With her latest novel, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, VE Schwab crafts a deeply personal and atmospheric story of a young woman who doesn’t want to be forgotten. I recently got the chance to ask Schwab some questions about Addie and her writing process, and I obviously had to check in on what she is working on in the future and there is a lot!
Hello and thank you so much for taking the time to answer some questions for us today! Can you tell us a little bit about The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue?
Sure! It’s the story of a young woman in 18th century France who feels like her life is passing her by. In a moment of desperation, she makes a deal with the devil, who grants her the ability to live forever. But afterward, she discovers the gift came at a terrible price: to be forgotten by everyone she meets. The story follows her across 300 years, and a single one in New York City, when she meets a boy who remembers her name.
Addie LaRue feels very different from any of your other published novels. Were there any challenges or lessons learned while writing Addie LaRue?
It is very different. Part of that is the fact it’s been growing in my mind for the last decade, and part is that I try to reach for a different thing with every one of my books. The greatest challenge was also the greatest gift: sitting with a story for so long, carrying it with me through my 20’s, watching it shift and grow as I did.
What are some of your writing traditions or things you must have to get in the writing mindset?
I try to create as few mandates as possible, because I (usually) spend so much time traveling, I need to be flexible. But when I can dictate my norm, I like to write in the mornings, 2-3 hours with a cup of tea and very loud rain playing in my headphones. Something about that particular shade of white noise makes the world beyond my fiction fall away.
How has being a creator in this chaotic time of 2020 been? And how have you been finding balance between creating and dealing with real world life?
–Nothing about this year has been simple, as a writer or a human. But it’s also provided a surprising—and not wholly unwelcome—space of stillness. As I said, I’m so used to being on the road, my writing time shrinking with every year. I’ve tried to see the lockdown as an opportunity to do some self-care, and also to catch up on the mountain of work. Focus is of course a struggle, but 6 months in, I’m doing my best.
One of the things that struck me as a small, but wonderful detail in the story was how Addie would remember places she’d visited in her life when she did little things, like drink a strong coffee. Do you have connections like that with places you’ve traveled to?
That is ABSOLUTELY how I connect to places. I travel so much, but usually spend so little time in any one place (for context, in 2019 I was in England, Scotland, the US, Australia, Ireland, Mexico, Peru, Spain, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay, France, Finland, the Netherlands and that’s just off the top of my head, I know I’m forgetting some), and so I try to find small, concrete ways to create memories. It might be the tiled sidewalks in Prague, or the anchovies on chips in Madrid, or the cocktail I had each night in the library bar in Amsterdam. Those are the tiny pins I use to mark my world.
What kind of research did you do for writing Addie LaRue and did you find any intriguing historical tidbits about France that you didn’t previously know?
Oh goodness, a lot. About seven years ago, as I was beginning to chart Addie’s path, my mum and I went on a 6-country tour, location scouting, if you will. It was surreal to walk streets with a character’s life in mind, it was one of the experiences that kind of fused Addie’s consciousness to mine, if you will. I also set the book about 15 minutes from where my parents live, in the Sarthe, so I was able to explore the area. I learned on one of my research trips that DaVinci is entombed in the courtyard of the Chateau d’Amboise, a fact I learned entirely on accident while exploring the grounds. I didn’t realize it was him until I looked down at the name chiselled on the stone coffin.
What non-writing advice has had the biggest impact on your writing career?
Carrie Ryan once told me, “if you stay in the game long enough, anything that can happen will. The good and the bad and everything in between.” It was publishing advice, but I’ve honestly applied it to every single pursuit, a reminder of what you’re signing up for, and how to weather all of it.
If Addie LaRue were ever to be made into a TV series or movie, who would your dream cast be?
Oh man, I’m weirdly superstitious about those things. I never like to play cards against the universe that way 😉
What have been some of your favorite books, movies, or TV shows of 2020?
I’ve been positively spoiled this year. I’ve been sticking with old faves on movies but TV? From Killing Eve to Umbrella Academy to weird reality like Alone (I seriously can’t stop thinking about that show) to Castlevania, safe to say I have eclectic taste.
On the books front, there’s THE HOUSE IN THE CERULEAN SEA by TJ Klune, A DEADLY EDUCATION by Naomi Novik, THE CITY WE BECAME by NK Jemisin and NETWORK EFFECT by Martha Wells.
Can you give us any hints or updates on what you are working on next? *crosses fingers for any ADSOM movie news*
I’m just about to settle in and read the latest ADSOM script, which just hit my desk from John Wick writer Derek Kolstad (I did recently write the feature film adaptation for another one of my projects, to be announced soon). Meanwhile I’ve been creating a TV show (to be announced lol) and writing a new book (to be announced, sensing a theme?) and then the third book in my Cassidy Blake series, Bridge of Souls, hits shelves next March, and my next comic series, ExtraOrdinary, kicks off shortly after that! And not to forget the next arc in the Shades of Magic series, called Threads of Power 😉
