Welcome to A Week of Cinderella! Grab some promotional buttons for your blog HERE and stop back all week long for fun guest posts, exciting author visits (because, after all, Marissa isn't the ONLY author with a kick-ass Cinderella to celebrate!), giveaways, reviews, and a blog tour stop for CINDER!
Sarah will also be releasing four novellas over the next few months leading up to August, starting with THE ASSASSIN AND THE PIRATE LORD on January 31st!
Check out Sarah's blog or follow her on Twitter @SJMaas or her new Facebook page to stalk her with me. ^.~
Today, Sarah J. Maas posted a HUGE announcement regarding THRONE OF GLASS on her blog. There's another major announcement coming Monday, so please stop back at her blog then. I know I'll be waiting with bated breath!!
An interview with Sarah J. Maas
Can you tell us a little more about your upcoming debut novel, THRONE OF GLASS? Information has been so scarce and we're all anxious to hear more!
First of all: HI, EVERYONE! And a huge, huge thank you to Bonnie for interviewing me!!
As for your question…Well, I guess the first big thing is that I recently went through a title change! QUEEN OF GLASS is now THRONE OF GLASS—and even though I’ve spent years with QoG as a title, I am super, super happy about it!
I don’t have my official flap copy yet, but I thought that Rachel Stark, the marketing assistant at Bloomsbury (she also has a fabulous, fabulous blog that everyone should read: ) put it best on her blog:
“Celaena Sardothien is plucked from certain death in the salt mines of Endovier and whisked away to a glass castle to compete for the title of King’s assassin. All that stands between Celaena and the promise of freedom is a deadly competition, a chamber far below the castle that's full of dark secrets, and a host of traitors who make it impossible for Celaena to trust anyone—even the two men closest to her.”
Still pretty vague, I know, BUT hopefully I’ll have an official summary to give you all soon! ;)
Will there be a direct sequel, or will it be more of a companion novel? Will there be other books after these two in this line?
Hehehe, well, I can’t say anything YET about the other books, but…the way I’ve imagined the rest of the series is that all of the books are direct sequels, and follow the adventures of the core cast of characters. If the publishing gods are kind, then I’ll hopefully get the chance to publish all of the books in the series (which is several books long)!
Can you tell us a little more about the four novellas coming out this year and leading up to this fall's release of THRONE OF GLASS? Will they remain ebook-exclusive, or be bound up into a Dead Tree Book to be sold in bookstores across the country alongside your novel?
Oh, the novellas! I am so, so excited for them. They’re all set about 2 years before the events of THRONE OF GLASS, and though they can each stand alone, the four of them form the arc that chronicles how Celaena went from being the world’s most feared assassin to being thrown into the Salt Mines.
The first novella, THE ASSASSIN AND THE PIRATE LORD, which will be out on January 31st, is about Celaena’s encounter with a notorious Pirate Lord (in case that wasn’t obvious from the title, hehe!). She’s sent by her master (the King of the Assassins) to the Pirate Lord’s city to demand retribution for pirate crimes against the assassins, but once she arrives, she soon realizes that she’s actually been sent for something far more sinister.
The second novella, THE ASSASSIN AND THE DESERT, will release a few months from now, with the 3rd and 4th novellas being released a few months after that (leading up to the Fall 2012 release of THRONE OF GLASS).
For the time being, they’re exclusively ebooks, but hopefully I’ll someday get to see them bound up into a Dead Tree Book (LOL—I love that you call them that)!
The Publisher's Marketplace write-up in 2010 stating that THRONE OF GLASS is "about an infamous young assassin who is more than she seems and who must battle her way to freedom in a corrupt kingdom where magic has been outlawed" put everyone on edge to see all the new elements you'll bring to this classic fairy tale. What first gave you the idea to write such a unique rendition of Cinderella?
You know, I first got the inspiration for THRONE OF GLASS by listening to a piece of music from Disney’s CINDERELLA score. I found the music that plays when she flees the ball (and the whole scene, to be honest) to be really, really dark and intense—my imagination, not surprisingly, made the jump to “Well, what if she had done something really bad? Like steal from the Prince?” And then it went one step further and asked: “What if she was an assassin who tried to KILL the Prince?” From there, I wanted to know who, exactly, this Cinderella-assassin was. Who had sent her to assassinate the prince? WHY had they sent her? And how had she become an assassin? More importantly, what would become of her NOW?
And so THRONE OF GLASS was born. Asking those questions (and the many other questions that arose) led me to realize that there was a whole giant backstory to be told before she ever arrives at the ball—entire BOOKS, actually, before that fateful night. And, as the years passed and ToG grew and grew, my Cinderella retelling actually became more of an original epic fantasy. So, these days, ToG has a few nods to Cinderella, but isn’t exactly a straight-up retelling anymore.
You started writing THRONE OF GLASS and posting it as a serial on FictionPress.com. Did you always know you wanted to traditionally publish it, or did the idea grow after you gathered a following? How has the novel grown from its earliest days to become what it is now?
Well, I was a reader before I was a writer, but until I began writing TOG, the dream of getting published seemed completely impossible. Yet once I started writing TOG and saw the reaction that my FictionPress readers had, I realized that not only did I WANT to be a published writer, but that I maybe stood a chance of accomplishing that dream. The incredible response I had from my FP readers was what gave me the confidence to try to get it published—and to this day, I remain utterly grateful for all that they’ve done for me.
Since TOG was taken off of FP, it’s gone through a LOT of changes (several rewrites, revisions, etc.). Again, perhaps one of the biggest things was that it’s no longer a straight-up Cinderella retelling, but more of an epic fantasy with some hints of Cinderella. But I’ve also added (and subtracted) several plots, characters, expanded the world, and…totally changed how I imagine the series ending. So while the spirit and the heart of the story remains the same, the plot (especially how I left things in the final chapter I shared on FP) has really altered. I am incredibly excited, though, to share it with both my old FP fans and my new readers—and really, truly proud of what the book has become.
Sarah, this interview has shed so much light onto THRONE OF GLASS. I didn't know it was possible to covet this book any more than I already do! I can't wait to hear the rest of your news on Monday! :-)
As for your question…Well, I guess the first big thing is that I recently went through a title change! QUEEN OF GLASS is now THRONE OF GLASS—and even though I’ve spent years with QoG as a title, I am super, super happy about it!
I don’t have my official flap copy yet, but I thought that Rachel Stark, the marketing assistant at Bloomsbury (she also has a fabulous, fabulous blog that everyone should read: ) put it best on her blog:
“Celaena Sardothien is plucked from certain death in the salt mines of Endovier and whisked away to a glass castle to compete for the title of King’s assassin. All that stands between Celaena and the promise of freedom is a deadly competition, a chamber far below the castle that's full of dark secrets, and a host of traitors who make it impossible for Celaena to trust anyone—even the two men closest to her.”
Still pretty vague, I know, BUT hopefully I’ll have an official summary to give you all soon! ;)
Will there be a direct sequel, or will it be more of a companion novel? Will there be other books after these two in this line?
Hehehe, well, I can’t say anything YET about the other books, but…the way I’ve imagined the rest of the series is that all of the books are direct sequels, and follow the adventures of the core cast of characters. If the publishing gods are kind, then I’ll hopefully get the chance to publish all of the books in the series (which is several books long)!
Oh, the novellas! I am so, so excited for them. They’re all set about 2 years before the events of THRONE OF GLASS, and though they can each stand alone, the four of them form the arc that chronicles how Celaena went from being the world’s most feared assassin to being thrown into the Salt Mines.
The first novella, THE ASSASSIN AND THE PIRATE LORD, which will be out on January 31st, is about Celaena’s encounter with a notorious Pirate Lord (in case that wasn’t obvious from the title, hehe!). She’s sent by her master (the King of the Assassins) to the Pirate Lord’s city to demand retribution for pirate crimes against the assassins, but once she arrives, she soon realizes that she’s actually been sent for something far more sinister.
The second novella, THE ASSASSIN AND THE DESERT, will release a few months from now, with the 3rd and 4th novellas being released a few months after that (leading up to the Fall 2012 release of THRONE OF GLASS).
For the time being, they’re exclusively ebooks, but hopefully I’ll someday get to see them bound up into a Dead Tree Book (LOL—I love that you call them that)!
The Publisher's Marketplace write-up in 2010 stating that THRONE OF GLASS is "about an infamous young assassin who is more than she seems and who must battle her way to freedom in a corrupt kingdom where magic has been outlawed" put everyone on edge to see all the new elements you'll bring to this classic fairy tale. What first gave you the idea to write such a unique rendition of Cinderella?
You know, I first got the inspiration for THRONE OF GLASS by listening to a piece of music from Disney’s CINDERELLA score. I found the music that plays when she flees the ball (and the whole scene, to be honest) to be really, really dark and intense—my imagination, not surprisingly, made the jump to “Well, what if she had done something really bad? Like steal from the Prince?” And then it went one step further and asked: “What if she was an assassin who tried to KILL the Prince?” From there, I wanted to know who, exactly, this Cinderella-assassin was. Who had sent her to assassinate the prince? WHY had they sent her? And how had she become an assassin? More importantly, what would become of her NOW?
And so THRONE OF GLASS was born. Asking those questions (and the many other questions that arose) led me to realize that there was a whole giant backstory to be told before she ever arrives at the ball—entire BOOKS, actually, before that fateful night. And, as the years passed and ToG grew and grew, my Cinderella retelling actually became more of an original epic fantasy. So, these days, ToG has a few nods to Cinderella, but isn’t exactly a straight-up retelling anymore.
Well, I was a reader before I was a writer, but until I began writing TOG, the dream of getting published seemed completely impossible. Yet once I started writing TOG and saw the reaction that my FictionPress readers had, I realized that not only did I WANT to be a published writer, but that I maybe stood a chance of accomplishing that dream. The incredible response I had from my FP readers was what gave me the confidence to try to get it published—and to this day, I remain utterly grateful for all that they’ve done for me.
Since TOG was taken off of FP, it’s gone through a LOT of changes (several rewrites, revisions, etc.). Again, perhaps one of the biggest things was that it’s no longer a straight-up Cinderella retelling, but more of an epic fantasy with some hints of Cinderella. But I’ve also added (and subtracted) several plots, characters, expanded the world, and…totally changed how I imagine the series ending. So while the spirit and the heart of the story remains the same, the plot (especially how I left things in the final chapter I shared on FP) has really altered. I am incredibly excited, though, to share it with both my old FP fans and my new readers—and really, truly proud of what the book has become.
Sarah, this interview has shed so much light onto THRONE OF GLASS. I didn't know it was possible to covet this book any more than I already do! I can't wait to hear the rest of your news on Monday! :-)
Sarah, thanks so much for stopping by! I enjoyed reading your responses and THRONE OF GLASS is still one of my most highly-anticipated novels of 2012!!
ReplyDeleteThis is such an awesome interview! And thanks for the blog plug, Sarah =)
ReplyDeleteSpiffy interview :) Looking forward to the revisions. :)
ReplyDeleteGreat interview! I can't wait for Throne of Glass to come out this year!
ReplyDelete