A Night In with Sarah J Maas: Fane event highlights
These are some of the highlights I’ve compiled after watching Sarah’s latest online event (February 16, 2022). If you screenshot this and post it in any other platforms, please make sure my username shows. If you post it on Instagram, tag my account @/bookishbisous
This includes no spoilers for CC2 but some spoilers for CC1
- This talk is pre-recorded because she was pregnant at the time. She wanted to keep the pregnancy low-key for personal reasons.
- Sarah had planned an international event for HOEAB but had to cancel it because of COVID.
- She shows us her baby bump 🥺 (she’s had her daughter already!)
- She talks about where the concept for CC came from. She’s been a fan of paranormal romance/urban fantasy forever. While on tour for Heir of Fire, she was on a plane listening to music and suddenly she saw in her head the scene at the end of the first book where Danika came to save Bryce. The whole “Light It Up” moment. She started crying because of their powerful bond that transcended death. It became a passion project she wrote while working on TOG and ACOTAR when she needed “a distraction”.
- Years later, she’d written 1/3 of HOEAB and finally decided she wanted to keep developing the story.
- She says music inspires her.
- She considers Nesta one of her heroines along with Aelin, Feyre and Bryce.
- She’s a hybrid between planning story plots and making spur of the moment decisions. The characters speak to her and that’s why new information/plot lines about them happen.
- She loves spreading breadcrumbs that will come back in the following books.
- In HOSAB there’s lot of reveals towards the end (that ending’s been in the works for so many years and she’s super excited to see our reaction). She’s planted many breadcrumbs about it.
- A couple of years ago she had a meeting with the publisher in which she talked about the order of the books, and that’s when she revealed the ending of HOSAB and the room exploded. She’ll never forget that moment.
- Some things that initially appear to be insignificant are revealed to be huge in HOSAB.
- Sarah wanted to be able to say “Fuck!” as much as she wanted in CC. It felt like a breath of fresh air to write this series.
- Talking about Bryce being a party girl heroine, she admits that she took some of her own college experiences and put them in CC. “Just because you enjoy partying doesn’t mean you’re not a strong intelligent woman,” she says.
- One of the first glimpses she got of Bryce before writing CC was her at the club with her friends doing drugs (lol).
- Sarah loves multi-dimensional characters (like Aelin, who’s an skilled assassin but also loves fancy dresses and parties). She’s inspired by the amazing women in her life and shows like Buffy and Sailor Moon.
- Feyre, Aelin and Bryce would have so much fun together their love interests wouldn’t know what to do with themselves.
- She refers to Hunt as the main love interest in CC.
- Ithan is pronounced like “Ethan”.
- She grew up loving all kinds of magical creatures and decided to include them all in CC because why not? She finds it interesting how they co-exist and all the politics, as well as how all the species build this world together.
- She loved coming up with the districts of the city and playing with the layout of the map. Not every detail makes it to the book but she loves the process and thinks it adds “flavour” to the world building.
- She loves writing Ember and Bryce together. Poor Randall just wants some peace lol
- CC was the hardest book to pitch because of how complex the story is.
- World War II spy movies inspired her for the political/spy plots in HOSAB. Especially the bravery of spy women in that history period (women who could blend easily but also could kill with her bare hands). The prologue of HOSAB and a character in particular were highly inspired by a real-life woman spy in WW2.
- She’s only signed 3 books for CC, but she wants to write more about “whoever survives” after those 3 books are done. She wants to explore all of Midgard and not just the city.
- She’s working on CC3 right now. She’s setting up characters in case she’s allowed to write more books in the series.
- The Viper Queen popped out of nowhere while she was writing book 1 and she loved detailing her outfits.
- In HOSAB, Bryce and Hunt want to go slow and figure things out between them. They want to get to know each other first—but they don’t want to take a step back from what they feel. It adds “regency vibes” to their story where every small touch becomes huge.
- Sarah thinks men can look hot while tossing back their drinking glasses (same)
- Consent in books (and in real life) is vital to her. She benefitted from going to schools that educated her on Sex Ed and intimacy. She also thinks consent is super sexy.
- She learned a lot about sex and romance from the books she read when she was younger.
- Her family wasn’t allowed to read ACOSF and they’re not allowed to read HOSAB either. Josh’s friends tease her for her sexy books.
- Her family and her moved back to LA in August.
- Her editor helps her with better settings for sex scenes because Sarah always goes for hooking up on the couch.
- Her default mood is humor and she doesn’t take herself seriously. That’s why in her books she likes balancing heartfelt moments with humor. She loves writing Bryce because she faces the world in this way.
- She’s on a Marvel kick right now. Her favourite movies are the ones with a lot of humor, like Guardians of the Galaxy.
- She writes in grey areas. Who’s good? What does it mean to be good and bad? Can bad people do good things? She thinks this makes the characters more fun and interesting to write. She uses Hunt as an example—a good character who’s done bad things on behalf on someone else, and who now bears the scars. Bryce is “good” but capable of being ruthless.
- “Through love all is possible” can apply to all her books. Not just romantic love—family and friends, too. The love between female friends is a big part of her life and inspires her for her books (the Valkyries and Bryce and Danika).
- Otters are her favourite animals and have been since she was a kid. She’s disappointed that her son isn’t so into them so much, but he does love a little otter toy she bought him before he was born.
- Kiss kill marry: Hunt, Rhys and Rowan. She says she wants to have a drink first because it’s a minefield of a question. Finally, she says she wants to marry all of them (same).
- She’s currently working on Crescent City 3 and if she has inspiration she’ll also work on the next ACOTAR book.
- She’s always thinking about new ideas. She’s been working on a novella about how Ember and Randall met (as a personal project).
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