Ghosts In The Pages

Edinburgh's skyline frames the world of V.E. Schwab as she reflects on storytelling and the creative magic of place

- DAWN GEDDES

V.E. SCHWAB has built her career on monsters and magic. The Edinburgh-based No. 1 The Sunday Times and The New York Times bestselling author, who hails from the US, has written 25 novels, all of which explore the lines between hero and villain, fantasy and reality.

After exploring the lives of magicians in her The Shades of Magic trilogy and Faustian bargains in The Invisible Life Of Addie LaRue, Victoria has turned her attention to the tale of three young women, who also happen to be vampires, for her latest book.

While successful today, the writer says that, when starting out, she felt she had to hide her identity and her full name, feeling it would impact her career.

"When I was starting out in publishing as a young woman, and then as a young queer woman, I was kind of trying to assimilate in every way possible," she explains. "I tried to make myself small and unobtrusive and take the things that made me different from the bestselling authors and play them down.

"I entered the adult fantasy arena, which in the States especially is a male-dominated space. I was 25, and I didn't want to make waves. That's why I went with V.E. rather than Victoria. My relationship to my pseudonym has changed over time, but in the beginning I went with it because I didn't want people not to pick up my book because I was a woman. I wanted an equal playing field.”

It is these experiences the author has now distilled into her newest book, Bury Our Bones In The Midnight Soil.