This week on Fiction Between Friends we have a special guest, New York Times bestselling author, Beth Revis!
We talk about her new book The Princess and the Scoundrel, coming out August 16, 2022, and her serial novel Museum of Magic that is out right now on Kindle Vella.
Beth tells us all about the lovely people at Star Wars, and about how she worked pulling tarot cards and throwing dice to decide plot points in Museum of Magic.
We also discuss the state of YA, publishing in general, and we even touch on the banned book controversy sweeping the nation.
Alisa was sorely missed, but we promise she will be back next week.
Thanks, Beth, for coming on the show!
I loved listening to Beth Revis! So full of passion and joy!! I liked hearing all your thoughts on what defines Young Adult novels. As a proud member of the best generation, X, I adore Young Adult novels. I think for me, growing up, it’s a niche I wish we had had. It seems like one day I was reading books like The Little Princess or Are You there God, it’s Me Margaret. and the next step up was adult fiction. As a teenager I read mostly Fantasy or books like Flowers in the Attic. There was nothing in between so I think Young Adult novels filled a void I didn’t realize was there. I don’t read quite as many as I used to but still enjoy them. Just to clarify, I do read mostly fantasy/supernatural kind of YA when I do read it. For the most part, contemporary fiction stories just don’t do it for me very often. I want an escape, and believe in magic and contemporary to me can be too relatable. I want something that I would normally never experience, if that makes any kind of sense. And some of the middle grade books that are out there are fantastic! Where was Wings of Fire or Percy Jackson when I was growing up? Kids these days don’t know how lucky they are!
I loved having Beth on, too! She is such a great interviewee, although I have to admit I am not exactly a great interviewer, so I’m glad the episode went okay. I LOVE YA! I will never not read it. I grew up reading fantasy that could easily fit into the YA genre were it to come out right now, but I had to dig to find those books and I always wished there was more. Honestly, I don’t know what makes a YA book a YA book and when you get down to brass tacks, I just want a well-told, fast-moving, novel-concept, cool world-building, character-rich, epic love story and keep the violence against women off the page if you please and while you’re at it give me some female empowerment and a big helping of diversity while you’re at it. Is that too much to ask?
Gosh, it took me a while to listen to the new episode! Work and uni has been kicking my ass…
Kindle Vella is such a fascinating concept. I love the idea and it immediately reminded me of my Wattpad days, anxiously awaiting the day one of the authors would update their works. And I also remember how hard it was for me to hold chapters back when I had already written them and wanted everyone to know but had to stick to the schedule.
Personally I think platforms like these are a great way to generate hype for a book or any other piece of creative writing. Those publishing days were always such a big deal for me and my friends and we would freak out and already talk about what might happen today in school and then rushing home to read the new chapter. It was similar to the time before binge watching when you had to wait a week for the new episode of your favourite show and you’d have watchparties with your friends and everything.
I think what’s also great about platforms like Wattpad is being able to directly comment on the works themselves, and interacting with fans and sometimes even the authors themselves directly at the source. The community was right there. I imagine it’s probably also pretty stressful for the authors but as a reader it was always fun, asking questions and reacting to specific sections of a chapter and getting answers from other fans.
After all, that’s why we like listening to other people talk about books on youtube, instagram or here in this podcast, because it’s so fun to hear about other people’s opinions on our favourite books, what they noticed and which parts impacted them the most…
A great episode and a great guest!
Lots of love, Emma
Emma,
So glad you enjoyed this “blast from the past” for you and your Wattpad years! I find that I am just too impatient for Vella. I know it’s not a good trait, and that waiting builds anticipation and that’s a great thing, but when I want to read something, y’all better get out of my way! I would be the kid who ate the marshmallow! 😉