We have the gracious Sarah Rees Brennan here today! Sarah, Congratulations on joining the truly amazing and talented group of writers that have debuted in 2009! Your first novel, The Demon’s Lexicon, was published this past June.
Where did the title come from? You or your publisher? Is there a story behind that name?
Did you get to help choose the cover?
Can you tell us a little about your writing process?
Can you name one book you have read in the past year that you would recommend?
What is one random thing about you?
What is the most important aspect of your book about which you would want potential readers to know?
What is your favorite thing about The Demon’s Lexicon?
This is the first book in a trilogy. How firm are you on keeping it at three books (disregarding possible new books set in same world)? And what, if anything, can you tell us about The Demon’s Covenant, the second book of the trilogy due out next May? Can you give a hint, vague and oblique as you like, of what is in store for your characters?
The sequel is about words, too, in the end: it’s about what happens when you break your word.
Do you have the whole story all plotted out?
*One thing that really stood out for me was the relationship between Nick and Allan. I loved it. I found it both vastly refreshing and a bit intriguing that you chose to illustrate Nick’s capacity for love in a non-romantic fashion. It is not Mae or some other romantic interest that informs and shapes Nick’s choices, but rather his connection to his brother, whose welfare and happiness are the determining factors in Nick’s life. Can you explain a bit about why you chose to take that path or that all came to be? And what can we expect from those two? Do they ever grow to understand one another? Or would that be giving too much away?
Well, thank you very much! I like romances a lot – one of my favourite books is Margaret Mahy’s The Changeover, a very romantic YA fantasy – but I did think it would be fun and a little different to have a book that, while it had romance, focused on a familial relationship. Because family is a huge part of your life, especially when you’re a teenager and you live with your parents and siblings: family is the first way most people learn about love. Of course, since the book was published in the Year of Supernatural Romance and the Twilight Movie, this may have been the wrong decision…
My first idea for the book was knowing what had happened to the characters in the past – how Alan has practically brought Nick up, all the secrets in their background, how they lived as children on the run and learning to be dangerous. Danger can make romances more intense, and friendships – as in war movies – so I thought it would be interesting to see how important brothers could become to each other – or a brother and a sister, in the case of the other two main characters.
I do not want to give too much away, but Nick and Alan’s relationship is definitely a lot more fraught in the second book. Lies endangered it, but the truth may be even worse. They do learn to understand each other a little better, but there’s also a lot of pain involved: there are things nobody wants to discover.
Ahem… the second book’s also… going to be funny? I hope! Sometimes.
Hope these answers work for you, and thank you for the great questions!
Thank You! Wishing you all the best in all your endeavors, especially the literary ones!
Book Summary from Simon and Schuster: Nick and his brother, Alan, have spent their lives on the run from magic. Their father was murdered, and their mother was driven mad by magicians and the demons who give them power. The magicians are hunting the Ryves family for a charm that Nick’s mother stole — a charm that keeps her alive — and they want it badly enough to kill again.
Danger draws even closer when a brother and sister come to the Ryves family for help. The boy wears a demon’s mark, a sign of death that almost nothing can erase…and when Alan also gets marked by a demon, Nick is desperate to save him. The only way to do that is to kill one of the magicians they have been hiding from for so long.
Ensnared in a deadly game of cat and mouse, Nick starts to suspect that his brother is telling him lie after lie about their past. As the magicians’ Circle closes in on their family, Nick uncovers the secret that could destroy them all.
Published: June 2009
Page Count: 336
ISBN-10: 1416963790
Sarah’s Website (Be sure to check out her essays and stories!)
Sarah’s Blog ~ Sarah Tells Tales





