Isabella Stofka

 What made you choose Curses of Lavender as the title?

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Initially, Curses of Lavender was a standalone called Wide Awake. However, it quickly became clear that it was waaaaay to long as a stand alone, reaching almost 200,000 words, which is like the length of a Harry Potter book. So, I decided to split it into a duology, and when I did that the title 'Wide Awake' no longer worked, as I needed something to match it for book two. So after some brainstorming, I came up with Curses of Lavender.​

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What inspired the name "Thicket?"

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When I was little, I was obsessed with Warrior Cats. Like, obsessed. I liked to come up with warrior cat names for my toys, and one of the ones I was particularly attached to was Thicketflame? Thicketfire? I cannot remember, but it was Thicket-and something with fire. I always wanted to do something with the name 'Thicket' and when I decided to write a Sleeping Beauty retelling, I thought Thicket worked beautifully because it is similar in meaning to Briar.

 

How did you come up with the idea for Curses of Lavender?

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I was in the car on the way to a family gathering. At the time, I was bouncing from idea to idea. Coming up with new stories was, at the time, more fun than actually writing. But I was scrolling through prompts and saw a picture of a door. I cannot remember whether this thought was my own, or if it was a part of the prompt, but the thought that inspired Curses of Lavender was: what if someone went through a door in their dreams and woke up? From there, I started thinking of what could go with that, as I often like to incorporate myths and fairytales into my work. And my first though was Sleeping Beauty. What if when she was cursed, she went through a door and that was how she woke up. And from there, I started brainstorming what would eventually become Curses of Lavender.

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What was the hardest part to write? What did you have to rewrite the most to get it to where you wanted it?​

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Uhg. So many things. I would say that three things gave me equal trouble. First, the middle of the book. I always know where the book starts and how it ends, but the middle is the hardest for me and it took a lot of rewriting to get it right. 

 

The second thing was the boys. Their characters didn't come easy to me and it took many drafts to get them to be how they are now.

 

And the last thing is the worldbuilding. I am not the biggest fan of building a new world. Not because I don't like it, but because it is hard. I struggle to name things and always overthink the details. But after a few drafts I got the sense of what was needed for the world and started uncovering and developing new pieces to go with it. I think that is the trick for me. Write the story and see what the world needs to be like to encompass it.​

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What inspired the imagery of the world you created?​

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Honestly, I think it was developed along with the world. The only thing I knew for certain was that Bilya would be in ruins. One, because I thought having a town overrun by vines fit the Sleeping Beauty theme, and two I thought that imagery sounded beautiful. But a lot of it just comes as I flow write. I cannot see images in my head, so I guess I compensate by using words to paint a verbal picture, if that makes sense. Like by reading the prose, I can get a feeling of what it is supposed to look like. And the feeling I wanted to capture was equal parts beautiful and devastating.

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How many books will be in this series?

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Curses of Lavender will be a duology! However, I have a few ideas swirling around for other books in this world :)

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What can we expect?

 

You can expect kingdoms, magic, curses, a charming prince (or perhaps a guard), lush atmospheric writing, and ultimately a girl's journey to overcoming anxiety and learning to love herself.​