LA Public Library: Interview With An Author: Freya Marske

Press release from the Los Angeles Public Library:

Daryl M.

March 3, 2022

Freya Marske is one of the co-hosts of Be the Serpent, a Hugo Award-nominated podcast about SFF, fandom, and literary tropes, and her work has sold to Analog and been shortlisted for Best Fantasy Short Story in the Aurealis Awards. She lives in Australia. Her debut novel is A Marvellous Light and she recently talked about it with Daryl Maxwell for the LAPL Blog.

The very first loose thread of a question that seemed promising when I tugged on it was about a civil service liaison to a magical bureaucracy, and what sort of person would be interesting in that position (someone who has no idea magic exists, obviously). The next question was: what sort of person would they immediately clash with, and then fall in love with?

And boom. There you are. The beginnings of a story!

Edwin and Robin are my own version of character archetypes that I love: the bookish intellectual, and the sunshine-hearted jock. Both of them are more complex than that, of course. But I find that if you give readers a familiar shape of character to latch onto, early in the book, then they'll stick with you and trust you to slowly unfold the layers of personality that make these specific people unique.

There is also a minor character called Catherine Amrit Kaur, and her name is an homage to the Indian politician Amrit Kaur, who was educated in England at around the time the novel is set—and who then became India's first Health Minister!

Robin had a younger brother in the first draft—I can't regret the loss of him too much, as he didn't serve any narrative purpose, and getting rid of him allowed his sister Maud more space to come into her own as a character. And I'm actually quite a clean drafter, so I can't think of any scenes that were cut wholesale, but I definitely had to take a ruthless editing knife to the word count of several!

Due to the nature of the story the trilogy is telling, it was always going to be in England. But the reason I picked the Edwardian era is because of book 2, the idea for which popped into my head very early during the planning stage. I always knew it would be set on an ocean liner around the era of the Titanic; and so I did some reading about the Edwardian era, realized there were certain aspects of the UK's social and political history at the time that made it thematically perfect for the plot, and that was that.

I'm also a huge admirer of EM Forster, who in Maurice wrote one of the earliest English gay romances to have a happy ending, and I'm pleased to be paying him homage by setting my books at a time contemporaneous with his.

Yes, many times! I love the mixture of old and new that you can stumble over just wandering around central London, and I will always spend time at the galleries—the National Portrait Gallery especially. But if I'm going to recommend anywhere in England, I have to shout out the place that inspired the interior décor of Penhallick House, Edwin's family abode: Wightwick Manor, in the West Midlands. The interior is a wild, glorious example of the height of the Arts & Crafts movement.

This question knows I am in the early stages of drafting book 3 of the trilogy and is taunting me.
Honestly, this series is doing something very deliberate which I stole from the romance genre, which is: slowly building an ensemble cast partaking of a fantasy plot while using each book to tell the love story of a different couple. If you like Robin and Edwin, fear not! You'll see them again. But books 2 and 3 have different narrators, and so a different style of story apiece, even though the overarching plot is one coherent thing.

Far, far too many books, some of which, like the upcoming queer Iliad retelling Wrath Goddess Sing by Maya Deane, I'm partway through. A handful of those patiently waiting their turn: On Shakespeare by the great Australian actor & director John Bell. Cuckoo Song by Frances Hardinge. The Absolute Book by Elizabeth Knox. An advance copy of The Perfect Crimes of Marian Hayes by Cat Sebastian. And the fourth book in the Niccolò series by Dorothy Dunnett, which I'm making my very slow way through in order to make it last as long as possible.

Dorothy Dunnett is definitely up there. In terms of science fiction and fantasy, I owe huge amounts of enjoyment and influence to Terry Pratchett, Diana Wynne Jones, and Lois McMaster Bujold. And my favourite historical romance author of all time is KJ Charles.

Time will have no meaning anymore. Everything in publishing happens at the speed of light and also takes five million years. All you can do is make sure you're celebrating even the smallest milestones as they arise, and holding fast to reality by working on the next book. There's nothing to keep you humble after the highs of a starred review like staring once more into the abyss of a first draft.

Then as now, I was fundamentally incapable of naming a single favourite. Three that I reread endlessly: The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge, Pagan's Crusade by Catherine Jinks and Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild.

They weren't too impressed at all the Babysitter's Club books I brought home from the library, but I devoured them—they were a glimpse into a foreign culture (America) full of unfamiliar holidays, strange desserts, weird school activities, and upside-down seasons.

Never! I have zero shame about the books I have and haven't read, and no patience for 'should'. Plus, one of the great joys of life is watching someone's face light up as they try to sell you on a book that they've read and you haven't.

That's a hard one. I'm usually buying based on recommendation or having already read it. But I think even if I hadn't read it already, I'd be sold by the cover of Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki; the combination of that incredible title with the koi floating gently in space, the splash of colour in the dark, tells you instantly that it's science fiction full of hope.

Discovering Georgette Heyer was how I learned just how clever, funny and outright joyful the genre of romance can be, after two decades spent turning my nose up at it. The first book of hers that I read was Cotillon, which remains one of my favourites.

Again, I think 'should' is the enemy of a joyful reading life. There's no one book that's perfect for everyone. But I do believe there's a Terry Pratchett book out there for every person; the Discworld series covers such a wide range of subgenres and story-shapes. Pratchett's brand of fiercely intelligent humanism and social conscience, delivered via humorous fantasy fiction, is something that I wish everyone could be exposed to.

I recently finished The Kingdoms by Natasha Pulley, who's one of my favourite authors writing today, and despite how agonisingly stressed I was during the reading process—damn, she can do narrative tension like nobody's business!—I instantly wanted to forget all the twists so I could experience them again.

I've been watching a lot of Korean crime dramas and thrillers recently, and some of them are a real masterclass in the building and release of tension. I especially love the slow, character-heavy shape of the show Stranger, which manages to make a story about stubborn morality in the face of absolute corruption incredibly compelling.

This is a dangerous question to wave in front of someone who's been prevented from traveling by a pandemic. I'm going to imagine a writing retreat in Barcelona, in a house, stuffed full of all my author friends from around the globe who I hardly ever get to see. A morning of writing, an afternoon trip to the Sagrada Família followed by a few hours of reading, and then a long late tapas dinner with a lot of food, even more wine, and a creative conversation full of laughter.

One of the major non-book things I can ramble about endlessly is food and drink, so there's a part of me always hoping to be asked for gin recommendations or what I've been baking recently. (The Botanist, Raku, or Four Pillars Modern Australian gin; pumpkin and sultana muffins, and my mother's famous prune cake with brandy icing.)

Book 3 of the Last Binding trilogy is taking slow, grinding shape at the moment. I'm always tentative in the early stages of a book when I'm learning more about my narrators and getting a grip on their voices, but I'm also excited for the shiny, beautiful version of the book that exists in my head. Let's hope I can do it justice.

A Marvellous Light Marske, Freya View on OverDrive View in Catalog

This press release was produced by the Los Angeles Public Library. The views expressed here are the author’s own.