It’s the perfect mix of a story of romance and adventure in an imaginary universe. Since I was a child, I have loved diving into these kinds of books, like those by Mercedes Lackey and Marion Zimmer Bradley. They teleport me to worlds that look nothing like ours and cut me off from the chaos in which we live. But I’m also a big romantic. In my books, I therefore realized my own fantasy by bringing together the two ingredients that I loved the most. I’m not the only one who does romanticism. I’m also a big fan of Sarah J Maas’s books.
Romantasy is very popular, especially among young readers. Did you know that your books are going viral on BookTok?
It’s awesome ! I find that TikTok is a great platform when it allows emerging authors to make themselves known. It’s like word of mouth, but on the Internet! If it can encourage young people to read, even better. In my opinion, reading is essential, since it allows us to develop our sense of empathy and our curiosity for others and different cultures. This is, in any case, what I defend in my books.
What I like when I start a new story is to imagine the characters, discover their character and the motivations that drive them. The Empyrean tells Violet’s story. This heroine is a lot like me, except that she lives in a fictional world where dragons and magic are part of her daily life. Passionate about history, like me, she is destined to become a scribe, who are the guardians of the memory of this world. But her mother, who is also the General and a famous dragon trainer, has other plans for her daughter and Violet must then join the prestigious, but very dangerous, dragon rider quadrant.
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Beyond the plot, I wanted to address themes that are dear to my heart. The first being heroin autoimmune disease. Like me, she has Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, which makes her bones very fragile. Which is not easy when you ride dragons all day… In the book, I wanted to experience the limits of this illness with her. The second is historical revisionism. It was my favorite subject when I was a history student and I made it the heart of the plot of Fourth Wing.
Your readers love the character of Violet. What makes it so special?
I think she’s less special than determined! I really wanted her to be a girl like the others and not an ultra-heroine.badass as is often the case in fantasy novels. Violet is like everyone else, she has good days and bad days. But she is tenacious, especially in the face of illness. The writing of Fourth Wing was truly cathartic and powerful on that level.
Violet fights every day, whether against illness or the sometimes terrible events that occur in the story – no spoilers ! No matter the nature of these obstacles, I believe that courage is a universal quality that many can hold on to.
The Empyrean will be adapted into a series by Amazon Prime Video. What can you reveal to us?
I am bound by absolute secrecy! However, I can assure readers that the team that produces and directs the series is truly committed to preserving the original work and transcribing on screen what they loved in the books. Sometimes I sneak into the writers room to ensure that certain elements do not interfere with what will happen in future books.
The Empyrean is a five-volume series. In anticipation of this adaptation, I had to develop the synopsis of each volume. It’s an incredible project that started even before the publication of Fourth Wing, since Amazon didn’t even wait for its release to option it. I’m very curious to see what this adaptation will look like!
You started writing novels ten years ago. You have published more than twenty of them. To ensure such production, what is your writing routine?
I have ADHD [trouble déficit de l’attention avec ou sans hyperactivité, ndlr]. Once I start writing a book, I can spend upwards of 16 hours a day on it. I sometimes forget to sleep and eat… It’s not the healthiest routine out there! But writing is like a muscle of memory. The more consistent we are, the more creative the mind.
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Iron Flame, the second volume of the saga, is released on June 5 in France. Can you tell us more?
We find Violet upset by what she learns at the end of Fourth Wing. Her entire existence is called into question when she realizes that everyone close to her has kept secrets from her. How will she recover? That’s the whole point ofIron Flame. And, of course, there are dragons!
