Rosalie M. Lin isn’t the first writer to draw from her own life, and she won’t be last. And while many of them will fudge a few details here and there, Lin went full pound of chocolately goodness by moving her story to the 1930s.
In the following email interview, Lin talks about what inspired and influenced her new historical fantasy novel, Daughter Of Calamity (hardcover, Kindle, audiobook).
Having a character be a liar is a common tactic in stories.
But Johanna van Veen explains in the following email interview about her new novel My Darling Dreadful Thing (paperback, Kindle), this sapphic Gothic horror / historical fiction story really came together when she decided that a character wasn’t lying…
Putting a different spin on a work of literature isn’t new, but it is really popular these days thanks to books like Madeline Miller’s Circe and Jennifer Saint’s Ariadne.
It is in this tradition, but also in its own way, that we find Mariely Lares’ historical fantasy novel Sun Of Blood And Ruin (hardcover, Kindle, audiobook), which not only puts a unique spin on the character of Zorro, but also sets said story in an alt-history world.
In the following email interview, Lares discusses what inspired and influenced this story, which is the first book of a duology…and (if she has her way) maybe more.
Sometimes it seems like every fantasy novel is set in modern times, the renaissance, or medieval times, and in places that resemble America or Europe. But in his new historical fantasy novel The Judas Blossom (paperback, Kindle, audiobook), the first book in a trilogy called The Nightingale And The Falcon, writer Stephen Aryan is telling an adventure set in the relatively unexplored realm of 13th century Persia. In the following email interview, Aryan discusses why he set it then, and there, and what else inspired and influenced this story.
While there have been stories about people traveling back in time for love, usually the connection is a specific person or the traveler’s home or, uh, a mailbox. But in the following email interview, writer Andrea Faye Christians explains why her romantic historical fantasy novel Suspension (paperback) is more about a bridge to the past.
Hollywood in the 1930s was a magical place. But in her new historical fantasy novel Siren Queens (hardcover, Kindle, audiobook), writer Nghi Vo envisions a tale of tinseltown where not all of the magic was on the screen.
In the following email interview, Vo explains how the idea for this story came to her, as well as what ’30s movies and movie stars served as inspiration.
With The Undertakers (paperback, Kindle, audiobook), writer Nicole Glover is continuing the magical adventures of Hetty and Benjy, paranormal investigators during the Reconstruction era who got their start in Glover’s previous historical fantasy novel, The Conductors. In the following email interview, Glover discusses what inspired and influenced this second story.