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.
Today, Alicia is on the blog to answer a few of our questions about her new YA novel. Read on …
Alicia Jasinska
Please tell us about your book, The Midnight Girls!
AJ: The Midnight Girls 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.
Why was it important to you to write this story?
AJ: It’s 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’ve figured things out about myself a lot faster and with a lot less grief if I’d had stories like this one.
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’ expectations?
AJ: Marynka and Zosia are definitely antiheroines. From the beginning I set out to write a story about rival villains – 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’re not held back by things like morals or having a conscience. They were very fun characters to write.
Would you rather have Marynka’s midday powers, or Zosia’s midnight powers?
AJ: It’s really hard to choose! But I’ll have to go with Midnight’s powers. I’d like to be able to summon darkness and control shadows, and I want her claws!
Can you tell us a little bit about the folklore that inspired this novel?
AJ: So many things inspired this book but one of my biggest inspirations was, of course, the folktales about Baba Jaga/Yaga – Eastern Europe’s most famous witch. In the stories she’s sometimes one of three sisters (who are also named Baba Jaga) and she has three servants representing Morning, Day, and Night. We’re never told much about the servants. They’re mostly just meant to represent Baba Jaga’s 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 Południca (Lady Midday) and Nocnica (Night Hag/Nightmare Spirit).
Do you listen to music while you write? Were there any songs that were particularly significant to the writing of The Midnight Girls?
AJ: I always listen to music. It helps snap me into the mood of the story I’m working on. I have a Spotify playlist of songs I listened to while writing The Midnight Girls which I’ll link below: (apologies in advance for my taste in music haha)
Can you tell us a little bit about your journey towards becoming a writer?
AJ: I’ve wanted to be a writer for as long as I can remember. I still have the first “book” I ever wrote – which is just A4 pages of scribbles with stick figure illustrations that I stapled together when I was five or six years old. It’s been a long, long journey with lots of tears and rejections and setbacks. I’m still pinching myself that my second book is coming out this year. It’s seriously a dream come true!
What is the last book you read and loved?
AJ: Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao! It’s so damn good!!
What do you hope readers will discover in The Midnight Girls?
AJ: Honestly, I just hope everyone has a good time reading it! There’s no real moral message that I want people to take away from the story. I write mostly to entertain myself (and hopefully my readers) so if the story makes someone laugh or feel something, if they can relate to the characters or become interested in Polish folklore and history then that’s more than enough for me.
And finally, what’s up next for you?
AJ: I’m currently working on a proposal for a new queer fantasy story and crossing all my fingers that it gets the green light because it’s one I’d really love to write!
Thanks Alicia!
—The Midnight Girls by Alicia Jasinska (Penguin Books Australia) is out now.
The Midnight Girls
In a snow-cloaked kingdom, now is a time for mischief and revelry. For the next few weeks, all will be wintry balls, glittery disguises, and nightly torch-lit sleigh-parties.
But unbeknown to the merrymakers, two uninvited girls join the fun. Zosia and Marynka are drawn to each other the moment they meet – until they discover they're rivals, who both have their sights set on the prince's heart. If one consumes a pure heart, she'll gain immeasurable power. Marynka plans to bring the prince's back to her patron in order to prove herself, while Zosia is determined to take his heart and its power for herself...
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