Magic, sisterhood, a mutual w/w crush between two adorably oblivious friends, and a gruesome murder. What else could we ask for?
Is Sarah Gailey on your radar? They definitely should be because they will have released two wonderful pieces of writing in the short span of a month: Upright Women Wanted and When We Were Magic! Debuting on March 3rd with their first YA novel, Sarah Gailey was so kind as to have a lovely chat with us about When We Were Magic. They tell us about their trajectory as a writer, future plans, and about their lovely gang of teen witches. Will you identify with any of the characters in the novel? Maybe you should check whether they have the same book taste as you! Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered!
Hi, Sarah! Congratulations on your new novel, When We Were Magic, which releases on March 3rd. To begin with, can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
Hi! I’m a writer from the Bay Area, currently living in Los Angeles. I write Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror Fiction, as well as all kinds of nonfiction. I’m queer, disabled, and so excited about my upcoming Young Adult debut!
What can readers expect from When We Were Magic?
WHEN WE WERE MAGIC is the story of a group of best friends, all of whom secretly have magic powers. Their bond is put to the test when, on prom night, one of them accidentally kills a boy. They have to confront their fears and feelings about the world and each other, their love for each other and their need for each other, as they try to put things right.
Could you tell us what makes you the proudest about your new novel?
The thing that makes me most proud of this novel is how joyful it is. It isn’t an easy story with clean answers, but I set out to write something that would emphasize how much hope and opportunity for connection there is in a world that can feel incredibly isolating, especially for teens and especially for queer people. I’m proud to have written something that, as I was writing it, reminded me that things can be good even when they’re messy and hard.
What would you say is the main difference between When We Were Magic and your previous books?
When We Were Magic is my first Young Adult novel, which is the primary difference between it and the rest of my work. It’s a much more emotionally-present book that the other things I’ve written! I took this book as an opportunity to dive deep into feelings, especially feelings of self-doubt, insecurity, and uncertainty.
You have worked within plenty of different genres: fiction, non-fiction, comics… Do you personally feel that your approach to writing has changed over the years taking bits and pieces from each genre? What do you think has changed the most?
Over the past several years, I’ve changed one huge aspect of my approach to writing. Instead of thinking first about plot, I now tend to think first about what I want my readers to walk away from a book thinking and feeling. Writing and reading are interactive endeavors, and I’ve started treating the project of writing as a conversation with my readers rather than a performance for an audience; I start that conversation more intentionally now, trying to say something in particular with everything I write, rather than writing simply to tell stories.
As you mention in your acknowledgements page, When We Were Magic is, above all, a book about “the friends and family that hold us together.” However, you also deal with many other relevant topics, even if just in passing.
Out of all these very important topics you mention throughout the novel (e.g. racism, diversity and acceptance, insecurities, consent, sexism, the generalized feeling of distrust towards cops, etc.), which would you have liked to delve in to a bit more (if any)?
In some ways, I wrote WHEN WE WERE MAGIC to highlight the way we cope with the world we live in today — it’s a book about the importance of community, of leaning on friendships, of trusting the people who love you to be there for you even when you’re not perfect. But I didn’t spend a lot of time talking about everything that teens today have to cope with. I wish I could have spent a lot more time with the feeling of instability and danger that exists in high schools today. This book didn’t feel like the right place to explore that tension, but there is so much to say about the inherent wrongness of a police presence in school settings, of active-shooter drills in schools, of the uneven allocation of academic resources and academic pressure. I would have loved to explore that more.
In When We Were Magic, the six main characters, Alexis, Roya, Iris, Marcelina, Paulie and Maryam, complement each other beautifully, while still all being utterly unique in their own way, thanks to their strong and perfectly delimited personalities. Having said that, is there a character among them that you keep closer to your heart? Who do you identify the most with? Why?
I put a bit of myself into each of the magical teens in this book. Alexis and I share self-doubt and fear of asking too much from our friends; Roya and I share an impulsive, angry desire to do stuff; Iris and I share a need to control and organize our surroundings; Marcelina and I are both enchanted by the dark, confrontational magic of the natural world; Paulie is searching for a sense of self the same way I always have; Maryam and I both want to take good care of our friends, even when that means bringing hard truths to bear and sitting together in the ways we hurt each other. None of them are me, but every time I try to land on which one of them I identify with most, I remember how much I share with all the others. That said, I hold a special place in my heart for Paulie — her exploration of gender and identity, and her longing for connection, are very close to a reflection of my teen years.
All of the girls are able to use their magic for whatever they need, but each of them is specialized in something (animals, plants, healing, channeling magic, etc.) and each of them produces magic in a different color. What influenced you while developing this system of magic? Lore or tradition? Pop culture? Your previous works? Could you expand a bit on it? And what special power and color do you think you’d have?
I tried to connect the girls’ strengths to their passions, in much the same way people’s nonmagical strengths and their passions tend to come into alignment over time. Iris, for example, is passionate about organization and structure, so her strongest magic is in channeling and spell development. Roya is passionate about survival and strength, and she backs that up with magic that lets her heal and repair things that break. None of the girls are completely limited in their magic specialties, but they’ve pursued and strengthened the kinds of magic that they each find most valuable.
Alexis in particular is finding herself, is trying to understand who she is — and so, over the course of this book, she uncovers blood magic, which frightens and excites her, and which is going to give her even more opportunity to learn about the person she’s becoming.
I would hope that my magic would have something to do with uncovering truths. My truest passion in life is in the exploration of assumptions; I live to find the ways in which we can become truer versions of ourselves. I’d hope that the color of it would be grey, because those truths rarely live in black-and-white — I love finding honesty and courage in the grey areas of the world.
To conclude, taking into account that it is likely that each reader will identify with a different member on the group, either because of their personality or individual tastes. Would you please tell us which book or author each of them would recommend to our readers?
Alexis: Alexis would recommend readers check out Becky Chambers. She finds a lot of healing in the tender perspectives on community and relationships in Chambers’ WAYFARERS series.
Roya: Roya is OBSESSED with Mark Oshiro (and rightly so). She’s tough as nails, but Oshiros work hits her right in the heart every time.
Iris: Iris hoards YA romances. Her recent favorite is, of course, RED WHITE & ROYAL BLUE by Casey McQuiston. She also deeply loved THE SUN IS ALSO A STAR by Nicola Yoon.
Marcelina: Marcelina is a big fan of Hugh Howey’s WOOL omnibus. A book about people trapped in silos, trying to survive underground, trying not to want to go outside? Sign her up.
Paulie: Paulie loves the book THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY by Patricia Highsmith. It appeals to her dark sense of humor, and she frankly loves the exploration of how fluid identity can be.
Maryam: Maryam is old-school; her favorite series is the Abhorsen trilogy by Garth Nix. She’s spent a lot of nights awake under the covers reading about Sabriel’s battles with the undead (and, of course, her battles with her father’s expectations).
Lastly, what’s next for you?
I’ll be spending the rest of 2020 celebrating WHEN WE WERE MAGIC and UPRIGHT WOMEN WANTED, my recent antifascist queer western novella! In early 2021, my next adult novel, THE ECHO WIFE, will come out via Tor Books. THE ECHO WIFE is a science fiction novel about divorce, identity, duality, and cloning. It follows the confrontation between a scientist and the clone of her that her husband created, and examines how they change each other’s lives as they try to cover up a murder.
Los Angeles readers can get a signed hardcover of WHEN WE WERE MAGIC at my launch event on March 5th at Skylight Books! Tickets are available here. I’m on Twitter, Instagram, and Goodreads and love hearing from readers there!
