Author Interview: Clare Sager

Get the inside scoop on ‘King of Ravens’!

Clare Sager is the author of our January Romantasy ‘Mirrored Fate’ featured book: King of Ravens. Read on to get the inside scoop from inspiration to favourite scenes and more!

Can you describe King of Ravens in three words?

Ice, sunshine, and pain!

What about the Greek myth of Hades and Persephone inspired you, and how did you put your own twist on their story in King of Ravens?

For me, one of the appeals of Hades and Persephone is the juxtaposition of those two characters. He’s literally god of the dead, and she is life, spring, and all of those sorts of things. I often look for ways that my characters can butt heads through some kind of contrast like that, so that was a massive inspiration for me. And a lot of my books look at fae, so I thought a fae take on that, with the unseelie underworld, was the direction I wanted to take. Then, Labyrinth is one of my favourite films. I’ve watched it too many times and I’ve always found Jareth to be fae-coded, so it came to me like, oh, this is my moment to do my Labyrinth-inspired story! That brought all of those different ideas together and gave it a twist.

Rhiannon is suffering from an unknown illness. What do you hope readers will take away from her experience?

This one, for me, is quite close to home as someone who is chronically ill herself. There’s two branches I suppose. One, to those who maybe don’t have have a chronic illness themselves or don’t have loved ones affected by it — I hope it gives them some sort of insight into one aspect of what it can look like to some people, as obviously it can be different for everybody even if they have the same illness. I wanted to especially give some insight into an invisible illness, that to others may look like you can be fine one day and then not the next. And then two, to my fellow chronically ill people — I wanted to essentially say that you’re not alone, and that we deserve to be on page and having adventures. We deserve to be the main characters, too, and we’re not just tragic stories.

The treacherous labyrinth is the only way to leave the underworld. How did you design each level and the different obstacles?

Some of the trials, tribulations, and obstacles that Rhiannon faces are inspired by the film, Labyrinth. So, for example, in the film there’s this endless staircase that Sarah finds herself in, and in my version of the labyrinth, Rhiannon comes across a broken staircase that is very, very high. And I wanted it to be a nod to that, in the way that parts of it are falling apart or upside. So there were things like that that were direct inspiration, and then I largely just thew random ideas down and fleshed them out, before then deciding which ones where better than others, and thinking about how they would escalate so I could figure out what order they should happen in as well.

We love the dynamic between Rhiannon and Drystan. What do you think makes a swoon-worthy love interest in Romantasy? 

I find this a really interesting question because I’ve written so many different kinds of guys and love interests now. I’ve got some that are villain-coded, like Drystan and also Sepher from Slaying the Shifter Prince — that is most definitely my villain romance! On certain levels, they really shouldn’t be swoon-worthy love interests at all. But, I think one of the things that I like to do when I’m developing a story idea is I develop the two main characters side-by-side. Like I was saying about the contrast between them and how they’re going to butt heads, I always try and find one way that they’re terrible for each other, and give them a reason to clash. But then I also make sure I develop ways in which they have some commonalities, as I think part of discovering that commonality is part of what makes you start to fall in love with them alongside the main character. I also find ways that they are perfect for each other as well, so that they complement each other or otherwise help each other grow and maybe get past some sort of trauma or character flaw. I like to have all three of those things across the two characters, and for me, that helps me make them the perfect person for the other person. So it’s about building up all of that, as I’m not sure I necessarily have one stamp that makes a swoon-worthy love interest. Except the fact that maybe he will treat her slightly differently in some way to everyone else, I think that’s something.

Which character in King of Ravens surprised you the most whilst writing them?

The Collector. It’s hard to talk about their character without giving spoilers, because they are creature that Rhiannon encounters in the labyrinth, but I suppose what I can say is that I had one intention for the character originally, and they turned that on its head and ended up playing a much bigger part in the story than what I was expecting. And that’s really fun, because I think this is the fifteenth book that I’ve written now, and it’s nice that you can still be surprised after having published over a million words over all these years.

How did you approach the unseelie fae politics and their contrasting rules to humans?

I had a lot of fun with this because whilst I’ve written about fae before, I’ve only ever written about seelie fae who live on the surface world. So I wanted to make sure the unseelie fae felt different, because otherwise it would feel like, what’s the point? So I really took some time at the beginning to work on the world building for them. I actually started with their rules for their society, as their ideas of etiquette are a bit different from ours! So I was looking at old fae and folklore, and in some stories there’s mentions of how you should never thank a fae. I took that idea as I thought about how thanks can imply owing, and that would be a weakness, almost like an unspoken debt. So then I was thinking about how an anti-transactional society would come from that, with secrets  and information being like currency in a way. And that felt very fae, having to be very careful with what you reveal about yourself and having to answer questions with questions. Then I thought about the fact that the reason the unseelie fae are in the underworld in my universe is that they’ve been exiled there. So it’s a punishment for them, but the underworld is also where humans go when they die on the surface. It’s not a desirable place to live, and if the unseelie fae used to live all over the surface but now they’ve been packed into a tougher environment, I was thinking about how all these things would impact them.

King of Ravens is filled with some of of our favourite tropes! Which did you find the most fun to write?

Obviously there’s enemies to lovers, but in this case it actually wasn’t the most fun one even though it is my favourite trope. It was probably the grumpy x sunshine — the butting heads, the clash between them, it was so much fun! There’s just something so fun about writing a male character who’s a bit of a douchebag sometimes, as it makes the banter really fun to write. And although Rhiannon is obviously sunshine, she gives as good as she gets on the banter front as she hates him! So she’s not got to watch what she says, either.

Without spoilers, is there a moment that you’re the most excited for readers to reach, and why did you love writing it?

There’s one I can say without getting into dangerous territory, and that is that there’s a snowball fight! Drystan’s kingdom is completely covered in snow, it’s got this winter that has been around for about 40 years or so. It was a really fun scene to write with the character dynamics to think about, especially the fact that Drystan is Mr. Super Serious, an ice-cold, grumpy character. But  making him have a snowball fight with Rhiannon, who because of her illness has never been able to have a snowball fight really, was really interesting. And it’s been really lovely because I would say if there’s one scene readers mention when they tag me in reviews or message me about, other than the ending maybe, it’s that scene!

If you were in the King of Ravens‘ court, what position would you hold and why?

Assuming I’d survive more than 5 seconds, I would probably be the apprentice to a character we meet called Min. She’s the Royal Sartor, which means she takes care of all the clothing for the highest-ranking people. I think I could just about get by being her apprentice, as it shouldn’t be too dangerous and doesn’t require me to have any magic. And I used to do a lot of dressmaking, I even made my own wedding dress and things like that, so I feel like realistically I could do that for a while at least!

As you’ve previously said, you’ve written many books! How did you find and develop your writing style?

When I went to uni, I actually studied English and Creative Writing. And you don’t need to have a degree in creative writing to write books, but one really good benefit of doing that was we used to really closely examine other author styles a lot. That included fiction writers like Angela Carter and Charles Dickens, but also authors of poetry and screenplays, amongst other things. And sometimes our assignments or an activity in class would be to write a short story using the style of a particular author. I mentioned Angela Carter because I really enjoyed it when I wrote a short story in her writing style, which was kind of dark and gothic and lush and descriptive. Getting to look at what makes that author’s style and getting to try out the techniques they used was a really good way to help find out what I liked, as well as what worked naturally for me. It was like trying on lots of outfits in a way! And then over time, I think my natural voice as a person has come through more in my writing — I’m quite sarcastic and like a bit of banter and things like that, and so those things have come out more and more in my books over time as well.

Do you have any advice for aspiring authors?

My advice would be about learning the rules. If you’re an aspiring author and you’ve read a couple of craft books or advice columns, you can’t help but trip over all the advice about what you must and must not do. My advice would be to learn the rules, and then learn how to break them. I think it’s often when you break them, or when you know how and why to break them, that’s what makes things start to feel like your specific voice and style. If you follow to rules without ever digressing from them, it can be a bit boring sometimes. Whereas, a bit more personality can surprise the reader, as you can make something stand out by breaking the rules. But breaking it without understanding can often become a complete mess, so it’s about learning it and then learning why, how, and when to break it.

What’s your favourite thing about the FairyLoot edition of King of Ravens?

That is a really hard question! I love the colour scheme because that black and blue looks so gorgeous together. And I love the spot UV too. But I would say my two favourite parts are the edges, and the back endpaper — that lives rent free in my head! When I saw that for the first time, I literally gasped! And with the silver foil on it, it’s absolutely gorgeous.

Author Recommends

Have you ever wondered which books your favourite author thinks are an absolute must read? Well, wonder no more! Here are four books Clare Sager thinks everyone needs on their TBR: