Welcome Back, Booklovers! It feels like it's been forever since my last author interview even though I only skipped a month. Her book Sing Me to Sleep came out in June came out at the end of June and it's been making waves topping bestseller lists. You can check out my review for it here. Keep reading to get to know a little bit about author Gabi Burton!
When did you start your journey towards being a published author?
I’ve wanted to be a published author since I was six and I’ve been telling myself stories and keeping notebooks of character names and concepts ever since. That said, I think the actual journey to publication started in around 2015 when I queried a YA mystery/thriller. The project wasn’t even close to ready and after a few months, I went back to the drawing board. I rewrote and edited that book on and off for the next few years and in 2020, I rewrote it a final time and queried it again. I eventually got an offer of representation for that book, but by that point, I’d written Sing Me to Sleep and had a lot more confidence in it, so I decided to pursue that instead. Which ended up being the right call!
How many unpublished and half-finished books do you have?
Oh, boy. I have two finished unpublished books and more unfinished books than I can count—or even remember. It took me a while to realize that I’m a plotter and I need an outline if I actually want to finish anything. Before I started outlining, I would get really excited about an idea and start writing, only to realize halfway through that I had no idea where the story was going. I scrapped a ton of projects doing that.
What was the inspiration for Sing Me to Sleep? And how did you come up with the caste system?
I’ve always loved mermaids and sirens. So, when I was on a zoom call with author friends talking about monsters and someone mentioned sirens, my ears kind of perked up. I’d never written fantasy before (and if I’m being completely honest, I hadn’t really wanted to) but the idea of sirens as monsters fascinated me. The first element of Sing Me to Sleep was Saoirse. I wanted a main character who was Black, beautiful and confident in her own skin—which I struggled to feel growing up. The world and caste system developed around her. I knew I wanted Saoirse to be beautiful, powerful, deadly, and struggle for a place to belong. I shaped the world and caste system around how I wanted her to feel. Why did she feel out of place in her world? Why was she lonely? As I answered these questions, I learned more about the world around her that shaped her into who she is.
How did you find that balance with writing siren lore and murder but still keeping it YA friendly?
I think the darkness of Sing Me to Sleep is still YA-friendly because of Saoirse. She’s got dark impulses that drive her to kill people, but at her core, she’s a conflicted kid with a lot of power she doesn’t fully understand and no connection to anyone who could help her figure out how to control it. I also tried to make sure that there are consequences for all of Saoirse’s darker actions. Whether or not readers think her choices are justified, every person Saoirse mentions killing causes issues for her later. My goal was to make it clear that even though she’s a killer, and even though I hope readers root for her, this isn’t a story that says her actions or impulses are free from repercussions.
Both Saorise and her sister Rain were adopted by their parents. What did you decide to show an adopted family in Sing Me to Sleep?
A lot of the choices I made in structuring Sing Me to Sleep were based around how I wanted Saoirse to feel in the story. I wanted her to be loved, but lonely. Cared for, but not understood. Educated, but clueless about herself and her own nature. To achieve those conflicting emotions, I wanted her to have a family that loves her, but at the same time doesn’t understand her. Saoirse doesn’t know anything about her history or ancestry aside from what’s been told to her. And a lot of what she’s been told is a lie. What does it look like to be loved by someone who can never fully understand you? Does being raised by a loving and kind family make up for a violent and murderous nature? I was asking myself these questions while plotting this story and so it made sense to me that her family would be adopted and her sister who she loves more than anything, wouldn’t be related to her by blood.
What’s your best tip for writing side characters?
Remember that no character exists in a vacuum! They don’t exist just for the main character, which means they do things when the main character’s not around. Everything they do or say on the page is informed by the choices they make when they’re not on the page. Which means you should know a lot about them off-page. Not all the information you know about them will actually fit in the story itself, but if you know a lot of backstory and motivation for your side characters, then each interaction they have can be loaded with subtext so that they feel like a fully formed human (or some other creature).
It’s funny because I actually never wanted to write fantasy. All the books I wrote before Sing Me to Sleep weren’t fantasy and I kind of felt like I wasn’t qualified to write fantasy because I’m not a big fan of writing descriptions or worldbuilding. I figured if those were my least favorite things about writing, fantasy probably wasn’t for me. I’ve always loved reading fantasy but I’m one of those awful people who skips over descriptions in books (until recently when I found myself desperately needing to know how to do it well). When I got the idea to write about sirens, I knew the story had to be fantasy. Now that I’ve written Sing Me to Sleep, all of my ideas for future projects are fantasy, and I want to add magic to every non-fantasy idea I’ve ever had. So I guess I chose fantasy writing after I tried writing it.
Mermaids or sirens?
Sirens all the way! I love mermaids but the added darkness that comes with sirens is so intriguing to me. Plus, who doesn’t love a deadly hot girl?
What’s your favorite under-appreciated novel?
A friend told me about Daughters of Jubilation by Kara Lee Corthron and I inhaled it. But I don’t see enough people talking about it. I love the depiction of generational magic and Black family dynamics. It’s gorgeously written and perfectly paced and I think if more people knew about it, they’d be obsessed.
What does success as an author look like to you?
I think my answer to this might change daily, depending on my mood but for right now, my answer is: writing something that people get. I like it when readers tell me they like Sing Me to Sleep. It makes me so happy. But I love it when readers tell me something they connected with in the story or something that resonated with them. Nothing makes me feel more successful.
Are there any upcoming projects you’re able to discuss here?
I can talk a bit about the sequel to Sing Me to Sleep. The title hasn’t been announced yet so I can’t share that here, but I can say that the sequel really tackles a lot of the conversation that came up with the ending of Book 1. There’s more Saoirse and Hayes, more Carrik, more betrayal, and more of the question: what does it take to truly change a society?
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