All about the book This Cursed Light
Who is Emily Thiede?
Emily Thiede spent her childhood daydreaming and reading in trees. A former public school teacher, she serves as Vice Chair of the board for Writer House, a writing nonprofit, and has mentored aspiring writers through the Pitch Wars mentorship program. Emily enjoys fostering rescue kittens and getting lost in the woods of central Virginia, where she lives with her family. She is the author of This Vicious Grace and This Cursed Light.
What is This Cursed Light about?
When the gods make the rules, the players must choose: Sacrifice their love to save the world, or choose love and let it burn?
Six months after saving their island from destruction, Alessa is ready to live happily ever after with her former bodyguard. But Dante can’t rest, haunted by a conviction that the gods aren’t finished with them yet. And without his powers, the next kiss from Alessa could kill him.
Desperate for answers, Dante enlists Alessa and their friends to find the exiled ghiotte in hopes of restoring his powers and combining forces to create the only army powerful enough to save them all. But Alessa is hiding a deadly consequence of their last fight―a growing darkness that’s consuming her mind―and in the mysterious city of the banished, Dante will uncover secrets, lies, and ghosts from his past that force him to ask himself: Which side is he on?
When the gods reveal their final test, Dante and Alessa will be the world’s last defense. But if they are the keys to saving the world, will their love be the price of victory?
Interview
What was your inspiration for This Cursed Light?
The original inspiration for This Cursed Light and This Vicious Grace was probably the original X-Men movie. I was intrigued by the contrast between two characters, Rogue and Wolverine, who have, in many ways, the opposite situations: Wolverine’s power should be a gift yet its left him a loner and an outsider while Rogue wants nothing more than human connection but her powers make that dangerous and isolating. I wanted to explore that dynamic more and I played with the idea for years before finally finding a story idea that would let me do so.
What drew you to writing fantasy?
I’ve been reading it as long as I can remember, and I love how fantastical worlds and speculative elements let me play with real world themes but with much higher stakes and an escapist setting.
What was your process for writing This Cursed Light?
Put chaos! This Cursed Light was my first time writing a book under contract, and my first sequel, and it was a challenge. I tried to approach it in a more methodical way than I usually do, by outlining first, and it completely threw me off so my first attempt at drafting was a disaster. I went back to the drawing board and began again, using my normal process, which involves writing the most fun scenes first, exploring the world and the characters, and collecting a treasure trove of exciting scenes, romantic scenes, and lots of witty banter, then a very intense revision process where I chop everything into pieces, move things around, and begin stitching the pieces into a coherent narrative.
How did you choose which character to focus the story?
Without giving any spoilers, This Vicious Grace was Alessa’s story, and by the end of it, she has a pretty complete character arc, so I knew that This Cursed Light would belong to another other major character, who still had a lot of growing to do.
What is your approach to world and character building?
I start with a character and a problem—In Alessa’s case, she needs to touch someone to channel their magic, but every attempt leads to the other person getting injured or killed—and I build it out from there by making the problem worse and worse. So I raised the stakes for WHY she needs to use someone’s magic, surrounded her by a society that values community and connection but a religion that specifically cuts her off from all of it, and with every layer, her situation becomes more intense and heightened, so readers know from page one that something has to change.
Did you have a favourite moment to write?
My absolute favorite scenes are those where characters are bantering with each other but beneath the wit and teasing, you can feel the emotional connections growing.
How would you describe This Cursed Light in five words?
Romantic, Dangerous, Witty, Emotional, and Intense
What was your favourite book growing up?
I don’t think I could choose just one but I read every one of Anne McCaffrey’s Dragonrider books at least a dozen times.
Do you have a favourite genre to read?
Of course I love Young Adult fantasy, but my go-to is often adult contemporary romance, because those authors are absolute masters of emotional tension and dialogue.
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