"Making of Nightspell" Guest Post

Today I am so excited to welcome the incredible author Leah Cypess -- author of Mistwood and the soon-to-be-released Nightspell, which I really, really loved. Today Leah is here to talk a bit about her writing process for Nightspell - including some very awesome pictures of her writing notebooks. 

Making of Nightspell: Notebooks

This is the first of a four-part “Making of Nightspell” feature I’ll be doing as part of this blog tour. Ever wanted to know what goes on behind the scenes of an author’s work? Ever suspect it’s not half as exciting as what goes into making a movie? Well, here’s your chance! Starting with the glamorous world of notebooks.

I write my first drafts in longhand. Needless to say, because I’m a writer, I get obsessive about what type of notebook I use. It used to be that I used all types of notebooks, but would stand obsessively at the drugstore trying to figure out which specific notebook was right for this particular story. The notebook I ended up choosing when I first started writing Nightspell – at the age of 17 – was this one:

I filled about half that notebook, and wrote myself into a complete mess. Since I couldn’t see how to extricate myself, I ended up putting the notebook away and starting something new.

Ten years later, having quit my job to give full-time writing a try, I pulled that notebook out again and went through it, trying to figure out which parts of what I had written were worth salvaging. Most of it got nixed:

In fact, out of that entire notebook, I ended up with maybe a page’s worth of actual writing I wanted to salvage. And then I started from scratch. This time, my taste in notebooks had changed, ever since a friend in law school introduced me to these awesome notebooks from Japan:

I do a lot of writing on the playground these days, and these notebooks are wonderful for that: they’re really thin and fit perfectly into a small backpack. You can also fold them open and closed several million times without having them fall apart. These are the notebooks on which Nightspell was REwritten… for the first time.

For the next part of the Making of Nightspell, check out Books Complete Me on June 3!

****

Many, many thanks to Leah for stopping by and sharing her notebooks with us! 

Nightspell by Leah Cypess

Four years ago, Callie was forced to leave her home and family as part of an arranged marriage to the prince of Ghostland, despite being too young to marry at the time. Still she remained in Ghostland - essentially as a hostage to ensure a tenuous peace between their two countries.

From the day Callie was sent away, Darri vowed to rescue her beloved younger sister. Finally Darri gets her chance when she and her subtly cunning brother Varis travel to Ghostland to deal with the dangerous inhabitants there. More than a simple rescue mission awaits Darri in Ghostland however. Her sister is much changed, the politics of Ghostland are seemingly endless, and the people of Ghostland themselves prove extremely ruthless. That and the fact that it is almost impossible to tell who is still among the living and who is actually a ghost.

Once again, Leah Cypess has caught me with her unique writing, her unforgettable characters and her fantastic pacing in Nightspell. Even after experiencing the fantastic world building of her debut Mistwood, I was enthralled by the complex territory of Ghostland and its inhabitants. Leah Cypess doesn't write easy characters by any means. With the point of view switching from Darri to Callie to Varis and even various Ghostland inhabitants, you are given time to occasionally mistrust or love every single character. Literally everyone had some secret or other up their sleeve and the added tension of complicated court politics ensured that someone was always up to No Good.  And that includes the enigmatic and devious Clarisse whom you may remember from Mistwood, who true to form, manages to stir up trouble whatever land she happens to reside in.

As one of those authors who respects her readers enough to not have to spell out every single detail within her stories, Leah Cypess leaves much of the puzzle of Nighspell to her audience to discover. It's a quality I highly appreciate actually. It's also a quality that had me continually flipping back pages trying to work out details and the significance of certain passages. It's work, but a type of work that I enjoy as a reader and something that makes the reading process that much more enjoyable in  my book. In other words, Nightspell was one heck of an enjoyable book.

**Be sure to stop in on Friday -- Leah Cypess will be here to share her writing process for Nightspell.

series reading order:
~ Mistwood - my review
~ Nightspell

Because Everyone Likes a Second Opinion:
Eating YA Books review
Kirkus Reviews
My Bookish Ways review

book source: ARC from the publisher

Mistwood by Leah Cypess

Deep in the magical forest known as the Mistwood lives a creature known as the Shifter. Blessed with the ability to shift into any shape she pleases, the shifter has one purpose: to serve and protect the kings of Samorna. But no one has seen the Shifter for many years until Prince Rokan dares to enter the dangerous Mistwood in search of this almost-mythical creature, hoping that she will be able to keep him safe. Feeling an inexplicable urge to follow and protect Rokan, the Shifter Isabel follows him out of the forest and into a castle shrouded in danger, lies, and half-truths. Isabel herself has no memory of her existence before the Prince found her but understands deep within herself that her one duty is to protect Rokan from the threat he refuses to explain. A little at a time, Isabel begins to regain her memories of palace life and the past; clues that do more to confuse than to help Isable unravel the secrets surrounding Prince Rokan's court. Surrounded by those she cannot trust - including the Prince himself - and beset by personal doubts, Isabel strives to protect Rokan, someone she is bound to serve yet who she is also coming to see as something more.

There are so many wonderful things I would like to say about Leah Cypess' lovely debut Mistwood. First off the cover. Holy cow it is ever gorgeous! And I'm happy to report that the insides are just as pretty. Leah Cypess has crafted a compelling world with characters who utterly refuse to be pigeon-holed into any specific category. No one is completely good or evil, trust-worthy or disloyal - all of which makes Isabel's task of uncovering those seeking to harm the Prince that much more difficult. Isabel herself is even a bit of a contradiction. Although non-human, she is continually disturbed by the all-too human emotions of fear and worry and confusion. Emotions which she keeps tightly controlled, even thought it seemed as if on every page she was this close to erupting.

Then there is the cunning and devious Clarisse, Rokan's sister, who Isabel is wary of on sight. Clarisse is a strong female with brains to spare and Isabel is right to be suspicious of her since the reader never truly understands where her sympathies lie - even at the end of the book! I have a sneaking suspicion she is one of those people who end up on the winning side of any conflict, immaterial of the side she began on. She's a puzzle and I was glued to page every time she and Isabel would spar. Like this early scene (even though Clarisse doesn't really say anything), when Clarisse pays Isabel an unexpected visit for the first time.

She turned and walked away without waiting for a response, and Isabel watched her go with narrowed eyes. She did not like that smile. It was too smug. Clarisse had come here for a specific purpose and had accomplished it.

She came, Isabel thought with a flash of clarity, to see me. To decide what she thought of me, and what she could get out of me.

It had been an attack, of sorts, and people did fight who lived in castles like these. Not with fists and feet and claws, but with words and whispers and influence. Isabel couldn't remember having been here before, but she knew. It was a fight, or rather a game, with many players and many rules and many strategies.

She smiled suddenly, feeling her blood pump through her veins. She didn't know how, and she didn't know why, but she was suddenly sure it was a game she knew how to play.

And that's just the beginning. There is absolutely nothing predictable about the stunningly mysterious Mistwood. I was right there along with Isabel as she regained her memory piece by piece, constantly plagued by a nagging sensation that something important lay yet just out of her reach. I can only hope that Ms. Cypess has plans to return to the excellent world of Mistwood and Isabel and Rokan and Clarisse, as her creative and compelling characters made quite the impression on this reader.

Because Everyone Likes a Second Opinion:
Angieville review
The Book Smugglers review 
Chachic's Book Nook review
Library Lounge Lizard review
Steph Su Reads review
The Story Siren review

book source: review copy from the publisher