the thorn and the blossom by theodora goss

Q: Where should a reader start, with Brendan's or Evelyn's story? A: Readers can start with either story: each choice will give them a slightly different experience. The details that were important to these characters were the ones that ended up in their narratives. I think that part of the writing process came more naturally than you might expect. So while I was writing Evelyn's story, I saw it from her perspective. While I was writing each story, I was completely in the mind of the character from whose perspective I was writing. How did you decide which details would go into Brendan's or Evelyn's story? A: I don't think I decided, actually. Q: Each side of the story is carefully written. So something would happen in Brendan's story, and I would have to go back and make sure it happened in Evelyn's as well. Each time, events from the other story would inform my writing or revisions. And then, I revised Evelyn's story based on Brendan's, and Brendan's based on Evelyn's. Next, I wrote Brendan's story as I was reading Evelyn's, matching events and scenes. Q: How did the book's unique format influence the evolution of the story? A: It made writing a technical challenge! First, I wrote Evelyn's story. I think it always happens that way, when you're writing a book. At some point, Evelyn and Brendan took over and started telling me what had happened to them. As for the love story itself, it's based in part on a real love story, or my imaginative interpretation of it. It was all there, in the proposal: the whole story, or at least the general outline of it. I think that's when I first got the idea for The Book of the Green Knight. He mentioned that, because the format would be so important, I might want to include a book in the story itself.

He had an idea: a book in an accordion format.

Featured Q & A with Theodora Goss Q: How did the idea for this peculiar love story come about? A: It all started last summer, when my editor called me.

The thorn and the blossom by theodora goss