Interview with Claudie Arseneault, author of the CITY OF SPIRES series

 

Hi, everyone! It's great to be back and posting interviews again. Thank you for your understanding while I dealt with some mental issues and a couple of bouts with sickness.

Today I am thrilled to present my interview with Claudie Arseneault (she/her)! If you've ever searched for books with asexual representation, you've likely seen some of her books listed. Baker's Thief is one of the ones that I saw the most when I was searching around but I also saw a lot about the series we're talking about today: the City of Spires series!

In this interview I got to ask Claudie about how she got started with writing, how the City of Spires series came to be, and what sort of changes happened between conception and publication. This was an excellent interview and I was so excited to get to pick Claudie's brain about her work.      

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How did you first start writing?

I started with D&D roleplaying online! First with groups in online forums, but pretty quickly I was DMing an extensive game for a single player, and I started wanting to write small scenes between characters that the player wouldn't be privy to. A couple scenes soon became thousands of words of backstories, and from there I went into novels.

Ooh, yeah I can definitely see how DMing a game could lead to a lot of writing. D&D definitely sounds amazing and I can totally understand how DMing and building that world could spiral into backstories and more. Add in any sort of interest in writing and soon you've got a novel, or at least the ideas for a novel.

What does your writing process look like?

I am an outliner. Every time I've gone into a draft without enough plans for it, I've hit wall after wall and wound up having to do a lot of rewrites. So the first step is to get good "tent posts" in my outline, so I always have key moments to shoot for, and a few bullet points of how I get there.

The second thing I've found out is that I want to get to the end before I go back and do large scale edits. And in the case of series, that means get to the end of the series. There is so much I discover about themes and character arcs doing this, and having that knowledge becomes integral to the edits-which tend to be almost full rewrites, by that point.

The "tent poles" sounds like a very good system. Reasonable and allows you to get a brief outline down without necessarily having to fully flesh out everything. I'm intrigued by your second point. It makes sense but also causes me some mild anxiety at the same time. I definitely see the appeal in that though. It gets you to the point of knowing all the things about your characters and allows you to go back and make sure that is present in all the books.

How did you get the idea for the City of Spires series?

All that roleplaying online I mentioned? It went on for years, and even once the original game was over, I reused these characters in countless other universes and storylines with other friends. City of Spires happened when I wanted to write them a "real" canon, with a city-setting closer to their original game, using the best story arcs I'd put them through over the years. At the time I had been working on my debut Viral Airwaves a lot, and I needed something new and familiar to have fun with.

I do love the idea that these books came to be because you wrote backstories and such for D&D characters and then you wanted to write a world and canon around them. Sounds exactly like what I would expect to happen when a writer is told to run a creative project like a D&D campaign.

How much world-building went into the creation of this series?

A lot! The very start of it was a tiny paragraph in the Forgotten Realms' Campaign Setting, with barely any info at all. Most of it happened over the years of roleplay, filling out the city as I needed, but when I decided to make it all mine, I had to build the rest of the world, too. That's also when the queerness shot through the roof, because I had freedom to really integrate it in the world itself.

That makes sense. Some things already existed but other aspects had to be added in as you created the world. I'm sure it was a fun project to work on.

What was the process like to come up with the titles and covers for these books?

I, huh, am lucky to have great friends and family, haha. Some of those titles come from an early beta throwing ideas around, and I took the structure "City of ______", which already matched the city's nickname, and filled it out. The hardest was City of Deceit, because I was supposed to have only three books, not four, and none of what I came up with had the right feel. It took me months!

The cover is almost exclusively the genius of my sister, who has done all four of them. She came up with the original towers and sky, and I loved it right away. We worked out we wanted to cycle through the day with them, and added a dramatic green one for the finale.

Oh, nice! I love a series that has a title structure like that, it just makes it easier for me to remember them and recognize the series. And I absolutely love that your sister did the covers! That is so awesome! I love that! The covers are stunning and they look so good next to one another. I wouldn't have realized the cycle of the day aspect if it wasn't for you mentioning it but then when I look at the covers I can see it!

What was something that changed from the initial conception of this series to the final result?

Oh, man, so much changed, especially with the two latter books. I had a lot of unexpected relationships or characters I wanted to dig into more. Yultes and Garith becoming close was not one I expected; most of my early notes have more focus on Yultes and Jaeger, for example. I also let Mia Allastam take a lot more room when I chose to expand the last book into two, and I was really excited for that opportunity.

The biggest, however, [City of Betrayal spoilers ahead, you're warned!] (Click on the text if you're okay being spoiled.) is that there is nowhere in my early outline where Diel and Garith return from the first Golden Table, their titles lost, to find their tower taken over by Hellion. I got that idea while drafting, explored some of the immediate consequences and emotional heft of it, and I loved everything about the complication so much I decided to roll with it. It took a life of its own, and is probably why the rest of the story took much longer than anticipated.

I figured there were things that had changed, but I'm surprised by relationships being one of them. It just never occurred to me, but I love it! Also, that spoiler is golden! Love that that wsan't something you originally intended. But that description sounds so perfect!

So this series, or at the very least the first book, features an all-queer cast. Why was that important for you to not only include but mention?

Part of it is just "because I could", a little way to spite people who think the queerness needs purpose. I had a secret rule when writing that only queer characters got to narrate, which is why despite seemingly everyone getting a turn, Kellian Dathirii never does. Another is that having so many queer characters avoids putting the burden of representation on only one of them. It also became important to me to have and mention because a lot of the queer books you could find online, especially at the time, were classified/marketed as romance, along the f/f and m/m lines. It really felt as if you couldn't have queer stories and adventures without having a queer romance paired with it.

I LOVE the "because I could" part of adding queer characters. But the other reasons you included are also amazing! Getting representation can be hard sometimes, but it's so good to have the representation. I also just so happen to take the belief that queer characters should exist everywhere and I love books with majority queer casts.

Can you describe either City of Exile or the City of Spires series in 5 words or less?

That's hard. Not counting connecting words I'd go with "Tapestry (of) Queer (and) Platonic Love (and) Intrigue".

Love it! If I wasn't already sold on reading this series, that would do it for me.

Are there any specific messages that you want readers to take away after reading this series?

Two, I'd think. The first is something Diel says in City of Betrayal about fighting, that "Some battles need to be fought whether you want to or not-whether they can be won or not". The world's not in a good state right now, and it's easy to feel like nothing you do about it matters, but that's not true. Every little bit counts, and we need everyone.

The second is to show up for those you love (romantic and platonic) and love them for who they are. Conversely, you can be loved wrong, and it's OK to stop giving these people more chances and leave. It's very prominent in the second half of the series that there are wrong ways to love-thinking in particular of Brune, Hellion, and Lord Allastam here.

Wow! Yeah that's a good quote and I love it, especially with the state of the world right now. Just packs a punch! That second message is also really good. Both of them are very good and very important messages!

Now that that series is finished, what else are you working on?

Novellas! I'm working on a series of novellas inspired by my love of JRPGs and other video games. It has a magical wagon, a bit of an episodic feel, and is much more straightforward plot-wise, so it's a fun change of pace!

Ooh, nice! I love video games! Also, I'm sold just from the concept of a magical wagon, something about that just speaks to me.

All my thanks to Claudie for taking part in this interview and for everyone who read it! This was an amazing interview and I've heard absolutely fantastic things about Claudie's books. I strongly recommend that people take a look at her books and see whether they seem right up your alley. Links to follow Claudie on social media or buy one of her books will be included a bit lower.

Thank yoou! I'm hoping to get back onto a regular posting schedule soon. If you like what I do, consider giving me a follow on my social media or donating to my Ko-fi. I greatly appreciate any donations I get and it helps me get and read more queer books. Thank you for reading and I hope you have an amazing weekend!!

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You can find Claudie Arseneault on Mastodon, Instagram, and Twitter.

Claudie Arseneault has a Books2Read Link that lists where you can purchase.

If you can't buy her books but you still want to read them, consider requesting them to your local library or suggesting them on Overdrive!