First Draft Episode #171: Melissa Albert
Melissa Albert, New York Times bestselling author of The Hazel Wood and its forthcoming sequel, as well as Tales from the Hinterlands, talks about stuffing her debut book with secret book recommendations, the borderlessness of being a young reader, and loving angry girls in fiction.
LINKS AND TOPICS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE
The Baby-Sitters Club by Ann M. Martin, Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, and Hollywood Babylon by Kenneth Anger were some of the earliest books she read as a child
The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis, Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, Thomas the Rhymer by Ellen Kushner, Wise Child by Monica Furlong were some of her favorite novels growing up. Some of which she name-dropped in The Hazel Wood
Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie, was her favorite and she checked it out form the library three times a year
Hook (movie)
Melissa is reading Charles de Lint, Helen Oyeyemi, and Philip Pullman’s Grimm Brothers translation as research for her upcoming novel Tales from the Hinterlands
Roshani Chokshi’s forthcoming trio of novellas, Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado, Kelly Link, Language of Thorns by Leigh Bardugo (listen to her First Draft episodes here and here), and Tales of the Peculiar by Ransom Riggs (listen to his First Draft interview here) are stories she’s reading for inspiration. And enjoys them as guided reading to see what people have done with classic fairytales
Did arts coverage for Time Out Chicago, and worked for Encyclopedia Britannica
Melissa launched the Barnes & Noble YA Blog in 2015
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins , Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor were some of the handful of Young Adult books she read for a short lived development house
In 2010 she started reading YA broadly and some of the first she read was Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell, Feed by M. T. Anderson, Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor (listen to her First Draft interview here)
She hadn’t fallen heavily for YA since Francesca Lia Block(listen to her First Draft interview here)
Working Partners (work for hire book company in England), where she wrote collaboratively under a pen name
George Saunders essay about what writers really do when they write
Sadie by Courtney Summers (listen to her First Draft interview here) and The Cruel Prince by Holly Black (listen to her First Draft interview here) both feature angry female leads which she loves
Melissa and her husband were inventing The Twilight Zone (TV show) plots and episode titles
Althea was reminiscent of the tone and feeling of Radiance by Catherynne Valente
Romeo + Juliet (movie)
Love Lists, a blog post by Stephanie Perkins about when how to get re-inspired about your story
Emma Chastain, author of Chloe Snow’s Diary series, drafted a novel on her maternity leave and Melissa was inspired to do the same
Welcome to Night Vale (podcast) had a short story quality to it and not everything was answered
The Magicians Trilogy by Lev Grossman has throwaway lines that you could lift out and turn into a short story
A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray (listen to her First Draft interviews here and here)
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