And I think the newness, the way this literary device opened a whole new world for me, made the first titles I read unforgettable, like first loves: The Passion by Jeanette Winterson, I Am One of You Forever by Fred Chapppell, and Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquirel.īut I wrote for years before finally deciding to incorporate magical realism into my own writing. It was like cracking open a geode and finding the sparkle inside. Magical realism - when the supernatural blends so seamlessly into the natural world that it doesn’t appear unusual at all - captivated me from the moment I first discovered this genre in college. Your books lovingly make use of magical elements what is some magic from your everyday life? What inspires the gifts you give your characters? When did you start using magic in your fiction? I like that Bay says normal is completely subjective.

Like the Waverely sisters, I think we all chase the idea of approval and fitting in. She basically says, We’re not weird, we’re normal. She’s a symbol of change and a generational shift in her family’s way of thinking. Bay Waverley was six years old in Garden Spells, and she was already a preternaturally insightful child, so I knew she would become a very grounded teenager. All the Waverley women in First Frost have struggled with the crazy gifts they’ve been given - but not teenager Bay. I think belonging has so much more to do with how you see yourself than it ever has to do with how others see you. What do you hope the Waverley sisters books say on those subjects? What does it mean to belong? What does it take to accept yourself, warts and all? And it was an amazing experience.īelonging and accepting yourself are two themes woven into the Waverley family history. After I finished Lost Lake, I knew I wanted to return to something comforting, and I knew readers had been asking for this, so I returned to the world of the Waverleys in First Frost. It was hard getting back into that headspace. The right time finally came after a particularly hard book to write, Lost Lake, which was the first book I wrote after taking a lenghty time off for cancer treatment. The idea of a next made me happy, so I filed away a story in the back of my head, and waited for the right time to write this book. But then readers started asking me what happened next.

When I wrote Garden Spells, my first book, I gave everyone a happy ending, and I thought that was that. What drew you back to Bascom in First Frost? What inspired you to return to Bay’s story? We spoke about the nature of belonging, magic, and writing. Addison Allen’s books feature a splendid use of magical realism that immerses us into the hearts and minds of her characters. In Sarah Addison Allen’s First Frost we return to Bascom, North Carolina, and the magical Waverly family first featured in Garden Spells.

Sarah addison allen waverly books