Author Interview: Alexandra Overy

Alexandra’s book came out today and hopefully your pre-ordered copy has already arrived! If not, you should just read our reviews so we can convince you why you absolutely need These Feathered Flames on your bookshelf. (There’s also a mix included to listen to while reading!)

But today is yet another treat for y’all: we asked Alexandra a few questions, so you could get to know her better! She talked about her debut, her love for darker fantasy, and what fanfics she would most like to read about her series.

And go ahead and follow Alexandra on twitter.

Let’s start at the beginning. How did you first get into writing?

I’ve loved reading for as long as I can remember, and writing always came hand in hand with that. I have little books I made when I was 5 or 6 (all about my dog, of course) and it just grew from there! As I got older, writing became something I always had as a refuge. I loved retreating into those fantasy worlds I’d made and in college I finally decided I was going to write my first full book (a lot of that was based on procrastinating my essays…).

What are your favourite genres to read and write, and are there any genres or tropes you wouldn’t write?

I have always been drawn towards fantasy (often high fantasy) in both my reading and writing. I really love the escapism, the potential for high-stakes, and the scope for world building. It’s just such a great place to get lost in! I mostly read fantasy, but do read pretty much every other genre too—depending on my mood. Sometimes you need a happy romance or twisty thriller. I’d say the only genre I probably wouldn’t write (and I don’t read very much), is very heavy or serious contemporary. Like I said, I love escapism and that’s too much of the real world for me.

How do you get inspiration for your books and what’s your writing process? At what point do you let other people read your drafts and who are they?

I feel like I get inspiration from everywhere! If I’m blocked or not coming up with new ideas, I generally need to re-fill my creative well by going back to watching some favourite films or tv shows, or re-reading some books I love. That will usually get my brain going again and help me get new ideas.

As for the writing process, I’ve always been a plotter and so I like to have a plan when I go in. I don’t always stick to it entirely, but it really helps me to have that structure in place. Once I have a first draft and I’ve gone over it to remove things like inconsistencies or sub-plots I decided to drop, I’ll send it to one of my trusted critique partners. For a long time I wouldn’t let anyone read my writing (except my sister), let alone a first draft, so it’s really nice to have CPs I can trust to read my messy first drafts and help me shape the story into what I want it to be.

Which three authors would you say influenced your writing the most?

Ooh this is a hard question. There are so many answers as I’ve always been a really voracious reader. I’ll do one from when I was young, one from when I started writing properly, and a more recent one:

First is Holly Black. She wasn’t my first favourite author, but Tithe was the first YA book I remember reading (and absolutely falling in love with!). I think her books were really influential to me in terms of the kind of characters I like to write: deeply flawed, often toeing the line between good and evil. Tithe and her subsequent Curseworkers series really opened that door for me to exploring moral greyness and I never went back. 

Second would have to be Victoria Schwab. In about 2016 when I first got back into writing seriously, This Savage Song was one of the first books I read and it was a sudden flash of, oh, this is what a book can do. The way she blends character and world and all the painful emotions is just so masterful, and I still remember that feeling of first reading TSS and experiencing its magic. All her work, and her perseverance across the years, are such an inspiration to me.

And a more recent one is Melissa Bashardourst. I read Girl, Serpent, Thorn in June and I feel like her combination of beautiful prose, mythology and monsters was just so perfect—and summed up so much of what I’d like to do with my writing. It really helped me at a point where I was a little stuck on my sequel. Plus, I just love a bisexual love triangle between three monsters.

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And for something that is also very important to us & what we put a lot of emphasis  on when blogging. What does ownvoices LGBT representation mean to you?

As a queer writer, of course queer representation is very important to me—as is #ownvoices, as it gives writers space to express their identity. However, especially with queer rep, I wouldn’t want to require the #ownvoices label because queer identity is something not everyone is safe to express publicly, and I wouldn’t want to miss out on books because of that. 

But to speak more generally, queer rep in books for me is a path to a better world. A world where more people are free to express their identity. We’re getting more and more books from across the queer spectrum, especially in the YA space, which gives teens the opportunity to see themselves in books and to explore their own identities. As someone who didn’t understand her queerness until her 20’s, it would’ve meant a lot to me to have books like this as a teen.

What’s one piece of advice you would like to give your younger self?

Lean into your weird. For a long time I wouldn’t let anyone read what I wrote—or even know what books I read. I thought dark and twisty fantasy was too niche or that I’d get judged for it. But when I finally leaned into that and embraced the books I love to read and write, it was the best feeling and led to so much more success.

Summarise your most recent/next book in up to 5 words and a meme.

I’m cheating and doing two….but this sums up the two sisters in These Feathered Flames!

And five words for it: Sapphic, twisty fantasy with bears!

If (when!) your books were to be made into movies, who would you like to direct them?

They don’t usually work in fantasy, but two directors I love are Olivia Wilde and Alice Wu. They’ve both done such amazing work with female characters and queer stories, and I feel like they could bring something so interesting to a fantasy world.

If you could have dinner with one member of the LGBT community, dead or alive, who would it be?

There are so many I’m finding it hard to narrow down, so I’m going to go with one of my old favourites: Oscar Wilde. I just feel like a dinner conversation with him would be so interesting—no one does snark like a 19^th century gay.

Which of your characters would you most want to fight a zombie apocalypse with?

I love this question! I think quite a few of the characters from These Feathered Flames would be very useful in a zombie apocalypse. Asya, one of the main sisters, would definitely defend me and her fiery powers would be helpful (plus, her bear Mishka would be a great steed). Her love interest, Yuliana, is also a good fighter (but she might not forgive me for all the mean things I’ve done to them…). However, the other sister, Izaveta, would definitely throw me to the zombies as a distraction while she escaped so I’d want to steer clear of her.

Is there a famous franchise or simply a movie/TV show you’d like to be able to write for?

I actually also work in screenwriting, so this is something I’ve thought about a lot! I’d really love to work on some book adaptations (like the upcoming Percy Jackson series!) as well as fantasy shows like The Witcher and The Boys.

Do you have any secret non canon ships in your books you wish people would write fics for?

The first one that comes to mind is Kyriil and Nikov, which if you’ve read the book might surprise you! But they have some moments of interesting tension, and it’d maybe be the only way for me to like Kyriil as a character again. Plus, they’d bond over having difficult fathers. Oh, also Zvezda and Tarya! They’re canon, but very much in the past and as the books are from Asya and Izaveta’s POV, we don’t see much about the relationship between the former Firebird and the spymaster. I’d love fanfic about how their relationship started.

Rec us some great LGBT books you’ve read recently!

So many good options! But the most recent few I’ve loved:

• The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea by Maggie Tokuda-Hall
• Girl, Serpent, Thorn by Melissa Bashardourst 
• Surrender Your Sons by Adam Sass
• The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Alexandra grew up in London and moved to Los Angeles to pursue her undergraduate degree in history at UCLA, followed by her MFA in screenwriting also at UCLA. She loves writing in all formats, from novels to screenplays to graphic novels, always centring on fierce women and morally grey characters, often with a bit of magic and murder. Her debut novel, These Feathered Flames, releases April 20 2021 from Inkyard Press.

When she’s not writing, she can be found baking, fangirling over her favourite books, or cuddling her cat.

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