Behind the Book with Heather Fawcett
Welcome to the second post in our blog series Behind the Book, where we interview authors about behind-the-scenes details of their books and their writing process! This week, we’ve got Heather Fawcett, author of Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries, on the blog. Emily Wilde and her fairy studies absolutely enchanted every single one of our booksellers who read the book, so we can’t wait to share a bit about the author with you!
Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries follows the grumpy professor Emily Wilde as she studies fairy folklore in the frigid winter of Hrafnsvik. Emily is a genius scholar and a meticulous researcher, but she is not good at interacting with people. As she gets closer and closer to uncovering the secrets of the Hidden Ones—the most elusive of all faeries—lurking in the shadowy forest outside the town, she’ll have to decipher the communication style of the local townsfolk and — perhaps worse—the intentions of her mysterious and annoyingly vibrant colleague Wendell Bambleby, who charms everyone he meets.
If this book is up your alley, we’ve got good news. There’s a sequel coming out in January 2024, and the Women From Other Worlds book club at Dog-Eared Books is having a special meeting to celebrate. Author Heather Fawcett will join us via Zoom, and attendees can chat with her about both books before sharing some snacks and beverages over a book talk with the club. You can find more info on that here!
While you wait for our event and the book’s sequel, you can fulfill your Emily Wilde longings with this blog post. Here’s what we asked Heather:
Questions About Heather
Who popped into your head first–Emily or her whimsical colleague Wendell? How did you “meet” them?
Heather: Emily was first! Before I knew who the characters were, I had the idea for a story about a professional faerie-ologist in a world where faeries exist and can be quite dangerous, which already told me some things about who Emily would be—very driven, often to the point of neglecting her own well-being, and, like quite a few academics, more comfortable in intellectual than social contexts. Wendell followed quite naturally; essentially I needed someone who would be Emily’s opposite, but a complementary opposite, balancing out her strengths and weaknesses with his own in a way that would make them feel like a natural team.
The romance between Emily and Wendell is so precious—bookseller Mariah was quite literally blushing and kicking her heels–and it contrasts so nicely with the genuinely dark faerie story. What informed their relationship? Are they based on anyone in the real world?
Heather: Thank you! No one specifically, though I can say I had a few professors who reminded me of Emily in some ways (the kinds of professors you won’t necessarily like but will learn a lot from), and others who had some Wendell-ish traits (the charismatic ones who may be a little disorganized but are super popular with their students). In terms of their relationship, it was important to me that Emily and Wendell would feel like equals. That can be a tricky thing to establish in fantasy where one partner has all the (magical) power, and so it was important to show that Emily has her own gifts, they’re just of a different nature. I also made Emily and Wendell roughly the same age, which is a small thing (but one you don’t often see in relationships with their dynamic) that I think added to the sense that they’re on the same level. Wendell is not some impossibly ancient being.
Emily writes often of her love of tromping through the wilds. You live on Vancouver Island, which (from what I’ve seen of pictures) is a beautiful landscape. How much of that part of the story is inspired by your own walks through nature?
Heather: There’s definitely some inspiration there! I like spending time in the wilderness and the backcountry, like Emily. I’m not generally looking for faeries, but I’m open to meeting the friendly ones.
We’ve seen vampires. We’ve seen witches. Maybe even pirates and now (fingers crossed) fairies. What do you think the next big trend will be? Alternatively, what do you hope it’ll be?
Heather: That’s a really good question! Truthfully, I’d love for trends to be less dominant in the fantasy space. For instance, I enjoy vampire books, and I found it sad when many publishers deemed vampire stories “dead” (no pun intended) back in the 2010s due to oversaturation and wouldn’t publish them. I think it would be healthier for the genre as a whole if publishers focused more on a diversity of stories in a variety of subgenres. This probably sounds hypocritical from somebody who’s writing within the current “faerie” trend, but oh well.
Questions About Her Process
How was it writing a sequel versus the first book in a series?
Heather: The Emily Wilde series had a somewhat unusual genesis; I always hoped to write more than one Emily Wilde book, but my publisher wanted to see how the first book landed in the market before committing to more. So I wrote book one as if it were both a stand-alone and a series opener, which was an interesting challenge. I also didn’t want to think too much about sequels, because I didn’t want to have all these ideas I was excited about but then not get the go-ahead from my publisher to write more. So once it was clear the first book was doing well, and I sat down to write Map of the Otherlands, it was almost like writing another book one, because I’d never made a map (ha) for how I wanted Emily’s story to progress. Which actually felt very healthy. The characters had grown and surprised me in a few ways as I wrote the first book, and so I was able to write a sequel about who they’d become, rather than following an outline I’d written before I had gotten to know them at all—if that makes sense.
When you feel stuck as a writer (with a particular piece or in general), what do you do?
Heather: If I feel stuck it’s because something isn’t working. It’s a sign that either this isn’t the idea I need to be working on now (this generally only happens in the early stages, because I don’t force myself to keep working on projects I’m not excited about) or that the story has gone astray somehow. If the latter, I need to step back and look at the story from a higher level to figure out what’s wrong. One of the most common reasons is that the story has become too predictable and now I’m bored. So I need to introduce a twist or change things up somehow.
Which element of craft comes easiest for you? Why?
Heather: I like drafting most of all. I’m not a huge fan of the revision stages; for me, drafting is the fun part where I get to play around with ideas and characters and not take the book too seriously.
Which do you struggle with most? Why?
Heather: I would say that the line edits can feel a bit like pulling teeth; I really have to motivate myself to tackle that stage. I think it’s because at that point what was just a manuscript is now almost a book that other people are going to read. As a perfectionist, I tend to worry that I’m going to miss something, especially when I know this is my last chance to catch any errors or awkwardness.
What do you do to overcome that struggle?
Heather: I have no idea! I just force myself to do it anyway. Sometimes writing is just a struggle and there’s nothing you can do about it.
What’s one writing project you’ve always wanted to tackle?
Heather: I read a lot of different genres, including sci-fi. I’d love to write a space opera one day, if and when the idea of doing so stops being so intimidating. I like science but I have zero background in the field.
Her Next Project
What do you hope readers get from this sequel?
Heather: I never really have any specific hopes for what readers will take away from my books or what messages they’ll absorb. I just hope they have a good time.
We hope to see you at our event with Heather Fawcett, and for more author goodness in the meantime, please check out our Behind the Books post with romance author Chloe Angyal!
