{"id":157147,"date":"2021-12-03T11:36:34","date_gmt":"2021-12-03T00:36:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/?p=157147"},"modified":"2021-12-20T08:56:25","modified_gmt":"2021-12-19T21:56:25","slug":"a-qa-with-alicia-jasinska-on-the-midnight-girls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.booktopia.com.au\/blog\/2021\/12\/03\/a-qa-with-alicia-jasinska-on-the-midnight-girls\/","title":{"rendered":"A Q&A with Alicia Jasinska on The Midnight Girls"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Alicia<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Alicia Jasinska is a fantasy writer hailing from Sydney, Australia. A library technician by day, she spends her nights writing and hanging upside down from the trapeze and aerial hoop. She is the author of The Dark Tide and The Midnight Girls<\/a><\/strong>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, Alicia is on the blog to answer a few of our questions about her new YA novel. Read on …<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"Alicia<\/a>

Alicia Jasinska<\/p><\/div>\n

Please tell us about your book, The Midnight Girls<\/em>!<\/strong><\/p>\n

AJ:<\/strong> The Midnight Girls<\/em> is a dark fairy-tale fantasy about two wicked rivals competing for the pure heart of a prince but falling for each other, set in a wintry world inspired by Slavic folklore and Polish history.<\/p>\n\n\n

Why was it important to you to write this story?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

AJ:<\/strong> It\u2019s always been important to me to write stories featuring romances between two girls because the fantasy books I loved growing up rarely included queer characters and relationships. I might\u2019ve figured things out about myself a lot faster and with a lot less grief if I\u2019d had stories like this one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The girls in this book are (quite literally) monsters. Do you see Marynka and Zosia as antiheroines? Did you feel that this gave you more freedom to write outside of the boundaries of genre and even readers\u2019 expectations?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

AJ:<\/strong> Marynka and Zosia are definitely antiheroines. From the beginning I set out to write a story about rival villains \u2013 they were never meant to be the good guys. And it definitely gave me a lot of freedom to play with reader expectations. The most entertaining thing about writing villains is that they go to such shocking extremes to get what they want because they\u2019re not held back by things like morals or having a conscience. They were very fun characters to write.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Would you rather have Marynka\u2019s midday powers, or Zosia\u2019s midnight powers?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

AJ:<\/strong> It\u2019s really hard to choose! But I\u2019ll have to go with Midnight\u2019s powers. I\u2019d like to be able to summon darkness and control shadows, and I want her claws!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can you tell us a little bit about the folklore that inspired this novel?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

AJ:<\/strong> So many things inspired this book but one of my biggest inspirations was, of course, the folktales about Baba Jaga\/Yaga \u2013 Eastern Europe\u2019s most famous witch. In the stories she\u2019s sometimes one of three sisters (who are also named Baba Jaga) and she has three servants representing Morning, Day, and Night. We\u2019re never told much about the servants. They\u2019re mostly just meant to represent Baba Jaga\u2019s power over time. But I really wanted to develop them into full characters and mix in stories of some of the monsters I love from Polish folklore like Po\u0142udnica (Lady Midday) and Nocnica (Night Hag\/Nightmare Spirit).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you listen to music while you write? Were there any songs that were particularly significant to the writing of The Midnight Girls<\/em>?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

AJ: <\/strong>I always listen to music. It helps snap me into the mood of the story I\u2019m working on. I have a Spotify playlist of songs I listened to while writing The Midnight Girls<\/em> which I\u2019ll link below: (apologies in advance for my taste in music haha)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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