The time it was about Sorcery of Thorns

Posted May 29, 2019 by Stacee in Blog Tours, Interviews | 2 Comments

I don’t think it’s a secret that I was obsessed with An Enchantment of Ravens by Margaret Rogerson.  When I met her at YallWest this year, I basically word vomited all over her while flailing about Ravens {the book, not the bird}.  I had seen a lot of people raving about Margaret’s upcoming release, Sorcery of Thorns and I was excited to read it.

Needless to say, when I got the invite to participate in the blog tour, I couldn’t respond to the email fast enough.  Before we get to Margaret’s interview, let’s check out the book.

Title: Sorcery of Thorns
Author: Margaret Rogerson
Pages: 464
Pub Date: June 4th, 2019
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books
Find it: Simon & Schuster | Indiebound | B&N | Amazon | Goodreads

All sorcerers are evil. Elisabeth has known that as long as she has known anything. Raised as a foundling in one of Austermeer’s Great Libraries, Elisabeth has grown up among the tools of sorcery—magical grimoires that whisper on shelves and rattle beneath iron chains. If provoked, they transform into grotesque monsters of ink and leather. She hopes to become a warden, charged with protecting the kingdom from their power.

Then an act of sabotage releases the library’s most dangerous grimoire. Elisabeth’s desperate intervention implicates her in the crime, and she is torn from her home to face justice in the capital. With no one to turn to but her sworn enemy, the sorcerer Nathaniel Thorn, and his mysterious demonic servant, she finds herself entangled in a centuries-old conspiracy. Not only could the Great Libraries go up in flames, but the world along with them.

As her alliance with Nathaniel grows stronger, Elisabeth starts to question everything she’s been taught—about sorcerers, about the libraries she loves, even about herself. For Elisabeth has a power she has never guessed, and a future she could never have imagined.

Sounds amazing, right?

1. Please give the elevator pitch for Sorcery of Thorns.

An apprentice librarian at a magical library becomes embroiled in a book-related conspiracy, and must team up with her sworn enemies, a sorcerer and a demon, to save not just the Great Libraries but her entire kingdom.

2. Which came first: the world or the characters?

The basic idea for the world came first. I knew I wanted to write a story about magical libraries, and I had some vague ideas about sword-wielding librarians and sentient books. However, my stories tend to be character-driven in the sense that I craft the plot and world to fulfill the specific needs of the characters’ developmental arcs, so I came up with Elisabeth, Nathaniel, and Silas before getting too involved with the worldbuilding.

3. Why do you love Elisabeth and Nathaniel and why should we root for them?

I love Elisabeth for her relentless idealism and her refusal to give up even in the toughest of circumstances. She grew up one of the Great Libraries, which has given her a special connection to the living grimoires that I think is every bookworm’s dream. She’s also tall, an unstoppable force of chaos, and can hit things really hard with a sword. ;)

Oh, Nathaniel. He has some awful trauma and darkness in his past. I love the complexity of his relationship with his demon servant, Silas, who he cares about so much that he thinks nothing of sacrificing years of his own life to retain Silas’s service. And he’s so hilarious—if you like characters that hide their pain with humor, he’s definitely your man.

4. What was the weirdest thing you googled while doing research?

Great question! I think probably the stuff about demonology was the weirdest. This was back when I was figuring out what I wanted the demons in Sorcery of Thorns to be like, what kinds of names they should have, how they should be summoned, and so on. There’s a real-life 17th century grimoire called The Lesser Key of Solomon that contains the supposed names of seventy-two demons and the powers they can grant to the conjurors who summon them, some of which are really funny and even kind of cute. Like, “this demon will teach you the names of herbs and minerals, this other demon will help you with your relationship problems.” I had a lot of fun researching that, even though I didn’t really end up using any of it in the story.

5. Without spoilers, which scene was your favorite to write?

There’s a scene about halfway through the book in which Silas gives an important package to Elisabeth. I can’t say too much without spoilers, but I loved writing it because Silas is such a nuanced character, and I felt like that particular scene really showed the full range of his personality, especially how he can go from being comforting to almost tragic to spine-chillingly creepy within the span of only a few lines. I can still remember the song that I was listening to while drafting—The Middle of the World from the Moonlight soundtrack by Nicholas Britell.

Speed {ish} round:

1. You find out that you’re being published for the first time. Describe the next 5 minutes.

Sit on the floor. Start crying. Stammer out some barely intelligible comments to my literary agent, who turns out to be REALLY used to authors freaking out over the phone. Lie down and wonder if this is real life.

2. What three things would you take to a desert island?

An e-reader loaded with hundreds of books, a generator to charge the e-reader when it runs out of battery, and a fuel supply for the generator. You know, the important stuff!

3. You can only read one book for the rest of your life. What is it?

The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison. It’s an uplifting story about kindness prevailing over cruelty, and its world and politics are so fascinatingly complex that it lends itself well to re-reading.

4. Which book character would you want to hang out with?

Sophie Hatter from Howl’s Moving Castle!

5. What is the one thing about publishing you wish someone would have told you?

I’m actually glad that there are certain things about publishing I didn’t know about when I signed my contract, such as for instance my publisher requiring me to do school visits. Had I known in advance that I would need to give presentations in front of hundreds of students, I might have backed out of a career as an author! But stuff like that has turned out to be a valuable experience and has genuinely helped me challenge my severe issues with anxiety.

6. You wake up and discover you are Bella in Twilight. You know how it plays out. What do you do differently?

I would stay away from Edward, create a business start-up that involves selling small amounts of my extra delicious Bella blood to vampires, and make a fortune.

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Margaret Rogerson is the author of the New York Times bestseller An Enchantment of Ravens and Sorcery of Thorns. She has a bachelor’s degree in cultural anthropology from Miami University. When not reading or writing she enjoys sketching, gaming, making pudding, and watching more documentaries than is socially acceptable (according to some). She lives near Cincinnati, Ohio, beside a garden full of hummingbirds and roses.

website | twitter | instagram

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Huge thanks to S&S for the invite and to Margaret for taking the time.  Be sure to follow along on the blog tour {listed below} for all sorts of goodies.

Sorcery of Thorns releases on June 4, 2019 and there are buy links above.

Blog Tour Schedule
Monday, May 27 – Alexa Loves Books
Tuesday, May 28 – The Novel Knight
Wednesday, May 29 – Adventures of a Book Junkie  <– me!
Thursday, May 30 – Awkwordly Emma
Friday, May 31 – Mel to the Any
Monday, June 3 – The Fox’s Hideaway
Tuesday, June 4 – The Starry-Eyed Revue
Wednesday, June 5 – The Bookish Beagle
Thursday, June 6 – Super Space Chick
Friday, June 7 – Flying Paperbacks
Monday, June 10 – Bookshelves & Paperbacks
Tuesday, June 11 – Nightly Reading
Wednesday, June 12 – Novel Heartbeat
Thursday, June 13 – Hammock of Books
Friday, June 14 – The Everlasting Library
Monday, June 17 – The Eater of Books!
Tuesday, June 18 – Beware of the Reader
Wednesday, June 19 – This Dark Material
Thursday, June 20 – That Artsy Reader Girl
Friday, June 21 – SimplyAlly Tea

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2 responses to “The time it was about Sorcery of Thorns

  1. I am so excited for this book! I vividly remember reading Enchantment of Ravens and enjoying the prose so much. Until I read this post I hadn’t even read the synopsis in full! I heard magical library, and combined with my love for And Enchantment of Ravens, I went, I’m in!

    This interview got me so much more excited though! Silas sounds amazing! And I love how the setting is such a big part of this book, but the characters create the story. Those are my favorite kinds of books! Plus, Margaret’s answer to the Bella question had me cackling with laughter!

    Malka @ Paper Procrastinators recently posted: May Reading Wrap Up
    • Stacee

      I just finished it the other day and I loved it! Silas was my favorite of the story. I hope you looooooove it!!

      Thanks for reading and commenting!

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