We chat with author Foz Meadows about All The Hidden Paths, which is the follow-up to A Strange and Stubborn Endurance and it’s a sultry political & romantic fantasy exploring gender, sexuality, identity, and self-worth.
Hi, Foz! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
Well, I’m a writer, which means I probably don’t go outside as much as I should, but I’m also an extrovert, which means I definitely don’t go outside as much as I should. To be fair, being unable to drive is also a factor, given that functional public transport doesn’t really exist in Ameria outside of about three places, but the upshot is that I spend more time on the internet than is healthy for anyone. Oh, and I’m currently obsessed with kpop.
When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?
Very early on; I wrote my first story when I was six or so, and then just never stopped. It helped that I grew up in a house full of books, though interestingly, there was never much overlap between my own taste and my parents’, which was periodically confusing to all of us.
Quick lightning round! Tell us:
- The first book you ever remember reading: I don’t know the title, but it was a picture book; I was three years old, and I pulled it off the shelf after my mother had read it to me as a bedtime story to try and read it again myself, which was how I learned to read.
- The one that made you want to become an author: There wasn’t any one book that did it, but my first proper attempts at novelling, made around age ten, were very obvious imitations of The Silver Brumby by Elyne Mitchell.
- The one that you can’t stop thinking about: I think about The Books of the Raksura series by Martha Wells at least once a week.
All the Hidden Paths is the second installment in The Tithenai Chronicles and it’s out December 5th! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Angsty horny gays experience consequences.
What can readers expect?
Feelings! Fucking! Political intrigue! And an involved thematic discourse about queer identity, autonomy and what it means to be dubconned by the state.
Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring further?
There’s a new character in All the Hidden Paths called Asrien, who gets a handful of POV sections and into a whole lot of Situations. He was extremely engaging to write, though I suspect he might be divisive in terms of how people receive him, because he’s bitchy and mean and self-interested and also having a (mostly) very bad time, except for when he’s not, which makes him something of a deliberate rejection of respectability politics. And I also really liked Yasai Qiqa Ykran, who only shows up occasionally, but (for me) tends to steal whatever scene they’re in.
Did you face any challenges whilst writing the sequel? How did you overcome them?
The biggest challenge was the on-page plot diverging from the (very vague!) outline I originally wrote, in such a way that I got stuck about halfway through the draft and had to stop to figure out exactly how to proceed. I’m very happy with the end result, but it was hard going for a while there!
What’s next for you?
I’ve actually got a queer fantasy novella coming out with Neon Hemlock in January 2024, called Finding Echoes, that I’m excited for people to read! Other than that, currently nearing completion on another gay book with a lot more magic than this one; I’m really proud of it, but it doesn’t have a home yet, so I’m not sure when I’ll get to announce it.
With the new year fast approaching, are you setting any goals or resolutions for 2024?
I want to try and read every day, even if it’s only a page or two. I’ve fallen way behind in my reading the last few years, and I think part of why is that I’ve been putting too much pressure on myself about it while being simultaneously afraid to attempt anything challenging. Like, there’s so much I want to read that I get choice paralysis, because what if I pick up a book that I don’t vibe with, and then I’ve wasted valuable reading time on the wrong story, with nothing to show for it? Or, what if I go to read a friend’s book and I don’t like it, or I can’t read it soon enough to blurb? Which increases the pressure I feel on starting a book, which makes it harder to enjoy reading, which becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy, so then I start skewing my choices towards reads I think will be shorter or simpler to try and help myself out, especially if I’m stressed for other reasons, only 90% of the time I actually do want to read something meatier or more challenging, so I don’t click with what I’ve chosen – but instead of parsing it this way, I think, “fuck, if I couldn’t even read something simple, there’s no WAY I can pick up anything more complex,” and get stuck in this stupid loop where I’m too scared to try anything, and it’s miserable. So, instead of that, I want to try rewarding myself for starting books rather than finishing them, and try to remind myself that actually, I do find reading enjoyable if I let myself settle into it rather than reaching for the easy serotonin of TikTik every five minutes. And also, unrelatedly, I want to exercise more. And get top surgery, which I’d hoped would happen this year, but such are the travails of navigating the American healthcare system.
Lastly, are there any 2024 book releases you’re looking forward to that our readers should have on their radar?
I’m hyped for June Hur’s A Crane Among Wolves – she writes YA Korean historicals that are deeply compelling to me in every way. I’m devouring every danmei in translation that Seven Seas puts out, so I’m looking forward to more of those, but I’m also just looking forward to being surprised! (And, hopefully, to getting through some of my existing TBR shelves.)
