Jessica Spotswood hearts books, yoga, tea, cardamom cookies, the color pink, board games, theatre, twirly dresses, and bells chiming the hour. She’s frighteningly enthusiastic about witches, her books, and the YA world in general…
With the Brotherhood persecuting witches like never before, a divided Sisterhood desperately needs Cate to come into her Prophesied powers. And after Cate’s friend Sachi is arrested for using magic, a war-thirsty Sister offers to help her find answers—if Cate is willing to endanger everyone she loves.
Cate doesn’t want to be a weapon, and she doesn’t want to involve her friends and Finn in the Sisterhood’s schemes. But when Maura and Tess join the Sisterhood, Maura makes it clear that she’ll do whatever it takes to lead the witches to victory. Even if it means sacrifices. Even if it means overthrowing Cate. Even if it means all-out war.
YOUNG ADULT: What made you decide to start writing?
Jessica Spotswood: I’ve been writing since I was in fourth grade. My first stories were about my grandparents’ cabin in the woods and the horses at the stables where I took riding lessons. I decided to pursue publication about five years ago, after I wrote my first YA novel, when I realized that deep down, writing books was what I’d always wanted to do more than anything.
YA: Tell us a little bit about your latest work. What is different about Star Cursed and what does it bring to the The Cahill Witch Chronicles series?
JS: The tricky and awesome thing about sequels is that, to avoid the sophomore slump, they have to be MORE everything: faster-paced, higher stakes, more romantic, more heartbreaking. InStar Cursed, Cate’s world gets bigger – she’s in New London at the Sisterhood – and her concerns are bigger – instead of just protecting her sisters (which was trouble enough), she’s trying to look out for all the young witches in the Sisterhood and the wrongly accused girls in Harwood Asylum, too. While I was writing, I joked that I was aiming for “brutal & awesome, with kissing” – hopefully I succeeded!
YA: How did the idea for this book/series arise? What are your major inspirations (TV, film, other literature/stories)?
JS: The series was inspired by a dream I had in which my sisters and I (like Cate, I’m the oldest of three girls) were fighting over a magical locket from our mother. The idea of writing about the complicated mix of love and sibling rivalry among sisters with a complicated magical inheritance stuck. As for inspirations – I read tons of YA and some of my favorites are the GRACELING series by Kristin Cashore and CHIME by Franny Billingsley.
YA: What makes the mythology of witches so timeless, and what about those stories fascinates you?
JS: Historically, those accused of witchcraft tended to be women who were outsiders in some way – too eccentric, too educated, unmarried, etc. I wanted to write about girls who are strong and independent and clever in a society that doesn’t value that – which I think is unfortunately pretty timeless.
YA: Take us through a typical writing day for you.
JS: I’m not a morning person at all. I tend to wake up after 10am, spend my first few hours reading and catching up online, have a late lunch, and then set to work. There really isn’t a typical day after that. Yesterday I spent my afternoon writing a three-paragraph pitch for a potential new book and then my evening reading a fabulous galley of a book that came out this summer (April Genevieve Tucholke’s BETWEEN THE DEVIL AND THE DEEP BLUE SEA). Today I had lunch with a friend and then spent the afternoon at the coffee shop catching up on interviews and guest posts. If I’m drafting, I try to do 1000 words 5 days a week. Close to deadline I might have 3000 or 4000-word days, but that’s not the norm for me.
YA: Besides the classic ‘never give up’, what advice would you give to aspiring young writers today?
JS: Find critique partners who will read your work and give you honest, helpful feedback. Ask them to tell you what they loved and want more of as well as what confuses them or what questions they have. Don’t take one person’s feedback as gospel – but if two of them tell you the same thing, it’s definitely worth thinking about it. And if you’re instinctively resistant to a suggestion, ask yourself if they might be right.
YA: What’s next for you?
JS: I’m working on edits for book 3 in the Cahill Witch Chronicles, which will come out next June from Putnam Children’s. I’m also cooking up proposals for two new projects, which are totally different and really exciting!