Showing posts with label The Magic Thief. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Magic Thief. Show all posts

Sunday, June 01, 2008

THE MAGIC THIEF--AUTHOR INTERVIEW

Just as we promised, here is our interview with Sarah Prineas, author of THE MAGIC THIEF--coming out this week, June 3! Great timing-a great first summer read if you haven't read it yet.


Franki: Where did the idea come from for THE MAGIC THIEF?

Sarah: The way I come up with story ideas is to have one idea and jot it down in a word file on my computer and set it aside until I find another idea or two to put with it. In the case of The Magic Thief, I had the first lines in one of those files:

“A thief is a lot like a wizard. I have quick hands. And I can make things disappear.”
Then I read a letter to the editor of Cricket magazine asking for more two-part stories and more stories about wizards. I figured I could do that, and Conn became the thief that spoke those words. His character makes the story go, so all I had to do was invent situations and challenges and see what he would do.

Franki: You are a fantasy reader yourself. Were you a fantasy reader as a child? Which books hooked you on fantasy reading?

Sarah: I didn't read a whole lot of fantasy as a kid, though I realized recently that T.H. White's King Arthur story The Once and Future King must have influenced me, first because I reread it about fifty times, but also because Merlin changes young Wart into lots of different animals, and that's like the embero spell in The Magic Thief. I read Madeline L'Engle's A Wrinkle in Time and loved it, because what dorky 12-year-old doesn’t identify with Meg Murry and love reading about her adventures?


Franki: Which fantasy authors are favorites for you now?

Sarah: My favorite fantasy writer is J.R.R. Tolkien, author of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. He is the writer who taught me how to believe in the power of story and the sense of wonder that fantasy can bring to readers. One of my very favorite authors is Megan Whelan Turner, starting with her YA fantasy novel The Thief. Turner does just about everything right—her characters are deep and interesting, her plots are tricky and surprising, and her fantasy world is one in which you can spend lots of time. As a writer, I’ve read all of her books several times each just to figure out how she does what she does. The only problem is that she writes so slowly. It’s hard to wait such a long time for a new Megan Whelan Turner book, but it’s always worth the wait.


Franki: Tell us how the device in your husband’s lab ended up in your book!

Sarah: That’s a funny question! His lab equipment has a fancy name, the “molecular beam epitaxy facility.” It’s very cool looking, all shiny and gold, with dials and valves and porthole-like windows, and gauges for measuring pressure, and so on. I don’t like it very much because it’s an expensive machine that requires constant attention and is always breaking down, which means my husband has to go into the lab to take care of it. I just had to get my revenge by putting it into my book and turning it into an evil Device.


Franki: The setting was so clear to me as a reader when I read THE MAGIC THIEF. Did you have a particular place in mind when you wrote?

Sarah: I did! Not a place I’ve ever visited, though. I have a PhD in English literature and read a lot of 19th century English novels, and I always loved Dickens’s novels the most. Wellmet is modeled on the London of the early Dickens novels. I also used a map as inspiration [http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~genmaps/genfiles/COU_files/ENG/LON/Rocque/rocque_index.htm]. I got lots of ideas for street names and the twisty alleyways of the Twilight from looking at the seedy Southwark part in that London map.


Franki: Can you describe your writing process at all? How does fantasy writing go for you? What is the typical process? A typical day? Etc.

Sarah: A typical day is that I spend lots of time writing emails to my friends and reading blogs, and I’ll also spend some time tweaking a scene. If I’m really in the zone, I’ll write for eight hours at a time and be completely immersed in the story, in the characters, in fitting the pieces together. When that happens my family lets me shut myself up in my room with my writing chair and laptop computer and waits for me to come out. Which I do, eventually…

I don’t outline at all, so I write into the void—figuring out what happens as I write it, which is a very fun way to write. It’s writing as discovery!


Franki: This is the first in a trilogy. Can you give us any clues about what to expect next?

Yes, I can! You’re the only one who has asked this question, by the way. Here are three clues. One is that Conn must search for something that is lost. Two is that he gets into trouble involving pyrotechnic explosions. Three is that he must leave the city of Wellmet. Biscuits and bacon also make an appearance. The second book is called The Magic Thief: Lost and it comes out in June 2009, a whole year after the first book.


You can read the first chapter on the author's website!

Saturday, May 31, 2008

THE MAGIC THIEF--OUT THIS WEEK!

In April, I was invited to a dinner sponsored by Cover to Cover Bookstore where I got to meet Sarah Prineas, author of the new book--out this week--The Magic Thief. If you are a fantasy reader, you'll want a copy of this book right away.

THE MAGIC THIEF is the first in a trilogy. It is a great fantasy that I think lots of my fantasy readers will love. (I had one of my Harry Potter fans read the first chapter online and she was immediately hooked!)

Since so many people have reviewed it, I'll send you to their reviews and then let you know my thinking as a teacher--who might love this book.

There is lots to love about the book. It is a great story about wizards and magic. There are good guys and bad guys. The characters are quite fun and you come to know them quickly. There is humor. The setting is magical-as would be expected.

As a teacher, I love some things about the format. It is a thick book but the print and page set-up makes it very accessible to kids. I am thinking grades 4-6 is perfect for this book. It has lots to it--it isn't watered down like some fantasies for kids, but has all of the things we love about a good fantasy. I am thinking of lots of kids who might like it--those who are new to fantasy and who are pretty skilled readers could read this as a first fantasy. I predict that those readers who love Harry Potter and other fantasies will love to know of this new fantasy series. And I think those readers who can't yet handle Harry Potter will be thrilled with this book. So many readers who will love it.

Tomorrow, we'll post an interview with author Sarah Prineas! And, if you live in the Columbus area, she will be at Cover to Cover bookstore on Saturday, June 7th at 11:00 a.m. She'll talk a bit and then do a signing. It is coming out right in time for Mother Reader's 48 Hour Read!

A great preview of the book is up on the Harper Collins website. You can preview and read quite a bit of it online before it is available. You can also have all kinds of fun playing games, meeting the characters and more on this fun site.

(By the way, Sarah is a member of the Class of 2K8--a group that I love. So many great new voices in children's/YA lit. I pay close attention to them and have found some great books--like this one! If you haven't checked out their site, it would be a VERY good idea to do so!)