We chat with bestselling author Danielle Paige about Wish of the Wicked where she puts a dark spin on fairy godmothers in a new YA series, perfect for fans of Brigid Kemmerer and Maleficent.
Hi, Danielle! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
Hello! I grew up in Atlanta. I thought I was gong to be a journalist so I went to Columbia University to study. But while I was there I took an internship at Guiding Light, a soap opera and ended up becoming a soap writer. It was such an an amazing experience – I learned so much about writing and made this incredible family of actor and writers and producers. After years of writing soaps and selling pilots to MTV, I wrote my first book Dorothy Must Die and the rest is history. I love writing for any medium and I have been so lucky to play in many sandboxes – from television to books to comics.
When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?
My parents read to me and my sister every night and I fell in love with storytelling and stories. When I was six, we got to write and ”publish” our own book in first grade. It was bound with tape and covered in wallpaper and it was a little fairy tale about a princess and a unicorn. Holding that book in my hands, I knew I wanted to be a writer.
Your latest novel, Wish of the Wicked, is out November 7th! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Twisty Fairy Godmother Origin Story
What can readers expect?
If you’ve read some of my books you know I love to explore existing worlds. I hope that readers will be surprised by my take on the fairy godmother.
This story began with a big “what if.” What if all the fairy tale bad girls were once good and they belonged to the same sect and they were persecuted. And all of their actions becoming the villains of the stories we love, were just retaliation. And what if the fairy godmother belonged to the same sect and she had decide between joining them in their revenge or stopping them.
When we first meet Farrow she’s at the worst moment of her life, watching her mother being burned for being a witch. Separated from her coven, she sets off on a quest for revenge that leads her to Cinderella and the prince and back to her sisters.
With Wish a retelling of Cinderella, what inspired you to write the book?
I think Cinderella was my first fairy tale. I always wondered where the fairy godmother came from. She is the catalyst and the agent of magic in arguably the most popular fairy tale and we know so little about her. I wanted to know where she came from and why she helped Cinderella. My favourite stories come from questions I have as a reader (it was the same for me with Dorothy Must Die, I wondered why does Dorothy go back home if she has agency and magic in Oz.)
Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
I think I’ve always been drawn to the villains. So creating a coven of witches who are bent on revenge was so much fun to write. Bari, Farrow’s best friend is now one of Cinderella’s stepsisters and she is just deliciously ambitious and she has a particularly creepy power – she transforms herself into flying things.
And not to spoil anything, but I love Hecate. I don’t think I’ve seen a character quite like her before.
What draws you to retellings?
I think maybe because they were the first stories that I read they just became a part of me. The witches and princesses that I grew up reading were my first superheroes and super villains. And getting to go back and make them my own, to be part of that tradition, and hope one day that other kids will grow up reading them is just so fulfilling.
You’ve been a published author for almost a decade! What are some of the key lessons you have learned when it comes to writing and the publishing world?
It’s Dorothy’s 10 year anniversary next year! I think I’m still learning. But the thing I tell any baby writers is that you are not one work – you are a writer. As long as you are willing to adapt and to keep trying, someone out there be it an agent or a publisher or a producer will match your vision and want to read or see your story. And personally, It’s the act of writing that I absolutely love, figuring out the puzzle and writing a story that fulfils me.
What’s next for you?
I got to write a little story about Sabrina the Teenage Witch’s Aunts for Archie Comics out next month, The Spellman Sisters in Sabrina the Teenage Witch Holiday Special. And I have a comic coming from DC Comics next year that I am so excited about that I got to write with a dear friend. And I am am working on an illustrated novella for Bloomsbury and I have a little OZ idea that I am pitching soon.
Lastly, do you have any book recommendations for our readers?
I love a great witch story and Meg Cabot’s Enchanted to Meet You is the perfect fall read. Rebecca Hanover was my intern at Guiding Light, many moons ago and now she is a fabulous author – her twisty adult thriller The Last Applicant is on my nightstand.
