Hello and welcome back! It’s been over four years since we last spoke for the release of The Shadow in the Glass. How have you been and what have you been up to?

I’ve been well! It’s been a busy time for me – I’ve pretty much had one book out every year with my hardback and paperback editions of The Shadow in the Glass, The Thorns Remain and now A Steep and Savage Path. I also got to attend my first WorldCon in 2024 – it was an incredible time!

When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?

It’s not really something that I discovered, more like something that has always been a part of me. I was 100% one of those kids who used to tell convoluted stories to all her stuffed animals! I can’t really tell you exactly when I started doing it because it’s just always been something I’ve done, you know?

Your latest novel, A Steep and Savage Path, is out December 30^th! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?

Orpheus and Eurydice, with vampires.

What can readers expect?

To cry! I’ve had quite a few UK readers contact me and say the book made them cry (sorry guys). It’s not all doom and gloom though – you’ll also see an underworld inspired by both Romanian folklore and Greco-Roman mythology, one of my favourite set-piece scenes I’ve ever written, and my take on one of my favorite folkloric creatures: vampires.

Where did the inspiration for A Steep and Savage Path come from?

I mean, on some level I was always going to end up writing a novel about vampires, but I was initially inspired by My Swordhand is Singing by Marcus Sedgwick, which I read as a teenager. His novel features a ritual called the wedding of the dead, which is where a living person is married to a corpse as part of the funeral rites to stop them from rising from the dead. When I was a little older I found out that this ritual is real and I was absolutely fascinated! I started thinking about why a living person might want to take part in this ritual and what kind of relationship might come of that, and the novel all unfolded from there!

Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?

I had a lot of fun writing this novel, it’s quite hard to pick a favorite! As a moment, the dance scene really stands out for me – I don’t want to say any more in case of spoilers, but let’s just say that party goes really, really wrong. When it comes to characters it’s harder to pin down as there were a lot of them that I really enjoyed writing, but if I had to pick a favorite it’d be my take on Death. They’re quite a minor character but I really enjoyed taking a crack at personifying a concept. Of course my favorite interpretation of Death will always be Terry Pratchett’s, but it was nice to try my own!

Did you face any challenges whilst writing? How did you overcome them?

Researching this novel was trickier than my others. I ended up having to learn a whole new language for it, although my Romanian is still very shaky! Aside from that it went quite smoothly. I’ve been threatening to write a vampire novel since my first attempt at the age of thirteen, so when the time came I was raring to go!

This is your third published novel! What are some of the key lessons you’ve learned since your debut?

Writing is a marathon not a sprint, so you’ve got to build in breaks for yourself or your body will do it for you. I’ve gotten quite good at planning around the inevitable adrenaline crash after meeting a deadline or releasing a new title and that’s definitely a lesson I learned the hard way!

What’s next for you?

I’m very pleased to announce that I have a new book on the horizon! It’s called The Housemate, and it’s about a young woman who moves into a houseshare after a major breakup only to discover that a) one of those housemates is kinda hot and b) the house itself is haunted. It’s a little bit different from my previous three but I’m excited to try something new!

Lastly, what books have you enjoyed reading this year? Are there any you’re looking forward to picking up in 2026?

I’ve read quite a few books this year so I’ll try and be brief, but my favorites were:

• The Starving Saints by Caitlin Starling. Medieval siege warfare with cannibals and eldritch horrors, and it’s also sapphic
• Holy Terrors by Margaret Owen. INCREDIBLE conclusion to the Little Thieves trilogy, read the series immediately
• Hemlock & Silver by T. Kingfisher. A deeply spooky retelling of Snow White, I absolutely adored it

As for what I want to read next year, I’d really like to read more classic SFF – I really want to read more of Octavia E. Butler’s work, for example. I’ve also got my eye on Wolf Worm by T. Kingfisher, which releases next year – I’ll pretty much read everything she puts out at this point!

Will you be picking up A Steep and Savage Path? Tell us in the comments below!

The post Q&A: JJA Harwood, Author of ‘A Steep and Savage Path’ appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

We chat with debut author JJA Harwood about The Shadow in the Glass, writing, book recommendations, and so much more!

Hello! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?

Hello! My name is JJA Harwood and I’m an author, editor and blogger. I grew up in a tiny village in the east of England, studied history at university, and now I work in publishing. I’m an enormous nerd with a fascination for the macabre, and I’m pretty sure that I would be the first one in any given haunted house to say “let’s split up and look for clues.”

How is your 2021 going in comparison to that other year?

Much better! My debut novel, The Shadow in the Glass, has been released and I’ve started a new D&D campaign. All I need now is the vaccine and that’s me sorted!

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!

The first book I remember reading is The Witches by Roald Dahl. It was my favourite book in the world when I was about five, which probably tells you a lot about what kind of kid I was. I can’t really remember the first book which made me want to become an author because I’ve wanted to write for so long, but if I had to pick, it’d be Twlight by Stephenie Meyer – I didn’t really enjoy it, but it was the first book which made me sit down and think about what I would’ve done differently if I’d been writing it, so it ended up being a really positive experience even though the book itself wasn’t really for me. And the book I can’t stop thinking about is probably always going to be Deathless by Catherynne Valente, which breaks my heart with such skill every time I read it!

When did you first discover your love for writing?

I can’t really say, to be honest! I’ve been writing since I was a kid, it’s really hard to pin down the moment that I actually started after doing it for so long. I have vague memories of telling stories to a bunch of stuffed animals when I was small, but I started taking writing seriously when I was a teenager, and I first had the idea for The Shadow in the Glass. When I realised I could just write the stories that I wanted to see, the whole world opened up for me!

Your debut novel, The Shadow in the Glass, is out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?

I can do it in one: Fausterella.

(Yes, really.)

What can readers expect?

One extremely complicated and morally dubious heroine, a love interest who walked in expecting a Jane Austen novel and received something very different, a bunch of Victorian grime and the world’s most sinister fairy godmother. If you like your fairy tales dark and are highly suspicious of all those wishes that get granted for free, this is the book for you!

Where did the inspiration for The Shadow in the Glass come from?

I’ve always been interested in fairy tales, but the story of Cinderella never really grabbed me until I came across the version of the story as told by Giambattista Basile in the seventeenth century. In this version, Cinderella is tricked into killing her own stepmother by the woman who goes on to become Stepmother #2. From there the tale proceeds along fairly traditional lines, but I couldn’t stop thinking about the murder of the first stepmother. I’d always thought of Cinderella as a good, kind, sweet character, and I was burning to know what had pushed her to the point of murder. Add to that one terrifying nightmare when I was about seventeen, and I was all set!

Can you tell us about any challenges you faced while writing and how you were able to overcome them?

I faced a lot of challenges which I imagine are already familiar to anyone who writes in a historical setting – namely, I’d get jolted out of what I was writing because I had to check a historical fact. There’s only so much you can get from historical records, and every so often I’d just have to fling caution to the winds and fill in the gaps based on what I had found out. I’d say the most challenging thing was writing to a deadline around a full-time job, though. For my first round of edits I ended up pushing myself way too hard and getting a chest infection right after I turned them in! I definitely made sure to pace myself for the next round!

Were there any favourite moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?

I don’t want to say too much for fear of spoilers, but I loved writing Eleanor justifying all the bad things she ends up doing. It was so much fun as a writer to let her twist herself into knots explaining how nothing was her fault – and planting all the clues for the reader that hint that maybe she’s not as trustworthy as she seems. Also, pretty much all the scenes at the final ball, I was having the time of my life.

What was the road to becoming a published author like for you?

It was a very long one! I first had the idea for Shadow about twelve years ago, but I was nowhere near ready to write it. I redrafted it all the way through university and tried to teach myself as much about writing as I possibly could. Three or four years ago I decided I was ready to look for an agent and started going on submission – but almost as soon as I had sent the first email, I had an idea to make the whole thing a lot better, and took another year to rewrite it. I found my brilliant agent Chloe once I’d finished that draft, worked on the MS with her some more, and then went on submission. The whole thing escalated from there very quickly!

What’s the best and the worst writing advice you have received?

The best writing advice I have received came from my editors at Voyager (thank you Natasha and Vicky). It is that every scene should have a purpose, and if you can’t say what that purpose is, then you should cut that scene. When I complete a first draft I make a list of all my scenes and write the purpose underneath each one, and if I can’t say what the purpose is, then that scene goes into my cutting doc. It’s completely revolutionised my drafting process! As for the worst writing advice, that is probably that you have to follow very strict grammatical rules at all times. Obviously you need to know how grammar works, but I’ve found that bending the rules a little to create a specific emotional response in my reader is much more effective than sticking rigidly to everything in a grammar textbook.

What’s next for you?

I’m working on something new but I can’t say too much about it right now, except that I’m very excited about it. Watch this space!

Lastly, do you have any book recommendations for our readers?

Always! I absolutely love the Amberlough trilogy by Lara Elena Donnelly, If We Were Villains by ML Rio, Wakenhyrst by Michelle Paver and pretty much anything by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. There’s such a lot of talented writers out there, it’s so hard to choose!

Will you be picking up The Shadow in the Glass? Tell us in the comments below!

The post Q&A: JJA Harwood, Author of ‘The Shadow In The Glass’ appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

Black Water Sister by Zen Cho
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A reluctant medium discovers the ties that bind can unleash a dangerous power in this compelling Malaysian-set contemporary fantasy.

Blade of Secrets by Tricia Levenseller
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In Blade of Secrets, the first book in Tricia Levenseller’s exciting new YA fantasy duology, a teenage blacksmith with social anxiety is forced to go on the run to protect the world from the most powerful magical sword she’s ever made.

The Blacktongue Thief by Christopher Buehlman
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Set in a world of goblin wars, stag-sized battle ravens, and assassins who kill with deadly tattoos, Christopher Buehlman’s The Blacktongue Thief begins a ‘dazzling’ (Robin Hobb) fantasy adventure unlike any other.

How to Mars by David Ebenbach
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What happens when your dream mission to Mars is a reality television nightmare? This debut science-fiction romp with heart follows the tradition of Ray Bradbury’s Martian Chronicles, with a dash of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and a hint of The Real World.

The Shadow in the Glass by J.J.A. Harwood
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A deliciously gothic story of wishes and curses – a new dark fairy tale set against a Victorian backdrop full of lace and smoke.

The Kingdoms by Natasha Pulley
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For fans of The 7 ½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle and David Mitchell, a genre bending, time twisting alternative history that asks whether it’s worth changing the past to save the future, even if it costs you everyone you’ve ever loved.

Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon
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Rivers Solomon’s Sorrowland is a genre-bending work of Gothic fiction. Here, monsters aren’t just individuals, but entire nations. It is a searing, seminal book that marks the arrival of a bold, unignorable voice in American fiction.

The Shadow of the Gods by John Gwynne
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Set in a brand-new, Norse-inspired world, and packed with myth, magic and bloody vengeance, The Shadow of the Gods begins an epic new fantasy saga from bestselling author John Gwynne.

A Master of Djinn by P. Djèlí Clark
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Nebula, Locus, and Alex Award-winner P. Djèlí Clark returns to his popular alternate Cairo universe for his fantasy novel debut, A Master of Djinn.

Firebreak by Nicole Kornher-Stace
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One young woman faces down an all-powerful corporation in this all-too-near future science fiction debut that reads like a refreshing take on Ready Player One, with a heavy dose of Black Mirror.

Spells Trouble by P. C. Cast and Kristin Cast
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Hunter and Mercy Goode are twin witches, direct descendants of the founder of their town of Goodeville. As their ancestors have done before them, it is now time for the twins to learn what it means to be Gatekeepers–the protectors of the Gates to different underworlds, ancient portals between their world and realms where mythology rules and nightmares come to life.

We Are Satellites by Sarah Pinsker
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From award-winning author Sarah Pinsker comes a novel about one family and the technology that divides them.

What May fantasy and sci-fi releases are you looking forward to? Tell us in the comments below!

The post May 2021 Fantasy & Sci-Fi Book Releases appeared first on The Nerd Daily.