We had the pleasure of chatting with Rena Rossner about her latest release The Light of the Midnight Stars, which is an evocative combination of fantasy, history, and Jewish folklore, as well as book recommendations, writing, and more!
Hi, Rena! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
I’m originally from Miami Beach, Florida, but am now a literary agent at The Deborah Harris Agency, based in Jerusalem, Israel. I’m the author of a cookbook called EATING THE BIBLE, and my debut fantasy novel, THE SISTERS OF THE WINTER WOOD, was called “One of the Best Books of 2018” by Publisher’s Weekly. I’ve been writing since I was about eight and reading fantasy for as long as I can remember. I am a mom to five kids and a pug, and I love reading (obviously!) baking, doing ceramics, and making craft cocktails.
After the chaos that was 2020, have you set any goals for this year? If so, how are they going so far?
2020 was a lot. Being locked down with 5 kids (and a pug!) while working full time was not best from a writing perspective, to say the least. I did not have a lot of extra time on my hands, so I worked on a manuscript that was all in verse because somehow it was easier to write poetry with everything going on. I feel like poetry helps express snippets of emotion in a very deep way, which was a lot of what 2020 was like for me – being able to do snippets of a million things but not a deep dive into any one thing and that was the biggest challenge – just not having long spans of uninterrupted time to myself. But I have a few other projects in the works too and I’m hoping, someday soon, to have the space and time alone to finish them!
Quick lightning round! Tell us the first book you ever remember reading, the one that made you want to become an author, and one that you can’t stop thinking about!
Oh gosh, okay. Well, I remember my mom reading Andrew Lang’s fairy tale books to me, and I remember her reading me the ALL OF A KIND FAMILY books. One of the first fantasy books I remember reading on my own was Tamora Pierce’s ALANNA series. The book that made me want to become an author is a bit harder to say, because I don’t know if there was ever any one book, but I found Chaim Potok’s books to be pretty foundational – especially MY NAME IS ASHER LEV. And the book I can’t stop thinking about right now is Erin Morgenstern’s THE STARLESS SEA.
When did you first discover your love for writing?
I was eight and I wrote a story about a bunny named Jenny LaHare. I think I still have it somewhere.
Your new novel, The Light of the Midnight Stars, is out April 13th 2021! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Jewish magical sister fairy tale
What can readers expect?
I recently received a starred review from the Library Journal which said the story is about “dragon riding rabbis and their fire breathing daughters attempt to change the course of history” which I just kind of loved, but it’s also about a lot more than that. It’s about how we tell stories and how the stories we tell change us, it’s about a girl who falls in love with a star, and another that can make everything grow but her own heart. It’s about how we choose to name and rename ourselves, and it’s also not a very happy story – it’s a story about tragedy and loss, and the way that history (and fairy tales) have a way of repeating themselves – over and over again.
Where did the inspiration for The Light of the Midnight Stars come from?
So, this is an interesting story. My grandmother (my father’s mother) used to light Shabbat candles on Friday night in a closet. This was before my time, but my father and his sisters swear by it. By the time I came along the candles had migrated to the center of the table and my grandmother’s dementia was starting to take over. She never told us why she did it and in her later years she even denied ever having done so. I wanted to find out why, which led me down a very meandering rabbit hole of research which I thought would take me in one direction (Spain and Portugal) but ended up taking me in another direction entirely (Hungary, Wallachia and today’s Slovakia) and to the discovery that my grandmother came from a Hungarian Hasidic dynasty (but not necessarily a magical one) – I also wanted to retell the Romanian fairy tale, Boys With Golden Stars, which I grew up hearing my mom read to me from Andrew Lang’s Violet Fairy Book. I kept asking the question – what if the golden stars on these boys’ foreheads were Jewish stars? What would that mean? And of course, who doesn’t want to read about a dragon riding rabbi? There is a story/myth told about the Solomonars – red-haired mountain men who rode cloud dragons in the sky and controlled the weather which is often used as an anti-Semitic stereotype. Which of course meant that I had to find a way to turn that on its head.
Can you tell us about any challenges you faced while writing and how you were able to overcome them?
Well. This book was journey. It was originally written in 6 voices and set in both the modern day and in 14th century Hungary/Romania/Slovakia. Eventually, I cut about 70,000 words from the book (yes, you read that right, 70,000!!!) and rebuilt it from the ground up set only in the imagined past. And even then, I had to write it and rewrite it. It was pretty painful at the time, but looking back on it, it was actually really appropriate. My characters are part of a story, but they choose to write themselves out of one story and into another one, and they also tell their own stories along the way, besides the fact that each section of the book is prefaced by a longer story that is being narrated by an unknown/unnamed narrator (no spoilers!) but it is also a book about how we tell stories and how we allow those stories to influence our lives. So, it is, in retrospect, very appropriate that I myself had to tell this story so many times – sometimes that’s what you have to do when you want to find yourself. I think it’s very human. I think it’s what we all actively do every day – we ask ourselves: what will my story be today? And sometimes, we get a chance to re-write that story, over and over again. Sometimes we have to find out way out of a story in order to begin telling a new one.
If it’s not too spoilery, were there any favourite moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
I definitely enjoyed writing Levana/Laptitza’s voice the most – she is the sister that falls in love with a star. She meets a tragic end (all the sisters do, but hers is the most harrowing) – but I really enjoyed studying and exploring the Romanian Luceafărul poem and the incubi and Zburător/Zmeu/Balauri myths that it was based on. I think I want to be a girl who falls in love with a star – even though I think I’m more the fire-breathing type.
Is there anything you hope your readers will take away from The Light of the Midnight Stars?
I said some of this above, but even though the story is a tragic one, I think it contains within it a lot of hope (even though there is also a lot of pain) – I think that it is a story about how we can always rewrite our stories, even if we find ourselves in tragic circumstances. How we have the ability to tell the same story a hundred different ways, and in reach retelling we change along with the story. It’s a story about Jewish history, but it’s also a fantasy novel – an alternate history – a place where I got to tell the story I wanted to tell, even if it’s not the story that happened. Isn’t that what we all do sometimes?
What’s the best and the worst writing advice you have received?
I sometimes have been guilty of giving the advice “write every day” which is certainly sometimes that I am terrible at following. My father used to hound me with a line from the movie Throw Momma from the Train, I think it’s Billy Crystal, as Larry, who says at some point: “Remember, a writer writes, always.” And I hated him sometimes for saying it, but it’s true. The one thing we can’t control is when we write or how we write because sometimes that changes from day to day, from year to year, and certainly 2020 has taught us all that. So, no, don’t write every day if that doesn’t work for you, but do write. Always.
What’s next for you?
Well, I finished a novel in verse about a famous Hungarian historical figure – no fantasy in it at all! And I’m currently working on editing that. I am also working on a novel in verse set on a fantastical Island and based on Jewish sea-monster mythology which is kind of a mashup of the Seven Ravens/Six Swans fairy tale and the story of the Maccabees. I’m also working on another adult fantasy project based on Rabbi Nachman of Breslov’s fairy tales. So, never a dull moment over here.
Lastly, do you have any book recommendations for our readers?
I recently really enjoyed Kiran Millwood Hargrave’s THE MERCIES, Sarah Beth Durst’s THE BONE MAKER, and I am now reading Constance Sayers’ THE LADIES OF THE SECRET CIRCUS and Helene Wecker’s THE HIDDEN PALACE.
The amount of author interviews you do is incredible! Great post. Really looking forward to this book!