Bio: Stephanie Burgis
Hi everybody!
Name
Stephanie Burgis
'10 Book Title
The Unladylike Adventures of Kat Stephenson, Book One: A Most Improper Magick (first in a YA Regency fantasy trilogy)
Publisher
Atheneum Books
Favorite Bit of Writing Advice
Write what sounds most fun to you - don't let your brain get in the way! If I'd listened to my brain instead of my heart, I never would have written A Most Improper Magick, because it wasn't the sensible "career" book I had planned - but it turned out to be the most fun novel I've ever written, and now I am completely addicted to following Kat's adventures!
Favorite and least favorite part of writing:
My favorite part of writing is when I've put in the work to set up all my characters in the most awkward and conflicting positions possible, and I can just let them go, sit back, and watch them bounce off each other in all sorts of crazy directions!
My least favorite part of writing comes on the days when I'm exhausted and feel like my brain is made of mush - every word needs to be dragged out one at a time, wriggling and complaining!
Outline or Let it fly?
I mostly just let it fly - and all the best bits of my books and stories have come as a surprise to me! I do tend to come up with a rough idea of what will happen in each scene just before I write it, just to give me the confidence & direction to begin (and a very rough idea of the overarching plot, again for basic direction), but things often turn out very differently than I'd expected. This leads to a lot of rewriting in later drafts, but it works for me.
5 things about me
1. I'm both American AND British - I was born American and grew up in Michigan, which I love, but I now live in Yorkshire, England (where A Most Improper Magick is set), and as of today (hooray! the ceremony took place this morning!) I am officially a dual citizen. And I am ridiculously excited about it!
2. I am a total geek, for both history AND sf/fantasy. I get my best writing inspiration from reading historical nonfiction (so much of it is far wilder than any fiction plot!), I did a Master's degree in music history (specializing in late-18th-century opera), and I can go off on historical rants at the drop of a pin if I'm not careful. Also, I can quote The Lord of the Rings (books and movies) for hours. Thank goodness I'm married to a fellow geek!
3. I am utterly & completely dog-crazy. I grew up with wonderful family dogs, I traveled around the world with my first dog, Nika, and now my sweet, crazy border collie mix, Maya, is my companion throughout the day as I write at home. She makes sure I always take time out for regular walks, cuddles, and play, and she makes me laugh every single day. I could live without a lot of things in life, but I could never live without a dog. (When I was in undergrad and living in dormitories, I volunteered at a local shelter to get my dog-walking and -cuddling fix!)
4. When I was a kid, I imprinted so hard on Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer that it totally warped my vocabulary! In middle school, one of my friends and I used to secretly trade notes in class, signed with over-the-top fake-British aristocratic pseudonyms and written in high-flown Regency language. (Remember I said I was a geek? Yeah...)
5. When I was writing the first draft of A Most Improper Magick, I started every writing session by reading a couple of Jane Austen's letters, and then I wrote the novel with a Jane Austen action figure standing on my desk. I also listened every day to what I think of as the theme song to my book: Adam and the Ants's Stand and Deliver! (SO much fun!)
A Most Improper Magick Synopsis
Her mother was a scandalous witch, her brother has gambled the whole family into debt, and her Step-Mama is determined to sell her oldest sister into a positively Gothic marriage to pay it off--so what can twelve-year-old Kat Stephenson do but take matters directly into her own hands? If only her older sisters hadn’t thwarted her plan to run away to London dressed as a boy and earn a fortune! When Kat makes a midnight foray into her mother’s cabinet of secrets, though, she finds out something she never expected. Her mother wasn’t just a witch, she was a Guardian, a member of a secret Order with staggering magical powers--and Kat is her heir.
Of course, there’s no chance of Kat choosing to join the Order that forbade her parents’ marriage...but Mama’s magical mirror doesn’t seem to understand that. It keeps following her wherever she goes, even when the family travels to Grantham Abbey to meet the sinister Sir Neville, her oldest sister’s chosen fiancé. And what with Sir Neville showing a dangerous interest in Kat’s untapped powers, her mother’s old tutor insisting that she take up her mother’s position as a Guardian, and her sister Angeline refusing to listen to her about anything, as usual...well, it’s a good thing Kat kept her boy’s clothing, because she may well have to use it--especially if the rumors of a highwayman are true.
Name
Stephanie Burgis
'10 Book Title
The Unladylike Adventures of Kat Stephenson, Book One: A Most Improper Magick (first in a YA Regency fantasy trilogy)
Publisher
Atheneum Books
Favorite Bit of Writing Advice
Write what sounds most fun to you - don't let your brain get in the way! If I'd listened to my brain instead of my heart, I never would have written A Most Improper Magick, because it wasn't the sensible "career" book I had planned - but it turned out to be the most fun novel I've ever written, and now I am completely addicted to following Kat's adventures!
Favorite and least favorite part of writing:
My favorite part of writing is when I've put in the work to set up all my characters in the most awkward and conflicting positions possible, and I can just let them go, sit back, and watch them bounce off each other in all sorts of crazy directions!
My least favorite part of writing comes on the days when I'm exhausted and feel like my brain is made of mush - every word needs to be dragged out one at a time, wriggling and complaining!
Outline or Let it fly?
I mostly just let it fly - and all the best bits of my books and stories have come as a surprise to me! I do tend to come up with a rough idea of what will happen in each scene just before I write it, just to give me the confidence & direction to begin (and a very rough idea of the overarching plot, again for basic direction), but things often turn out very differently than I'd expected. This leads to a lot of rewriting in later drafts, but it works for me.
5 things about me
1. I'm both American AND British - I was born American and grew up in Michigan, which I love, but I now live in Yorkshire, England (where A Most Improper Magick is set), and as of today (hooray! the ceremony took place this morning!) I am officially a dual citizen. And I am ridiculously excited about it!
2. I am a total geek, for both history AND sf/fantasy. I get my best writing inspiration from reading historical nonfiction (so much of it is far wilder than any fiction plot!), I did a Master's degree in music history (specializing in late-18th-century opera), and I can go off on historical rants at the drop of a pin if I'm not careful. Also, I can quote The Lord of the Rings (books and movies) for hours. Thank goodness I'm married to a fellow geek!
3. I am utterly & completely dog-crazy. I grew up with wonderful family dogs, I traveled around the world with my first dog, Nika, and now my sweet, crazy border collie mix, Maya, is my companion throughout the day as I write at home. She makes sure I always take time out for regular walks, cuddles, and play, and she makes me laugh every single day. I could live without a lot of things in life, but I could never live without a dog. (When I was in undergrad and living in dormitories, I volunteered at a local shelter to get my dog-walking and -cuddling fix!)
4. When I was a kid, I imprinted so hard on Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer that it totally warped my vocabulary! In middle school, one of my friends and I used to secretly trade notes in class, signed with over-the-top fake-British aristocratic pseudonyms and written in high-flown Regency language. (Remember I said I was a geek? Yeah...)
5. When I was writing the first draft of A Most Improper Magick, I started every writing session by reading a couple of Jane Austen's letters, and then I wrote the novel with a Jane Austen action figure standing on my desk. I also listened every day to what I think of as the theme song to my book: Adam and the Ants's Stand and Deliver! (SO much fun!)
A Most Improper Magick Synopsis
Her mother was a scandalous witch, her brother has gambled the whole family into debt, and her Step-Mama is determined to sell her oldest sister into a positively Gothic marriage to pay it off--so what can twelve-year-old Kat Stephenson do but take matters directly into her own hands? If only her older sisters hadn’t thwarted her plan to run away to London dressed as a boy and earn a fortune! When Kat makes a midnight foray into her mother’s cabinet of secrets, though, she finds out something she never expected. Her mother wasn’t just a witch, she was a Guardian, a member of a secret Order with staggering magical powers--and Kat is her heir.
Of course, there’s no chance of Kat choosing to join the Order that forbade her parents’ marriage...but Mama’s magical mirror doesn’t seem to understand that. It keeps following her wherever she goes, even when the family travels to Grantham Abbey to meet the sinister Sir Neville, her oldest sister’s chosen fiancé. And what with Sir Neville showing a dangerous interest in Kat’s untapped powers, her mother’s old tutor insisting that she take up her mother’s position as a Guardian, and her sister Angeline refusing to listen to her about anything, as usual...well, it’s a good thing Kat kept her boy’s clothing, because she may well have to use it--especially if the rumors of a highwayman are true.