as I say he lives on the desk and I mostly write in the kitchen. His name is Yorick, and he is, as you might expect, an adorable squishy plush skull. I happen to own Yorick because my husband is awesome and backed a Kickstarter project called To Be or Not to Be -- a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure version of Hamlet. He's very huggable (Yorick, I mean -- although my husband's very huggable too ;)).
LINKS:
Twitter: @sylwritesthings;
Website: sylviaizzohunter.ca;
LiveJournal: sylvia-rachel.livejournal.com;
1. Introduce yourself.
Hi! I'm Sylvia, and I like to make stuff up. (But I will not be making stuff up during this interview.) (Much.) I live in Toronto -- please don't talk to me about Rob Ford -- and by day I work as a managing editor slash code monkey in non-profit scholarly journal publishing. I've been married for ::does subtraction in head:: 17 years this coming December; I have a 12-year-old daughter. I play the piano and the clarinet quite badly, and sing quite well. My husband and I used to have two pet hedgehogs. (Fun fact: hedgehogs have hair, not fur. My husband's allergic to animals with fur.) I really like cheese and olives, and really don't like eggplant.
2. Give us the "Hollywood Pitch" of your new book, two sentences max. (Such as: "This book is Harry Potter crossed with Silence of the Lambs, with a touch of Dumbo thrown in!")
If Jane Austen wrote about magic and conspiracy theories in a Europe where Christianity never really took off.
3. Now give us a more in depth description of the book. What makes this book cool? What will make it stand out on the shelves?
Well, the thing that really makes it stand out on the shelves is nothing to do with me -- it's got the most gorgeous cover I've seen in ages. Honestly, I first saw the cover concept way back in about February, and I am still not over how beautiful it is. I am incredibly fortunate! (The cover designer's name is Diana Kolsky. I have never met her but she's obviously awesome.)
One thing I think is a bit different about the world of TMQ is that magic isn't occult, it's part of everyday life; but that doesn't mean it isn't sometimes mysterious and baffling. Another thing that several reviewers have remarked on -- and it makes me happy, because this was definitely intentional -- is that while this is a coming-of-age tale and a hero's quest in some ways, it's not at all an invincible-hero/es-saving-the-day-in-splendid-isolation story. It's a story about people working together to tackle a really daunting problem, and growing together in the process; it's a story about families, both the ones that shape you as you're growing up and the ones you choose for yourself.
It's also got music in it, because for me music is a lot like magic.
4. What was the hardest part of writing the book, the part you struggled with most (without spoilers)? What part of the writing was the most fun (without spoilers)?
Hands down, the hardest part was figuring out the plot. Whereas characters and settings present themselves to me with, a lot of the time, very little effort on my part, I have to sit down and brainstorm plots and work them out and try to think them through to make sure they make sense from the antagonists' perspective and aren't boring and aren't, you know, second-order idiot plots. It's a lot of work, you guys.
The most fun was probably making up satisfyingly realist expletives for the characters to use when startled, frightened, angry, frustrated, etc. ("Horns of Herne!" "Apollo, Pan and Hecate!") Also, I just really enjoyed spending time with some of these characters. They feel quite real to me after all this time.
5. Explain your writing ritual: Must have you have coffee or tea or something else? Music or silence? Any special desktop items or totems helping you write?
Insofar as I have a writing ritual, it involves getting up before everyone else is awake and/or staying up after everyone else has gone to bed. I prefer quiet, but if I waited for the flat to be quiet I'd never get anything written at all!
These days I do most of my writing at the kitchen table, on my little hand-me-down laptop (little is a feature for me, not a bug, because I have tiny little T-Rex arms and comically small hands); I quite like to have a cup of tea at hand. When the weather's chilly, I like to write while wearing my favourite fuzzy pyjamas and my fuzzy socks with the owls on them.
I do have a desktop familiar, although as I say he lives on the desk and I mostly write in the kitchen. His name is Yorick, and he is, as you might expect, an adorable squishy plush skull. I happen to own Yorick because my husband is awesome and backed a Kickstarter project called To Be or Not to Be -- a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure version of Hamlet. He's very huggable (Yorick, I mean -- although my husband's very huggable too ;)).
LINKS:
Twitter: @sylwritesthings;
Website: sylviaizzohunter.ca;
LiveJournal: sylvia-rachel.livejournal.com;
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