Ask the Author: Leigh Bardugo
Answered Questions (55)
Leigh Bardugo
I reread the Shadow and Bone trilogy before I wrote KoS because I needed to refresh my memory. But otherwise, I never, ever re-read my books. All I can see is the things I would fix or change. The closest I get is when I see a quote pop up on Instagram and then I usually think, oh, hey, that's not bad.
Leigh Bardugo
My next book will be adult, a standalone historical fantasy. At least that's the plan. After that I have a YA project and an adult project cooking. And of course the third and final Alex Stern book. But yes, you're right, it's basically "whatever the series requires." I tend to know early on if a story slots into YA or adult or something else entirely. (I have a couple of something else entirelys coming soon too.)
Leigh Bardugo
Good ol' Bertie. The Bridegroom doesn't appear in Hell Bent, but he has a big role to play in the third book of the trilogy.
Leigh Bardugo
Yes!
Ok, so I originally wanted this to be a much longer series. Think 12 books of Alex Stern investigating supernatural crime and corruption. But these stories take a tremendous amount of time to research and write, so 12 became 5, and then 5 became 3. My intention right now is to keep this a trilogy and that's the way I've planned the plot of the third book. Hopefully the wait won't be quite as long for the final installment. (thank you for your patience!)
Ok, so I originally wanted this to be a much longer series. Think 12 books of Alex Stern investigating supernatural crime and corruption. But these stories take a tremendous amount of time to research and write, so 12 became 5, and then 5 became 3. My intention right now is to keep this a trilogy and that's the way I've planned the plot of the third book. Hopefully the wait won't be quite as long for the final installment. (thank you for your patience!)
Leigh Bardugo
So glad you're excited for HB! When I wrote the proposal for Ninth House, I made it clear that I wasn't interested in writing the book if I had to fictionalize the university or the societies. I wanted to play with the tension between the real and imagined, for people to really wonder how much of the story was tr(ue. For the same reason, almost every structure (the exceptions are Black Elm in NH and Sweetwell in HB) in the novels is real too. That meant we had to do a lot of rounds with legal but I think it was worth it. I did have to include a disclaimer in the UK edition: "The societies of Yale University and their prestigious alumni are very real, but the characters and events described in these pages are all the product of the author's imagination, and as far as I know, no one has ever used magic to fix an election."
Leigh Bardugo
Unfortunately, I won't be adding any additional stops for my Hell Bent tour. I'm sorry I can't do more, but I'm dealing with more frequent pain spikes lately, and I'll already be away from home for three weeks. I hope I'll be able to plan something for later in the year 🖤
Leigh Bardugo
Thank you for the kind words! Unfortunately, I think it will come out a little later in Germany because they need time to translate the text.
Leigh Bardugo
Yes. As far as I'm concerned, Pamela Dawes and Detective Turner are the real MVPs.
Leigh Bardugo
Listening to Ludovico Einaudi. Walk and Gravity are the songs I've listened to on loop for Ninth House and Hell Bent.
Leigh Bardugo
I can't really answer that because of spoilers, but there's a character who shows up around 185 who completely took me by surprise and who I enjoyed writing immensely. Alex is always fun because I never quite know what she's going to do until she does it. Darlington because he's an absolute snob and it's really pleasurable to give into that impulse. Now that I'm thinking about it, I suppose all of the characters are fun to write, because if I don't enjoy writing them, I poke and prod them until they become fun to write. Behave, monster children.
Leigh Bardugo
Hell Bent is faster paced and... I think it's funnier? But that's such an uncomfortable claim to make: I THINK I'M HILARIOUS.
Leigh Bardugo
Absolutely not. There's a small character cameo from the trilogy in The Language of Thorns, but the rest of the stories are fables and fairy tales set long before the books.
Leigh Bardugo
No, I have no plans to do that. If I ever write about them again it will probably be in a novel. The Language of Thorns is a collection of Grishaverse fairy tales—so the kinds of stories Kaz and Inej would have grown up on. There's even one set in Kerch.
Leigh Bardugo
Maybe someday. I have a longterm plan for the Grishaverse, so we'll see how it goes.
Leigh Bardugo
I wrote some, but they just didn't seem to work. I think it's because Wylan wasn't really a Crow yet. But he has plenty of POV chapters in Crooked Kingdom.
Leigh Bardugo
I have and no.
Leigh Bardugo
Not headed to Indiana, but all of my tour dates are now up at LeighBardugo.com. Road trip?
Leigh Bardugo
Duology. Just two books for now.
Leigh Bardugo
Yes! We just cast Wylan :D
Leigh Bardugo
Yes! I'm not sure when it will be out though.
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May 30, 2024 12:40AM
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