We’re excited to welcome Gita Trelease back to the Winged Pen for the launch of her 2nd book!
This is a jam-packed post with:
- A review of Everything That Burns.
- A link to register for Gita’s virtual launch hosted by Odyssey Bookshop on February 4th.
- An interview with Gita about her inspiration for this dark fantasy and tips for aspiring writers.
Let’s get started!
Publisher’s Description of Everything That Burns
Camille Durbonne gambled everything she had to keep herself and her sister safe. But as the people of Paris starve and mobs riot, safety may no longer be possible…
…Not when Camille lives for the rebellion. In the pamphlets she prints, she tells the stories of girls living at society’s margins. But as her writings captivate the public, she begins to suspect a dark magic she can’t control lies at the heart of her success. Then Louis XVI declares magic a crime and all magicians traitors to France. As bonfires incinerate enchanted books and special police prowl the city, the time for magic—and those who work it—is running out.
In this new Paris where allegiances shift and violence erupts, the answers Camille seeks set her on a perilous path, one that may cost her the boy she loves—even her life. If she can discover who she truly is before vengeful forces unmask her, she may still win this deadly game of revolution.
Rebecca’s Thoughts on Everything That Burns
I was drawn into All that Glitters, book 1 in the Enchantée series, by the dark magic and the glitter of the court of Versailles. I was drawn back for the sequel by Camille, her tough determination to save herself and her sister against all odds.
The mood of Everything that Burns couldn’t be more different from All that Glitters. It’s only weeks since we left Camille, but revolutionary fervor has pamphlets being spread throughout the city and ideas being debated in the papers, in bookstores, and on the street. The people of Paris seek to find a culprit behind the rising price of bread and their own poverty, and when they think they’ve found them, they rise up to take justice into their own hands.
Where All That Glitters was about the sparkle and magic of court, Everything That Burns has a more serious message. Themes of income inequality, fake news, and crowd violence spurred by political leaders connect 18th century France and the state of the U.S. today.
I loved the stories of the Lost Girls, Camille’s new, dark, magic and her blooming romance with Lazare. Everything That Burns will appeal to fans of dark young adult fantasy, as well as those frustrated with 2020 and looking for a cathartic end to it.
Highly recommended.
I received a free advanced reader copy of Everything That Burns in exchange for an unbiased review.
Everything That Burns launched today, February 2nd, 2021. You can add it to your “want to read” list on Goodreads, or order on Indiebound, Barnes & Noble, or Amazon.
The virtual launch will be February 4th at 7 p.m. EST, hosted by Odyssey Bookshop. Gita will be in conversation with Stephanie Garber, author of the Caraval series. Click here for more information or to register.
And now, for our interview . . .
Interview with Gita Trelease, Author of Everything That Burns
Rebecca: We follow Camille and her enchanting magic into Everything That Burns. It’s only a couple weeks later in pre-revolutionary Paris, but the tone feels very different. The story turns from the glitter of Versailles to political unrest and bloody violence as revolutionary fever builds. Did the dark mood make ETB more difficult to write?
Gita: It definitely did. All That Glitters was brighter, with court life, balls, and Camille’s magical dress, which helped her masquerade as a noblewoman at the court of Versailles. I knew when I planned the second book that with the revolution drawing closer, things would get darker. For me, All That Glitters and Everything That Burns are like two sides of a coin. One side is shiny and bright, the other side is dark and troubling, but they wouldn’t exist without each other.
Rebecca: Camille comes into her own in this book, giving up the desperate magic that kept herself and her sister Sophie off the streets in All That Glitters. Now that they’re safe, she wants to make an impact on the political arguments around her by writing pamphlets, taking up the printing skills she learned from her father. Can you talk about this theme, the power of words?
Gita: Camille first publishes the old pamphlets her father wrote, following in his footsteps to try and create change in society. But her father’s pamphlets fail to gain reader interest.
Camille’s initially distraught, but then she sees that there are stories all around her. Through a chance encounter, she meets the Lost Girls, orphans and runaways living at the edge of society. A plan to clean up the streets of Paris means they will soon be homeless unless public opinion can be changed in their favor.
Through their plight, Camille realizes that her own story could have ended very differently if it weren’t for magic. This connection moves her to try to make a difference in their lives. By telling their stories in pamphlets, they can change the hearts and minds of Parisians. As for Camille herself, in a dramatic, high- stakes moment, she finally understands that telling—or retelling—her own story is something she needs to do for herself.
Rebecca: I loved the Lost Girls! We got a glimpse of one of them in All That Glitters, but they’re a big part of ETB. What inspired them?
Gita: I love them too! They are so fierce and full of spirit, and it was really fun for me as a writer to create their stories for Camille to tell in her pamphlets.
In graduate school, I read contemporary accounts of the lives and suffering of the poor in 18th century London. The poor are so often forgotten, something that the plot of All That Glitters turns on. One of these characters is the running girl Camille meets at the very beginning of book 1. The memory of that character haunts Camille and I wanted her to wrestle with that as she found security. To want to help those that didn’t have magic to lift them up.
That said, something that was very important to me when creating these characters was that they have dignity and agency. At first, several of the girls want nothing to do with Camille: they’re afraid of the publicity and they’re proud: they don’t want her “help.” Part of their journey is coming to terms with that and part of Camille’s journey is to understand that she can’t save anyone, even though she might want to.
Rebecca: Despite giving up magic, Camille is drawn back in. I don’t want to spoil the new magic, but it seems that magic won’t let Camille go. Why is that?
Gita: Over the course of this series, and especially in Everything That Burns, Camille has to face what magic means to her. She was once addicted to magic and it almost cost her the two people she loved the most—even her life. She vows to quit using it, but magic is not easy to get rid of.
Camille believes magic is something external, but she discovers—to her horror—that the source of her magic is within her. It’s not something she can separate herself from, and within the anti-magician rhetoric of the revolution, that is a very dangerous discovery.
Rebecca: It’s surprising to me since I’m not a history buff, but I found themes from the revolutionary period echo our own times in uncomfortable ways. Fake news, crowd violence. How much of that was based on real events? How is this not something we’ve overcome in the last 200+ years?
Gita: It may be hard to believe because we tend to think of the French Revolution as a response to extreme poverty, but the gap between the rich and the poor in the United States right now is wider than it was in pre-Revolutionary France. Income inequality in America is getting worse, and I wanted to connect what was going on at that time to what is happening today.
Rebecca: I didn’t know anything about “fake news” during the French Revolution until I started digging deeper into my research. When I saw that it existed, I knew I needed to bring that into the story and draw another connection to our present day.
Why haven’t we overcome this?
Gita: People forget. People are focused on surviving. Women had more freedom in the early 18th century that they did at the time of Napoleon. And during the revolution, there was a declaration of the rights of man, but that didn’t include rights for women.
History is not an upward slope of progress, unfortunately. There are periods of great change for the better, but also downward turns. The work for freedom and equality never ends.
Rebecca: This story is not just about revolutionary ideals, it’s also about Camille and Lazare’s romance and things get steamy! How did you keep the passion going over 2 books? Does the romance thread take as much planning as the plot?
Gita: The romance was one of the more challenging parts of writing this book, but also one of my favorite parts! There is drama and tension in Camille and Lazare’s relationship, and from a writerly standpoint, this tension in the romance forces the characters to grow. Both Camille and Lazare need to accept themselves before they can truly find happiness together, and this feels so true to my own experience of love and attraction when I was a teen. At that time of life, we’re still figuring out who we are and who we want to be, and being in love can really complicate that.
Rebecca: I’m sad to say good-bye to Camille and her magic! What can we look forward to in your next book?
Gita: My next book will still be young adult fantasy, set in a place more like our own world. It will be as magical as that of the Enchantée series, but it will have an immersive, haunted feeling.
There will also be romance, of course! Magical and dangerous, but also transformative.
Rebecca: Our last interview was just before All That Glitters launched. Your writing career has taken off since then with book talks and publicity, writing your second book, and of course, COVID complicating everything. Is life as a published author what you expected? What’s been great? What are the challenges that writers don’t see until they’re published?
Gita: One of the most wonderful parts of being published is connecting with readers through social media. I’m grateful to booksellers, bookstagrammers, bloggers, and everyone who spread the word about this series. I heard from so many people that All that Glitters kept them going during quarantine and was so moved. I wrote the story for myself, but it means so much to know it touched so many other people.
One of the hard things about being published is that this industry is very opaque. There is so much that goes on behind the scenes that an author has no control over. We want certainty and it’s hard to put a book out into the world and let the business side of the industry take over. But it’s also important to know that there is more than one way to succeed in publishing, and that the best thing an author can do is write the best book they’re capable of writing. And keep writing.
Rebecca: What advice do you have for aspiring writers?
Gita: Read as much as possible. Read books in the genre you write in as well as in other genres. Publishing wants stories “like [insert successful novel] but different.” The best way to write something like that is to read stories with different elements that you can put them together in a new way.
I’d also recommend that as a writer, you strive to write the story only you can write. Not only will this make it more meaningful to you as you go through revision after revision and all the challenges of publishing, but you’ll also carve out a space for yourself in what has become a very crowded marketplace. While jumping on a trend might work for one book or one series, I don’t think it’s a long term solution for happiness.
Thanks to Gita Trelease for being on the Winged Pen today and congratulations on the launch of Everything That Burns!
Readers, comment bellow with your favorite line or scene from Everything That Burns!
