An interview with S. Jae-Jones, bestselling author of the Guardians of Dawn series

 

"I’ve always wanted to write a story set in a fantasy world inspired by East Asia... I’m always gathering information and saving it for later, and eventually those little tidbits make their way into my books" 

They say that when the world is out of balance, the Guardians of Dawn are reborn.

Sailor Moon meets Beauty and the Beast in Guardians of Dawn: Ami, the second book in a new, richly imagined fantasy series from S. Jae-Jones, the New York Times bestselling author of Wintersong.

Team Titan spoke with the New York Times bestselling author of Wintersong, and author of the Guardians of Dawn series to talk about the processes of writing, inspirations and influence, and the future of the series. Scroll down below to read the full interview, and keep reading to take a sneak peek at an exclusive excerpt from the second title in the Guardians of Dawn series, Guardians of Dawn: Ami!

Ami is the second instalment in your Guardians of Dawn series and it’s out now! Can you tell us what the readers can expect in just a couple of sentences?

Li Ami , the odd and eccentric daughter of a former imperial magician, has been exiled with her mentally ill father to the outermost west of the Morning Realms. When her father is arrested for trespassing and stealing a branch from the sacred tree of the local monastery, Ami offers her translation services to the mysterious Beast in the castle, who is searching for a cure for a mysterious blight ravaging the land. Meanwhile, the undead are on the rise, and Jin Zhara must find the Guardian of Wood with power over life and death in order to defeat the revenants razing the countryside.

Tell us about your writing process especially when writing a series. Do you do an elaborate amount of planning? Did you have an idea of where the series was going to go in each book before you started? How early did you start plotting the rest of the series? 

I wish I could say I had a world-building and story bible for this series, but alas, no matter how much I plan, I can’t seem to stick to it. I do have a very general idea of how I want the series as a whole to end and the major plot turning points that I know I need to introduce and resolve in each book, but the details are one giant blur. As each book in the Guardians of Dawn series is loosely inspired by a western fairy tale, I know the basic structure of each girl’s story, but how her story fits into the larger narrative takes a lot of journaling and false starts. 

The story in Ami takes us even deeper into the magical world of the Morning Realms. We learn more about the prophecy, the Guardians, the Star of Radiance and so much more. How did you approach this level of worldbuilding? Do you have any methods you use when starting out?

The world of the Guardians of Dawn is the result of years of daydreaming. I’ve always wanted to write a story set in a fantasy world inspired by East Asia, so in between other projects, I would think about this world’s history, religion, food cultures, trade, and more. I suppose I treat world-building a bit like writing historical fiction; there is a lot of research involved (I travelled to Tibet for Ami’s book), but more than that, I think about how human communities naturally relate to each other and the world. How myths arise and inform small rituals and even linguistic tics. As for method…as with the rest of my writing, it is organized chaos. I’m always gathering information and saving it for later, and eventually those little tidbits make their way into my books.

We also meet many new characters in this book, as well as continuing our journey with Zhara and Han and others from book 1. Do you have a favourite new character in Ami or perhaps one who hasn’t been introduced just yet? 

I don’t know what it says about me that I love slightly thick-headed jock type characters, but I found writing Pang Lok the easiest. I don’t have favourites, or rather, I can’t play favourites; they are all my children!

Ami is an extremely compelling and complex character, and she is very different to Zhara. Where did your inspiration for the character come from and how did you find writing her compared to Zhara? 

I don’t know if I have conscious inspirations for any of my characters; more often than not, they sort of show up fully formed in my head, with a very distinct voice. Writing first drafts is frequently a process of getting to know a character better. In Zhara’s case, it was understanding how much her relationship with her abusive stepmother has affected her, and with Ami, it was understanding that she was neurodivergent. 

Each book in the Guardians of Dawn series is inspired by a different western fairy tale. Zhara is Cinderella, and Ami is Beauty & the Beast. What drew you to take inspiration from fairy tales and are there any fairy tales you would love to incorporate into your writing in the future?

Part of the reason I drew on fairy tales was laziness; I’m bad at plot! Fairy tales have the vague shape of one, so I thought taking inspiration would make things easier. Reader, it did not. However, another reason I’m drawn to fairy tales is that they contain tropes and cultural elements familiar to the western reader, and I wanted to infuse a bit of familiarity for the audience in an East Asian-inspired fantasy world. As for other fairy tales in future books, I don’t have any plans of yet, but never say never!

Was writing the second book in the series easier or harder compared to getting started? 

Some aspects of writing the second book was easier than the first; the rules of the world were introduced and established in Zhara, so I didn’t have to take as much time trying to ease the reader into the Morning Realms. But as Ami is the second book of planned quartet, it was hard trying to give her story a satisfactory conclusion while furthering the larger narrative.

Can you tell us anything about the future of the series? What do the readers have to look forward to?

I’ve been teasing it for a while, but book three will be Yuli’s story. I’ve been wanting to write a book with sapphic longing in it for a while, and it was a treat to immerse myself in her world.

Guardian's of Dawn: Ami is out now! Order your copy.

Click the image below to read an exclusive excerpt!