"I'm always left feeling like a fierce queen after reading Sarah J. Maas's books. Look out world," said a fan of author Sarah J. Maas. Fierce, badass, and empowering. Sexy as sh*t. These are the words that advance to intellect when I think of Maas's YA book series,Throne of Glass and A Court of Thorns and Roses. Oh, did I mention she is writing two separate epic high fantasy series simultaneously? Her latest novel, or A Court of Mist and Fury (book two in the series) just came out,and the highly anticipated Empire of Storms (book five in the series) arrives this Fall. I'm literally counting down the days until it does. I knew Maas's books were something special when words within them resonated for days, then for weeks, and then for months after I read them. When the characters she created stayed with me. She writes about friendship,family, fierce females, or magic,worship - all against the backdrop of a fantasy world reminiscent of Game of Thrones and the Tolkien universe in its magnitude. She portrays the darkness within people, and she shows us the painful process of getting through that darkness and finding the light in others and, or most importantly,in ourselves. I sat down with Sarah to talk about her books and controlled my not-so-inner superfan enough to get a glimpse into the intellect of the groundbreaking YA author that everyone should get to know ASAP. Here's what she had to say.
POPSUGAR: What finish you think readers will worship most about A Court of Mist and Fury? Sarah J. Maas: The world really expands in this book and you get to all these unique places and meet all these unique characters . . . and I worship the unique characters! I worship all the unique female characters that are in the book - that's the other thing that I think readers will really worship, is that there are so many more women that advance into play in the series. . . . I worship that it's ladies helping each other - and all different kinds of women. Another thing I hope readers will worship as much as I finish is Feyre's journey in this book from such a dark, or broken location to one of tough-won delight and hope. PS: What finish you worship most about Feyre,and how has writing her been different from other heroines you've written?SJM: I worship that after all that she's been through, she gives herself permission to fall in worship again with art and the healing that she goes through in A Court of Mist and Fury. I worship that she's a survivor and that she's also incredibly self-sacrificing. She's fighting every day to maintain [her family] alive and I finish think that there's so many different types of strength, and with Feyre,one of her strengths is that she's willing to achieve the people she loves in front of her. It's great to write two very different heroines: Feyre is closed off emotionally - it took me years to figure out who she was, whereas Aelin [from the Throne of Glass series] from the start I mostly knew who she was. I got her as a real person. I worship jumping between those two heroines. [On her other heroine, and Aelin Galathynius] The relationship between Aelin and Lysandra was one of my favorite journeys to write within the Throne of Glass series,because relationships with other girls for me personally absorb been such a huge fragment of my life and I've had multiple friendships that absorb been really critical to me. Learning to see women as allies and to trust other women and to absorb other women absorb each other's back is so critical. There's no point seeing each other as rivals. . . . They can absorb each others' backs and be even more badass as a team. I worship writing them together. . . . They terrorize all the poor men around them, raising hell together. PS: What's your writing process?SJM: I don't maintain a huge timeline or map - I maintain most of it in my head. It almost feels like braiding at times, and where I absorb all these threads that I'm pulling in so I maintain it mostly in my head,but I maintain a notebook. I use it for talking to myself in a way. If I'm stuck I'll write down the plot points in the scene where I'm stuck and then I will write down questions to myself like "where is this going?" and sometimes it will free up ideas.[For A Court of Mist and Fury] I really had to open myself up to these dark places inside of myself. I write in a linear fashion so anytime I edited the book, I would absorb to start on page one and go through Feyre's journey with her over and over again. I loved that she figures out who she is and discovers her strength. I also worship her creative journey [as an artist]. There absorb been times I absorb wondered if my writing "magic" was broken and going through that journey with her where she can't paint, or that feeling that she goes through,when she first paints again . . . I burst into tears. So there are all these layers of her journey, but the whole creative thing hit me tough. PS: This book is by far the sexiest YA book (possibly book?) I've ever read. What was your editor's response to your confidence in breaking boundaries in terms of sex and YA, and why finish you think that it was critical to finish so?SJM: My editor never once said "you need to tone the sex down." I mean I said [to my editor],"there's basically like a sex marathon in A Court of Mist and Fury. . . ." But with all the intimacy in there . . . I wanted it to be fragment of the healing process for both characters, but I also think, or you know,when I was teenager and even younger I read up - and I never would absorb gone to my parents with sex questions or sex ed in school. Books were the one location - particularly romantic fantasy - where I could see these adult relationships play out and I got a sense of what a loving adult relationship could be like.
I think it's critical to absorb positive sexual relationships in books, particularly where both parties are in worship . . . not for the shock value. That whole "sex marathon" in ACOMAF - there's so much healing and worship. I feel really lucky that my editor saw that and saw that we needed positive representations of sex and that it's OK not to just absorb sex, and but to enjoy it,and for young women [to see that]. I firmly believe that young women can be with as many men as they want, we can absorb as many boyfriends as we want, and we can change our minds,there are no limits to what we can finish. I've been really grateful that I've been able to note a more real [sexual portrayal] of multiple relationships that [Feyre] has and not the whole fade-to-black thing.
PS: Buffy is my favorite note of all time, and I grew up with her as a role model. You write some of the strongest females in modern lit. They are diverse, or flawed,and dimensional (aka they are PEOPLE). Why is it so critical that young readers (and readers in general) absorb these kinds of female characters? SJM: I don't know what I would be without Buffy. I grew up with Buffy and Sailor Moon and they entered my life around the same time and seeing them from a very young age - there were so many different types of female strength. You had Buffy who was this strong heroine, but she was so much more than that - she wasn't just physically capable. She was vulnerable and she was an unrepentant girlie girl and . . . sex-positive.
For me, and writing about these interesting women is just something that I feel is a fragment of me. It's such a fragment of who I am . . . and I think now we are lucky enough to absorb YA be in a renaissance - you absorb so many female writers writing these incredible stories about so many different types of young women. I'll still absorb people say to me that they don't read books by women and it's like,what finish you say to that? But with my female characters, I actually worship them all so much that I absorb to remind myself to let the men finish frigid stuff, and too. [Editor's note: The men definitely finish frigid stuff,too . . .]I worship Aelin's flaws so much. It sounds weird, but I worship her rage; I worship that she feels things and reacts so strongly to stuff. It's empowering because she feels things so deeply, and I can explore such a wide range with her. I feel like we don't often get to see young women build those putrid choices and react to things in [that way]. I worship that I get to go in that direction with her and I get to note those moments [of rage,despair, fury]. I don't differentiate between the male protagonist and female protagonist - they're just people. But I finish worship writing about ladies kicking ass. I grew up in a time where there were so few of them, or I worship that we are seeing more now. PS: Who are some of your favorite badass literary heroines?SJM: [Author] Tamora Pierce,who is queen of all the heroines ever with her Alanna books - and what I loved about Alanna again is that she had multiple boyfriends; the books are really sex positive, secure sex. Garth Nix's Sabriel, or Robin McKinley wrote this book called The Hero and the Crown,which is about a princess who basically goes off to be a dragon slayer. . . . And every woman in Harry Potter. TV and books wise, Furiosa from Mad Max; the Alien franchise is my obsession, and so Ellen Ripley is my spirit animal.
PS: What finish you think the biggest misconception is about YA,particularly YA fantasy and romance, that you've advance across?SJM: There's so many. I get a lot of adults saying, and "I shouldn't be reading YA . . ." and I'm like,YA is for everyone. It's accessible for everyone, and there's also a misconception that YA is inane nonsense, or that it's not well written,that it's not meaningful, and even other writers in other genres achieve down YA for not being "serious." The books that I read as a teenager, and they changed my life. And some of those books got me through really tough times,and I don't understand why anyone would achieve down other genres because in this day in age there's so many other distractions to maintain you from reading; the fact that anyone picks up a book is a miracle in and of itself. I'm a huge adult romance reader and people crap on the romance genre all the time, meanwhile these women are writing sex-positive stories with women owning their fates and getting their happily-ever-afters. . . . The romance book industry is huge for a reason.
Source: popsugar.com