Some books are a surprise, even to the people who wrote them.

For the final episode of the season, Jenna takes the reins and turns the mic on Cat Clarke and me (V.E. Schwab), the two halves of Evelyn Clarke, to talk about our debut novel and the very unexpected path that led us here.

We get into the origin story, how a writer who swore she’d never co-write (it me) and another who had stepped away from publishing entirely somehow found themselves building a book together. We talk about the craft of collaboration, what it means to stop writing alone and start writing as a team, and the delicate challenge of learning how to share instinct, voice, and control. There were moments it felt impossible, and others where it felt like the story was writing itself.

And because we’re on the other side of it now, we get to laugh. A lot. About the chaos, the growing pains, and the strange, specific problems that only exist when you’re trying to write a single book with two brains. And, fittingly, we never quite figured out how to trap us. We’re a little too unhinged to pin down.

Links:

Follow No Write Way on Instagram

V.E. Schwab’s Website

Credits:

Host: V.E. Schwab

Producer/Editor/Mixer: Jenna Maurice

Some books reclaim the stories we thought we already knew.

This week, I’m joined by Ayana Gray, author of Beasts of Prey and her latest, I, Medusa, for a conversation that begins with origin stories and winds its way through the very particular internet experiences of a millennial upbringing—back when blogs were everything and a place called Twitter still existed.

We talk about learning what was “allowed” on the page, and the quiet realization that there was never a rulebook to begin with. Ayana shares how her early hesitation gave way, over time, to curiosity and experimentation, and how each new project helped her step a little further outside the boundaries she once believed in.

We also get into the shift from writing YA to adult, and how those spaces ask for different kinds of storytelling, different freedoms, and different risks.

Links:

Follow No Write Way on Instagram

V.E. Schwab’s Website

Ayana Gray’s Website

Credits:

Host: V.E. Schwab

Producer/Editor/Mixer: Jenna Maurice

Some books remind you that fantasy can be brutal, funny, and painfully human all at once.

This week, I’m joined by Joe Abercrombie, author of the First Law series and his latest, The Devils, for a conversation about the strange dance between fantasy and the expectations that come with it. We talk about drifting around the edges of genre labels (including the ever persistent “grimdark”) and what it means to write stories that refuse to behave exactly the way readers expect.

Joe shares how his background as a film editor shaped the way he builds a story, from pacing to perspective to the careful balancing act of an ensemble cast. We also commiserate over a familiar writerly condition: the convenient amnesia that allows us to forget the horrors of drafting just long enough to start the next book. Joe compares the process to laying bricks. You keep placing them, one after another, even when some are crooked and others will need replacing later. Eventually you look up and realize a wall has begun to take shape.

Links:

Follow No Write Way on Instagram

V.E. Schwab’s Website

Joe Abercrombie’s Website

Credits:

Host: V.E. Schwab

Producer/Editor/Mixer: Jenna Maurice