Interview:
What was the inspiration for The Devil’s Trill? The Devil’s Trill was inspired by The Devil’s Trill Sonata by Guiseppe Tartini. I heard the song for the first time in high school (15 years ago now…ouch), and it always stuck with me. Once I heard the story behind it, I grew even more fascinated. And over the years, the idea for the novel slowly began to percolate.
I see now where demonology enters the picture! Did you have any interest in it prior to hearing the sonata, though? If so, what sparked it! I wouldn’t say a true fascination, but it was always a casual interest of mine. Like Kayla, it was actually sparked by watching horror movies as a child, which inspired me to do research and learn the ‘real’ stories that inspired the movies.
Speaking of Kayla, our main character, what inspiration did you have in creating her? Her personality is a go-get-er, no nonsense, straight on the nose kind. I adored how unlike other MCs she was! Kayla’s personality took on a life of its own the more I wrote. When I sat down to write The Devil’s Trill, all I really had in mind was a loose idea of the general plot. I developed her profession first, and then her backstory. From there, I just went with the natural flow of the story. Her profession did very much shape her personality. She’s highly educated, and her years of studying myths and legends has made her very practical because she sees them as exactly that, myths and legends.
That definitely makes sense to me! Let's talk about “Lou”, our other main character. What was the inspiration behind his development? He most definitely is not like any other form of Lucifer I’ve read about and I loved that! I actually had a mental image of Lou for a lot longer than I had a mental image of Kayla. My idea for Lou started taking shape around the same time I thought of the story in the first place. I don’t know if I had a true inspiration for him, I just know that all of the other representations of Lucifer that I’ve seen didn’t match with how I envisioned him. I knew he had to have a touch of arrogance stemming from all that power, a sense of superiority. But I also knew that he couldn’t be a genuine villain. The reader gets to see a lot more of Lou’s complexity in the next book.
Oh, I am so excited to see more! So far, he’s unlike anything I’ve seen! Moving along, there is quite a bit of music history in TDT. How much time did you spend studying it? I’m actually not a big music history buff myself (though I am married to a music teacher). This particular song was special to me. I spent quite a lot of time researching the history of The Devil’s Trill Sonata. Even before I decided to actually write the novel, I was reading the backstory. It’s highly unique! I can’t think of any other classical song that has a more interesting story behind it.
Indulge us: could you tell us what the story is in a nutshell? Absolutely! Tartini was a composer, and one day he dreamed that The Devil came to him. As a test, Tartini handed The Devil his violin and told him to play. The resulting song was the most magnificent, awe-inspiring thing that Tartini had ever heard, too beautiful to be human. When Tartini woke up, he desperately grabbed his violin and tried to recreate what The Devil had done. That’s where The Devil’s Trill Sonata came from. But even though it was Tartini’s magnum opus, he was disgusted by it, saying that it didn’t come anywhere close to the song The Devil had played for him that night. To this day, The Devil’s Trill is notorious for being difficult to play.
Have you actually traveled to the places you wrote about? To me, it felt like you’d been there yourself and described everything in beautiful detail. Sadly, no. Someday! I think the detail came from all the hours I spent researching these places and staring longingly at travel photographs, WISHING I was there.
Well, you executed it beautifully! Not a huge spoiler, readers, but for the catacomb scene in France, I had no idea there were any there! You mentioned you’ve not traveled to the places in the book, but you wrote this scene so well, too! I was definitely intrigued. I’ve seen many, many, MANY pictures. And I researched them extensively, which is how I knew that the mine that Kayla and Lou visited was theoretically possible. I would love to visit them someday…with a tour group, of course. People have gotten lost down there!
I feel you so much on that! What about demonology? There is quite a bit of history about it, too. Did you study it before this book, or did you end up diving into it once you began this project? A bit of both. I did have rudimentary knowledge of demonology before I decided to write the novel, but once I made that decision, I dove in deeper.
I’m glad you did. It’s so fascinating! I was also impressed with the amount you knew of how Harvard would feel about sponsoring/hiring someone in Kayla’s field. Was it difficult to find out if this storyline was realistic? Or did that matter at all? I did a bit of research into the subject because I wanted it to be as realistic as possible while still working in a fantasy setting. Demonology is a real-life niche field, and it does draw a lot of attention from occult lovers. That’s why Kayla was the perfect person for a prestigious university to hire. She’s a doctor, an Ivy League graduate, and her research is based on respected academia/historical writings. But the niche subject she chose is going to draw a lot of attention, and it has shock value, which will make the university money. I did, of course, take some artistic liberties, but it is reasonably realistic.
How long did it take to write TDT? Write? Six weeks. Get it to the point where I was happy with it? Two years. The first version of The Devil’s Trill was a bare-bones version of what I eventually wrote, and quite a lot changed since then. The biggest challenge was getting the reader set up for the larger worldbuilding that would happen in later books.
There is definitely a lot of worldbuilding and I felt I could imagine every scene as you intended the reader to. I’m glad you took your time with it and that I got to read it! Speaking of reading, I know you have a follow-up to TDT coming out. What can you tease us with? Is Kayla still the MC? What sort of adventure(s) is she going to take us on? (I’ll be reviewing that one, too, readers!) Yes, the second book of the series is called The Harpy’s Lullaby. Kayla is still the MC, but we actually get to see a few chapters from Lou’s perspective as well. Kayla is facing a lot of fallout from the events at the end of The Devil’s Trill, and we get to see a lot more of the fantasy lore from the larger universe. It was a lot of fun to write, but it does get quite a bit darker at times.
I truly cannot wait to read that! I’m excited to see how Lou views the world and maybe a little more about his fascination with Kayla, a seemingly random human. What advice would you have for new authors just getting started? Just get the story out! It doesn’t matter if it’s perfect. It doesn’t even matter if it’s good. That’s what the editing process is for. Just make sure you don’t SKIP the editing process! Rough drafts should never see the light of day. Mine certainly never will!
Agreed about the editing! For many readers, even if the plot is brilliant, if the editing was skipped, that’s a big “DNF” (do/did not finish) in their view! What was the most challenging part of writing The Devil’s Trill? It was a combination of making sure the research was exactly right and making sure that I was laying the proper groundwork. I was afraid of writing the third book and ending up with a major inconsistency with the first one.
That sounds complicated, so props to you! Thank goodness for passionate authors who value consistency. In TDT, do you have a favorite character? If so, who and why? My favorite character of the series is actually going to be introduced in The Harpy’s Lullaby. But for the TDT, it was Lou, hands down. It’s mostly because I’ve ‘known’ him the longest. And he’s a lot of fun to write.
I could see why! He’s fascinating to me, too! Did you have a favorite part about this entire process of publishing from start to finish? My favorite part was when I found my very first beta reader about a year before I declared the novel finished. She was more of an alpha reader at that point because it still had so many flaws. But she read it…and she told me she loved it. All authors are hyper critical of their own work, and I was expecting everyone who read it to tell me it was garbage. Especially this beta reader, because I’d researched her beforehand, and everyone said she was tough. She did have some highly critical feedback, of course (which helped me immensely), but she liked it. And now that it’s published, other people like it too! It’s still hard for me to believe sometimes.
Congratulations for getting through that tough alpha/beta reader, as well as being published! Thank you also for taking time to allow me to read and review it, as well as to interview you about it.
Readers, if you’re looking for something out of the norm with a plot and characters that will draw you in, The Devil’s Trill could be exactly what you need!
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