Interview Brigid Kemmerer 04-07-2022

Interview Brigid Kemmerer

The day after YALtival in Eindhoven I got a chance to meet and interview Brigid Kemmerer alone at publisher Blossom Books. I asked if two of my friends, Jiska and Jente, could join me and we went there together to ask all kinds of questions! We tried to keep it as spoiler free as we could. There’s one question that might involve spoilers from the end of ACSDAL but I put it at the very end with a big spoiler alert in front of it.

So before the actual interview, we introduced ourselves to Brigid and asked her about the event.

Minca: How was YALtival yesterday?

• Brigid: It was great! It was amazing to see so many people coming there for me.

Minca: Yes it was so crowded! Long lines of people there for you.  

• Brigid: Yeah I know! That was the longest line I’ve ever had. I was signing solidly without a break for like three hours and fifteen minutes. And that’s the longest it’s ever gotten.

Minca: Do you like it in The Netherlands?

• Brigid: I do! It’s been really great and it’s amazing how everyone speaks English, it’s fascinating. It’s amazing, the United States could learn something. Anyone who walked up to me yesterday in the line could just live in the United States without a problem. It was amazing.

Minca: How long is your visit here?

• Brigid: The tour started here in The Netherlands and tomorrow I’m going to Madrid, a whole tour through Europe and next weekend in London. This is pretty much my first big tour, because 2020 was supposed to be my first year where I was really gonna break out and do a lot of big things. Because before that my career had really been small. I was supposed to do bookcon, YALC, just a lot of big conferences. And then everything was canceled.

Minca: And now you’ve written like five more books or something.

• Brigid: Haha, exactly!

Jiska: Is the writing difficult? Because, three children is a lot. So how do you balance that?

• Brigid: They’re a little older now but it was harder when they were younger. And you know, it’s just a matter of figuring out time to write. Right now I get up at 4:30 in the morning and write before they go to school. Finding the right time can be hard. Some parts are hard, but it’s okay.

Minca: So you like to write, but I figure you might also like to read yourself? What do you like to read?

• Brigid: I love fantasy, I do love contemporary and romance. Right now I’m reading the Tessa Bailey book, Hook, Line and Sinker. I’m almost at the end.

Minca: Well, that was my next question, what book you’re reading. Then, let’s see. Do you own a lot of books yourself?

• Brigid: No, I don’t. My husband would say: yes, I do, but I try to give them away a lot. Cause we don’t have a lot of room.

Minca: Do you normally read physical books or e-books?

• Brigid: Yeah, I read physical books and then when I read them I’ll keep them on my shelves for a while and then I pass them on.

Minca: What about your own books?

• Brigid: I have way too many of those! But the Dutch editions of ACSDAL got stuck in transition due to covid, so they’re on their way.

About ACSDAL:

Minca: Have you seen the Dutch editions then?

• Brigid: Yes, I love them. I actually just took some video’s of the covers and the inside for TikTok, because the Till & Dill illustrations are just stunning.

Minca: Talking about illustrations. The covers are stunning too. Did you have anything to say about how the covers were made?

• Brigid: These covers are a little different than the US covers. The artist who did those Shane Rebenschied who is an incredible artist from New Zealand. He has an incredible vision. I think they don’t really need my input because they did a very good job.

Minca: Did you see a change in how many readers you got after the Cursebreakers series came out?

• Brigid: Oh, yeah absolutely. Once A Curse So Dark and Lonely came out it really started to grow. Living the dream!

Minca: These books were somehow to be a retelling of Beauty and the Beast. Was it planned to be or readers make it to be?

• Brigid: It was planned to be, the first one was a very loose retelling of it.

Minca: And about Emberfall. It’s a fictional place. What inspired you to create it like this?

• Brigid: I just love Beauty and the Beast, it’s my favorite. I loved everything about the story, but I found myself always wondering about the kingdom and what was happening in it. Since that is something that has never been explored, in any rendition, they’re always in the castle, she’s trapped by the prince and she has to break the curse. But once I got her out of the castle I realized well, if someone’s not ruling the kingdom, what will happen? And so Emberfall was created.

Minca: And how did you came up with the name? Was it called Emberfall from the start or did it change throughout the writing?

• Brigid: You know, I don’t really know how I came up with it. I always click around online, throw some letters together and wait until something sounds good. I try to remember if it maybe had another name in the beginning… It might’ve had… I’m trying to remember. Because I called it something else in the beginning. I remember thinking this isn’t working. But it didn’t feel right, so it changed to Emberfall. But I don’t remember what the other one was.

Then we checked out the way the translated the names of places on the map in the book and Brigid could even guess which was what. As if somehow it still felt the same.

Minca: How do you feel about publishers changing names of characters of places?

• Brigid: It depends. I don’t mind changing the names of places, because I can see it can be weird to have it named in English while the entire book is in Dutch. Changing character names, I mean, it would really depend and usually the author is not involved. I personally don’t care about names or city’s or anything like that, but I would be upset if somebody changed the direction of the story or the sexual orientation of a character.

Minca/Jiska/Jente: We totally understand, that feels wrong.

Minca: Then moving on to Jente’s favorite question (sent in by Elizabeth Rund): If you had to be roommates with one of your fictional characters, who would you pick and why?

• Brigid: It would probably be Lia Mara. I feel like she would be very easy to get along with. Harper would be a lot of fun, but she would have a temper. Rhen would be very moody, he would constantly be slamming doors. And I would feel like Grey would always be leaving weapons lying around. Yeah, I think Lia Mara would be a very easy roommate to have.

Minca: I think you’re right. As much as I like Grey in the books.

• Brigid: Grey would be the kind of roommate who would be like: let’s go to the gym, let’s go get a second work out, haha.

Minca: Haha, no thank you! Talking about characters. Who was the most fun to write about?

• Brigid: Uhm… I’d have to say Prince Rhen is the easiest character for me to write. Easiest for me to just get into is head and write his chapters. I don’t know why. Maybe because he just says what he is thinking. I don’t know. Harper was second easy to write and Grey was by far the hardest to write. He doesn’t say a lot. He’s just so closed off that I had to think of different ways to show what he’s expressing. I feel like every Grey chapter I wrote took me about twice as long as anybody else.

Minca: Well, you did a great job with Grey then either way, because I liked him very much. Especially with Harper, their friendship was so interesting and pure.

• Brigid: Well, see. Writing about Grey through Harper’s eyes was very easy. Writing from his point of view, so hard!

Minca: You said Rhen was the easiest to write for you. Another reader was interested in this character. Floor van Halsema was curious about Rhen’s motives to do some ‘cruel’ things without the direct influence of Lillith. Like the scene with Tycho and Grey. She was wondering about the changes in his behavior between book 1 and book 2. Was it purely his fear for magic or something more?

• Brigid: Between book 1 and 2, Rhen’s primary motive was always to protect his people and himself from the dangers of magic. Some people have written to me: ‘Did Rhen undergo some kind of major change/shift in character’. And I don’t really think he did undergo a major shift. He was very worried about someone out there who could exert the same kind of pressure on him that Lilith had done. And he wasn’t going to stop at anything to be able to get that information. And that’s why he did what he did. You know, everyone makes bad decisions for different reasons.

Minca: Yeah, that’s a good thing to point out in your books and characters. No one’s flawless. So we talked about Rhen and how easy it is to write about him. Is he also the character that is the most like you then?

• Brigid: Uhm… No. I would love to be the most like Harper, but I’m probably the most like Lia Mara. I’m very bookish, a little boring.

Minca: Haha, I think a lot of readers can relate to that. They all want to be Harper, but deep inside they’re Lia Mara.

Jente: How did this writing process go? Was it chronologically. And how did the characters come to life in your mind?

• Brigid: I usually start at the very beginning, not at the end or somewhere in between. Sometimes characters even decide for themselves what will happen. For instance. I always said Jake and Grey were going to be best friends. While writing the story before them meeting, I thought they were going to be friends, but then I wrote it and they do not like each other at all.

Minca: Are there ever going to be more books about the four main characters of ACSDAL?

• Brigid: For now it’s just Forging Silver and the other books in this series. But they appear a lot, so.

I also asked a question about Forging Silver into Stars but I don’t want to spoiler anyone, so if you want to check it out, scroll all the way down to see it!

Minca: Now that we’ve had all the questions. Are there any questions you have for us?

• Brigid: Haha, all right! How long have you been blogging?

Minca: Uhm… Let me think… I started my blog My Winged Books on… December 31^st 2017

• Brigid: Wow, that’s a long time! Awesome!

Minca: Yes, it is. I even started with books from Blossom Books like this one.

• Brigid: Yey! That’s amazing!

Minca: I really hope they’re going to translate Forging Silver as well. Maybe because it’s in the same world they will pick up on that.

• Brigid: I can’t say for sure, but that would be great!
• Brigid: Another question: What is your favorite thing about living in the Netherlands?

Jiska: It’s smaller, so it’s easier to govern and I love the public transport. You can get literally anywhere within 2 or 3 hours. It’s very easy.

• Brigid: Yeah, the public transport here’s really kind of amazing. It wasn’t a long wait for me to go from Eindhoven to here in Utrecht.

Minca: Well, thank you so much for your visit, for your time and for talking to us. We had a great time.

• Brigid: Thank you as well. It was lovely to meet you and be here.

Spoiler alert!

Minca: Talking about Forging Silver into Stars. Most readers like a happily ever after. But it felt different in Forging Silver. What made you decide to take a different route?

• Brigid: Well, I think the best part about books is conflict. When people are dealing with conflict. I always say if everyone’s getting along: I’m not doing my job. And I love showing all the different sides of conflict. Like Grey and Lia Mara are having a difficult time. I’m playing with the politics of the magic, the countries as I established them and see what happens.

Thank so much again @Judith and Myrthe from publisher Blossom Books for this opportunity! We really enjoyed it. And for the readers of my blog: thank you for reading my interview. This was my second author interview and I really enjoyed it. So if you ever need an interviewer for an (international) author, let me know!

~ Minca