We chat with author Aislinn Brophy about Spells To Forget Us, which follows a witch and a non-magical girl who get stuck in a cycle of meet-cutes and breakups in this dazzling, romantic young adult fantasy.
Hi, Aislinn! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
Of course! I’m a queer writer and theater artist who loves stories that approach big themes with magic, joy, and empathy. These days I’m based in Boston, where I spend a lot of my time petting my cats, playing D&D, and taking dance classes!
When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?
I’ve loved storytelling since the moment I could open my mouth! When I was maybe five years old, I dictated my first “book” to my mom so she could write it down for me. My whole childhood was spent voraciously reading every book I could get my hands on, and I was always convinced I was going to publish my own stories when I got older.
Quick lightning round! Tell us:
- The first book you ever remember reading: The 329th Friend by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat!
- The one that made you want to become an author: I remember reading The School Story by Andrew Clements and being convinced that I was also going to get a book published.
- The one that you can’t stop thinking about: Natalie Zina Walschots’s Hench. That book gave me a serious reader’s high. It felt incredibly original, and the characters had a kind of late-stage-capitalism ennui that somehow managed to be extremely relatable even while the storyline is about morally ambiguous supervillains and superheroes.
Your latest novel, Spells to Forget Us, is out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Messy, magical, sapphic love story!
What can readers expect?
A romantic tale of two star-crossed lovers trapped in a cycle of meet-cutes and break-ups after a memory spell goes wrong! There’s explorations of identity and autonomy, lots of sapphic romantic drama, and a heavy dose of humor and magical shenanigans to balance it all out.
Where did the inspiration for Spells to Forget Us come from?
I drew a lot of inspiration from the D&D actual-play shows I was watching while I was developing this idea. I’m specifically a big fan of Dimension 20 shows, and I wanted to write a book with a magical city setting similar to The Unsleeping City. I really enjoy media like The Unsleeping City that takes New York City and mythologizes it in a way that celebrates all the things that make the city unique. I wanted to do that, but for Boston!
Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
I was very excited to write my first non-binary character in this book. One of my main characters has an ex named Mara, and the two of them had a pretty amicable break-up. I think it’s a very sapphic thing to still be friends with your ex, so that was something I wanted to include.
Mara is also extremely similar to me in some ways—we both love fashion, have ADHD, and are non-binary. I promise they aren’t a complete self-insert—Mara is a lot more impulsive than I am—but one of my best friends did read the book and immediately tell me that the way Mara talks reminds her of me! I was pretty proud of that, because I had put a lot of thought into Mara’s dialogue. During the writing process, I found that because I had mostly written neurotypical characters before, it was actually more of a stretch for me to try to depict a person whose brain worked similarly to mine. It was nice to know that the work I put into that paid off.
What were some of the key lessons you learned between writing and publishing your debut to then this novel?
I learned a lot about the type of planning I need to do in order to turn out a cleaner first draft. When I was going through the editing process for my debut, I had to work really hard to revise in certain things about the worldbuilding and the timeline. For Spells to Forget Us, I made sure to have detailed reference materials for myself ahead of time so I could avoid having those bigger flaws in the first draft. For example, I kept a calendar with all the events in the book written down in it; that way I wouldn’t have to realize later on that something I had written was fundamentally impossible time-wise.
What’s next for you?
I’m working on drafting new fantasy novels! I’m excited to get going on some new projects, and keep growing as a writer.
Lastly, what books have you enjoyed so far this year and are there any that you can’t wait to get your hands on?
I recently read To Shape A Dragon’s Breath by Moniquill Blackgoose, which I absolutely tore through. That book hit all the right notes for me! I also read Jen St. Jude’s If Tomorrow Doesn’t Come, and sobbed my way through the last third of it. It was such a gorgeous and moving story about mental health and finding meaning in life at the end of the world. As for upcoming books, I can’t wait to get my hands on The Queen’s Spade by Sarah Raughley!
