February 27, 2025 • 17 mins
Thank you to author Sasa Hawk for joining me to talk about her debut young adult romantasy novel Unlock the Dark.
Links:
- Purchase Unlock the Dark
- Listen to the Unlock the Dark audiobook
- Follow Sasa on Instagram
- Follow Sasa on Threads
- Sasa's website
Books mentioned:
- Road of Bones by Demi Winters
- Girl who fell Beneath the Sea by Axie Oh
- Sorcery of Thrones by Margaret Rogerson
For links to the books discussed in this episode, click the link here to take you to the Google Doc to view the list.
For episode feedback, future reading and author recommendations, you can text the podcast by clicking the "Send us a message button" above.
For more, follow along on Instagram @whereileftoffpod.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Welcome back.
I'm Kristen Balls and you'relistening to when I Left Off a
bookish podcast and today I'mjoined by author Sasa Haack, and
today we're talking about herdebut novel, Unlock the Dark.
Thank you so much for joiningme.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Yeah, thank you so much for having me.
It's great to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Hey, the first thing that I always ask everyone
because I feel like authors justhave the best recommendation is
what are you currently readingand, if you are like really
writing right now and notreading as much, which authors
inspire you?
Speaker 2 (00:41):
It's definitely true that I'm reading slower right
now because I am deep inrevisions for book two, but
currently I've been reading DemiWinter's Road of Bones series.
I don't know if you've read it.
It's adult fantasy anddefinitely check trigger
warnings if you need to do that.
But the writing is just likechef's kiss Perfect character
(01:03):
arcs.
The plot goes places you wouldnever predict.
Um, it's a viking romanticistperiod to that and um, so I've
been loving that.
On the ya front, recently Iread groban, who fell beneath
the sea and absolutely fell inlove with axio's writing, and so
I can't wait for her next one,which I think is coming out
really soon Floating World, Ithink, is that one, and it like
(01:26):
the from the blurb.
It sounds actually like a lotof the stuff that I have in
Unlock the Dark, so I'm like, oh, I'll probably like it.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
So what genres do you typically like to read in
addition to adult fantasy and YA?
Well, I love fantasy.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
I'm pretty much of all, all flavors like.
I love sci-fi fantasy, I loveromanticist, um, I love
contemporary fantasy, butsometimes I need a break and
also like contemporary romancetoo, nice yeah.
So there are times when I justlike burn through a bunch of
romance same here.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
it's nice to be able to like switch up your genres
kind of based on your mood,definitely.
And then what can you tell us,if anything, about your work in
progress?
Is this a new series or astandalone?
It's going to be anotherstandalone.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
That's kind of like.
If you like Unlock the Dark,then you will probably like this
one.
It is about a girl who lives inan enchanted forest.
Her village is just right onthe outskirts of it and the
forest is full of magicalcreatures and monsters and there
is a mysterious enchanted wellwhere she can talk to a boy from
(02:37):
another realm.
She doesn't really know muchabout where he's from and one
day she accidentally summons himinto her world and that does
not go well.
He is not okay and she spends alot of time trying to get him
home through monster infestedwoods.
Along the way, they are veryattracted to each other and they
discover that there is aterrifying monster threatening
(02:58):
both of their worlds and theyhave to work together to defeat
the monster.
There's a lot of twists andturns, lots of feelings and
pining, and that's pretty muchall I can say about the plot
right now.
It's still very much indevelopment and I just finished
the first draft of it in Januaryand I'm doing round two
revisions right now.
(03:19):
Yeah, that one's coming out insummer 2026.
But, if you want, I did getpermission to share the title
with you, which you?
Yes, oh, my gosh, thank you.
Yeah yeah, you and yourlisteners would be the first to
know it, outside of my agent andmy editor.
So, if you'd like, it's goingto be called A Summoning of Fate
.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Oh, I love that.
That's a really great title.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Did you have a lot of say in that and kind of Um, I
went through three or fourdifferent titles that I really
liked.
Then they came back to me waslike well, actually we can't
have this one because of this orthis because of that.
And then there was one that wethought we were going to go with
for a while, like for months,like I thought this was going to
(04:03):
be on the cover.
And then they're like actuallythere's a book coming out later
on in 2025 with a title that'slike one word off.
And so all right back to thedrawing board.
But I'm happy with Summoning ofFate because that will play out
in the book in a lot of funways.
Summoning because she summonshim into her world, but there's
also a lot of other summoninggoing on, so it'll be fun.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
I'm glad with the title now, I love that and I
love anything with differentrealms.
I don't know that just addssuch like a fun aspect to it,
yeah yeah, and that one's alittle different than this one.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
They will know each other a little bit ahead of time
, so it'll be more of a friendsto lovers and less of a
strangers to lovers, you know.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
Oh, friends to lovers is my favorite, so I'm already
excited for it.
Yay, that is so cool.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Yeah, I love Friends Forever, so it's going to be fun
.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
So when you said that you're kind of in second round
revisions once you finish yourfirst draft, is that like
revisions from beta readers orrevisions from your editor?
Speaker 2 (05:03):
This is with my editor.
I think I will be putting itwith beta readers sometime in
May.
I don't really want anyone elseto see it right now.
That's fair, it's a mess.
But sometime in early May I'llprobably run it by my CPs and
beta readers to just make sureit's tight and that I haven't
like missed a giant plot holeand that everything kind of
(05:25):
unfolds how it should and staysinteresting the whole time.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
Nice, that makes sense.
Well, I cannot wait to read it.
Thank you so much for sharingthe title.
That is huge.
Okay, now we can get into thequestions a little bit more
about Unlock the Dark.
So, with this book, what madeyou decide to write it as a
standalone versus putting itinto a series?
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Sure, yeah Well, when I originally wrote it a long
time ago back in 2020, I wantedit to be a duology.
I had made the world actually alot more complicated than it is
now and I had left the endingopen from book one so that I
could tie everything up in booktwo.
And after revisions with myagent once I got an agent this
(06:08):
was the book I got an agent withshe kind of made me tighten it
up a little bit more so that wecould sub it to publishers with,
like, the option for it to havea duology.
But when Harper offered,they're like we only want this
to be a standalone.
So in revisions with my editor,with Harper, we wrapped
everything up in book one.
So that that was kind of whatdecided things and I was happy
(06:29):
with that decision too.
By the time we were done withrevisions, I think, um, I was
like I feel good about thisbeing a standalone, that the
story kind of comes to aconclusion.
But yeah, it wasn't.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
It wasn't necessarily like I started off on one path
and it's really interestingbecause, um, whenever I think I
was about like 70 through thebook, I'm like, oh my gosh, how
is this all gonna wrap up?
Because I know it has to wrapup in this book.
So it kind of created, like youknow, a little bit more urgency
whenever I was reading and I'mlike, okay, stuff's gonna happen
.
So it was very intense in areally fun way.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
Yeah, yeah, and I I think you know, if I ever get
the chance to go back to thisworld, I think there are side
characters I could explore andstuff.
There's nothing on the horizonfor that right now, but there's
also nothing saying therecouldn't be someday, True.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
Yes, please.
So did you draw any inspirationfrom, like myths or legends or
historical events whenever youwere trying to shape this magic
system, because it's so unique?
Speaker 2 (07:30):
I'm a huge mythology and folklore fan anyway, so
there's probably alwayssubconsciously like a just a
steady drip of fairy tales andfolklore in my work anyways.
But when I wrote Unlock theDark, we were in lockdown.
Everyone was trapped at homeand kind of out there in the
world.
It was scary.
There were scary thingshappening Back then.
(07:50):
We were still embroiled in ourforever war that felt like it
had no hope of ever ending andthere was just a feeling of
general helplessness and beingtrapped inside of you know, a
horrible nightmare situationwith the pandemic and all of the
other things going on in 2020.
And I just it kind of startedwith the idea of like what if
(08:12):
you could open a door in yourhouse and go anywhere?
What if there was a way to endour forever war and end the
horrors caused by that with oneperson and one spell?
You know what if we could dothat?
And that was kind of some ofthe early parts of the idea soup
that went into the story.
And then I've always thoughtthat libraries have their own
(08:32):
magic and I knew I wanted tohave a magical library, like a
literally magical library, and Iwanted it to feel almost like
its own character in the story.
So that was something I'vealways wanted in the book and
it's going in this one.
In the middle of all of thatlockdown, I was also kind of
dealing with feeling sad aboutthe first book that I put in the
(08:56):
query trenches, did not make it.
It's on my shelf and it willprobably stay on my shelf until
I don't know the distant future.
And I decided while I was onvacation with my family and I
was reading Sorcery of Thorns byMargaret Rogerson, I was like
I'm going to write a book thatjust has everything in it that
makes me happy, because there'sso much in that book that made
(09:17):
me happy and I just kind of doveinto writing this with, like
you know what, this magiclibrary?
It's going to have lemurs in it.
Do there have to be lemurs inthe magic library?
No, but it makes me happy.
So there was a lot of stufflike that.
Grevia was one of the earlycharacters that I wrote that was
like she just makes me happy.
I want a grumpy witch in there,like looking after these
teenagers and rolling her eyesat them, you know.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
That describes her perfectly.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Yeah, yeah.
There are a lot of littletouches like that.
That I'm like does it have toexist?
No, but it makes me happy.
So it's done and, fortunatelyfor me, it made other people
happy too.
Yes, too yes, yes.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
Whenever I read the lemurs in the library I was like
, oh, that is so cool, I'venever heard of that.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
And especially when they were sleeping, that was
adorable yeah, that was just mebeing my own hope witch.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
I love that.
Um, how did you balance some ofthe fantasy elements kind of
with the romantic elements,because they really, of course,
play in tandem throughout thebook?
Speaker 2 (10:15):
I'm gonna try not to be spoilery when I answer this,
because I don't know if yourlisteners will have read the
book yet or not, so I'm gonnaassume they have it.
For me, the romance pushed Eliaforward with her magic, even
though he wasn't directly liketeaching her how to do it or,
like, you know, putting out aclear path for her or anything.
I think that because of thesituation that he ended up in
(10:39):
and her desperation with herbrother, she found the strength
she needed to do the thing thatshe needed to do, and I think
that that was kind of her fuelfor solving the problem that she
might have stayed inside hershell and never really pushing
herself without him and withoutthe desperation that made her
(10:59):
need him in the first place.
So yeah, I mean, I think shefound a lot to respect in him,
his courage and bravery, and Ithink in a lot of ways, that
fueled her own courage andbravery.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
That makes sense and I feel like also just Elia,
having to go on that entirejourney really pushed her, and
even one of the witches saidsomething about like you know
how her magic, how she didn'teven know what it could unlock
yet because she had only donethe things that she was used to
and for her family and to helpthem, and so she hadn't ever
tried to push herself, so thatthat totally makes sense, that
(11:33):
it was kind of a driving forcefor her.
Definitely, which character'sgrowth are you most proud of and
why?
Speaker 2 (11:43):
There are a lot of characters so this might be hard
to choose.
Yeah, it kind of is hard tochoose, but I have to say Elia,
I really wanted to portray acharacter that had to learn not
to hold back from her ownpotential, but also how and when
and why to pursue her strengths.
Because one of the lessons shelearns, kind of off page, in her
earlier life is that pursuingyour own potential can be
(12:06):
dangerous to people around youand can cause harm, and that's
why she's kind of stuck in hershell, just getting by coming up
with a solution to herfinancial problems.
That she does, which is not agreat solution for anybody, but
it's because she's not embracingher own potential, because
she's scared of the outcome.
(12:26):
If I push my magic, if I reachas far as I know that I might be
able to, people will get hurt,and because of everything that
happened when she was younger.
And so one of the things Ireally wanted to bring out in
her is that it's not just thatyou are stronger and more
capable than you ever imaginedyourself to be, which definitely
(12:49):
is a theme I wanted for her,but it was also that part of
reaching for your potential isthe wisdom of learning how to do
that that part of experienceand growth is learning, like
when is it appropriate for me topush myself?
And like kind of consideringothers and the impact, the wider
impact, of reaching for yourpotential.
(13:11):
But I think that her trauma andfear in the aftermath of the
things that she did early onkind of paralyzed her from
growing her gifts in a healthyway.
So that was kind of her journeyin my mind was reaching this
point where she could embraceher own growth.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
And nope, that would be a spoiler.
Nevermind, I can't say that.
I know it's really hard to talkabout.
Yeah, I was about to saysomething about.
Um, yeah, no, I can't Okay.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Yeah, there's a lot to talk about with how that
plays out, but, um, I reallydon't want to ruin it for
anybody.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
Exactly, we try, try to keep it spoiler free.
Um, it's definitely hardsometimes.
Uh, speaking of that, what, uh,what was your favorite scene to
write?
Do you have one that kind ofstands out in your head?
Speaker 2 (14:04):
yes, and it's not spoilery.
Um, it's actually a characterart of it.
Um, it's ellia and tris in thelibrary when they go and they
see the lemurs and they have,you know, a few romantic moments
and some banter and you kind ofsee both of them in their
magical element.
You see a little bit of hislormance magic and a little bit
(14:25):
of her condoresa magic and a lotof romantic tension and it was
really fun to write and you cansee the character art on your
instagram, which I will alsolink in the show notes so just
throwing that out there, you can, you can see it too yeah, jelly
cow did a great job.
And will it be available withpre-orders?
(14:46):
Yes, that's part of thepre-order package.
If you order from parnassus orthe bookshelves, um, you can get
, uh, character art with it, soyeah, um, and then what side
character did you enjoy mostwriting throughout the book?
I well, this is hard.
I think Revia though.
(15:07):
I mean, I love, I love Maisie somuch.
Um, she is like the big sister,like I will go to the mat for
my family and friends.
And Revia was like, yes, youcan drag me to the mat, you know
, but she was just so fun towrite.
I loved writing her grosslittle shop and, um, just how
(15:28):
sarcastic she is with Isaac and,yeah, like she has no shame
about like putting a child towork in her shop in exchange for
something she probably shouldbe giving them anyways.
Yeah, she was just so much funand I love that she had this
like whole life and history andconnections off page that she
was willing to, you know, use tohelp them.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
Yeah, she definitely added a lot of layers to the
story and, of course, maisie wasso fun.
It's so nice that, even thoughAaliyah has a lot on her plate,
she can always you know, she hassomeone kind of in her corner,
like that that's not necessarilyexpecting something from her,
like her family or you know,that's just there because they
love her yeah, I get, and I lovethe idea of an enchanted bakery
(16:11):
.
Yes, is there anything elsethat you would like listeners to
know about the book?
Speaker 2 (16:18):
You know it comes out on Tuesday.
A lot of love and hope wentinto it and I hope that when
people read it, if you are in ahard place, that it sits with
you in the dark and holds yourhand and just provides a moment
of relief and comfort.
That's why I wrote it formyself and that's what I'm
hoping that it gives to peoplewhen they read it.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
It definitely did for me.
And yeah, not only is the magicsystem really good, but it will
suck you in and you'll be veryvery invested in it and I cannot
wait to get my physical copy.
Thank you so much, Sasa, forcoming on today.
That's it.
Thank you for listening to whenI Left Off a bookish podcast.
You can visit the links in theshow notes to order and, of
(17:01):
course, follow Sasa on socialmedia.
Unlock the Dark is availableanywhere.
Books are sold startingFebruary 25th.
Thank you.
Welcome back.
I'm Kristen Balls and you'relistening to when I Left Off a
bookish podcast and today I'mjoined by author Sasa Haack, and
today we're talking about herdebut novel, Unlock the Dark.
Thank you so much for joiningme.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Yeah, thank you so much for having me.
It's great to be here.
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Hey, the first thing that I always ask everyone
because I feel like authors justhave the best recommendation is
what are you currently readingand, if you are like really
writing right now and notreading as much, which authors
inspire you?
Speaker 2 (00:41):
It's definitely true that I'm reading slower right
now because I am deep inrevisions for book two, but
currently I've been reading DemiWinter's Road of Bones series.
I don't know if you've read it.
It's adult fantasy anddefinitely check trigger
warnings if you need to do that.
But the writing is just likechef's kiss Perfect character
(01:03):
arcs.
The plot goes places you wouldnever predict.
Um, it's a viking romanticistperiod to that and um, so I've
been loving that.
On the ya front, recently Iread groban, who fell beneath
the sea and absolutely fell inlove with axio's writing, and so
I can't wait for her next one,which I think is coming out
really soon Floating World, Ithink, is that one, and it like
(01:26):
the from the blurb.
It sounds actually like a lotof the stuff that I have in
Unlock the Dark, so I'm like, oh, I'll probably like it.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
So what genres do you typically like to read in
addition to adult fantasy and YA?
Well, I love fantasy.
Speaker 2 (01:41):
I'm pretty much of all, all flavors like.
I love sci-fi fantasy, I loveromanticist, um, I love
contemporary fantasy, butsometimes I need a break and
also like contemporary romancetoo, nice yeah.
So there are times when I justlike burn through a bunch of
romance same here.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
it's nice to be able to like switch up your genres
kind of based on your mood,definitely.
And then what can you tell us,if anything, about your work in
progress?
Is this a new series or astandalone?
It's going to be anotherstandalone.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
That's kind of like.
If you like Unlock the Dark,then you will probably like this
one.
It is about a girl who lives inan enchanted forest.
Her village is just right onthe outskirts of it and the
forest is full of magicalcreatures and monsters and there
is a mysterious enchanted wellwhere she can talk to a boy from
(02:37):
another realm.
She doesn't really know muchabout where he's from and one
day she accidentally summons himinto her world and that does
not go well.
He is not okay and she spends alot of time trying to get him
home through monster infestedwoods.
Along the way, they are veryattracted to each other and they
discover that there is aterrifying monster threatening
(02:58):
both of their worlds and theyhave to work together to defeat
the monster.
There's a lot of twists andturns, lots of feelings and
pining, and that's pretty muchall I can say about the plot
right now.
It's still very much indevelopment and I just finished
the first draft of it in Januaryand I'm doing round two
revisions right now.
(03:19):
Yeah, that one's coming out insummer 2026.
But, if you want, I did getpermission to share the title
with you, which you?
Yes, oh, my gosh, thank you.
Yeah yeah, you and yourlisteners would be the first to
know it, outside of my agent andmy editor.
So, if you'd like, it's goingto be called A Summoning of Fate
.
Speaker 1 (03:38):
Oh, I love that.
That's a really great title.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Did you have a lot of say in that and kind of Um, I
went through three or fourdifferent titles that I really
liked.
Then they came back to me waslike well, actually we can't
have this one because of this orthis because of that.
And then there was one that wethought we were going to go with
for a while, like for months,like I thought this was going to
(04:03):
be on the cover.
And then they're like actuallythere's a book coming out later
on in 2025 with a title that'slike one word off.
And so all right back to thedrawing board.
But I'm happy with Summoning ofFate because that will play out
in the book in a lot of funways.
Summoning because she summonshim into her world, but there's
also a lot of other summoninggoing on, so it'll be fun.
Speaker 1 (04:27):
I'm glad with the title now, I love that and I
love anything with differentrealms.
I don't know that just addssuch like a fun aspect to it,
yeah yeah, and that one's alittle different than this one.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
They will know each other a little bit ahead of time
, so it'll be more of a friendsto lovers and less of a
strangers to lovers, you know.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
Oh, friends to lovers is my favorite, so I'm already
excited for it.
Yay, that is so cool.
Speaker 2 (04:52):
Yeah, I love Friends Forever, so it's going to be fun
.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
So when you said that you're kind of in second round
revisions once you finish yourfirst draft, is that like
revisions from beta readers orrevisions from your editor?
Speaker 2 (05:03):
This is with my editor.
I think I will be putting itwith beta readers sometime in
May.
I don't really want anyone elseto see it right now.
That's fair, it's a mess.
But sometime in early May I'llprobably run it by my CPs and
beta readers to just make sureit's tight and that I haven't
like missed a giant plot holeand that everything kind of
(05:25):
unfolds how it should and staysinteresting the whole time.
Speaker 1 (05:28):
Nice, that makes sense.
Well, I cannot wait to read it.
Thank you so much for sharingthe title.
That is huge.
Okay, now we can get into thequestions a little bit more
about Unlock the Dark.
So, with this book, what madeyou decide to write it as a
standalone versus putting itinto a series?
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Sure, yeah Well, when I originally wrote it a long
time ago back in 2020, I wantedit to be a duology.
I had made the world actually alot more complicated than it is
now and I had left the endingopen from book one so that I
could tie everything up in booktwo.
And after revisions with myagent once I got an agent this
(06:08):
was the book I got an agent withshe kind of made me tighten it
up a little bit more so that wecould sub it to publishers with,
like, the option for it to havea duology.
But when Harper offered,they're like we only want this
to be a standalone.
So in revisions with my editor,with Harper, we wrapped
everything up in book one.
So that that was kind of whatdecided things and I was happy
(06:29):
with that decision too.
By the time we were done withrevisions, I think, um, I was
like I feel good about thisbeing a standalone, that the
story kind of comes to aconclusion.
But yeah, it wasn't.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
It wasn't necessarily like I started off on one path
and it's really interestingbecause, um, whenever I think I
was about like 70 through thebook, I'm like, oh my gosh, how
is this all gonna wrap up?
Because I know it has to wrapup in this book.
So it kind of created, like youknow, a little bit more urgency
whenever I was reading and I'mlike, okay, stuff's gonna happen
.
So it was very intense in areally fun way.
Speaker 2 (07:01):
Yeah, yeah, and I I think you know, if I ever get
the chance to go back to thisworld, I think there are side
characters I could explore andstuff.
There's nothing on the horizonfor that right now, but there's
also nothing saying therecouldn't be someday, True.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
Yes, please.
So did you draw any inspirationfrom, like myths or legends or
historical events whenever youwere trying to shape this magic
system, because it's so unique?
Speaker 2 (07:30):
I'm a huge mythology and folklore fan anyway, so
there's probably alwayssubconsciously like a just a
steady drip of fairy tales andfolklore in my work anyways.
But when I wrote Unlock theDark, we were in lockdown.
Everyone was trapped at homeand kind of out there in the
world.
It was scary.
There were scary thingshappening Back then.
(07:50):
We were still embroiled in ourforever war that felt like it
had no hope of ever ending andthere was just a feeling of
general helplessness and beingtrapped inside of you know, a
horrible nightmare situationwith the pandemic and all of the
other things going on in 2020.
And I just it kind of startedwith the idea of like what if
(08:12):
you could open a door in yourhouse and go anywhere?
What if there was a way to endour forever war and end the
horrors caused by that with oneperson and one spell?
You know what if we could dothat?
And that was kind of some ofthe early parts of the idea soup
that went into the story.
And then I've always thoughtthat libraries have their own
(08:32):
magic and I knew I wanted tohave a magical library, like a
literally magical library, and Iwanted it to feel almost like
its own character in the story.
So that was something I'vealways wanted in the book and
it's going in this one.
In the middle of all of thatlockdown, I was also kind of
dealing with feeling sad aboutthe first book that I put in the
(08:56):
query trenches, did not make it.
It's on my shelf and it willprobably stay on my shelf until
I don't know the distant future.
And I decided while I was onvacation with my family and I
was reading Sorcery of Thorns byMargaret Rogerson, I was like
I'm going to write a book thatjust has everything in it that
makes me happy, because there'sso much in that book that made
(09:17):
me happy and I just kind of doveinto writing this with, like
you know what, this magiclibrary?
It's going to have lemurs in it.
Do there have to be lemurs inthe magic library?
No, but it makes me happy.
So there was a lot of stufflike that.
Grevia was one of the earlycharacters that I wrote that was
like she just makes me happy.
I want a grumpy witch in there,like looking after these
teenagers and rolling her eyesat them, you know.
Speaker 1 (09:39):
That describes her perfectly.
Speaker 2 (09:41):
Yeah, yeah.
There are a lot of littletouches like that.
That I'm like does it have toexist?
No, but it makes me happy.
So it's done and, fortunatelyfor me, it made other people
happy too.
Yes, too yes, yes.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
Whenever I read the lemurs in the library I was like
, oh, that is so cool, I'venever heard of that.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
And especially when they were sleeping, that was
adorable yeah, that was just mebeing my own hope witch.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
I love that.
Um, how did you balance some ofthe fantasy elements kind of
with the romantic elements,because they really, of course,
play in tandem throughout thebook?
Speaker 2 (10:15):
I'm gonna try not to be spoilery when I answer this,
because I don't know if yourlisteners will have read the
book yet or not, so I'm gonnaassume they have it.
For me, the romance pushed Eliaforward with her magic, even
though he wasn't directly liketeaching her how to do it or,
like, you know, putting out aclear path for her or anything.
I think that because of thesituation that he ended up in
(10:39):
and her desperation with herbrother, she found the strength
she needed to do the thing thatshe needed to do, and I think
that that was kind of her fuelfor solving the problem that she
might have stayed inside hershell and never really pushing
herself without him and withoutthe desperation that made her
(10:59):
need him in the first place.
So yeah, I mean, I think shefound a lot to respect in him,
his courage and bravery, and Ithink in a lot of ways, that
fueled her own courage andbravery.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
That makes sense and I feel like also just Elia,
having to go on that entirejourney really pushed her, and
even one of the witches saidsomething about like you know
how her magic, how she didn'teven know what it could unlock
yet because she had only donethe things that she was used to
and for her family and to helpthem, and so she hadn't ever
tried to push herself, so thatthat totally makes sense, that
(11:33):
it was kind of a driving forcefor her.
Definitely, which character'sgrowth are you most proud of and
why?
Speaker 2 (11:43):
There are a lot of characters so this might be hard
to choose.
Yeah, it kind of is hard tochoose, but I have to say Elia,
I really wanted to portray acharacter that had to learn not
to hold back from her ownpotential, but also how and when
and why to pursue her strengths.
Because one of the lessons shelearns, kind of off page, in her
earlier life is that pursuingyour own potential can be
(12:06):
dangerous to people around youand can cause harm, and that's
why she's kind of stuck in hershell, just getting by coming up
with a solution to herfinancial problems.
That she does, which is not agreat solution for anybody, but
it's because she's not embracingher own potential, because
she's scared of the outcome.
(12:26):
If I push my magic, if I reachas far as I know that I might be
able to, people will get hurt,and because of everything that
happened when she was younger.
And so one of the things Ireally wanted to bring out in
her is that it's not just thatyou are stronger and more
capable than you ever imaginedyourself to be, which definitely
(12:49):
is a theme I wanted for her,but it was also that part of
reaching for your potential isthe wisdom of learning how to do
that that part of experienceand growth is learning, like
when is it appropriate for me topush myself?
And like kind of consideringothers and the impact, the wider
impact, of reaching for yourpotential.
(13:11):
But I think that her trauma andfear in the aftermath of the
things that she did early onkind of paralyzed her from
growing her gifts in a healthyway.
So that was kind of her journeyin my mind was reaching this
point where she could embraceher own growth.
Speaker 1 (13:28):
And nope, that would be a spoiler.
Nevermind, I can't say that.
I know it's really hard to talkabout.
Yeah, I was about to saysomething about.
Um, yeah, no, I can't Okay.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Yeah, there's a lot to talk about with how that
plays out, but, um, I reallydon't want to ruin it for
anybody.
Speaker 1 (13:52):
Exactly, we try, try to keep it spoiler free.
Um, it's definitely hardsometimes.
Uh, speaking of that, what, uh,what was your favorite scene to
write?
Do you have one that kind ofstands out in your head?
Speaker 2 (14:04):
yes, and it's not spoilery.
Um, it's actually a characterart of it.
Um, it's ellia and tris in thelibrary when they go and they
see the lemurs and they have,you know, a few romantic moments
and some banter and you kind ofsee both of them in their
magical element.
You see a little bit of hislormance magic and a little bit
(14:25):
of her condoresa magic and a lotof romantic tension and it was
really fun to write and you cansee the character art on your
instagram, which I will alsolink in the show notes so just
throwing that out there, you can, you can see it too yeah, jelly
cow did a great job.
And will it be available withpre-orders?
(14:46):
Yes, that's part of thepre-order package.
If you order from parnassus orthe bookshelves, um, you can get
, uh, character art with it, soyeah, um, and then what side
character did you enjoy mostwriting throughout the book?
I well, this is hard.
I think Revia though.
(15:07):
I mean, I love, I love Maisie somuch.
Um, she is like the big sister,like I will go to the mat for
my family and friends.
And Revia was like, yes, youcan drag me to the mat, you know
, but she was just so fun towrite.
I loved writing her grosslittle shop and, um, just how
(15:28):
sarcastic she is with Isaac and,yeah, like she has no shame
about like putting a child towork in her shop in exchange for
something she probably shouldbe giving them anyways.
Yeah, she was just so much funand I love that she had this
like whole life and history andconnections off page that she
was willing to, you know, use tohelp them.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
Yeah, she definitely added a lot of layers to the
story and, of course, maisie wasso fun.
It's so nice that, even thoughAaliyah has a lot on her plate,
she can always you know, she hassomeone kind of in her corner,
like that that's not necessarilyexpecting something from her,
like her family or you know,that's just there because they
love her yeah, I get, and I lovethe idea of an enchanted bakery
(16:11):
.
Yes, is there anything elsethat you would like listeners to
know about the book?
Speaker 2 (16:18):
You know it comes out on Tuesday.
A lot of love and hope wentinto it and I hope that when
people read it, if you are in ahard place, that it sits with
you in the dark and holds yourhand and just provides a moment
of relief and comfort.
That's why I wrote it formyself and that's what I'm
hoping that it gives to peoplewhen they read it.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
It definitely did for me.
And yeah, not only is the magicsystem really good, but it will
suck you in and you'll be veryvery invested in it and I cannot
wait to get my physical copy.
Thank you so much, Sasa, forcoming on today.
That's it.
Thank you for listening to whenI Left Off a bookish podcast.
You can visit the links in theshow notes to order and, of
(17:01):
course, follow Sasa on socialmedia.
Unlock the Dark is availableanywhere.
Books are sold startingFebruary 25th.
Thank you.
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