CJ Hosack is joining us today to talk about her novel, The Traveler’s Magic. Here’s the publisher’s description:
The Library is dying.
Ryn is finally working in the Ancestral Library, a childhood dream and a way to find her birth parentage. But the magic of the Library is being sabotaged, allowing pests, water damage and worse, while hostile Ancestor Houses are vying to move the books from the location they’ve occupied for a thousand years.
Rumors of a secret society bent on sabotage, with only the words “Kill the roots, take the fruits,” leads Ryn and her stepbrother Zo on a chase across Waatch and the ancestor Islands. Three items are a danger to the Library: a rock, and sword, and a branch. Though Ryn has hated being an Ordinary her whole life, it seems the Ordinaries of Waatch, disdained by the Ancestor descendants, might hold the true key to the Library. They might be the only way for Ryn to find the saboteur and items, and save the Library along with any hope of finding her birth family.
Discover the fate of the Library in the second book of Beads of Bone.
What’s CJ’s favorite bit?
I know, it seems weird. Epigraphs being my favorite bit. When I mention epigraphs, people scratch their heads, not knowing what I’m talking about–and these are writers. Epigraphs have sure proved to be handy writing my trilogy though. So what is an epigraph? An epigraph is “a short quotation or saying at the beginning of a book or chapter, intended to suggest its theme.” My theme: get across as much worldbuilding I don’t want to info dump into the main body of my story as possible. I have to thank my editor/publisher for the suggestion. The reader and editorial feedback I get always wants more knowledge of my worldbuilding. The questions readers have can be to far away from the main plot. Questions such as–why don’t these children who need to stop to have a magic lesson with a long gone ancestor have shelters set up around the town for their lessons? Reason: I don’t want to have that. Solution: instead of having my characters discuss this possibility, I hung a lantern on it in an epigraph.
In the first book in my trilogy, The Slayer’s Magic we meet the Great Ancestral Library. When the questions about my world and the magic got overwhelming, I embraced the idea of epigraphs at the beginning of each chapter. I decided the epigraphs needed to be quotes from books within the Library. I’m a historian, and I’ve been trained to quote sources academically. I thought–what better way to get to know the Library and its contents than to quote relevant texts? My mind exploded with the possibilities, but I couldn’t think of a single entry, not until the end. Once I was done with my developmental edit revisions, and I knew what holes there were, I had a better idea about what worldbuilding I needed to convey to the reader. I began writing quotes from made-up scholars and commentators in made-up books in my magical Library. I even used their strange way of shelving books as the citation for the source. It was fantastic, everyone’s questions got answered, and if the reader didn’t really care for a deep dive into worldbuilding, it was skipable. I loved the way it worked–some scholar on the myth and lore of the Library saying she doesn’t know why there’s no shelters for the children learning magic.
When I began to work on the second book in the Trilogy, The Traveler’s Magic, I knew it needed epigraphs at the beginning of the chapters to make it consistent with the first book, but I didn’t want to quote more books from the Library. I wanted something different this time. The biggest feedback I got this time was reminding the reader what happened in the last book. The problem was I was starting the book with a bang–there’s a mouse loose in the Library! The magical barrier that protects the Library shouldn’t allow pests inside. People are running, the mouse is being chased. How do I pause long enough to say, “oh yes, by the way this is where we left off last time.” I know there are authors out there that do that kind of thing with a great amount of skill, but I’m not one of them. So how do I catch the reader up without a lot of action stopping prose? This is where I knew for sure it couldn’t be a quote from a book, no ancient text would know what happened a couple “moons” ago. I decided the best approach would be a letter–a letter from the curator of the Library to her best friend who is the protagonist’s mother. It’s short, but we get caught up nicely. And since we are starting out epistolary, might as well make all of the epigraphs that way.
Here’s where it really gets to be my favorite bit–I had WAY too much fun writing these letters and journal entries. One of the things my editor wanted more of was a look at the queer community in the town of Waatch, where the Library resides. I added a bit to the body of the manuscript, but most of it just didn’t fit with the characters and what was happening. Once again, when I was done revising I found the inspiration for my epigraphs. This time I have letters back and forth between two mothers who are having a fight over the suggestion that their sons date each other. I can scarcely describe how much fun it was to write their attempts at civility, but their digs at each other and their sentiments. I loved it! Don’t skip these epigraphs—I was cackling the whole time I was writing them!
In conclusion I’d like to say–yay for epigraphs! I’ve always enjoyed them in the books I read. I can’t wait to find out what kind of epigraph will make sense for book three!
LINKS:
BIO:
CJ grew up in Southern California loving fantasy and science fiction. She is married to her husband of thirty plus years, has four children and seven grandchildren. Adopted at eight months old, she recently found her birth parents. She has a Masters Degree in Public History from Southern New Hampshire University, and if she’s not writing you can generally find her quilting, costuming, or traveling to spend time with those she loves. She’s a wannabe dress historian, and has worked with museums on historical dress recreation. CJ is currently working on her YA fantasy series about adoption and hereditary magic.
