In The Near Witch, the debut young-adult novel from Victoria Schwab, children are vanishing from their homes in the night, and everyone in the village of Near is certain that a stranger who has recently appeared in town is the culprit. Everyone, that is, except Lexi, a persevering young girl whose late father's words and wisdom guide her and give her strength. Only Lexi knows that someone — something — else is responsible for the abductions.
A darkly atmospheric story in the vein of classic fairy tales, with a ripple of romance, The Near Witch will be published later this summer. But Schwab, a Harpeth Hall grad who is 23 and wrote the book during her senior year in college, began cultivating her audience long before she had a publishing contract in hand. Schwab spoke to the Scene about writing YA in a post-Potter marketplace, the imperative to tweet, dressing up as a cupcake, and more.
I'll address the age thing right off the bat: Are you wary of people making a big deal out of your youth?
It's funny, but there's been this odd trend in YA: Authors' ages have gone down and down, to the point where 23 doesn't even feel that young. There are several teenagers publishing books, and that makes me feel really old, actually.
What do you think is behind that trend?
I grew up with Harry Potter. But kids a few years younger than me have had everything that came after Harry Potter, and they've had Twilight and the huge swell of YA lit that came on the heels of Twilight. So they've had a lot more material to absorb. The 16- to 20-year-olds who are getting such good deals — I think it's because they're such voracious readers. They devour constantly.
How did Harry Potter impact you?
I wasn't one of those kids who read a lot for pleasure growing up ... until I hit the Harry Potter books and got sucked into them. It's a little bit like a drug. It's intoxicating to have it happen to you, and it's intoxicating to be able to do it to someone else.
How long did it take to write The Near Witch?
Two months to write, and 11 months to edit once it had a publisher. It sold as a 150-page skeleton of an idea. My editor bought it because of the style of writing, and then we worked on it for almost a year. I hadn't read YA a lot as a teenager. There are certain structural norms in YA, and I didn't know any of them. Now I'm on my third book and I'm really confident in terms of how plot and structure work.
Lexi, the protagonist in The Near Witch, is a powerful young female character. What, or who, inspired her?
Lexi is a person I would like to be. I wrote The Near Witch before reading The Hunger Games, but I like to say she's my tempered Katniss, and I'm really proud of her. Katniss is a total heroine in the classic sense: No one can stop her, no one can shut her down. I wanted a character like that, but I had to make sure that she fit the fairy tale world.
The book depicts a small community's reaction to an outsider, which gives it an allegorical quality. Was this something you were going for?
It's all about fear. When we believe the lives of those we care about are threatened, we're afraid. But sometimes we're afraid because we've been told to be. So it's just this idea of what scares us so badly and what our reactions are to it. Some of those reactions are valid: the parents' reaction to their missing children is a valid fear. But there's also this notion of fear for fear's sake. It's a method of power.
Is Nashville a good place to be a writer? Considering we effectively have no major bookstores now ...
My publisher has asked, well, where locally do you want to hold these events? And I'm like, there's no place! So it's a bit sad and frustrating. In every other aspect I'm enamored with Nashville. But I want that sense of literary community. For a YA author, I think community is ever-important.
You do engage frequently with that community through social media, especially Twitter. How did you get that ball rolling, well before the book?
I started blogging before I had an agent. The Near Witch sold in 2009, so I had almost two years to develop that community, and I knew that I was going to have to. The problem was that for the entire first year, I wasn't allowed to talk about my book. So it had to become about marketing me.
It seems that for emerging writers, tweeting and blogging are becoming requisite acts of self-publicity. It's not enough just to write. How do you feel about that?
I have a very few writer friends who don't have an online presence, but I find it to be foolish. If you can carve out the time, I think the benefits are great. At my marketing meeting, my publisher was so happy that I had that [social media] presence, and they were more willing to match me in terms of the publicity. And I want to make my publisher happy so they keep publishing my books!
But it takes so much time, I'm not even gonna lie. I know a lot of authors who really push themselves to do it. For me, I want to sell books, you know? I have dressed up like a giant cupcake and answered questions on video. I will do whatever I have to do.
Why a cupcake?
When I was waiting for a book deal, I made a joke on Twitter that I would dress like a giant cupcake if I got one, and then I got a book deal, so I did it.
Did you make the outfit yourself?
I did. My mom helped me. It's kind of fabulous. Giant innertubes of cotton, and they have these Velcro sprinkles on them. I even have a hat. I'll probably wear it again.
I should have you appear at my daughter's next birthday party.
I am available for bookings, at the cost of two to three books.
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