Interview with Tori Anne Martin, author of THIS SPELLS DISASTER

 

Hey all! A little late with this interview but I'm very excited about it! Today's interviewee is Tori Anne Martin, author of This Spells Disaster. I read and thoroughly enjoyed that magical book, so I loved getting to pick her mind about the book. We talked about Tori's writing process, her favorite scene in the book, and some of her favorite tropes in novels. Hope you enjoy! As always links to follow Tori and buy her book will be at the end of the interview.
     

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What does your writing process look like?

I'm a big time plotter, so my writing always begins with an outline. Those can get pretty long and are kind of like a very rough draft. I figure out a lot about my characters and their world as I put the outline together, and the plot evolves as I make those discoveries, so it's an iterative process. How much I end up sticking to the outline varies a lot with each book, but I need that roadmap before I can start.

Wow that's impressive! I've never been great at just sitting down and mapping out where I want a story to go.
What did you figure out first - the plot or the characters?

As I mentioned, I tend to figure out the characters along with the plot, but I always have a premise that comes first. Sometimes I also have characters in my head that interest me, and I can fit them to the premise, but usually I end up needing to create new characters.

Ooh, solid! I like that it's pretty plot-based and you have to create characters that fit well within the story.
How did you come up with the idea for This Spells Disaster?

It was a combination of things. I really wanted to write a witchy romance, and my background is in psychology, looking at issues of consent. When I was thinking of ideas for a witch romance, the concept of love potions and how those could be abused and the potential harm were just so obvious to me, and it was a topic I hadn't seen explored. Then the challenge became-how do I do that in a rom-com?

That makes a lot of sense actually. It's a bit weird that not many people have explored the darker side of love potions, but guess that left you a nice opening to step in.
How long did it take you to write this book?

I have no idea at this point! It usually takes me about 5-6 months from idea to a final draft.

Cool!
Why did you choose to include content warnings in your book?

I greatly appreciate it when authors provide content warnings. I need to be in the right headspace to deal with certain topics that might come up. Like, there was a book I really wanted to read right after my father died, but someone warned me that the main character's father dies in the book, and I'm super grateful to that person. I couldn't have dealt with that then, and it would have ruined the book. For This Spells Disaster, it seemed necessary to let readers know that the book was going to touch on issues about consent and assault. If you pick up a rom-com, that could catch you off guard, even if the book is about a love potion.

Solid reasoning! I've had to not read certain books because of some of the issues that were talked about in the book, so I appreciate when I can get a warning beforehand and not be surprised by the topic.
How did you come up with the magic system in this book?

Honestly, just a lot of brainstorming for ideas that hadn't been done. I knew I wanted to make magic a normal part of the world, though, and not something hidden.

That's fair!
Do you have a favorite scene?

I think the scene where Morgan and Rory have their practice kiss might be my favorite. Either that, or the scavenger hunt scene where Morgan keeps trying (and completely failing) to show Rory why they would be a bad match.

Haha, yeah that's solid! Good choices.
What are some of your favorite books that you've read?

This is always the hardest question! I'll cheat and say some recent favs are anything by Ali Hazelwood, Ashley Herring Blake's Bright Falls series, Nettle and Bone by T. Kingfisher, and Wild and Wicked Things by Francesca May.

Ooh those books are on my TBR pile but I haven't got to them yet!
What are some of your favorite tropes in novels?

In romance, I'm a sucker for enemies/rivals to lovers and fake dating. More generally, I love stories about found family.

Oh I love a good fake dating book! And found family is always one of the best!
Are you currently writing any other books?

Yes! For more sapphic witches, I have a book-I-can't-talk-about-yet that will be coming. I also have a couple of queer romantasy stories that I'm working on.

Ooh yes! I'm looking forward to seeing what other information you can reveal in the future.
Thank you so much to Tori Anne Martin for joining me today for this interview! It was fun to learn more about her approach to writing and her thoughts about This Spells Disaster! If you want to support her, the links to buy her book are a bit lower down. If you want to follow her, those links are below as well. I hope everyone has a good day!

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You can follow Tori Anne Martin on her Newsletter and follow her on Instagram.

You can buy Tori Anne Martin's books from Bookery Manchester and Water Street Bookstore.

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!