“I think since I wrote ‘The Poppy War’ I’ve had this enormous fear of arrested development. I think it is really dangerous for professional success to come to you too early, because then you start thinking, Oh, what I did when I was a child is sufficient. The only way around this is to be deeply critical of everything I’ve done before and try to... See more

CS: You were nineteen when you first finished it. How has your youth affected your writing and your status as author?

RFK: I was thinking about this earlier today. Starting as a teenager when I began writing The Poppy War and wrapping up the third book as a 22-year-old sort of mirrors the character path that Rin goes through. It’s cool being able... See more

Before Odyssey, I gave myself just one hard and fast rule: write 2,000 words a day, every day, no matter how bad they are. (To be fair, I was on a work schedule where I could make time to do this, whereas now I count myself lucky if I can squeeze 1,000 words in on a good day.) I’d never taken a creative writing class before, so had absolutely no... See more