[NPC]Sin Eater's Daughter
Hello Gaians! We're excited to welcome Melinda Salisbury, author of The Sin Eater's Daughter, for a special chat. Please be polite to our talented guest! Once this Q&A is over, you'll be able to get a few sneak peeks at The Sin Eater's Daughter by keeping an eye out for me, Twylla, as I post in the forum!
Ms. Salisbury answered some of your pre-event questions before she arrived. Check it out:
Melinda Salisbury
Who are your biggest literary influences? Who was the first writer to grab and hold your attention?
My biggest influences are J.K. Rowling, of course. Angela Carter, Jenny Nimmo, Neil Gaiman, Margo Lanagan, Erin Morgenstern, Maggie Stiefvater. I love writers who use words to paint pictures, not just to tell stories with. I like the wistful, and the melancholy, and the magical. I love stories that haunt you, and all of those guys do that with their stories, they come back to you and demand your time, over and over. I want to be like that, one day. I want my books to haunt people.
What inspired you to write the The Sin Eater's Daughter?
The idea happened in the shower! I was singing away (we all do it, let’s not pretend) and I began to wonder what it would be like to have to do it professionally – not onstage, as a star, but on demand, to a very specific audience. What I had to sing for a king, was taken from my home to do it, and my family’s lives would be at stake if I didn’t? What if I’d originally seen this chance as an escape, only to find it was even worse? What if my whole life was designed around me and I had no choice in it? It escalated quickly, with me playing a really grim game of What If with myself, thinking about religion, and Sin Eating, and freedom, and choices, and from that came this young woman, Twylla.
How do you balance keeping a story entertaining and being socially/politically relevant (that is, the artist's job to reflect and comment on society)?
I don’t think it is my job to comment on society. I think it’s my job to tell stories, and if they happen to provoke larger discussion about the real world, then that’s a positive thing, but I certainly don’t set out with an agenda or message. Personally, I read to escape from real life stuff, because whilst it’s important to be informed, there are times when it feels like I’m drowning in misery. Books are my respite from that, I read a lot of fantasy because it gives me space from how cruel the real world can be, and how unjust, and how wrong, a lot of the time. If anything, that’s what I’d want my books to be; a solace, a safe place from somewhere that can be overwhelmingly dark at times. I leave it up to the reader to draw parallels and conclusions, once they start reading, it becomes their story, not mine.
Aside from literary influences, what else inspired the plot to your latest book? By that I mean, cultures, religion, sciences?
Probably the biggest influence in my love of medieval history, particularly The War of the Roses. People were so underhand, and cruel, and selfish, and brutal and they were all willing to do whatever it took to see themselves, or the people they supported, on the throne. People bartered money and children to make it happen, people turned on their own families. It was dark, and messy and uncertain, everyone lived on a knife edge waiting to see who would triumph overall. Those imagined feelings of uncertainty and terror were a huge influence. The whole world of the Sin Eater’s is concocted from things I find fascinating, like death, and women in religion, and honour, and alchemy.
Do you have a favorite book from your childhood that has always remained on your bookshelves?
Jenny Nimmo’s The Snow Spider trilogy. It’s the first book, and series, I can ever remember choosing for myself and I absolutely loved it. I love it still. It’s all about wizards, and magic, and mythology, and it’s set in North Wales, a place I love very much.
Do you have a book or series you find yourself re-reading?
Harry Potter! Of course, I’ve read them so many times! Also Leigh Bardugo’s Grisha trilogy is one I keep coming back to. Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell is another. The Snow Child, The Night Circus, The Girl With Glass Feet. I re-read a lot, to be honest. I love returning to worlds I know, and love.
What are your favorite sorts of characters to read about?
I like the underdogs! I like the quiet ones, and the broken ones, and the messed-up ones. I like the ones who make mistakes, and aren’t very brave, or sassy. Part of the reason I wrote The Sin Eater’s Daughter was to make characters like that. Lately I’ve read a lot of really feisty, resilient tough YA heroines, and I’ve loved them, and I know they were needed to show that girls can fight, but I’ve never found myself in those girls. I don’t have the skills to survive in the wild, I’m not much good with a sword. But I like to read about characters who I think are more like me, and Twylla is one of them. Not as I am now, but when I was seventeen I felt very restricted by the life I was living. I had very little choices in what I did, and lived by an awful lot of rules, which really alienated me from my peers a lot of the time. I was desperately unhappy but I had no strong allies to help me, or money, or anywhere to run. Like Twylla, I had to figure it out, bit by bit, and scrape up the courage to finally make a break for it. Bravery didn’t burn brightly in me for a long time, instead I’d be fighting nausea and fear whilst I took control of my life. The only book I’ve come close to reading that showed that kind of transformation is The Grisha Trilogy, and it’s the first time I’ve really felt connected to a heroine. Another person, trapped by circumstance, uncertain how to go forward. That was me, and that’s also Twylla.
What is your writing process? How you do start when you get an idea?
I free write at first, and pretty much just let the characters do what they like! I loosely map the ending, and the beginning, and who the main characters are, and what they are to each other, but in between I give them free reign to do their thing while I build the world around them. I write a very rough first draft and then I read it through, pulling out the bits that work for expansion, and cutting the boring or unnecessary bits. It builds from there, little by little. I keep a notebook with me all the time in case I have an idea, and I like to get it down on paper, as a starting point, as soon as possible. I love editing, I prefer it to writing. I like making things pretty, the hard work bit at the start is my least favourite.
If you had a chance to work with someone else, be it a famous writer or another famous star, who would it be?
I would love to do something with Neil Gaiman. I think his vision is extraordinary; he can be funny, terrifying, romantic, whimsical, blunt, jagged, ethereal and so on. He’s such a gifted, versatile and compelling writer. I’d cheerfully read his shopping lists, if I’m honest.
Why the name Twylla? Does it mean something?
Twylla was the name that came to me. I’d never heard it consciously before, but I must have picked it up from somewhere. I just knew that was her name, and I never questioned it. I later found out though that ‘Twyla’ is the Cherokee word for ‘twilight’ and loved how that fitted with her being Daunen Embodied (Daunen is Old English for dawn) and Naeht and Daeg (Old English for day and night). It felt right, somehow.
Post your questions in this thread! Have fun, everyone! And don't forget to Vote in the Poll to earn your free exclusive item. Be sure to check out The Sin Eater's Daughter, by Melinda Salisbury!
