About the Author: “Emily J. Taylor is the New York Times and indie bestselling author of Hotel Magnifique. Born and raised in California, she’s lived in four states and two continents, all of which have conveniently given her an endless amount of story fodder. She currently works as a creative director in Minneapolis, where she spends the long winters dreaming up glittering worlds to spin into dark tales” (Bio from author’s website).
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Hannah Goerndt: What draws you to the young adult genre?
Emily J. Taylor: I love young adult because YA milestones are so high stakes and profound. Things like intense friendships and having crushes and falling in love carries a different weight when you’re experiencing them for the first time. Young adult writing also has this amazing immediacy to it that other genres frankly don’t. We are right there inside our protagonist’s head, experiencing all of these new angsty highs for the first time.
HG: When you sit down to start a new project, do you begin with characters, setting, or do you go for plot? And then where do you go from there?
EJT: None of these! I begin with what I call a “big idea,” which is usually one sentence that takes something that exists in our world and twists it with magic. These ideas usually come in the form of a question. For The Otherwhere Post, it was: what if we could enchant letters to be delivered to other worlds? Then I write that sentence on a Post-it note and stick it at the top of this corkboard wall I have in my office. Then I start to ask questions. How do people enchant the mail? Who has the power in this world? What are the big secrets? The characters, setting, and plot always seem to manifest with those questions.
HG: Maeve and Tristan both have such distinct personalities, although at moments they seem tragically similar. How did you go about forming these characters, with all their nuances and little traits?
EJT: I initially start with character goals and backstories related to those goals. Maeve’s big goal was pretty clear from the get-go; she was determined to solve this giant mystery of whether her father was innocent. It shaped her struggles throughout. Tristan, on the other hand, didn’t come to me right away. I actually had a draft where he was more of a stereotypical love interest, and it was boring! The pair lacked chemistry. Then I thought: what if I flipped it and gave Tristan all these traits that were the antithesis of YA love interest? Slowly, this messy, broody, disaster of a human came to life—who loved to get beneath Maeve’s skin. So much fun to write!
HG: The unique setting of The Otherwhere Post spans three known worlds connected through magic; what was the decision making behind having interconnecting worlds?
EJT: The setting really came out of the big idea. I wanted to make the postal service a necessity for Maeve’s world. The more I thought about it, I realized that for the mail to carry the most weight—and power—the people in each world needed to be desperate to communicate with each other. From there, I came up with the tragic circumstance of the worlds once being connected by magic doors that were suddenly burned down, and poof—it instantly gave the Otherwhere Post this vast amount of cache and dark history.
HG: In your novel, there are five different subsets of scriptomancy. How did you develop and choose these five types of magic?
EJT: When I start a story, I usually brainstorm things that I want magic to do, and also the things I need it to do for plot reasons. For Otherwhere, I knew I wanted to have the letters be enchanted to do cool things, but I also needed people to be able to travel between worlds. Those things felt like they could almost be two separate magic systems, which certainly can be done, but my story was already complicated enough. I wanted to whittle it down to one simple system that could fit everything in the most digestible way. And this story focuses on letters. So, I thought: what better way to create magic than through writing? Once I had the idea of scriptomancy as the umbrella magic system, I brainstormed how I could fit that initial list of ideas beneath it in the simplest way possible and the five scribing types were born.
HG: This story is full of many intense twists and turns—what factors and ideas helped you create these scenes?
EJT: I definitely have a sense of the overarching plot and what the big secrets are before I start to write, so some of those twists are plotted out. But I’m also easily bored and tend to think of fun twists on the fly to counteract my own boredom. This same thing goes for all my character interactions! I can outline for days, but I really don’t know what my characters will do until I’m in the scene. And from my experience, the more fun and surprised I am when I’m writing, the more fun the readers have.
HG: You spoke a bit about using visual treatment to write your books during a panel at the Tucson Festival of Books, can you speak a bit about that process?
EJT: Yes! I worked as an art director for years before I started writing books and that process has absolutely carried over. Once I have that big idea, I love to have a visual roadmap of what the story is going to feel like so I can visualize everything. I try to pull references from all over the place to create a single visual vibe that feels “ownable.” For Otherwhere, I pulled everything from stills from music videos to modern fashion to historical menus. Then I make mood boards, usually on Pinterest. I’ll even design out a computer wallpaper, where I’m forced to stare at my story visuals constantly. It keeps me in the zone.
HG: Are there any authors or books that inspire you as an author?
EJT: In high school, I was obsessed with gothic suspense like Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier or Mistress of Mellyn by Victoria Holt. I read dozens of these gothic books filled with misty moors, murder mysteries, and dark, brooding romantic love interests—they were my catnip! I didn’t start reading YA until Twilight, and that book completely took over my life at the time. Three of my all-time favorite authors are: Laini Taylor, Holly Black, and Juliet Marillier.
HG: What advice would you pass on to young authors as they begin their own journey through publishing?
EJT: I always tell people to just finish the book. Finish it and then keep going. Fall in love with putting down words. Don’t worry about the business of publishing too much—focus on finishing something and learning how to revise. Then, I would say work on making your book idea as strong as possible. A fresh pitch will instantly get an agent or editor’s attention even if the story needs work. My agents took me on as a client with a book that had a great pitch and good writing but needed quite a lot of structural work! We revised it for over a year together. That book is my debut, Hotel Magnifique.
HG: What does the future look like for you? Do you have any ideas you are working with or plans you can share?
EJT: I do! I’m working on a new story now that I can’t say too much about other than it has my blend of dark magic meets intricate world building with an angsty romance and a magic system that I am obsessed with.
Hannah Goerndt, Pine Reads Review Writer