It’s been some time since I last did an author interview, but I thought it might be super fun to do another one after I read and greatly enjoyed Alchemy & Ashes by Amy Yorke! Alchemy & Ashes is easily one of my favorite books I have read this year.
And if you need a little refresher on the book before you read book 2- I’ve got one for you here!:
Keep reading if you want to read our transcribed interview. If you want the full, unedited video chat interview, you can watch here!:
(Edited for filler words [unfortunately my weakness when I’m speaking!] and brevity)
Sara Ann: I was curious if you could just start out and just like kind of tell us like a little bit about yourself, like how you got into writing, how long you’ve been writing for, all that good stuff.
Amy Yorke: I’ve been writing for a few years now, and I kind of started taking it seriously about two years ago. I’ve been publishing under the pen name, Amy Yorke. My real first name is Amy. So I just made that easier on myself. But I started kind of writing, maybe a decade or so earlier than that and then kind of learned a little bit about the writing process, trying to figure out how I would write, but did not reach a point where I was like, ‘this is publishable and I should share this with the world’. But then I read a book, a cozy fantasy book, called Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree. And I loved it and I thought, I want to read more books like that. And at that time, there weren’t that many books out there like that and I was like, maybe maybe I’ll try writing a book like this, you know? And so I tried my hand at writing a cozy fantasy book which is called The Good and the Green. I ended up writing a whole series for that book, which are kind of seasonal, like each of them like seasons in that world.
And then after writing four cozy fantasy books, I was like, I need drama, I need some conflict. I mean, there’s conflict in cozy fantasy, but it’s quite difficult, I think, in some ways that people maybe don’t think about to create, like very interesting conflicts within a cozy world because you don’t have the same sort of tool set of being able to be like, this person betrayed this other person or the violence and those kind of things. And so I pivoted a little bit into romantasy and again, I was reading a lot of books in the romantasy genre. I read Daughter of No Worlds. I read the Crowns of Nyaxia series, both of those are by Carissa Broadbent. I read Bridge Kingdom, and I was just really enjoying those books. And I once again was like, maybe I could try to make my own. And so that’s kind of what led me to writing Alchemy & Ashes, which is a very different book than my other books. But I think that was part of the fun of it was the challenge of writing something, in quite a different voice and style. But keeping some of the same common themes and things that I have in my cozier series. It’s really a lot about good people trying to do their best, you know, it is something that I think comes through in Alchemy & Ashes.
Sara Ann: How was your process in writing different by having a book that has like a little bit more romance to it? Did you have like a different process at all?
Amy Yorke: Yeah, so my general kind of drafting process was pretty similar across the books, but the way that I plotted Alchemy & Ashes was actually quite different than the way I plotted, The Good and the Green. I’m a planner to an extent when I write. I use what is basically the snowflake method, if you’re familiar. It’s basically, you start with like a single sentence about what the book is about and then you take that sentence and turn it into a paragraph, and then a paragraph into a page. And then for me, for that point, I go into like a scene list, like a chapter list of chapter by chapter, kind of what I want to happen. And so I work out what the ending is going to be pretty much at the very beginning. Like I know where the book is going. And then I take that chapter list and I just write it straight. Like I start from chapter one and I write straight through it. And then at about the halfway mark, I have to change my outline because I’ve changed enough to do that. So I did that same process for both books, but what was different in Alchemy & Ashes is I found that, as I was reading books, not just in this genre, but just across all kind of genres and even watching shows and things like that, a lot of times you get a really solid opening, like where you’re like, this is fascinating. And then like a really incredible last 100 pages where everything is just going. But there’s, like a lull in the middle, and I found that, in my own writing too. Getting those exciting moments in the middle is hard. And so the way I plotted Alchemy & Ashes is actually, I imagined it as a 10 episode TV show. And so I created like roughly four chapters per episode. And so like roughly every four chapters or so, there’s like a cliffhanger or a big moment, a big, like, what would the end of the episode of the TV show be? You know, like, what’s the thing that compels somebody to come back and watch the next episode? And so that’s where I think a lot of those like bigger moments that happen were designed to be that cliffhanger exciting moment in there. And that forced me to create these scenes that I felt like help propel you through the pages instead of kind of getting to that repetitive, kind of lull piece in the middle.
Sara Ann: Does that mean that you have book two completely plotted out, when you’re writing book one?
Amy Yorke: To some extent, yes. I didn’t take it all the way to the scene list in book two, knowing that I would be changing quite a bit. Yeah. But I do have roughly a page of what happens in book two. I’m still at that point in the process where I do a lot of reading other things, watching other things, like collecting inspiration out there, you know, getting ideas. I’m in sort of the phase where I’m still changing that page a little bit. Like I had I had an idea, and I wish I could share with you because I’m really excited about it. Earlier this week that like changed quite a bit. Not the actual where we end up, but how we get there. And I think that is going to be quite a surprise to a lot of people, but it was one of those things where the second I thought of it, I’m like, ooh, but it really fits. Like the foreshadowing that I did in book one will really make this fit, but it’s also very surprising. And so now, I can’t let that go. It’s just like that’s that’s what it is now.
Sara Ann: Oh, I love that. Damn, now I really want to know [laughs]. And it was killing me, just being like, ‘okay, what am I going to ask Amy?’ I want to ask so many different questions. And I’m like I can’t like ruin anything, you know?
So I’m curious… Do you like let your family members read the romtantasy books?
Amy Yorke: No. No, no. I like very specifically tell them not to. In fact, I’m probably going to make like a video that’s going to be: how to skip all the spice in my book: a guide for my parents specifically. Like, my dad read my other books and he bought this book and I was like, ‘please, I want you to really hear me when I tell you STOP at like chapter 3 [laughs].’ That’s enough.
Sara Ann: Just rip them out of the paperback for him. Like, they’re not even there for him.
Amy: My friends do read them. But I have that relationship with some of my friends where like, I can have that conversation. But like, no, you know, I’m still haunted by the time that I told my parents. “We should watch this show called Game of Thrones.” And then we sat together on the couch. Why? I love Game of Thrones and I loved watching it, but why did I watch that with my parents? [laughs]
Sara Ann: Was there anything, like, specifically that sparked this initial idea for Alchemy & Ashes?
Amy: You know, it did come to me while I was writing. I think I was writing The Ancient and the Amber, which is like the third book in The Good and the Green series. And it was there is a prince character in that series. And I wanted once again to kind of take it into a more dramatic place, but it didn’t fit the cozy kind of world that I have there. And so that was part of, I think, where the initial like spark came from. I was plotting out the third book and I was like, ‘well, this would be an interesting place to take this.’ But I’m like, no, this doesn’t work here. And the problem with that is, once again, you have one of those ideas, and I wanted to drop everything and just do that. I did enjoy, to be fair, writing the last two books in that series, before I let myself start really thinking about this one.
The way my beginning of my writing process starts is in my notes app in my phone. So there’s like a wild page. I think I pulled it up one time it like nearly 10,000 words of just notes. Just me writing down what I’m thinking. I think the original note that I wrote down was something about that it was originally going to have like a competition element to it that ended up becoming the festivals kind of concept. But I pretty quickly moved away from the idea of deadly trials, because I pretty quickly decided who Ronan would be as a character. And I’m like, Ronan would never allow there to be a deadly trial. It wouldn’t make sense for his character and his values, for letting people risk their lives, you know? So that that’s kind of how that evolved.
Sara Ann: Do you normally write male main characters with that kind of like golden retriever energy? What was it like writing Ronan’s character and developing that?
Amy Yorke: The male main characters in my other series are actually a lot moodier and broodier. And like, they’re not as golden Retriever as Ronan is. And part of that again was that like in that cozy space, if you have everyone just being super nice and perfect all the time, there’s really no conflict. What’s this book about? And so to me, the contrast there, of having some of these, more damaged and brooding characters gave me some more things to write about, but I kind of went with, like the opposite direction here where again, it’s like, I have a dramatic setting, I have political conflict and the war and betrayals and all of those kinds of things. And to me, putting a good person in that setting is really interesting because it’s really tough for him to operate in this world that is pretty brutal and that is a lot more cruel than his nature really is. So the contrast between those things really compelled me. A lot of how Ronan,, came to me, I suppose, is I imagined a lot of the conversations and things that he had early in the scenes with Sylvie. So some of those very early scenes where he meets her for the first time, were some of the first things that I thought of, and how like he could surprise her in those scenes was a lot of what became the basis of his character, because I thought it would be the most interesting what her preconceived notions, of what he’s like, if he kind of immediately shows something else. And then that started leading me in that direction of wanting him, rather than being the brooding, shadow daddy– O do like that character, but that’s not the person that I married or that I would have wanted to marry, you know? It’s part of a fun, fantasy, guilty pleasure kind of thing. But I wasn’t seeing a lot of books out there that were writing about the kind of person that you would want to spend your life with. The kind of supportive person. I think one of the most important aspects to Ronan’s character, to me, is that he makes Sylvie feel safe. It’s that that safety, he’s all in on her really quickly. He doesn’t go through a process of rejecting her or belittling her or negging her. I’ve encountered too much of that in real life for that to be part of my personal fantasy. Like, of what I want in somebody. I wanted somebody who’s validating, who feels empowering. Like, when she’s around him, she feels better, she feels more powerful and it proves her life. That to me is the fantasy. And again, it’s part of my reality too, but it’s something that I want for everybody, as well, and part of why I put in the book.
Sara Ann: Yeah, like, everyone wants to be loved out loud, right? I loved that about Ronan’s character, too. Like, what you’re saying, he never really like made Sylvie doubt how he felt about her really at any point. He was always very forthcoming about his feelings toward her. I liked that. Did you draw inspiration for Ronan’s character from any like media or like, maybe it sounds like maybe your husband has that golden retriever energy.
Amy: It’s funny because I would not say he’s like super gold, but he’s very supportive, he’s a lot more cynical than Ronan, I would say. In some ways, Ronan is my self-insert. He’s sort of an idealized version of, who I would be in leadership, if I could, you know. I certainly have more in common with his character than Sylvie interestingly. Sylvie is a little bit of a stretch for me. And I did that on purpose again for the fun of imagining something else. She is like a neglected third child and I’m an only child. She has a strained relationship with her family and her parents, and my parents are generally quite supportive and I agree with them politically. It’s a different kind of experience than that. So neither of them were necessarily drawn from like a direct inspiration. The powers that Ronan has, I pointed out in like one of my posts, some similarities to Jasper’s powers in Twilight. He’s got that emotional kind of connection. It’s always really interested me and I always wanted to see more from that kind of character, the difference between knowing someone’s emotion versus knowing their thoughts. I thought was really compelling when I was many years ago reading Twilight. Edward is a mind reader, but Jasper reads feelings, that really interested me of how different that experience would be. I was re-watching Lord of the Rings and I’m like, Aragorn is just so incredible in that I think. I think what makes him such a good leader in Lord of the Rings is that he is emotional and empathetic. Like, he cries, he supports the fellowship emotionally. He goes through a lot of things that, you know, are not masculine. I mean, like, like they’re not that toxic kind of masculinity. Like, he doesn’t tell anybody to shut up and stop crying or whatever. Like, he’s right there supporting everybody. And so I felt that was, you know, some indirect inspiration for like Ronan’s leadership style.
Sara Ann: So you’ve kind of like hinted a little bit about like book two. It is a duet. Is that correct?
Amy: That’s right.
Sara Ann: Do you have like a timeline at all? Like when book two is going to come out or anything like that?
Amy: I am aiming for roughly May. It’s what I’m hoping on book 2. So actually the longest part of my process is this planning part. I typically write fairly quickly. And it’s mostly out of necessity because it’s like obsessive. Some writers are so disciplined and they’re like, 500 words every day and I am not that person. I am that person who like sits down and I’m like, ‘well, I’m going to just write this a little bit.’ And then it’s like five hours later and I’m still still sitting there. I wrote the first book over, I think the first draft took about 7 weeks to get through. And then I spent another few weeks after that and kind of edited some revisions. I did actually do some significant revisions on this book versus my other books where there were just kind of things that changed over the course of the plotting things. So again, I think I think it’ll take me a couple of months, probably to knock out the second book, hopefully. We’ll see. But yeah, I’m aiming for around May just to give myself enough time to make sure that like it’s everything I wanted to be.
Sara Ann: Do you think you’re going to expand on the universe at all? Or do you think it’s going to be like a hard stop with book two? I’ve always like wondered what it’s like when you’re writing more than a novel, like a duet or a trilogy or something like that, feeling like, ‘oh, is this story actually over?’ Not even necessarily between Sylvia and Ronan, but like other characters or something like that. Do you think it’ll be a hard stop after book two? Or do you think you’ll spin off anything?
Amy: I already have some spin-off ideas. And I put some things in there to lead into that, you know? I’ll see kind of how things end up at the end of big book two, what I end up spinning off. You know, there’s definitely some characters that their fates have changed over the course of my original vision of where I thought they would end up. And in ways, I think would open up potentially side stories. There’s characters we haven’t met yet, that I think are going to have very compelling, hopefully, stories that would be interesting to see what they were doing in book one, where you didn’t have that perspective. I’ve definitely thought of it. I’ve got a few few different things that I’m playing with but yeah, we’ll see. I think this world has a lot of kind of stories that could be told. And what led to this story. Part of what I like about this is the generational aspect of it. And I do think that the kind of the older generation story is also something that interests me too other than just like the side characters that we have right now.
Sara Ann: When I was reading it, I was like, ‘I hope we get like a little bit of like Seth in book two’. Cause I’m so curious like what’s going on over there while he’s like preparing the armies and stuff like that. There’s this whole world outside of these feasts that’s going on. So it sounds like that’s going to happen too! I’m excited.
Amy: Certainly a direction that we’re going in. And I think it will be very interesting, because again, I think one thing that you’ve probably learned about Sylvie from book one is that perhaps she’s not the best judge of character immediately. There’s a lot that she kind of comes into with her ideas of the way people are that she has to kind of unlearn or relearn. And I think it’s going to be very interesting to see how that applies to some of the other people that we have not met yet.
Sara Ann: So you’ve given me a lot of book recommendations, I feel like, throughout this conversation so far, but what like have you been reading lately that you’ve really been loving? Like, what’s your last like five star read? Sounds like you’re a big reader, too, along with being a writer.
Amy: So, it’s funny, but I don’t star rate. I will say that. Like, just right off the bat. Because for me, I just don’t think about things in terms of, like… I can’t put a number on a book, you know, to some extent. And so for me, I basically divide everything into, this is my whole personality right now, or I really liked it enough to finish it, but there were things like I probably won’t revisit as much anymore, or I just don’t finish it. Basically, that’s kind of how I look at things. So I will say that what I’ve been reading lately has definitely been on the higher end of the spice scale. I also have been reading things that have been just fun lately because I put so much time and work into this that I didn’t want to read things that were like, crazy, politically complex or with like a million side characters. So I’m currently reading Kiss of the Basilisk. [both laugh] Hilarious and completely insane, but something about it is so compulsive. It is like, like another one of these you cannot put down. my husband is just like, what are you talking about, about what’s going on.
Sara Ann: When I read that one, my husband would be like, ‘oh, what are you reading?’ I’m like, honestly, I just don’t even want to tell you. Like, I’m too embarrassed to explain it.
Amy: Oh, no I tell him every last detail and he’s like, please don’t, please stop telling me about what’s happening in these books. I’m like, no, you need to know this. And the last read that I absolutely like, really enjoyed, and I was surprised by how much was Ice Planet Barbarians.
Sara Ann: Oh my god, me too. Why did I like it so much?
Amy: And you know what’s funny about it is you know, blue aliens and all of that aside. One thing I really love about that book was the language barrier. The way that they couldn’t understand each other. And I was like, I’ve got to do this. Like at some point in my writing, I’m going to have to create a language barrier couple, because I also love that in Daughter of No World. I think it’s really, really cute in that book where she’s learning the language and they have like those little misunderstandings and I’m like, oh, I love this trope so much. And so I’m going to have to put that into something. But yeah, I’m kind of in like my popcorn book era. I will say something that I intentionally tried to do in this book is to try to simplify, to keep things like where instead of having to go through and memorize, like all the names of things and all the gods and all the politics and all the things. Everywhere I could simplify, I simplified. And I did that mostly for myself because like I work a job that is pretty intellectually intensive where I have to do a lot of reading and writing and keeping track of things. And so I like to just be able to come home and like read something that is entertaining to me without using so much of my like ‘having to keep track of things’ part of my brain. I want to be able to come along for the ride with you without having to like turn it into homework and take notes. And sometimes I get in that taking notes and turning things into homework mood, but like, lately I’ve been totally in the let’s go along for the ride mood. And I tried to put some of that into my writing too. Hopefully like my my book is pretty easy to follow as well.
Here’s the full interview with Amy Yorke!:
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