sarahreesbrennan

[sarahreesbrennan]

Coming across this in a queer history book published 2011 like. "This tension remains with us today." Yeah. That's still fucking true.

[sarahreesbrennan]

Sarah to herself upon seeing this casting: verify! Because if this marriage of two of your great childhood loves (Interview with the Vampire and Pride and Prejudice) is not real, what will become of you?

Sarah, combing the internet: Real or not real?

Sarah: REAL!!!

Sarah: Star of the one truly great Pride & Prejudice adaptation, reason I always wanted to watch the unaired Game of Thrones pilot, plays wild wanderer who didn’t teach her kid to read but did fund his escape from the castle to Paris Where Everyone Gets Vampired!

Jennifer Ehle has been officialy cast as Gabrielle de Lioncourt in ‘Interview with the Vampire’ S3: The Vampire Lestat

[sarahreesbrennan]

AHHHHHH!

My man!!!!

Scream for me! 🎸 We have your first look at Interview With The Vampire's SDCC poster of Sam Reid as rock star Lestat

via tv insider

[sarahreesbrennan]

Do you know if there will be any special editions of All Hail Chaos?

Annnnd is it definitely a duology?

Time of Iron is a trilogy. :)

[sarahreesbrennan]

Your writing has always meant so much and is such an inspiration to me — I reread In Other Lands annually and I can’t wait for the next Long Live Evil book. I also loved the Unspoken trilogy and I was wondering (if you wouldn’t mind sharing!!) whether you had any tips for writing a trilogy specifically. Did you plan everything out before the first book was finished and what was it like to edit that book before the others in the trilogy were finished?

Thank you so much, and… Yes I do! I have a set of trilogy rules I believe all trilogies follow.

Book 1 - set up

Book 2 - make out

Book 3 - defeat evil

The Lord of the Rings follows this pattern. At the end of book 1, we have the two groups and their missions laid out before us. Group A (Sam and Frodo) will not be seen by Group B until A’s grand mission to destroy the Ring is concluded in book 3. Group B is going to rescue Merry and Pippin but we know Aragorn being heir to the throne will come up. We are set up!

By ‘make out’ I mean we aren’t concluding the series, we are complicating it. So book 2 is where we expand the world, and deepen or complicate the relationships or add new relationships (which can be romantic… or not, but how will they progress?), making things that seemed simpler in book 1 tangled.

So Aragorn is the heir to the throne of Gondor, which in book 1 caused interpersonal conflict with Boromir the steward/effective ruler of Gondor’s heir - book 2 asks what does this mean for Gondor, which has been kingless for centuries, steward Denethor, new heir Faramir, and what does all this mean for its neighbour Rohan, who have their own whole thing going on, and oh here is the lady Eowyn of Rohan, a lady not confined to the appendices, and she wants Aragorn. (Can be romantic… or not!) Pippin and Merry will be a camera into the orcs and the Ents, then join Group B in the Gondor and Rohan shenanigans, forming relationships with Denethor and Eowyn. (Expanding world, creating new or complicating relationships.)

Similarly, Sam and Frodo meet Faramir of Gondor, a bigger threat than Boromir in the taking the Ring stakes because Faramir has an armed force. And they meet Gollum, who was a terrible warning in book 1 but now is a (terrible) person who Sam and Frodo will go on to have 2 very different relationships with. IMPORTANT NOTE: I am not saying anyone should ever make out with Gollum.

Then consider the Hunger Games. At the end of Book 1, Katniss and Peeta have survived the Hunger Games by playing their roles as starcrossed lovers but by its nature the next Hunger Games will claim its next victims, and Katniss and Peeta are on the outs given the reality or lack thereof of their showmance. Set up!

Book 2 - new Hunger Games with all the old Victors of previous Hunger Games, which means we learn more about those games and the world, and the past. It isn’t just Katniss and Peeta vs the Hunger Games, the world has loads of people, there are conspiracies to take the Games down. Gale’s relationship with Katniss becomes explicitly romantic as it wasn’t in book 1, complicating matters extremely. Yet Peeta already romanced Katniss, how do we up the ante there and via the relationship explore the story’s themes? Oh Peeta upgrades their fake romance to a FAKE MARRIAGE AND A FAKE BABY. And a book 2 that is getting a book 3 can end on a note of suspense and darkness. Both the Two Towers and Catching Fire end with Sam/Katniss in despair, because Frodo/Peeta is in the hands of the enemy! And if you’ve done your work deepening the relationships that is even worse news than it would have been at the end of book 1.

Book 3 is relatively simple, it really just is ‘defeat evil.’ (Okay so with the Time of Iron series, I’ll need to change my plan to ‘defeat antagonist’…) It’s just the previous 2 books have to make that simple mission incredibly difficult. No but really how do they dismantle the Hunger Games! Will Frodo actually throw the Ring in Mount Doom? From everything we have seen in our fictional journey it just won’t be that simple…

They’re not hard and fast rules. Of course you’re deepening and complicating relationships in all three books, setting things up and suffering losses and winning victories in all three. But I’ve found this a useful guide for where to put your focus when planning a trilogy.

I initially planned the Time of Iron trilogy as a duology despite friends warning there was a LOT of story for the second book, because it is really hard to write book 3 with books out in the world. I’ve written two trilogies before and I found that the hardest thing. With book 2, you usually have the first draft at least in before book 1 is published, but book 3 you write knowing how the world is responding to book 1. Everyone I know who’s written a series has wished they could go back and change something in an already-published book, but has also been inspired to change things by responses to that book.

Because you never know. Before I tentatively planned Time of Iron as a duology, I thought of Long Live Evil as a stand-alone ‘with series potential.’ Which I knew perfectly well could mean the ending of Long Live Evil was the only ending. Yep, everything is pretty wrapped up, I thought.

Readers have not agreed that things are wrapped up!

So far the process for me of writing trilogies has always gone a bit like this.

Book 1 - wowwww I hope this gets published, it probably won’t, let me try and pull off my ideas for the story anyway.

Book 2 - oh my god book 1 is getting published, this is the sequel which will also be published, oh my god things are going so wrong, try to stay true to the story anyway.

Book 3 - the world has seen this series, and now I must wrap this baby up for myself and the world, and stick the story landing so the end rings true.

Some writers have meticulous plans. Some have meticulous plans they don’t follow. Most have the broad strokes of the plot to come but will need to fill in the details. I think of it as having the jewels but not the chain, and needing to make the links. There were definitely a few things I added last minute to Long Live Evil as my plans firmed up, and I’m sure it will be the same for All Hail Chaos. There are other things I’ve known all along, since the moment the story was born in my head. There are things I changed my mind about completely. (Stephen King intended the human characters to lose in ‘Salem’s Lot. It happens!)

Plans happen differently for every writer, as do edits. (Some writers’ favourite bit, my least favourite bit… until the moment the new story coheres. There was one HUGE thing I had to add to LLE in edits, and one huger thing I stood firm on not changing that everyone disagreed with me about, which was very scary. There’s one edit I made in a previous series I really regret. This stuff is hard and we all make mistakes.)

You’ll find your way. If you’re in the fog, keep going. If you know the stops to make when heading toward your destination, build bridges to them and if the bridges burn, ford the river. But yes, when planning a trilogy, I really do believe in set up, make out, defeat evil.

[sarahreesbrennan]

Quentin from the Magicians is a very lucky man.

RACHEL BROSNAHAN as LOIS LANE New Superman (2025) Trailer

[sarahreesbrennan]

My favourite Lois Lane since Teri Hatcher, and I will now link to my old livejournal to prove my lifelong devotion - talking about Lois Lane, Nellie Bly and how one learns to be a woman who keeps on living and keeps on talking.

(Superman Spoilers)

Lois Lane ragebaits Superman during an interview, pours half a container of sugar into about 4 ounces of coffee and dictates an article taking down lex luthor while driving a hovercraft. They nailed her. We are so back.

[sarahreesbrennan]

Practically Verbatim Quotes from the New Superman Movie

LEX LUTHOR: And so it is revealed. Superman plots to rule the world and is gathering together a superharem.

GATHERING OF WORLD LEADERS: That’s horrifying!

LEX LUTHOR: Right? And where was my invitation to the superharem?

WORLD LEADERS: Wait what.

LEX LUTHOR: Me, the greatest scientific genius the world has ever known? It’s disgusting.

WORLD LEADERS: Well, um, it’s not like you can propagate the Kryptonian species by bearing Superman children…

LEX LUTHOR: We’ll just see about that!

(Lex Luthor storms out)

WORLD LEADERS: I don’t know if that was a clever suggestion to make to the greatest scientific genius the world has ever known, World Leader Greg. I don’t know if you thought that one all the way through.

[sarahreesbrennan]

a) This Chinese drama A Dream Within A Dream about a chaotic lady actress falling into the TV show she’s starring in (with reflections thereof on tropes, reality and playing roles) seems potentially relevant to my and my readers’ interests. I shall be watching.

b) I am so thankful this came out after Long Live Evil. Stories and commonalities…

c) Called her boss but the clothes stayed on. I’ve let you all down. I’ve let MYSELF down.

d) Heh heh. Key moments.

Living the fangirl dream.

But also ahahahah

[sarahreesbrennan]

How much do you read the Villainess Reincarnation Genre of Manhwa? Long Live Evil feels like it took a lot of tropes from the genre and spun them on their head. It’s one of my favorites, and I was curious.

Thank you for the question and the kind comparison to your favourites. I hope my relative ignorance in this area will not disappoint, and I’m sorry (I scrolled up to add this apology so you wouldn’t have to read to the end here because I got thinking about inspiration…)

I must say honestly, I have not read a ton! I’m not at all a visual person, I’m a text harlot, and my eye will go to text and try to consume all the text first rather than as a combination with the art. I’m also this way about podcasts, only transcripts let me know what’s going on ever. I can’t visualise characters or settings, and I’m a bit faceblind too. (If I ever meet you and should know you, dear reader, please tell me. I once failed to recognise my mum in an unexpected context.) I am very open to recommendations and will always try, though.

The beloved C.S. Pacat gave me text scripts for the Fence graphic novels and it helped so much, and let me appreciate the art with the story already in my head.

But! Just because I haven’t read many doesn’t mean I was not inspired by them. Please read on for my many thoughts about inspiration…

I definitely WAS inspired by them and I don’t want to disclaim that. I have read novelised manhwa and light novels (I mentioned Tearmoon Empire in my LLE acknowledgments: recent favourites are Remarried Empress and Ascendancy of a Bookworm) to get these stories into my head in a way that will stick.

My inspiration comes through a circuitous route. I am a longtime fan of Korean dramas (the writers are mostly women and the series have endings rather than being cancelled by Netflix like everything we love…) and watching Extraordinary You, a kdrama in which its heroine realises her world is a manhwa and she a supporting character, was the thing that reminded me I wanted to write a going-into-a-book portal fantasy, and started me on Long Live Evil, which also started me on reading more in the genre. And Extraordinary You was an adaptation.

And thinking of adaptations (like Wicked the musical and movie, like Game of Thrones) led to me thinking of the changing nature of stories and how we want to change our own, and sometimes lash out because they weren’t what we hoped. So, Wicked. So, villainesses overturning hourglasses. So, Thomas Covenant (subtitle Dear God No Thomas Covenant Stop!). So, Marry My Husband. (Another adaptation, of which there is both a Korean and Japanese version, in which a lady goes back in time in her own life to displace her fated doom on another.)

Talking about inspiration is tricky for me for a number of reasons. (Note: I don’t think you were implying anything bad with your question, @pretty-boy-saint!)

One of which is I’ve seen people confidently say Long Live Evil is secretly fanfiction of a) a popular movie franchise (I have seen the movies and was thinking of one element in them, but not the one I see people point out) and b) a book by a NYT-bestselling writer (I hadn’t read it when I wrote LLE, it definitely does have going-into-a-book commonalities), one of whose other books is in my acknowledgements. Neither of which would be super sneaky of me, and neither is true, because if it was true I would just say so. No reason not to, I probably would’ve got paid more for transformed fanfiction than my ‘heyyyy portal fantasy with a million inspirations and a musical’, the transformed-fanfiction horse is out the barn door and running free across the surface of the moon. Books that started out as fanfiction about Kylo Ren and Rey, or Draco and Hermione, are all over bookshops and the writers are getting paid millions. And listen, absolutely no shade, those writers clearly worked hard on their writing, are very talented, found eager audiences and worked hard to transform the fanfiction into books. I applaud them. I do worry about how publishers present said books but that’s a different story. All my books for 16 years have been called secret fanfiction, I guess because I wrote fanfiction back in the pre-50 Shades days when it was more scandalous and was too open about it, so I have a Shady Reputation (sashays into the club trailing rumours like a villainess) even though at this stage it’s like saying ‘have you heard she eats toast.’ It is just one of those things that happens to me, and it used to bother me more than it does now. LLE isn’t adapted fanfiction but it does share commonalities with both those works and many others, and celebrates fanfiction and the transformative impulse. So it’s tricky as I don’t want to mislead, or seem to reject fanfiction.

A specific tricky thing is that as a white western writer reincarnation seemed like something it wasn’t my place to write about, so I did not. Going back into your old life and changing the cycle, or righting the wrongs of your old life as a new person, is such a great premise and I’ve very much enjoyed reading and watching such stories but I didn’t think I could add anything new to the greatness already there.

Another tricky thing is that when you talk about inspirations, people always think you mean different bits of the story than you do. (Many have spoken to me of Wei Wuxian and Lan Zhan of the Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, nobody has spoken to me of Xue Yang. I said villains and I meant villains…) So it’s tricky as even if I’m being open, I may mislead!

But here is the vital reason, for me, to talk about inspiration. We all get inspired. We stand on the shoulders of giants. We see the flame invented and run to make our own flame and light the beacons and build the fires to warm us all. The fires we tell stories around, and the stories live by transforming: look at Arthur and his knights, or Robin Hood. But I do see writers freaking out about other stories reminding them of their own, robbing their own stories of resonance by taking out echoes of stories they loved. I see readers condemning stories for that resonance, or feeling silly for having loved them. And I get it. I was in despair for days when a book was announced that sounded like it had a lot in common with Long Live Evil, and would get literally 50 times the budget. I tore out my hair going: oh lord I at least thought my weirdo story might stand out!

But it also makes me very sad to see this attitude because it’s not what I believe about inspiration at all. And I hate to see people cutting themselves off from joy.

Plus as you say, Long Live Evil is full of subverted tropes. I love to subvert a trope. I love to think about perfecting them. Tropes are from other stories, and learning to recognise tropes, put them in our own stories for others to recognise, and to play with them, means we’re all participating in a beautiful relay race. The trope baton may change shape like Tam Lin, but don’t drop it.

If I think a story is derivative of another story, without transforming it or adding something new? I probably won’t like it much, but that’s no big deal.

If a story reminds me of another story, and I love both stories and I see something new and something transformative? There is nothing I like more. Clapping and cheering. Delighted forever. Much Ado About Nothing led to Austen’s Pride and Prejudice led to Fire Island. Beowulf led to the Lord of the Rings. Norse myth led to the Marvel movie Thor 3. Elric led to A Song of Ice and Fire. The Count of Monte Cristo led to ABC’s Revenge. The Take On Me music video led to W: Two Worlds. Fingersmith led to the Handmaiden. Kushiel’s Dart and Black Jewels led to much popular current romantasy. Humans were built to dream and share. We build fantasy towers. We build bridges to each other.

So, Rae’s chapter titles in Long Live Evil are meant to be a nod to the villainesses wreaking havoc before mine.

So, inspiration comes from many many places and must be celebrated, and that’s what Long Live Evil is about and what I’m about.

[sarahreesbrennan]

I will not tell you that, but I will promise you we see what is going down in Ivor’s court.

The ice raiders were a touch of chaos at the end of LLE, but in AHC they have to be people, and for the epic fantasy of it all, people of another land with its own gods and magic. So, I can’t wait for you all to meet Princess Vasilisa’s brother, King Ivor the Heartless.

…. And I can’t wait for you all to meet the count.

(Ominous foreshadowing? Who, me?)

will book 2 in the Time of Iron series have Key, Lia, and Cobra povs instead? or will there be more than three?

There will be more than three POVs in All Hail Chaos.

I won’t be changing POVs though! I did that in the Demon’s Lexicon, my very first series, and it would take very compelling story reasons for me to do it again. Rae, Marius and Emer will all continue to have POVs. They were my first eyes into the world, and the conflicts in their hearts are the conflicts at the heart of the story.

But Time of Iron is a love letter to epic fantasy, among which I’m thinking of A Song of Ice and Fire and Robin Hobb’s The Liveship Traders. (I’m trying to talk more about inspiration on a granular level, though people ((people generally, not you, dear readers!)) never believe writers when they talk about inspiration, so this may be a mug’s game.) POV changes in epic fantasy deepen and enrich the world, and let you cover more ground in it, too.

Several readers have been very surprised about the other POVs in All Hail Chaos. I told one reader at the London Comic Con about a POV (if you get me in person I’ll tell you anything…) and I’m pretty sure they still think I was joking.

I wasn’t.

[sarahreesbrennan]

will book 2 in the Time of Iron series have Key, Lia, and Cobra povs instead? or will there be more than three?

There will be more than three POVs in All Hail Chaos.

I won’t be changing POVs though! I did that in the Demon’s Lexicon, my very first series, and it would take very compelling story reasons for me to do it again. Rae, Marius and Emer will all continue to have POVs. They were my first eyes into the world, and the conflicts in their hearts are the conflicts at the heart of the story.

But Time of Iron is a love letter to epic fantasy, among which I’m thinking of A Song of Ice and Fire and Robin Hobb’s The Liveship Traders. (I’m trying to talk more about inspiration on a granular level, though people ((people generally, not you, dear readers!)) never believe writers when they talk about inspiration, so this may be a mug’s game.) POV changes in epic fantasy deepen and enrich the world, and let you cover more ground in it, too.

Several readers have been very surprised about the other POVs in All Hail Chaos. I told one reader at the London Comic Con about a POV (if you get me in person I’ll tell you anything…) and I’m pretty sure they still think I was joking.

I wasn’t.

[sarahreesbrennan]

I had heard about In Other Lands and Long Live Evil from friend since forever, but I've finally decided to start reading them (starting with In Other Lands) and I think it's taken over my soul.

Elliot is literally the funniest, weirdest little dude and his comebacks always have me giggling like a mad man. Plus the reluctant friendship-turned-m9re with Luke? The dramatic declarations of love to Serene in the first part of the book? I have to say he's simply iconic. Probably my favorite fantasy book character ever (tied with Cardan from TCP, he's my baby) and I just need to give his cheeks a pinch and give them all a hug and some really fattening desert. Like cake.

Anyways!! Just wanted to pop in and say how much I've enjoyed thw book!! I'm hoping to start Long Live Evil next!

Cheers!

Thank you to your friend for recommending my books! Tell them I greatly appreciate them.

And thank you for telling me you enjoyed In Other Lands! (A wonderful reader brought me a copy to sign in Leeds, and didn’t seem sure it was okay to do so ((not their fault, it’s my job to make things clear to the kind people who come to spend time and talk books with me)) and I wanted to say it’s always a true pleasure. Especially as I know In Other Lands isn’t simple to get in the UK or in Spain ((the two places I last signed IOLs)) - you’re showing me love and effort and I am grateful.)

Elliot is a character I always think about now, when writing tricky and highly individual characters. Lots of readers liked him from the jump, but lots of readers hated him… and yet now years later, what has stayed and carried on is the love. I think he had to have the flaws people disliked him for, to seem real and win that enduring love. I’ll take the trade, every time.

And may I add you have wonderful taste. Cardan is also one of my favourites, and a character I was thinking about particularly when writing Long Live Evil and considering favourite characters and especially morally dubious book boyfriends - he’s a highly specific and individual character, and his weirdness and his flaws are both a reason he inspires so much love and why he can’t be effectively copied. (I remember seeing a post that went something like there are 2 types of faerie prince: 1) 500 year old warriors with wings and 2) Cardan Greenbriar.) I did an event with Holly Black where I discussed how another writer remembering Cardan as good at something he wasn’t was a specific inspiration, so I think it’s okay to say online…

Also, Holly helped me write Letters to my Lady from the Abyss, which is extra content in the FairyLoot Long Live Evil edition, and I helped her write Cardan’s letters to Jude, so a) huzzah for epistolary torture teamwork and b) perchance you will like Long Live Evil! (Perchance not. There are no faeries. Faeries are tricky for the Irish. For my general thoughts on the fey, see: Terry Pratchett’s Lords and Ladies, and Peadar O’Guilin’s The Call. Still love you, Cardan.)

Additionally… if anyone is in or around Seattle for Worldcon next month, I will be there. So will Holly Black. So will Leigh Bardugo. I am just saying. I will also be doing an event on the Sunday with Caitlin Rozakis at Elliot Bay Books!

Hope you enjoyed this reflection on characters. Thank you for the love, and the soul takeover. Souls are always much appreciated.

[sarahreesbrennan]

They should invent a being a writer that doesn't come with being isolated and diminishing returns on what you are given back compared to how much you give

[sarahreesbrennan]

I think we need to let villains be camp again. “Ohhhhh it’s homophobic to always have the villain be camp!” Okay but it’s been like. So boring without them.

[sarahreesbrennan]

“What kind of man would put a known criminal in charge of a major branch of government? Apart from, say, the average voter.”

- Sir Terry Pratchett, Going Postal

GNU

[sarahreesbrennan]

YAYYYYY!

YIPPEEEEEEE