Welcome Back, Booklovers! I recently read A Mastery of Monsters by Liselle Sambury. Liselle has been serving up her own brand of Black Canadian fantasy and horror since 2021's Blood Like Magic. She's also been taking readers along for the journey through her Authortube channel. I asked Liselle about the inspiration for her new book, how she balances writing with content creation, and her new non bookish hobbies.
How would you describe your brand of writing?
I tend to describe my writing brand specifically in the YA age category as darker themes with edges of hope. Meaning that I will tackle topics that may be difficult such as generational trauma, abuse, etc. but like to leave readers with a feeling of hopefulness after the story is over. I also find that while I may have unsettling scenes, I balance those with ones that are heartfelt or funny. I enjoy straddling that line in my fiction.
Being born and raised in Canada, it’s important to me to be able to share those experiences with readers unfamiliar with Canada but also to create those experiences for Canadian readers. I think there’s a unique excitement in reading a book where you can see your own environment reflected. A sort of pride, almost. To me, it’s another layer of representation like the race or orientation of a character, and because it’s representation of my experience, it’s important to me to include it in my novels.
What inspired A Mastery of Monsters?
One day, I was watching music videos from the group EXO, and they have a song called “Monster.” There was a scene in which all the members are sitting down at this long dining table, and I suddenly had this image of people at a table, and the idea that some of them were monsters. I imagined that the others at the table had control of these monsters and were keeping them chained, but there was also a girl at the scene, and she refused to participate. I fell in love with that idea and wanted to create that story.
I had already had a desire to write a dark academia novel, and so it felt like the right way to bring that concept to life. To create a secret society within a university that housed this organization that oversaw the control of monsters.
Why did you decide to set it at the real world university of Queen’s University vs a fictional university?
I always prefer writing stories that have a basis in the real world. For one, it helps me with visualization and gives me a foundation for the creation of a world which I prefer over creating something entirely fictional. I also appreciate the sense of magic that it brings to reality to set a fantasy in a real place. I’ve always enjoyed that feeling of walking around a city from a novel and seeing the magical places in a book reflected. As an additional bonus, it creates the challenge of weaving together real history with fictional backstory, which I think is a fun way to share local culture.
What was your process when mapping out the world in A Mastery of Monsters? How do you keep the characters and their attributes straight?
The process of coming up with the world for mastery was very extensive and by far the most complicated worldbuilding that I’ve ever had to do for a novel. I started by essentially writing out everything that I needed to know about the world. I wrote out a history of how the society was created as if I was writing a textbook, along with the rules regarding how monsters and partnerships work, and the names of the leaders throughout the years. I created both historical and modern timelines. I essentially wrote down as much as possible about how everything in the book worked, and that’s a resource that I update on a continuous basis. I also made a character database which has the names of all the characters, photo references, relationships to other characters, weapons they use, monster forms, etc.
Therefore, my process has really been to make note of as much as possible even if it’s only going to make it into the book as a single line. These resources are collectively over 10,000 words long and growing. I might actually be able to put together a textbook by the end!
Is there a scene that was in an early draft that you love but had to cut?
There isn’t! I’m the sort of author where if I cut something out of the book, it’s for a good reason. In the moment, I may feel sad about pulling it from the novel, but I quickly forget that it even existed. I honestly can’t think of a single scene that I took out that I wished had stayed in.
What made you decide to start an Authortube channel and how do you balance making content for your Youtube channel along with actively writing?
When I was still in the process of trying to find a literary agent, I watched a lot of authortube content both as inspiration and a source of information for understanding the traditional publishing industry. And so, when I signed with my agent, I started up a channel partially because I wanted to be able to document my own journey like the authortubers that I admired, but also because I wanted to be able to help people like me. I also felt it was important as a Black author to contribute my experience for other Black authors as there aren’t as many traditionally published BIPOC authors on YouTube. Thankfully, now there are many more which is exciting! I recommend checking out @esmietheauthor if you’re on the hunt for more Black authortubers in the trad pub space to follow.
In terms of balancing YouTube with writing, I feel like I don’t always succeed in doing this and am currently even taking my first unplanned break from creating content right now. I always remind myself that my priority is the writing and YouTube is a hobby. Which is why if I feel like my energy is strained, I will cut back on YouTube to devote that energy to my writing and come back to content creation when I’m more rested. I feel like this works best too because the quality of content is higher when I have energy to devote to it, and at least I always know that when I come back, I’ll have lots of writing updates to share. At the end of the day, YouTube is something that I do for fun, and so if it’s not fun, then I know to take a break.
What’s a career highlight you achieved but didn’t imagine?
I feel like there’s so many! But I think the biggest one was having my debut novel Blood Like Magic nominated for the Governor General’s Literary Awards. I never had that sort of accolade on my radar and so it was wonderful to have my debut honored in such a prestigious award. Especially because they only pick one YA novel to nominate among the hundreds of options available in that year. It made me feel really fortunate to have been chosen, and it gave me a lot more confidence as an author to see my work acknowledged.
Do you have any hobbies outside of writing and reading?
I’m a certified hobby collector and so I have quite a few that I rotate through on a regular basis. Currently, my most prominent hobby is creating custom press on nails for both fingers and toes, often themed to something. Right now, I’m working on an under-the-sea themed set. I’ve also recently been working on learning Japanese and Korean. I’ve spent a lot of time on and off with learning Japanese, and lately I’ve been wanting to make a more concentrated effort with it. I’ve also added on Korean since I’ve been consuming a lot of Korean content lately and so it seemed like it would be fun to add that to my learning. I’ve also been doing online dance classes. I’m honestly terrible at dancing, but I really want to get better. That’s my current hobby roster.
Where can readers follow you?
They can find me on Instagram and YouTube @lisellesambury! I’m taking a small YouTube break, but I have over 300 videos on there, so there’s a ton of backlog content.
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