Hello all! I am so excited to share my interview with bestselling author, Victoria Schwab! Schwab, or V.E. Schwab, writes fantasy, sci-fi, and paranormal books for audiences of all ages. She’s best known for her magical worlds, honesty on Twitter, and cat-ear headbands. Her newest release, Tunnel of Bones, is the sequel to her middle-grade book City of Ghosts that follows Cassidy Blake, a girl who can cross into the world of ghosts, as she visits some of the most haunted cities in the world for her ghosthunter parents’ TV show.
On her book tour, Schwab visited Tattered Cover in Denver, and I was able to meet her and fangirl in person. She was every bit as clever, funny, and kind as you’d imagine, and it was such a joy to get advice from her and watch her play bookish Never Have I Ever!
Schwab was also awesome enough to agree to an interview over email! Shout out to Kristin Dwyer for arranging it all. It was such an honor to get to ask one of my favorite authors about her writing process and her experience in the publishing industry. Without further ado, here is the interview!
You recently celebrated ten years since your debut novel sold. What have you learned in that time? How has publishing changed from then to now?
It’s hard to believe it’s been 10 years! I feel like I’ve certainly changed, and so has the industry. The biggest lesson I’ve learned is that you hope for everything and expect nothing, that the one thing in your control are the words you put on the page, and everything else is unstable. Publishing is a constantly shifting beast, and rather than try to make sense of it, you focus on your work, you show up, and do your best, and try to let go of the outcome.
Your debut novel, The Near Witch, was re-released earlier this year. Can you talk about the experience of having a first novel not do as well as you’d like, and then getting the chance to have it be released again?
I won’t lie, it was very surreal. I’d tried to make peace with it going out of print a few years ago, but it always felt like an unfinished sentence, so to have it come back again in a way gave me the closure I needed. It’s been really wonderful, getting to watch readers discover it.
Your newest release, Tunnel of Bones, is a middle-grade novel, but you also write for adult audiences. What tips do you have for writers looking to write for a large age range like this?
I do! In fact, I write for young readers, teens, adults. I like to think of books as having a younger age threshold but no upper age limit—the hope is a good story appeals to everyone. And I don’t really change my writing depending on age. I simply write for a version of myself, be it 10-year-old me, 17-year-old me, 25-year-old me, or 32, which is my age right now. I ask myself what I want(ed) to read.
Finally, the two questions I ask all authors who I get to interview:
What is your favorite writing resource? Book, podcast, Twitter account—whatever helps you improve or inspires you as a writer!
Honestly, social media is both a blessing and a curse. It puts all advice, good and bad, on the same level. I think it’s important for aspiring writers to seek out a broad spectrum of resources, but not to take any of them as prescriptive. The only thing that works, is whatever works for you.
Which character that you’ve written would you choose to go on a road trip with?
Oh wow, that’s a hard one! Probably Lila, from Shades of Magic, or June, from Vengeful, since they both are good at getting where they want, and what they want. Though in the case of Lila, she’d probably also get me arrested.
Be sure to check out Tunnel of Bones as well as the rest of Victoria Schwab’s work!
Have you read Tunnel of Bones? What is your favorite Victoria Schwab book? Let me know in the comments!
