Victoria Schwab talks writing, reactions, and The Unbound, her upcoming sequel to last year’s eerie YA novel, The Archived.
How did you craft the complex world of The Archived?
I based it on something and intuitive – a library – and then built on that foundation. There’s a sense of order to a library, a sense of purpose. But when you’re dealing with bodies instead of books, it gets complicated quickly. In this book we’ll see far more of that food chain, including a glimpse at one of the people behind it all.
How will the world of Keepers and stacks expand in The Unbound?
In The Unbound, we discover that the Archive – and those working for it – has far more secrets, more twists and turns. Needless to say, Mackenzie’s world is about to get a lot bigger, and a lot darker. From those whose job is to hunt down the living, not the dead, to those with the ability to erase entire lives, Mac is going to have her work cut out for her.
What do you hope that readers will take away from the second installment in Mackenzie’s story?
One of the main things I wanted to explore in this installment was the idea that it’s okay to NOT be okay. So often in supernatural fiction our heroes and heroines go through horrific situations, and while they may emerge bruised, they’re psychologically unwounded. I wanted to give Mackenzie Bishop more realistic scars. In the aftermath of book 1, she is NOT okay. And the more she tries to pretend that she is, the more she unravels. In this book, she not only has to cope with very real external threats, but internal ones, and only by conquering the latter does she stand a chance at surviving the former.
Why do you feel drawn to telling Mackenzie’s story?
Mackenzie has always been very, very special to me. She’s incredibly strong in physical ways, and a bit fractured in mental ones. She’s flawed, and not in simple, superficial ways, and because of that, she’s always felt very REAL. She’s allowed me to explore the often problematic idea of “strength” and the ways in which we grow more from our errors than our successes.
How is the experience of writing a sequel different from writing the first book in a trilogy?
Sequels are HARD. You hear every author say it, but it’s so very true. For me, personally, they’re hard because I want to find a way of making a now-familiar world feel NEW. I’m not a fan of what I call a “redux” sequel where we simply revisit a world and repeat the experience, in tone if not in action. I wanted to explore an entirely new facet of the world, and everyone in it. It’s not that the details from The Archived are a lie, but they’re only a fraction of the truth. And of course, I wanted to up the stakes, but instead of upping them externally, I shifted them from a “save the world from implosion” angle to a “save Mackenzie Bishop” angle because, at the end of the day, we want to survive. Mackenzie wants to survive. She’s already saved the world. Now she needs to save herself.
What has been the toughest criticism given to you as an author?
That my books start out slow. And here’s the thing, I get that, I don’t debate it. But I hope my readers understand that I’m never pulling from existing mythologies. I can’t just drop them into a familiar environment. As an author who’s constantly building new worlds, I have to find a way to introduce the readers to those worlds while planting the seeds of the plot, and that takes a little time. It comes with writing supernatural mysteries, they have a slower build, but there’s usually a better pay-off.
What has been the best compliment you’ve received?
That I have pretty writing. I appreciate that, since I came from poetry, and cadence/flow is very important to me :)
How do you approach writing villains or antagonists?
The same way I approach writing anyone else. Good villains are the heroes of their own narrative. I don’t treat them as the enemy. I treat them as if I could re-write the book with them in the lead.
How do you construct the world and tonal environment of your story?
Slowly. And in many pieces.
Which one YA novel do you wish you had when you were a teen?
You know, I got very, very lucky, in that I grew up in exact sequence with Harry Potter. I was 11 when he was 11, so those books defined almost a decade for me, and I wouldn’t want it any other way :)
Would you rather be a book, or a computer?
Book.
About Victoria Schwab:
Victoria Schwab is a self-described entertainment junkie who loves narwhals and is distracted by sunlight. You can follow Victoria on Twitter as @VEScwab, check out her Facebook page, and visit VictoriaSchwab.com for more information.
The Unbound will be available on Jan. 28.
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