Juliet Marillier

Juliet Marillier's historical fantasy novels are published internationally and have won a number of awards.

From her Q & A at Good Reading Magazine:

How has your academic background (having studied music and languages at university) helped in your writing career?

Studying music gave me a feeling for rhythm and flow in writing. I often read passages aloud to find out whether I’ve got those elements right. Music also provides a guide to structure, what is satisfying, what is balanced. Studying foreign languages gives one a better understanding of the principles of English grammar, enriches the vocabulary and opens windows into other cultures – all extremely useful for a novelist. On a more general note, the self-discipline required for tertiary study is good practice for the self-discipline required by all serious writers!

When did you write your first story? Was your first story historical fantasy, or did this interest develop later?

If you mean very first, I wrote it when I was about seven, and it was science fiction: a tale of robots running amok, full of blood, death and chaos. And my second story was about scientists discovering a live plesiosaur in Fiordland, NZ. At Arthur Street Primary School in Dunedin there were lots of promising writers. We used to write our stories in exercise books cut in half, and circulate them to our classmates to read and comment on – an early introduction to peer critiquing.

I studied music and languages at university, not writing. After graduating I worked in various music-related jobs, brought up my children, and spent a lot of years gradually becoming older and wiser. I didn’t come back to serious fiction writing until I was in my forties. There was never a conscious decision to write in a particular genre. I simply wrote the story I wanted to write (Daughter of the Forest) and when it was published I discovered that people called it a historical fantasy. At that point I didn’t even know...[read on]

Visit Juliet Marillier's website to learn more about her books and works in progress, and read her "author's spotlight" essay at the Random House website. Also, check out Writer Unboxed, a genre writing blog which she shares with several other writers and editors.

Marillier's Wildwood Dancing is on Amazon's 2007 list of top ten books for young adults; it also won the 2006 Aurealis Award for best fantasy novel.

The Page 69 Test: Heart’s Blood.

Read--Coffee with a Canine: Juliet Marillier & Pippa, Gretel, and Sara.

--Marshal Zeringue