A Q&A with Allison Saft, Author of January/February Kids’ Indie Next List Top Pick “A Fragile Enchantment”

“A tender, romantic tale about living up to your family’s legacy and the crossroads of what’s expected of you and what your heart desires. Saft’s prose is utterly enchanting; you can’t help but melt into her luscious world. You will swoon!” said Joseline Diaz of Kepler’s Books in Menlo Park, California.

 

Here, Saft discusses her work with Bookselling This Week.

 

Bookselling This Week: Like a lot of fantasy, A Fragile Enchantment features a kingdom loosely based on England. But with Niamh and her people’s plight, you also sort of incorporated some of Ireland’s history. Do you want to tell us a little bit about that?

 

Allison Saft: The book had an interesting evolution. Initially, it was sort of a 1930s LA/ Hollywood vibe and then my agent said, “Let’s reconceptualize.” The magic was also initially glassblowing. (I took some glassblowing classes in college and one day I’ll put it in a book but it was not this one.) My agent suggested, “Why don't you do something with dressmaking or clothes in general?” And I said, “Okay.”

 

I like to build my worlds around characters. So, with this change to make Niamh a dressmaker instead of a glassblower, I thought to myself, “what kind of world can we build that would be interesting to showcase this magic?” And I thought, why not just commit fully to the bit and go with a Regency-inspired world with all of the glitz and the glamour that that entails.

 

I think what fascinates me about the Regency period is that people think of it as this very pastel, sparkly, very romantic time period. But what’s very interesting about its history is there’s a ton of social inequity seething just beneath the surface. It was a big moment for class tensions — the Peterloo Massacre for example, and of course, England’s colonial projects. It was important to me to capture that full spectrum of what makes the Regency period the Regency period. Niamh, I’d already decided, would be Irish. That felt like a very natural extension of the initial concept.

 

BTW: What I was really struck by was how you excel at building these little intimate moments between the characters. Not just Niamh and the prince, but also all the other people that she bonds with along the way. When you’re writing, do you plan how these characters are going to get along? Or do they do they just have minds of their own?

 

AS: I think it’s a little bit of both. I’m a fairly extensive outliner. Characters are my interest and plot not so much. So, I feel like I need kind of that framework, otherwise who knows what will happen. I had a pretty general sense of the major turning points and the relationships. I generally like to plan out the starting point and the end point, and then the interstitial scenes will develop organically as I’m writing. I really just like to let the characters go, that’s kind of the only element of my writing process that I’ll pants. Although a few characters surprised me. Sinclair, for example, I had a very different arc in mind for him.

 

BTW: I’m very excited to see what’s next. A Dark and Drowning Tide will be out in September. Do you want to tell us a little bit about it?

 

AS: It was probably one of the most difficult things I’ve written. And as a result, I think it may be the book I’m most proud of. It was a lot of fun. I crammed a whole bunch of stuff that I loved into it. And as I was writing, I sort of found myself kind of buckling under the weight of the new age category, the new scope (it's a much bigger cast that I'm used to). After Down Comes the Night, my debut, I swore I would never ever, ever write another mystery. Lo and behold, I wrote another murder mystery. I am very excited for people to read it. It is my debut sapphic rivals-to-lovers adult fantasy. I pitch it as if the quintessential dark and brooding love interest narrated the book and also was a woman. That’s kind of the overall vibe of book. And the love interest is the whimsical, endlessly optimistic character. I had a ton of fun with their dynamic. Essentially, the two of them have to team up to solve the murder of their mentor figure and the only person that they can trust is each other.

 

BTW: Did you plan on moving into a new age demographic or did that just happen by accident?

 

AS: It happened a little bit by accident. I started writing the book a couple of months after my debut novel came out, and when I pitched it to my agents, they were like, “We love this, but we think maybe this would translate a little bit better to adult” and I agree. A Dark and Drowning Tide allowed me to be a little bit more bleak, in a way. I feel a certain responsibility in my YA novels to give readers a soft place to land and A Dark and Drowning Tide is a little bit more punishing. I think it ultimately has the Allison Saft brand of the healing power of love, and finding belonging and shared not-belonging, etc.

 

BTW: Can you tell us a little about the role of books and indie bookstores in your life?

 

AS: I honestly do not think that I would have the career I do without indie bookstores. Indie bookstores have shown up for me so consistently. From the beginning, they were always behind me. My favorite part of every book launch is working with my local indie bookstore, Kepler’s, to run a signed pre-order campaign. It’s just given me this community that I otherwise wouldn’t have had. There’s something really magical about Kepler’s kind of giving me access to readers that I wouldn’t otherwise have — like getting their comments in the books that I’m going to sign. But also just hanging out for a couple hours with people who are just really cool and lovely. It’s also just great to walk into the store. Every time I think I’m going to pop in and out for just one book. Inevitably I leave with a mountain [of them]. I can only hope to support indie bookstores as much as they’ve supported me.