lulu garcia-navarro, host:
Life is, yes, pretty scary right now, and you may well be spending a lot of time at home. so it may be time to delve into a great epic fantasy novel that literally takes you to another world. Sarah J. Maas is the best-selling fantasy author of two blockbuster series, and now she’s got a new one. The first installment is called “Crescent City: House of Dirt and Blood” and it is a murder mystery set in a world with angels, werewolves, demons, witches, and fairies with a love story at the center.
You are reading: How many crescent city books will there be
sara j. maas joins me now from philadelphia. welcome to the show.
sarah j maas: Hi. Thank you very much for having me.
garcia-navarro: it’s a pleasure. Ultimately, we should say that this book is a murder mystery. the two main characters, however, are supernatural. tell us about bryce and hunt and how they joined forces.
maas: sure. so bryce is a twenty something half human half fay who works at this magical antiques dealer. and when the book first starts, she’s a bit of a party animal. she has her close-knit group of her friends. and one night, she is out partying and most of her friends are brutally murdered. and they think they catch the killer, and the guy goes to jail.
and then the book fast forwards two years until the murders start again, and they realize the wrong person was put in jail. and bryce is paired with hunt athalar, who is this notorious fallen angel. and they…
garcia-navarro: and interesting things happen.
maas: yeah, a lot of interesting stuff – twists and turns and then a slow romance between the two of them that was a lot of fun for me to write.
garcia-navarro: I understand that you wrote this book at a particularly difficult time. can you talk about that?
See Also: Where Are the Pantone Colors in Adobe Illustrator?
maas: yes. I mean, this book actually, I mean, I don’t want to reveal any spoilers for the book. I mean, bryce goes through, you know, depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder. and those are things I’ve struggled with myself, especially recently.
I was very hesitant to seek help, mainly because I had just heard horror stories from other writers and creative types about how, you know, the medication, the medication they were prescribed really interfered with their creativity, and they couldn’t create once they medication was administered. and I would have these, I guess, like, episodes, like – I called them episodes, where…
garcia-navarro: what did you feel?
maas: it was a couple of days of pure panic and no panic attacks. I didn’t even know they were panic attacks until my psychiatrist told me later. but i was crying. I just had this overwhelming feeling of panic and dread. and then last November I had, you know, this panic attack that went on for two weeks straight. and I began to realize that I can’t live like this for the rest of my life. and I don’t care if I can’t write another word again, but I need help. I have a young son at home and I want to be able to be there for him.
so finally, last november, i went to a psychiatrist who has been amazing, and she put me on medication. we’ve been doing talk therapy for months. and it has changed my life. but I mean, the medication didn’t ruin my creativity in any way. If anything, it gave me the space to be able to hear my own thoughts again and be able to create without that overwhelming sense of panic.
garcia-navarro: I’m very happy. and in the book, you can really see bryce and the main character take this journey where she suffers so much and finds her way out of it.
maas: the path that he goes from that place of darkness back to one of light was… that’s very, very close to me now. and i think i processed a lot of what was going on, maybe even subconsciously, through bryce and his journey.
garcia-navarro: Before I let you go, I want to tell you about a real thing that happened at the airport. she was reading this book, and a lady next to me kept looking at me. and I felt a bit uncomfortable. and she finally she said, how did you get that book? it hasn’t come out yet. and she is such a fan and she wanted to know everything about the book.
maas: (laughs).
garcia-navarro: just know that you have some very loyal fans. she wanted to get the book from me.
maas: (laughs) that’s fantastic.
See Also: 7 best sobriety books to help you give up booze in 2022 | HELLO!
garcia-navarro: yes. and you know, you have these other two series of books, “throne of glass” and “a court of thorns” – bestsellers. and I wonder: is this the beginning of a long series of “growing city”?
maas: yes. Right now, we have three books under contract. but this world is already so big and there are so many characters that I have a feeling it’s going to go beyond three books. and it will depend on the story that calls me and the characters that call me. but I’m definitely looking beyond the central plot that’s going to take place in all three books and seeing, you know, what other stories they might tell me next.
It’s hard for me to say goodbye to the characters after only three books. I mean, all my series have been very long. and yeah, i mean, there’s a reason “crescent city” was 800 pages long…
garcia-navarro: it is.
maas: …because I loved the world and the characters so much that I wanted to spend all this time with them.
garcia-navarro: that’s sarah j. plus. his new book is “growing city: house of earth and blood”.
thank you very much.
maas: thank you.
Copyright © 2020 npr. All rights reserved. visit the terms of use and permissions pages of our website at www.npr.org for more information.
An npr contractor creates npr transcripts on a rush deadline. this text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. accuracy and availability may vary. the authorized record of npr programming is the audio record.
See Also: 7 Stunning Lines from Milk and Honey That Will Have You in Your Feels Fast