We chat with author Garrett Curbow about Whispers of Ink and Starlight, which is a spellbinding tale of forbidden love and the power of words, where a girl must choose between the life written for her and the future she dares to imagine.
How did you get your start writing? What was your road to publication like?
I was six or seven when I wrote my first story. I was inspired by The Boxcar Children, Magic Tree House, and The Chronicles of Narnia. Soon after, I knew I wanted to be a published author. When I was eight-years-old, my mom got a call from a vanity press that I had contacted for my hand-written, hand-illustrated Narnia rip-off. She passed me the phone and said, “This is for you.” For as long as I can remember wanting to do anything, I have wanted to create and share stories.
At fourteen, I finished my first novel, a YA fantasy called Daughter of Light. Throughout high school, I edited, revised, and eventually rewrote Daughter of Light from scratch. In college (after writing the first draft of what would be Whispers of Ink and Starlight), I posted a TikTok announcing that I’d be self-publishing Daughter of Light. What followed was seven million views and thousands of supportive followers. After the publication of Daughter of Light came the lucky insanity that were my foreign book deals, then the sequel Slayer of Gods, followed by the conclusion Father of Night in 2024.
For Whispers of Ink and Starlight, a literary agent reached out to me in 2023 because of a reel I had posted on Instagram about the book. I sent my query, he requested a full, and two months later, I was signed with Triada US and working on a revision. We went on submission in Spring of 2024 and sold Whispers of Ink and Starlight that July. I have always looked at my writing in two ways: as a passion, and as a career. I love it, but I also have to be strategic. I want to only write when I feel inspired, but I need to write everyday to stay afloat. I credit most of my journey to traditional publication to luck, but I would never have been in the position to get lucky without continually grinding toward the goal of being an author.
What inspired you to write Whispers of Ink and Starlight?
Whispers of Ink and Starlight was born from a magical concoction of my first Autumn in college, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by VE Schwab, coming out of quarantine in 2020, and folklore and evermore by Taylor Swift being on constant repeat. I knew when I started writing it, before there was a plot, before there were even characters, that I wanted to write something atmospheric, literary, romantic, and bittersweet. The magical realism element didn’t click until I had already started drafting.
How did you approach the magical realism in the story?
When I was eighteen, I started experimenting with realistic fiction. Whispers of Ink and Starlight was, for a short period of time, intended to have zero magic. By the time I was writing chapter three, that had changed. You see, I tend to draft in chronological order. It’s the only way I can naturally let the story unfold. Chapter one, from Nelle’s perspective, didn’t exist in the first draft. Chapter two, when James and Nelle meet on the Fourth of July, was the initial first chapter. When I started Nelle’s perspective in chapter three, her character walked onto the page as a magically-created person. I didn’t know how she was made or why she was made, only that she was. Considering my next book has demons, I fear fantasy might be ingrained in my writing DNA.
Who was your favorite character to create?
I know I shouldn’t pick favorites, but it’s Nelle. It took a few rounds of edits to nail down her character, but once I did, I was obsessed with writing from her perspective. She is insightful, intelligent, snarky, yet filled with a childlike wonder. Writing Nelle rewired my brain to view the world similarly to her. Every cup of coffee is a gift. Every leaf I see fall is a work of art I have witnessed. Every dream is possible and every love is big. Nelle walks through the world with a full heart, and even when it gets bruised, she never stops finding gratitude for all facets of life.
Do you tend to write about places you’ve been to, or places you wish you could visit?
I think of traveling as a gold mine for inspiration. I love it. Sometimes, that bleeds into my books as me writing about a place that I have been, sometimes I write about places I want to go, and sometimes I write about places that I find fascinating. Whispers of Ink and Starlight is, geographically, all over the place. I was born and raised in rural Georgia, and currently live in Savannah, so Lincoln, James and Nelle’s fictional town, is deeply coated in my own personal experience.
Almost a character itself, New York plays a vital role in Whispers of Ink and Starlight, but when I began the book in 2020, I had never visited the city. I went for the first time in 2022, and, predictably, loved it. Since then, I have visited again, and every time I have to leave, a small part of me mourns. Like James, New York is one of my favorite places in the world.
Scotland also plays a key role in Whispers of Ink and Starlight. I had never been to the United Kingdom before I sent James and Nelle there, but it had been a dream of mine since I was eight and learned that I could walk through a real castle. In 2022, I finally visited Scotland (and walked through multiple castles!), and it was somehow more magical than I had dreamed. Edinburgh and the Scottish Highlands were ancient and mystical and dotted with cozy pubs. I can’t wait to go back.
As for writing about places I have not been, I have never visited France, yet a very romantic and important part of the story takes place there. As the pinnacle of James and Nelle’s escapades, it felt fitting to write their scenes in Paris and Nice from a wistful perspective. I wanted those chapters to feel, like a dream, too good to be true. I also have never visited Nigeria, though I would love to one day. I wrote Nelle’s scene in Lagos after I saw an article about Makoko, Nigeria’s floating neighborhood, and spent an entire night researching it.
What personal fears or fascinations found their way into this book, intentionally or not?
This entire book is a conglomeration of my fears and fascinations. Existentially, I have a fear of not living up to my own goals and dreams, a worry that also plagues both James and Nelle. I have dealt with social anxiety, similar to James. Also, growing up with frequent trips to the north Georgia mountains, I, like Nelle, am scared of bears. As for fascinations, every page of this book is riddled with the things that I love: typewriters, coffee, New York, Scotland, fireflies, road trips, sour Skittles, and ink.
Do you have another artistic outlet in addition to your writing?
I love music. When I’m not writing, I’m sitting with my headphones on, staring at the wall, listening to an album. I write and produce songs with a guitar and Logic Pro, but I don’t share them with anyone. Writing is something I choose to split with the world, but for now, my music is for my ears only. I recently got a keyboard and have found so much joy in learning a new instrument. Last month, I actually wrote a song from Nelle’s perspective. My writing often influences my music, and my music (both creation and consumption) influences my writing. It’s a symbiotic relationship. Whispers of Ink and Starlight has a playlist of songs that I curated to align chronologically with the plot points of the book. In fact, making a playlist has become part of my process for uncovering the emotional core of my stories.
What are you working on now?
I am days away from sending my next book off to my agent, actually! It’s a standalone novel about a twenty-three year-old demon slayer who really wants to be a pop star, the man who helps her achieve fame, and the best friend she abandons to fend off the demon world by himself. It’s a twisted love triangle, a story about fame and friendship, and an action-packed urban fantasy all in one. It’s a bit darker than Whispers of Ink and Starlight but fits in nicely in the same literary universe.
