I was lucky to get an interview with Stephanie Burgis, the author of The Scales and Sensibility, and one of this year’s #SPFBO8 semifinalists.
Please, tell us a bit about yourself…
I grew up in Michigan, but I’m now a dual UK/US citizen, and I live in Wales, surrounded by castles and coffeeshops, with my husband (fellow fantasy author Patrick Samphire), our two kids, and our very vocal tabby cat, Pebbles.
“It’s full of everything I love in both Regency rom-coms AND fantasy misadventures, with magical masquerades, seemingly hopeless romance, and screwball comedy (mostly involving dragon mishaps) happening all over the place. I had so much fun writing it!”
What was the first thought that popped into your mind when you found out you had made it to the semifinals?
I was absolutely thrilled – and my honest first thought (after my first, wordless, “Aahhhhh!”) was, “I can make celebration brownies!” In our family, we have a delicious tradition of making a particular brownie recipe every time something really good happens for any of us. So I did, and we all ate celebration brownies while playing a board game (Dungeon)! It was a night of total happiness. :)
Why did you decide to take part in the SPFBO?
I participated once before and was thrilled to get to the semi-finals with my novella-slash-short-novel Snowspelled. (It’s 42,000 words, so it hovers in that in-between space that can go either way!) I loved the experience of taking part, getting to know so many more fantasy readers and fellow writers, and I had a lot of fun hanging out with several of them later that year at BristolCon. So, there was really no question that I would want to take part again, this time with a full-length novel – especially since the main critique of Snowspelled was that (fair enough!) it was too short to compete with the full-length novels in that year’s competition.
Why should we buy your SPFBO8 book?
One of my favorite blurbs for Scales and Sensibility (from Tansy Rayner Roberts) was “Howl’s Moving Castle meets Mansfield Park.” It’s full of everything I love in both Regency rom-coms AND fantasy misadventures, with magical masquerades, seemingly hopeless romance, and screwball comedy (mostly involving dragon mishaps) happening all over the place. I had so much fun writing it!
What got you into writing? And how long have you been doing it?
I was seven years old when I first realized that writing was an actual job people could do (my mind was blown!) – and from that moment on, it was my dream career. I finished my first novel when I was 13 and have written at least one novel a year almost every single year since then. (Needless to say, my early novels were NOT publishable, and I will never, ever foist them on the reading public! But I was DETERMINED to get good enough, so I practiced and practiced and participated in every writing workshop I could find, including the Clarion West f/sf Writing Workshop, where I studied in 2001 AND met my now-husband.)
Why did you choose to write fantasy? And why pick this particular fantasy subgenre?
Honestly, it all started with my dad. First, he read me The Lord of the Rings when I was five and my obsession with fantasy was cemented forever after – and then he read me Pride and Prejudice when I was eight. Boom! My two favorite genres were rooted from then onwards. Regency fantasy just made sense after that – particularly after I moved to the UK in 2002 and started deep-diving in the 18th- and 19th-century literature shelves at my (then) university library.
Which other author has had the biggest influence on your writing?
So many! Jane Austen, obviously, Diana Wynne Jones, Terry Pratchett, Ellen Kushner, Robin McKinley, Patricia McKillip, Delia Sherman, Terri Windling, Nalo Hopkinson, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Octavia Butler, Connie Willis...the list goes on and on!
What’s the best thing about being a writer?
Getting to work at home in my pyjamas.
What’s the hardest thing about being a writer?
Trying to pay the bills! It is a SCARY career in terms of finances, especially when you’ve got kids and a cat to support.
How do I get into the semifinals? Do you perhaps have a tip, scrap of wisdom, or perhaps an author app, tool, or resource that you recommend we try?
Honestly, my biggest tip is just to read as much as possible, focus on what’s most fun to you in a book, and – if you possibly can – try to make friends with other authors who are willing to swap manuscripts and offer constructive, positive feedback to help you get better and better! (And I don’t think there’s ever an endpoint to that. I’ll be swapping critiques for the rest of my life if I’m lucky!)
Good advice! What new projects are you working on?
Right now I’m halfway through the standalone sequel to Scales and Sensibility, Claws and Contrivances, which stars a younger sister of S&S’s heroine along with a fussy dragon scholar readers will recognize from S&S. It’s set in a crumbling abbey-cum-manor house here in Wales, it includes an aunt who writes fabulous Welsh Gothic romances, and I’ve had way too much fun playing with it.
Anything else you would like to say before we close?
Thanks so much for inviting me to do this – and I’m cheering on every single one of my fellow semifinalists!
I have to admit that your cover was my favorite cover this year, along with Debunked. Yes, I know there were a ton of great ones, but for me, both are so pure in the way they strike the tone of your individual subgenres. Stephanie, I wish you the best of luck with providing food for your cat (oh alright, and the rest of your family), and in the competition! Thanks for doing the interview :-)
