We chat with New York Times bestselling author Jodi Meadows about Dawnbreaker, the dark and glittering sequel to Nightrender!
Hi, Jodi! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
I’m actually two tortoiseshell cats in a trench coat.
Seriously, though, when I’m not reading or writing, I’m playing with yarn. I’ve been crocheting, knitting, and spinning for a significant portion of my life, and recently I decided to learn how to weave. My cats are enormous fans of this entire endeavor.
And my house is full of drifting fluffs. Could be wool. Could be cat hair. Could be my hair. Hard to say.
When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?
I’ve always loved telling stories, though I didn’t realize that writing was a job a person could have until much later. But as kids, my sister and I would make up stories for our Barbies to act out, tell those stories again and again with slight revisions to make them better (good practice for real life as an author!). We had so many cool ideas!
But even when I figured out that I loved reading, I didn’t realize that writing was a legitimate career path. I had this idea that books just appeared in the school library, like magic. At some point in 7th grade, though, an English teacher was reading a book with the class . . .and she must have asked about a choice the author made for the book. That was my lightbulb moment — that people had to write books.
And I could do it, too.
Quick lightning round! Tell us:
- The first book you ever remember reading: I’m told the book I loved reading as a kid was called Season of Ponies, though I don’t remember reading that one. The next one I do remember enjoying was a book about a kid investigating a ghostly wail coming from inside a cave. I was enthralled! But it wasn’t a real ghost (just the wind). And I don’t remember what the book was called.
- The one that made you want to become an author: WAIT TILL HELEN COMES by Mary Downing Hahn.
- The one that you can’t stop thinking about: Right now? Oh, uh… Usually that’s just whatever book I’m working on. It’s a cheaty answer, I know, but if I could stop thinking about it, I wouldn’t be writing it.
Dawnbreaker is the second installment in your Salvation Cycle series and it’s out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Magical climate crisis gets worse.
What can readers expect from the sequel?
Deepening romance, anguish, inappropriate cow jokes, and impossible choices. Everything that built up in the first book is coming to a climax here.
Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring further?
I really liked putting a wedge into Hanne and Nadine’s friendship and testing that. And there was a moment with Hanne later in the book, a flashback, I loved writing. It felt so real and vivid to me.
I also really enjoyed building up a new friendship for Rune, the growing ease of banter between him and Nightrender, and of course the [spoiler] bit at the end that made me cry every single time I worked on it.
Did you face any challenges whilst writing Dawnbreaker?
The second book of a duology is hard. Just all the way around, it’s difficult.
I moved the start point around a bunch, rewrote the third quarter several times, and left huge [bracket notes] for action sequences I didn’t want to write while I was trying to wrangle the story structure into shape, which left me a lot to fill in later!
But it did all come together in the end, and I’m really proud of how the book has turned out. While it was a challenge the whole way through, DAWNBREAKER taught me a lot about story, structure, and writing a satisfying conclusion.
What’s next for you?
Obviously, I’ll be talking about NIGHTRENDER and DAWNBREAKER for a long time, but next summer I have MY SALTY MARY (with cowriters) coming out, and next fall, I have . . . something I’m not sure I’m allowed to tell you about just yet. But it’s coming!
Lastly, are there any 2024 book releases you’re looking forward to reading?
Ahh there are so many wonderful books coming next year! I’m excited for more books from Brigid Kemmerer, Nicki Pau Preto, Susan Dennard, Amie Kaufman, Lisa Maxwell, and so many more. Between you and me (and everyone reading this), I haven’t been the best at keeping track of what books are coming out when, so I’m not being vague just to annoy you. It’s just that I’m not looking up release dates right now. 😛
And my cats, if you were curious, are looking forward to whatever books are the best to sit on.
