Interview: Fantasy Author Tamora Pierce

Young-adult novelist creates series that hook readers of all ages

Sep 21, 2009

In "Trickster's Queen," award-winning YA writer Tamora Pierce offers her exciting follow-up to the medieval-fantasy "Trickster's Choice."

In Trickster’s Queen (Random House, 2004), Tamora Pierce’s medieval-fantasy follow-up to Trickster’s Choice, teenage protagonist Alianne - a spy-in-training - finds herself caught up in a centuries-long local struggle for revolution. Though Aly is the gifted daughter of a lady knight, it takes all of her strength, intelligence, and resilience to face the challenges that arise.

Not unlike the situation Aly’s creator was in at the start of her writing career.

“I wanted to get off welfare and stop being frightened at bill time,” Pierce admits. “I had all these stories to tell, and I wanted to tell them. I knew from a really early age that if I was going to make anything of myself, it was going to have to be this way because I wasn’t any good at anything else. It was what I loved. It was what I breathed.”

The Hard Work of Storytelling

The fact that dreams require hard work has become a powerful undercurrent both in Pierce’s life and in her work.

Until recently, the author had mostly been working hard on four-book series. But the Trickster books mark a shift away from quartets.

“I wanted to learn a certain degree of economy, while telling a good-size story but not an over-reaching one,” Pierce admits. “I want to see if I have the discipline to write single, standalone books.

“I just live in absolute terror of getting in a rut where I write the same thing over and over. I really will bend myself into the most absurd shapes to get away from that whenever I can. And I think readers appreciate that.”

They seem to. And although she writes for young-adult readers - “The bulk of my audience is ages 10-14” - her fans don’t abandon her books once they start to drive. Or vote. Or drink.

“When I went out on tour for Trickster’s Choice, I immediately noticed a spike in 15-and-older and 20-and-older young women in the audience. For the first time, I was getting generational readers - grandmothers, mothers, and daughters who had been reading my stuff.”

Empowering Young Women Readers

One reason may be the real-life honesty that through the empowering adventure stories.

“I’m not trying to tell readers, Oh, la la la, go for your dream: It will bring you fullness of heart and the satisfaction of your years. Go for your dream, yes. But know that you’re going to have to work your behind off.

“You’re going to take a lot of risks and they won’t always pan out. That’s the point I want people to take away.

“It’s rough. But, hey, what are the alternatives? If you can live with the alternatives, then good. Fine. But if you can’t, then you may as well keep at it. You may as well work as hard as you can to make it real.”

Reading More Tamora Pierce

Readers who enjoy Trickster’s Choice and Trickster’s Queen (both of which are available in print and Kindle editions) will want to explore Pierce’s other series, which include:

All of the above titles are currently available in print editions. Most are also available in Kindle e-book editions.

The copyright of the article Interview: Fantasy Author Tamora Pierce in Sci-Fi/Fantasy Fiction is owned by Robert Bittner. Permission to republish Interview: Fantasy Author Tamora Pierce in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.