Trilogies, Tropes, and Love Triangles with Adalyn Grace - Wisteria (Belladonna series)

Marissa chats with Adalyn Grace about WISTERIA, the conclusion to her Belladonna trilogy. Also discussed in this episode: the love of and uses for Pinterest, the phenomenon of finishing a book and forgetting having written it, writing a series with differing POVs, the rare book that’s “easy” to write, turning concepts into characters, favorite tropes, lush worldbuilding, and so much more. Bonus: A new book announcement!

Neopets: https://www.neopets.com/

MW definition of reify: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/reify

MW Word of the Day: https://www.merriam-webster.com/word-of-the-day 

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Transcript

[00:10] Marissa: Hello and welcome to the happy writer. This is a podcast that aims to bring readers more books to enjoy and to help authors find more joy in their writing. I am your host, Marissa Meyer. Thank you so much for joining me today. One thing making me happy is I have fallen in love with Pinterest all over again. This is one of those loves that just kinda of keeps coming back. I forget about it for a while and then I'm like, oh, wait, Pinterest. And suddenly I can't get enough and I just want to spend all day searching for cool inspiration photos. And right now I am kind of nearing the end of the first draft of my bluebeard retelling. And so I'm to that point where I'm kind of going back and filling in a lot of, like, setting descriptions and really nailing down, like, what certain creatures look like and gowns, the clothing, all of this. And so Pinterest is a godsend. I love that I can go on there and find things that match what was in my imagination, but make it feel so real and that I can then just use to try to put as much wonderful, genuine detail into the story as possible. So I love it. I love making inspiration boards. It is not procrastination. It is not time wasting. It is 100% productive, and no one can tell me otherwise. I am also so happy to be talking to today's guest. Prior to becoming an author, she worked in live theater and studied storytelling as an intern on Nickelodeon's popular series the Legend of Korra. Now she is the number one best selling author of the Belladonna series and the all the Stars and Teeth duology. Her newest novel, Wisteria, the finale of the Belladonna trilogy, came out last week. Please welcome Adeline Grace.

[02:12] Adalyn: Hello. How are you?

[02:14] Marissa: I am wonderful. How are you doing?

[02:17] Adalyn: I am fantastic. And I completely agree with everything you've said about Pinterest. It's like the old reliable friend who's just always there when you need them, but you have those long gaps where maybe you're not talking for a while, but they're just always there.

[02:31] Marissa: They're always there. And I love being able to go back to boards that I maybe haven't looked at in a while and you're like, right back into that story all over again.

[02:42] Adalyn: That is such a great tool. I love it. I'm also in my obsessed with Pinterest phase right now.

[02:48] Marissa: Do you have different Pinterest boards for every book in the Belladonna series, or did you use just one board that you just kept piling on as the story went on.

[02:58] Adalyn: I pretty much pile it on. Only recently I've made additional boards, and that's just to do, like, online promo and have images. And I feel, like, kind of correspond with the stereo more than the rest of the series because this one is a little bit lighter than the other books. It's a little less gothic, a little bit more, I think, romantic, more wintry, where the others were very, like, fall. So it has a different vibe. It's still obviously the same world, same characters, but it is a little bit lighter. So I did have to find some new pictures for wisteria.

[03:33] Marissa: Yeah, no, that makes sense. And I love the winter vibe. It's very enchanting.

[03:39] Adalyn: Thank you. Oh, my gosh. I'm so excited that you've read it. I feel like, you know, as we're, as we're talking about it right now, very few people have read it yet.

[03:48] Marissa: Are you nervous? Are you excited? It's so close.

[03:52] Adalyn: I am super, super excited. I cannot wait. So the time of recording, it's a week and a half until release, and I feel like it's been such a whirlwind since Foxcliff and, like, I don't know where time has gone. I cannot believe that this book, like, has been written and it's about to come out like it's been a fever dream. I actually don't remember writing this book at all. It's completely just, like, zapped from my memory, and I think that was because it was just so fun and it was just, like, this weird period where it was the easiest book I ever wrote. So I just sat down and was, like, great time. And now it's actually finally about to be out, and it's my favorite book in the series, and I'm really excited to share it.

[04:37] Marissa: I love that I also have that where after I finished a book, I can't remember writing it. And that happens for me a lot. And I remember reading once about, like, memory and how, like, memories are formed based on novelty and newness. And so if you're, like, doing the same thing every day, your brain's just like, well, I don't need to remember that. So I think, like, after you've been writing for a while and, like, you just sit down and do it every day, then, like, we can't actually remember it. And you look back, you're like, how did I get so many words written? When did that happen?

[05:14] Adalyn: That makes a ton of sense because I remember writing Belladonna, but, yeah, I do not at all remember Wisteria. I remember a little bit of Fox film only because that was the hardest book I've ever written. So I just remember the struggle. But apart from that. Yeah, I don't remember much.

[05:29] Marissa: Yeah. Okay. I want to ask more about this book and what a pleasure and a joy it was and how it sounds like it was much easier than previous books. But first I'm going to go way back in time, and I want to hear your origin story. As a writer. When did you know you wanted to be a writer? And how did you get here?

[05:52] Adalyn: Oh, my gosh. Okay. So I knew very young, and I was actually. Have you ever heard of neopets?

[05:59] Marissa: Neopets, okay.

[06:02] Adalyn: It was this old website. Um, it's still exist, it's still around, but nobody really uses it anymore. It's in the nineties. It was super, super popular. And I found it when I was like, I don't know, eight years old or something. And by the time it was ten, I was literally just like addicted. I am the youngest kid out of eight, so I think my parents were just happy to, like, have something distracting me. So I would just play a neopets for hours. And eventually one day I discovered the role play boards and I just stumbled on them. I had no idea what they were. And all these people were just like writing out characters and just from their imagination, they were just telling all these stories. And I was like, oh, that sounds so fun. But I was really young and, you know, there were some people who were my age on the role play boards, and we would do like, list intros where we're just like, our character is. Has blue hair, they're blonde, their name is Bob. And then you would just like, you wouldn't even introduce them. You would just go and pretend that that character has existed forever. So I was addicted to this by the time I was like twelve years old. And I would, as soon as I would get home from school, I would do my homework, and then I would write. And I write thousands of words every day without having any knowledge that I was writing thousands of words. It was just so fun. And I was making these friends online and I had a different name. I was pretending like that I was this person to protect myself because my parents were very stranger danger. So I was pretending to be this different name. I was a year older because I thought that was so much cooler.

[07:48] Marissa: That was really cool. Eleven year olds, right?

[07:53] Adalyn: And I was writing wolf role plays is where I started. And then it was like gifted boarding schools and vampires and then not too long after that, Twilight came out. And I grew up in Arizona, which is the same state that Sethi Meyer, the author, lives in. And I went to her very early signings, like, before she. She had an audience, for sure, but it was not, you know, a couple years later, the author events I was going to for her were auditoriums, like two story auditoriums. And this was not that. It was a very small bookstore, a very small crowd of people arguing about how to pronounce Carlisle. And I just remember being so into that. I was like, I, too, want to inspire people to fight about how to pronounce my character names. So I just. That was the first time I thought I had an actual career. And I always knew that I loved writing. It was my favorite thing to do ever. And, yeah, I was just all kind of. I was done from there. I was like, this is my path. This is who I will be. And I never looked back.

[08:57] Marissa: That is so great. It's so fun. Just a week or year ago, I was talking to Julian Winters, and he. He and I both come from a fan fiction background, so I'm seeing, like, a lot of overlap in how. How the role playing games and fan fiction just inspired so many people, because it's so fun to just get to play around with these. These characters and these worlds and let your imagination run wild.

[09:21] Adalyn: It is. I feel like fan fiction, at least when I was doing the role playing, fanfic writers were like the cool kids.

[09:31] Marissa: Nobody else thought that, you know, now.

[09:34] Adalyn: That I'm an adult, I'm aware of that. But as a kid, I was like, the fanfic writers are so cool, and I'm just over here, like, going back and forth with my characters, writing in my little nerdy role play guild eventually. But, yeah, you guys are the cool kids.

[09:51] Marissa: Oh, well, thank you.

[09:52] Adalyn: That's.

[09:53] Marissa: You're the first ever. So then you wanted to be a writer. You knew you wanted to be a writer. How many books do you think you drafted? Or how many did you try to get published before your first book came out?

[10:11] Adalyn: You know, I wrote a ton, but as far as actual books went, I think my first book was all the stars in teeth. And I want to say that that was book number four, official book. I think it was my second or third that I tried querying and actually being really serious about. But, you know, I had. I had hundreds of thousands of words under my belt at that point. But as far as the piece, I want to say was the fourth book, if I'm remembering right, okay.

[10:42] Marissa: And now here we are. Your fifth book just came out. Would you tell listeners a little bit about the Belladonna series and this finale, Wisteria.

[10:55] Adalyn: Oh, my goodness, yes. Bella Donna is. I picture it as, like a gothic spooky Bridgerton meets knives out. It's about a girl. Yeah, I think it's so fun, but it's about a girl named Signifarrow who can see spirits, and she has to team up with death himself to solve a mystery in an eerie gothic manner. And that's kind of the story for books one and two. Book three, wisteria, is actually different main character. It introduces, well, actually not introduces, but it has a new deity as one of the other main characters, and it's kind of about the two of them. I don't want to get too spoilery, but, yeah, it's a different main character, which, you know, is why it has a little bit different vibes than the other two books. And this one was just so fun because it is just filled with all the tropes I love, you know, enemies to lovers. It's just consistent banter throughout. It's a reincarnation trope, which is just so much fun to write. So, yeah, I had a blast with these characters, but they are different from the first two books. But that said, you do have to read the first two books to understand what the heck is happening in book three.

[12:05] Marissa: Yeah, no, I was kind of wondering that as I was reading book three. Of course I've read the first two, so it's hard to have, like, distance to imagine what it would be like if you were kind of coming to it without that background knowledge. I think for a lot of people it would still work, but definitely going to enjoy it more if you've read the first two.

[12:23] Adalyn: Yeah, 100%.

[12:25] Marissa: Yeah. And they're all great, so why wouldn't you?

[12:28] Adalyn: Thank you.

[12:29] Marissa: Okay. Did you always know that this was going to be a trilogy, or did you start with Signa's story and then it just kind of grew from there?

[12:39] Adalyn: Yeah. So when we went to sell it, we sold it on proposal, so we had maybe, maybe 50 pages and then a very long note. And in the not says, I had it arranged so that Belladonna was actually a standalone. And then once we were on submission and talking to editors, I started having an inkling that maybe I wanted to do more with it as I was talking to them. But in terms of actually officially selling it, I sold a two book deal. But Belladonna was supposed to be a standalone, and then book two was also going to be another standalone. As soon as I started writing Belladonna, though, I was like, no, this one's definitely at least a duology. And then I didn't say anything to my editor and I just wrote the book. And it has not too bad of a cliffhanger ending, but it's very much set up for a second book. And I just kind of passed it along to her. I was like, there you go. What do you think? Do you do another book? So I kind of let her read it and then asking me about it first, and it was easier for them to agree on Fox Blood. But then I did the same thing with Fox book because I decided to write third book and I just turned it in. And at this point they were like, okay, Adeline, I think we should talk. And I was like, all right, all right. And it was harder to sell wisteria because, you know, Belladonna had just come out Foxville. We didn't know what the pre order numbers were going to be like. They were pretty strong at that point. But we had to kind of know in advance, you know, I needed to figure out how to end box club and if I could have the ending I wanted in order to write Syria or did I have to, like, try to find a way to end things knowing I was only going to be a duology? So we were doing this discussion while I was doing edits for Fox love, and there was definitely a lot more hesitancy because, you know, historically, book sales go down with each book, so publishers are very hesitant sometimes. But fortunately, I was able to get Wisteria souls, and I think that's only because of readers showing up for the series. It's a huge testament to them and their faith in me that I was even able to write this book, which is probably, you know, part of the reason why I, this is my favorite one, and I love the book so much because it was maybe not going to happen. It was, and it's only happening because of readers. But, yeah, I just kept selling them books and I think I have a habit of that.

[15:16] Marissa: Well, I'm glad your publisher went for it because the idea of trying to wrap up book two and not have it lead into this third installment, that would have been awful. Like, it really feels so necessary. And I love where book two ends up, where it's satisfying but still just cliffhangery enough that you're like, no, wait, more, where's the next one? So good job on your publisher for taking the plunge.

[15:47] Adalyn: Thank you. I'm very happy that they did.

[15:50] Marissa: I mean, I think it's so interesting because I, and I won't say that, like, this is the only series that has used this structure, but I can't think of any others where you have. Your first book is fully from Signa's point of view. Book two, we get a mix of the two narrators, Signa and Blythe. And now in book three, we're almost entirely in Blyth's point of view. And I think that's a really interesting way to kind of set up how this story slowly moves from one character into the next. Were you, as you were finishing up Belladonna, working on Foxglove, kind of laying the foundation for this Blythe book? Were you concerned that readers would be like, no, no, we're here for Signa?

[16:37] Adalyn: You know, I think that there definitely are readers who are there for Signa. And I never really, you know, when I even wrote the synopsis of Fox Club, I didn't know that Blythe was going to be a pov character. It kind of surprised me as soon as I started drafting the book, she has a chapter. Very early on, I was like, oh, this makes so much sense. Like, so many things that I was struggling to figure out how to do and how to tell in this book makes so much more sense if she just has a point of view. And so I tried it out, and her voice was so fun to write. I think she's my favorite character that I've written so far because she is just a firecracker. She's so much fun to write.

[17:21] Marissa: Feisty.

[17:22] Adalyn: She's super feisty. Yeah, she is. She's. She's a ton of fun. And I, you know, in the editing process and the drafting process was very much like, okay, that's when I started realizing that I had another book that I wanted to write, Wisteria, and set out to make sure that her point of view was just as strong as Cigna, to try to get those people who were only in it for Cigna more on life side as well, to get them to look forward to Wisteria. So it was a concentrated effort, but it happened over time, and not just at the beginning. I didn't set out with, like, I'm going to convert readers.

[18:03] Marissa: Well, even if you weren't trying, it worked. I was certainly there for it. I want to go back to this idea that this book was, for you, the most fun to write and had that magical experience of just being easy. I always put easy in quotes because we know it's not actually easy, but absolutely, there are books that just come together a lot easier than others, and I wish every book could be like that, but not every book is like that. So it feels like such a gift from the universe when you get one. Why do you think it was because of Blythe's voice and her personality? And you mentioned that she's one of your favorite characters to write. Or was it because kind of the world was already set, you didn't have to do so much world building? Or what do you think it was about this book that just made it such a pleasure to write?

[18:56] Adalyn: I think it really was just the characters because, yeah, the world is built, but we are in a different location for this book involved some different magic, so that was a little bit different and still required some world building to figure out. But in terms of the characters, yeah, life for sure is just so fun. And also the love interest character as well, just their arguments and their bickering and their interactions. I just had a blast, and it was such a nice relief because, as I mentioned earlier, like, fox love was the hardest book I've ever written. It was very difficult to make sure that I was weaving all of the plot lines together and all the characters together. And there are a lot of new things in that book and new characters and just making sure that everything, like the romance was as strong as the world building. That's as strong as the voice. Just paying attention to all those different elements made Fox film really difficult. So it was such a relief to write with Jared. I feel like it just kind of blue onto paper and, yeah, I, too, wish every book could be like that. But as I'm working on one right now, that is definitely not that way. Yeah, they can't all be like that. Unfortunately, we can't.

[20:14] Marissa: No, I wish that I knew what, like, the secret sauce is that you could just like, no, this book is going to be the one that's just gonna come pouring out. But I swear, there's so many books where I'm like, this one's gonna be easy. And then you get 20,000 words in and, nope, it's work. Back to work.

[20:33] Adalyn: So much work.

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Marissa: so you mentioned how this book has a lot of your favorite tropes. Mine too. Enemies to lovers, soulmates. Love it. One of my favorite tropes that you do so well is personifying these big concepts. I love death as a character. I love the universe as a character. I love here we have fate as a character, and it was so perfect. I am subscribed to the Merriam Webster's word of the day emails, and the word this morning was not a word that I've ever heard before. It was the word ray, if I. Are you familiar with the word ray if I.

[23:02] Adalyn: No.

[23:03] Marissa: No. So this one was new for me, too. So, Ray, if I, I'll just read the definition straight from Merriam Webster. Reify is about considering or representing something abstract. Abstract as a material or concrete thing. If you reify a concept or idea, you give it definite content and form. And I was like, that's what Adam's doing with death and fate. You're taking these, like, obscure philosophical concepts and creating people that personify them. And so I just thought that was like a really perfect little nod there. It sounds so hard to take these ideas and turn them into people. Death is one thing. I think that we've seen death personified a lot, so we kind of have an idea of how that would work. Fate, how hard was it to figure out fate as a person?

[23:57] Adalyn: Fate was tricky. So when I originally conceived this character, he was inspired by, like a mix of howl Kundragon and Klaus Mikkelsen from the vampire diaries. So I think the Klaus element definitely sort of mellowed out over time because he you know, he is the villain in Fox cluck for sure, but he's not really a villain like, he is doing what he thinks is in everybody's best interest, but at the end of the day, to get what he wants. And, yeah, I think he just. I understood him over time, I guess, is what changed. He was less antagonistic, and I understood him a lot better. And especially in Wisteria, where there's a lot more time to explore his character. I've learned a lot about him. So he was, you know, tricky in the beginning, and there are early scenes of Foxglove's, you know, previous drafts that didn't make it to the page I where he is a lot, a lot more aggressive, a lot more villainous, but it just didn't really fit him. So I think he was very much a product of a lot of editing, a lot of time getting to know, but now he's one of my favorites, and I cannot imagine the theories without him and how that would have looked.

[25:21] Marissa: How did you go about figuring out the magic elements? Because fate is one of those things.

[25:27] Adalyn: Where.

[25:31] Marissa: I can imagine it'd be hard to walk that line of, like, where does free will come in? How much control and power does he really have over people's lives? I mean, it's gets really complicated really.

[25:41] Adalyn: Fast, but I think that's why I had to give some sort of a stopper there, which is, you know, they have this power, but there are limitations to it that have really adverse side effects if they misbehave. So just making sure that they want to behave and that they know they need to behave. Although, of course, we see in the books what happens if they don't behave as well. But making sure that that is a consequence enough to keep them kind of in line, keep the powers a little bit more in check. So it's not, at the end of the day, just everybody doing what they want, just willy nilly, because I think that would be even more complicated to write at the end of the day. Like, maybe we'll have some scenes that seem really fun and magical, but if there's no consequence to the magic, it doesn't feel as real to me.

[26:45] Marissa: Yeah. No, and I like that. As we get further into the series, it does feel like the magic system is constantly expanding. And so our understanding of how it works and how these immortal characters, how they are involved with humans and how much power they have and the weaving of the tapestry, I thought was so cool. Was there ever a time when I. You regretted something you'd put into an earlier book because you're like, oh, that really complicates what I'm trying to do now.

[27:18] Adalyn: Oh, my gosh. I'm sure there is. I mean, I feel like it all works out. And at the end of the day, there's nothing that stands out for me that I'm remembering right now. I'm sure as I was drafting probably Fox glove, I was like, ugh. But no, like, nothing has stayed with me as something that I regret. Although if I had to guess, it's probably something with, like, the afterlife or the spirits or death magic that complicated things in fox love.

[27:51] Marissa: Yeah, right. Because you even have, like, there's this character life. You know, you're dealing with reincarnation. You're figuring out, like, memories. How does the memory work? Do you remember your past lives? How many past lives has this character had? I mean, it just would be a lot to keep track of. Do you have, like, do you have a story Bible? Do you have, like, charts of things?

[28:15] Adalyn: I wish.

[28:18] Marissa: Now that you mention it, what I.

[28:21] Adalyn: Have is my bookshelf behind me with my books. And it's always really handy, like, when, you know, when Fox Love is finally out. As I'm working on Wisteria to just, like, grab Fox web and, like, flip through the pages and be like, what did I write here? Like, are the spirit, are they always translucent? Do objects pass through them?

[28:40] Marissa: That's right. There's also ghosts. Like, that's a lot.

[28:44] Adalyn: There is a lot. And, yeah, it can be complicated to keep track of. I definitely have had to reference back to the past book several times, usually about the spirit. Honestly, just, I remember there's a scene in Foxbug where I wanted one of them to be, like, wearing something or holding something. I can't quite remember. But there's this family in Foxgill, this family of spirits. And in one of the scenes, I just, I wanted one of them to do something, and I had to go back and read through Belladonna to see if that was even possible. And it turns out, like, it wasn't. And I had to find a different way to kind of rectify that and still get what I wanted, but in a way that, you know, stuck to the rules that have me made.

[29:31] Marissa: Yeah, no, I feel that I've got, the book I'm working on right now also has a lot of ghosts, and I've got one who's a lush and just, like, wants to drink wine all the time. And so, like, there's all these parties that I have her wandering around all the mortals. And just, like, filling her glass with wine from as the waiters are pouring. And I'm like, I actually know if this would work. Do people notice the wine disappearing? Does it become two streams? Like, I don't know. I haven't figured out that part of it yet. And I know that eventually I have to, but I'm like, oh, can we just go with it?

[30:06] Adalyn: I mean, the best news is that it's your rules, so you get to do whatever you want to do as long as you can make it make sense.

[30:13] Marissa: That's true. That's true. As long as the reader is willing to go along with it. All right, let's talk romance. We've got enemies to lovers. We've got soulmates, a little bit of star crossed love. We've got a couple different variations of the love triangle in this series. And I will admit, I I am not generally a fan of the love triangle, but you have done it right, and I really, really enjoyed how you did the love triangles. So smart. What is your approach when it comes to writing romance and figuring out how to get that really delicious slow burn going?

[30:51] Adalyn: Oh, my goodness. First of all, thank you. I love love triangles, so they are actually my hands down favorite tropez.

[30:59] Marissa: Oh, it's so funny.

[31:02] Adalyn: So I'm always glad when people like, especially people who do not like love triangles, give Belladonna a chance, because it, you know, there are love triangles, but they're. They're different. They're a little bit different.

[31:14] Marissa: They are. They're different than the usual.

[31:16] Adalyn: They.

[31:17] Marissa: They surprise you.

[31:19] Adalyn: But that, you know, I think I will always write love triangles. So hopefully, this book has made readers trust me for the future series. But, yeah, I think it's just, you know, especially with death and Sigma in the first book in the series, I think they really just bring out the best in each other. And Signa's kind of struggle in the book is she has never fit in, and she very much wants to fit in. And she believes that if she just behaves a certain way, you know, the way that society expects women to behave, that her life will just be magical and everything will be fixed and she'll be happy. But she has these really strange powers and this connection to death and can see spirits, and she's not, you know, quote unquote normal, and she doesn't behave the way that society, especially during this time, says that you should. And she has these very conflicting sides of her where she wants to fit in, but it is not her most comfortable space. It's very difficult for her to kind of mold herself like that. And I think death as a character really kind of challenges her instincts there and really pushes her to accept herself, even if it's those dark reports within her, even if it's see parts that she doesn't necessarily want other people to see, getting more comfortable, which is being and behaving in a way that truly makes her happy. So I think in terms of romance, it's just kind of that. How do the characters challenge one another? How do they complete one another? How do they like, how do they just fit together as a pair?

[33:08] Marissa: I think it's funny that you talk about how Cigna and death bring out the best in each other, which I agree with, and I agree with everything you just said, but I'm also kind of thinking, but do blythe and fate kind of bring out the worst anytime?

[33:22] Adalyn: You know, I think to an extent.

[33:25] Marissa: Yes, but, like, in a good way?

[33:29] Adalyn: Yeah, in a good way. You know, they are. They're very different people than death and sigma. They are. They are both firecrackers, so they are always butting heads. They are competitive. They each like to win, but they also challenge each other, too. And I do think that the characters, throughout the course of wisteria, they do still change. It might be in more subtle ways than with belladonna, but they do still kind of change to fit each other a little bit better. And I think with them in particular, it's just understanding one another as well, in a way that I don't think either of them have fully felt understood before.

[34:17] Marissa: Yeah, no, and, I mean, you do a great job of building in these internal conflicts, whether it's Cigna and wanting to just distance herself as much as she can from these strange powers that she has, this death character that just seems to always be nearby. She doesn't want him wanting to fit in with society, all of these things. And then we've got fate, who's working through all sorts of stuff internally and being able to balance that with showing them growing and changing and learning and, of course, then falling in love and being willing to fall in love makes for just a really great romance.

[35:01] Adalyn: Arc you? Yeah, I think that they are all definitely going through struggles. I think that's part of what makes characters fun. And, yeah, fate is for sure going through a lot. But I feel. I feel like. I feel most bad for Elijah.

[35:15] Marissa: Oh, yeah.

[35:16] Adalyn: No, but he, too.

[35:17] Marissa: I think he has one of the best character arcs in the series. He's in such a different place at the end of the books from where he started.

[35:24] Adalyn: Yeah. I love Elijah. He, you know, he doesn't have nearly as much page time as the others. But I think he's such an important character still in the world. And he's also one of my favorites.

[35:37] Marissa: I'm trying to think how I can say this without spoiling things, which I don't know if it's possible, but I'll just say the end of book two, there is a moment that's one of my favorite moments, I think, in fiction history. A thing that Blythe does that I'm just like, that was really badass. And I just love that. And I just wanted to say that.

[36:02] Adalyn: Thank you. Do you know if it's near the end or the epilogue? Can you remember?

[36:07] Marissa: I'm gonna guess it's not the epilogue.

[36:09] Adalyn: Okay. Okay.

[36:10] Marissa: Yeah.

[36:11] Adalyn: I think I know what you're talking.

[36:12] Marissa: About real fast because I know we're getting to the end of our interview here. But I did want to talk a little bit about the setting and the world building in general because these books do have that really luscious, semi gothic, semi fantasy, very kind of enchanted vibe to them. We talked a little bit early on about making Pinterest boards. What else do you do to kind of get into the vibe of the story?

[36:44] Adalyn: Oh, my gosh. I was so dramatic for this book, especially with Belladonna. I think Belladonna reads as atmospheric and kind of slightly spooky as it does because I initially wrote it during fall and I would, like, open my windows and I would light a pumpkin candle and I would sit in a corner of, like, a dark room, just, like, home alone writing this story to the point where I kind of, like, scared myself during some of the scenes in that book. But, yeah, I will play music. So with this series in particular, it was a lot of Peter Gundry, the composer, to the point where I named the dog after Gundry.

[37:29] Marissa: Oh, I love that. What a fun detail.

[37:31] Adalyn: Yeah, I actually, I posted about that on Instagram before and I tagged the composer, not really thinking that he'd see it. And then he did see it. And all I said was, oh, I named a character after this composer and I didn't say that it was the dog. So Emma briefs that.

[37:47] Marissa: Oh, that's hilarious.

[37:48] Adalyn: Yeah. But I would.

[37:49] Marissa: Still a compliment.

[37:50] Adalyn: I, you know, I hope so. But, yeah, I'll definitely get music that matches the vibe, which is always, you know, some people spend more time on Pinterest. I go to pinterest if I need, like, clothing. What are they wearing and to look at examples to describe. But I spend a lot of time on YouTube trying to find, like, the right vibe of song, and it can't be anything with lyrica. It's got to be just a particular mood. So I rely a lot on video game scores and do a lot of listening to those, to the point where my Spotify rap is like, video games.

[38:22] Marissa: I like that. I don't often use rituals, but some books, I feel kind of need it, not need it, but it's nice sometimes to, like you say, light a candle, play some mood music to just kind of get into that headspace a little bit. It can make the writing so pleasant.

[38:42] Adalyn: Yeah. It just, like, triggers something in your brain. And so right now, I'm actually working on two books. It's my first time working on two projects simultaneously. And I feel like those kind of rituals actually really help because I get to change the music and I change the vibe, and that kind of, like, triggers something in my head, too, of, like, okay, different tone here. Different voices, different mood. This is different.

[39:06] Marissa: Yeah, no, I get that 100% book I'm working on now is very, like, autumnal, very gothic, very dark. And I'm kind of angry that we've had so much sunshine. Like, where's my stormy weather?

[39:22] Adalyn: Oh, my gosh. I know my favorite time to rise is the fall, and it was helpful riding belladonna during that, but with fox love, it was definitely warmer. So I just kind of tried to trick things by riding it also during a warmer time. I don't like the heat at all. I grew up in Arizona, and I moved out of it for a reason. It's just too, too hot for me. So I have to kind of. I was struggling with the atmosphere in that book until I was like, you know what? Cigna hates the heat, too. Let's just roll with that. Let's talk about how the skin is sticky and that she's melting and everything hot.

[39:56] Marissa: I love it. No, absolutely. Me and Cigna. Okay, are you ready for a bonus round?

[40:03] Adalyn: I am.

[40:04] Marissa: What book makes you happy?

[40:07] Adalyn: Oh, my goodness. So many. Right now, I am in my Brandon Sanderson phase, and everything, everything that I've read of his has made me so happy so far. Trust of the emerald C miss Bourne. I just finished the first book in the Stormlight archive, and, yeah, I have to take a couple of breaks because his books are. They're big. They're big books. So I'll finish one, and then I'll read, you know, a couple of smaller ones or like, catch up on blur requests, and then I'll go right back to Brandon Sanderson because I love his books right now, and they make me very happy.

[40:41] Marissa: You kind of hinted at this earlier, but what are you working on next?

[40:46] Adalyn: Oh, my goodness. Okay, so I think by the time that this comes out, it'll be announced. So I'm going to say it and cross my fingers that I'm right.

[40:54] Marissa: I'm not editing out.

[40:57] Adalyn: So there's actually one. There's actually another book in the Bell da series. It's called Holly, and it is a Christmas novella.

[41:06] Marissa: I'm sorry, a what? A what novella?

[41:08] Adalyn: A Christmas novella.

[41:10] Marissa: Holland.

[41:11] Adalyn: Yeah. I did not think that I would ever be able to write it. I had the idea. I was actually talking to a friend about it years ago when I first sold Belladonna, and we were jokingly calling it mistletoe and which I think Holly is a much better name, but I was like, you know, nobody's ever gonna buy a Christmas at all. Like, it doesn't matter. Like, I think this would be fun. Maybe I could do this with, like, bonus content one day. But then my friend Stephanie Garber, you know, lo and behold, she sells a Christmas novella. And I was like, oh, my gosh, there is this market for it. So when I had the opportunity to discuss with my publisher and they were open to that, I was like, heck yeah, we are writing Christmas novella. So Holly will be out next year, I think maybe around the same time as Wisteria. So, like maybe August. So maybe a little later it might be closer to October or something. But yeah, I'm working on that. And then I'm working on a brand new series, which is kicking my butt because, you know, I have been for many years now in the Belladonna world, and I've been very comfortable there, and I feel very at home. And this is an entirely new world, new character, completely different vibe. And it's definitely stretching my creative and writing muscles to just remember how to build a world from scratch and get into the groove of it and get to know all these new characters. Yeah, I'm super excited for that. And I can't say much about it yet, and except to expect something a little different, and hopefully I get to announce that I'm crossing my fingers for October.

[42:46] Marissa: Awesome. Well, I am excited to hear about it. I also admit I have not readdez your first duology, but as I was sitting here getting ready to do this interview today, I was like, gosh, I think I own all these stars and teeth, and I looked at my shelf and there it was. So I'm so excited.

[43:06] Adalyn: Thank you. It's a very different vibe from Belladonna. It's much more fantastical high fantasy adventure swashbuckling.

[43:14] Marissa: I love all those things. All right, lastly, where can people find you?

[43:19] Adalyn: Yeah, I am mostly on Instagram authoradlygrace. My website tends to be pretty updated as well, and I think that's like Adam and Grace author, which is annoying. But I think that's the website. If you google me my name and website, you'll find it. I'm also on TikTok, but I don't post very much or if I do, it's like cross posting from Instagram. So I recommend my Instagram.

[43:44] Marissa: Awesome. Adeline, thank you so much for joining me.

[43:46] Adalyn: Thank you. This was so much fun.

[43:49] Marissa: Readers, definitely check out Wisteria and the entire Belladonna series. They are all available now. Of course, we encourage you to support your local indie bookstore. Or you can check out our affiliate store@bookshop.org, shop. Marissa Meyer next week I'll be talking with Tigus Girma about her debut vampire fantasy immortal darken. Please leave us a review and follow us on Instagram. Happywriterpodcast and dont forget to check out our merchandise on etsy. Until next time, stay inspired, keep writing, and whatever life throws at you today. I do hope that now youre feeling a little bit happier.