S2E11: Modern Magic Making with Special Guest Allison Saft

Debut author alert! You won't want to miss this conversation with Allison Saft about her debut novel, Down Comes the Night, an eerie romantic fantasy coming out on March 2, 2021. Nat's ARC (Advance Reader Copy) of the book blew her socks off, and PJ can't wait to read it. Learn a little more about Allison and how this fabulous book came together in this episode of Write Away.

You'll hear about:

• Writing community news

• What it's like to be a debut author

• How Allison approaches world building, magic systems, and the writing process for Down Comes the Night

• What else she has in the works in 2022 and beyond

IMPORTANT LINKS FROM THE SHOW

• Pre-order Down Comes the Night on Allison's website

• Check out reviews - and leave one yourself - on Goodreads

• Follow Allison on Twitter, Instagram, Goodreads and Pinterest

• Check out the (virtual) U.S. Book Show 2021 presented by Publisher's Weekly - event is Tuesday, May 25 to Thursday, May 27, 2021 and early bird registration ends April 2.

• Don't miss WriteOn Con, a three-day online children’s book conference for writers and illustrators of picture books, middle grade, and young adult, Friday, February 19 to Sunday, February 21, 2021.

• Consider supporting indie bookstores by ordering your books through bookshop.org. And if you're an audiobook person, libro.fm supports indie bookstores, too.

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EPISODE RECAP

In Writing Community News, we talked about two upcoming conferences - the very affordable WriteOn Con in February, and the trade show, U.S. Book Show, for professionals in publishing and bookselling (and for book enthusiasts) in May. See links above and listen to the episode for more info.

In Allison Saft's debut novel, Down Comes the Night, is a "a snow-drenched, gothic, romantic fantasy" with two main characters on the opposite sides of a conflict. We talked with Allison about how she approached worldbuilding for a novel that features not one, but three neighboring countries with different cultures that are the crux of the central conflict. She shared the top three things she thinks a writer needs to know when building their world, and told us how she wrote such medically realistic scenes when she has no medical background and the world of her novel includes alternate biology. And we talked with her about WHEN she considered these different details, and how she approached this project as a whole.

We hope you pick up some helpful tips in this episode, and you like Down Comes the Night as much as we did.

Let us know if there’s anything you want to hear about later this season! Until then...