Today, I’ll be wrapping up my series for Self-Published Fantasy Month with an interview with author Colleen Cowley. For links to previous interviews as well as more information regarding Self-Pub Fan Month please click here.
I was so excited to get to interview Colleen after having read and reviewed her romantic fantasy novel, Subversive. I highly recommend checking it out when it releases on September 27, 2020. For now, you can check out my spoiler-free review here.
To start, would you please introduce yourself to our readers? Let us know a little about you and your published (or soon to be published) work.
Hello, everyone! I love reading books that mix magic and reality, so that’s what I write. It’s a lot of fun to imagine what would change if, for instance, a small percentage of men were wizards and they’d put themselves in charge of everything.
That’s the what-if I started chewing over eight years ago. It became the backdrop for my Clandestine Magic trilogy, which is rolling out this fall. But at heart, these novels are about two people: Beatrix Harper, a minor leader in the women-led resistance to the “magiocracy” running the country, and Peter Blackwell, the wizard who turns her life upside down.
Who or what prompted you to begin writing fantasy?
When I was nine, I had an idea for a story that was a bit fantasy and a bit sci-fi. My dad said, “That’s interesting. Why don’t you write it down?” More than anything else, that simple question inspired me to turn ideas into books. Because yes, Dad, why don’t I write it down.
As much as I try to plot novels in advance, I inevitably figure out some key parts of the story as I go. That’s a powerful incentive to finish — I want to discover how it’s all going to work out.
What books or authors inspire your own writing?
I love all sorts of books. That’s probably why my stories don’t fit neatly into a single genre.
I mean, Jane Austen didn’t write fantasy (unless you consider happy endings fantastical), but I’m definitely inspired by her novels because they’re witty, romantic, pretty feminist for the early 1800s and a bit subversive all at once. I had her Northanger Abbey in mind when I decided to tell a story about a woman whose childhood dream of magic and adventure comes true very belatedly and in be-careful-what-you-wish-for fashion. (In Northanger Abbey, the main character’s Gothic adventure does not go the way she anticipated, either.)
But of course I love a lot of fantasy books: The Hobbit for its classic adventure story and reluctant middle-aged hero who likes creature comforts. Erin Morgenstern’s The Starless Sea for its immersive world just below the surface. Naomi Novik’s Spinning Silver for the reimagined, intersecting fairy tales with women in key roles. Katherine Arden’s Winternight trilogy, which has an unforgettable heroine coming of age in a mythology-infused medieval Russia. (I could keep going, but you get the idea.)
What part of the writing process do you find most challenging?
Well — my favorite part is editing, taking what’s there and polishing it. Every other part is either fun or challenging, depending on the story and the day. I rewrote the beginning of The Opposite of Magic, the novel about the belated magic and adventure, about 62 times (this might be a slight exaggeration, but honestly, I lost track). Subversive’s opening chapter is almost exactly as I wrote it in my first draft.
Getting words on the page helps me think. Putting my mind to work on plot threads helps me relax. This is a year that cries out for an escape hatch to some other reality, and writing a novel is one way to get there for a little while. (Reading one is, too.)
Can you explain how your publishing experience differed from the “traditional” publishing process and what led you to choosing that particular path?
Both traditional publishing and self-publishing were going through a revolution as I got serious about novel writing. By the time I felt like I had some idea what I was doing, the latter option looked like a good fit for me. I like bending genres and not worrying about whether the stories I want to tell have a big market. I need to be able to set my own deadlines. I kind of enjoy coming up with plans for book releases. And I love getting to write directly for readers.
I’m glad there are options that didn’t exist a generation ago — it’s better for writers and readers alike.
While classified as a fantasy romance, your upcoming novel Subversive also deals with women’s rights. Can you speak more on this topic and how it is important to you?
I’m really interested in the way that power plays out in relationships and society at large: who has it, who’s blocked from it, how it’s being wielded and for what purpose. It’s not only an important storyline in real life, but it’s also a compelling foundation for a novel. So while I didn’t set off to write a book about women’s rights, I was pretty sure from the start that this would be a story about a power imbalance.
Subversive is set in a 2020 that looks a lot more like the 1910s in everything from social mores to women’s rights (with magic and a bit of technological progress thrown in). Women got the vote in this reality, but it’s been downhill from there. Beatrix Harper is part of a new movement of women who believe the key to turning this around is dismantling wizards’ iron grip on power.
Peter Blackwell, by contrast, is the only person from her little town to prove himself a wizard. He’s been gone for 20 years, and he’s suddenly back as the town’s jack-of-all-trades omnimancer, demanding she serve as his assistant.
Beatrix knows this cannot bode well.
(By the way: I set this book in 2020 when I started writing it, thinking, “Oh, I’ll be done way before then.” Ah, past self, you crack me up.)
What is your favorite part of seeing your work published?
Hearing from readers. That’s probably most authors’ favorite part: You’re living with these characters for months or years, and then — like magic — they’re suddenly in other people’s heads, too. I’m always curious how that experience went for people, what surprised them, what worked and what didn’t.
Subversive is set to release September 27th. What can readers expect next from you?
The rest of the Clandestine Magic trilogy: Radical and Revolutionary, both coming out later in the fall. Once I realized that this story I had in mind was far too big for one novel, I figured I’d better write it all upfront. I’m glad I did, because I kept getting ideas as I went along that required nips and tucks to the first and second books.
I just finished a short (free) prequel, and ideas occurred to me while writing it that wouldn’t have been possible if I couldn’t have tweaked a few things in Subversive.
But after all the Clandestine Magic novels are out? I’ve been living part time in this world for so long, I’m not sure what I’ll do with myself. Cast around for another what-if that won’t let go of me, I guess!
Do you have any advice for aspiring authors?
Write a lot. Try things out, make mistakes, develop your own voice, work on pacing and characterization, figure out the best place to start and end a story and how to keep it going in between. And read a lot, too, both in and outside your favorite genres.
For me, realizing that there was this thing called the three-act structure was a breakthrough moment. It made the gaping middle of a novel much easier to figure out. I don’t know how I could have written a trilogy without this structure as a guide. You can read up on it in many places, but one I’d recommend is Alexandra Sokoloff’s Screenwriting Tricks for Authors blog. Her recommendations for writers are really helpful, and not just the ones about structure.
If you’re interested in self-publishing, check out David Gaughran’s free video course. It’s full of insightful advice. If you’re trying to figure out the literary agent querying process, you might enjoy agent Janet Reid’s Query Shark blog.
If you could meet any one person (alive, dead, fictional, or real), who would you choose?
If you’d asked me that when I was a kid, I would definitely have said Robin Hood. Now, it’s a much harder choice. I mean, it would be really interesting to watch adaptations of Jane Austen’s novels with her and see what she thinks. But then I couldn’t have lunch with Severus Snape. Or a strategy session with Amaranthe Lokdon of The Emperor’s Edge series (she has a crazy plan for every challenge). Or a ramble on the red sandstone cliffs of Prince Edward Island with Anne of Green Gables. Or …
I chewed over this for a while and finally asked my daughter whom she’d pick. She gave it perhaps three seconds of intense thought and said, “Harriet Tubman.”
It seemed so obvious in retrospect. How could fictional characters or authors possibly compare?
Thank you so much to Colleen Cowley for taking the time to answer these questions. For more information or to purchase her books, please visit the link below:
I loved reading this interview! Of course I think it’s very cool that Jane Austen has inspired you — a testament not only to the power of Jane Austen, but also to the importance of reading widely, outside of the genre(s) one writes. Congrats on the release of your novel, Colleen, and thanks for hosting this interview series, Dani!
Thanks so much for these great questions, Dani! They were so much fun to answer.
I’m so glad I could include you! I had a blast putting this together.