Mark Lawrence: On the Awe of Libraries
Author Mark Lawrence discusses his love letter to the places we keep stories with his new fantasy novel, The Book That Wouldn’t Burn.
Mark Lawrence was born in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, to British parents but moved to the U.K. at the age of one. After earning a PhD in mathematics at Imperial College London, he went back to the U.S. to work on a variety of research projects, including the “Star Wars” missile-defense program. Since returning to the U.K., he has worked mainly on image processing and decision/reasoning theory.
He never had any ambition to be a writer, so he was very surprised when a half-hearted attempt to find an agent turned into a global publishing deal overnight. His first trilogy, The Broken Empire, has been universally acclaimed as a groundbreaking work of fantasy, and both Emperor of Thorns and The Liar’s Key have won the David Gemmell Legend Award for best fantasy novel. Mark is married, with four children, and lives in Bristol. Find him on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
In this post, Mark discusses his love letter to the places we keep stories with his new fantasy novel, The Book That Wouldn’t Burn, his hope for readers, and more!
Name: Mark Lawrence
Literary agent: Ian Drury
Book title: The Book That Wouldn’t Burn (The Library trilogy)
Publisher: Ace (US), Voyager (UK)
Release date: May 9, 2023
Genre/category: Fantasy
Previous titles: The Broken Empire trilogy, The Red Queen’s War trilogy, The Book of the Ancestor trilogy, Impossible Times trilogy, The Book of the Ice trilogy.
Elevator pitch for the book: A boy is trapped in a vast and ancient library. A girl escapes the confines of her life in a dust-bound wasteland.
What prompted you to write this book?
When I was a toddler, my mother was a librarian. She would sometimes take me to work. Among my earliest memories are being dwarfed by towering bookcases and lost among a seeming maze of them. I wanted to capture that sense of mystery and awe.
How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?
I wrote the book immediately after deciding to do so. It took about a year. To reach publication was a further 18 months. I had another book to come out first, finishing off my most recent trilogy.
The idea didn’t so much change as evolve, because it was a very small idea and it’s quite a large book.
Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?
Well, I’ve had 18 other books published before this one, so I’m fairly used to the process.
Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?
With nearly 20 published books under my belt and a small collection of unpublished/semi-published (Wattpad) books, I would have expected my answer here to be much the same as to the previous question. However, there were a couple of new experiences.
This was the first book I’ve ever rewritten more than a line or two of here and there. I rewrote the first couple of chapters of my own volition. And it’s also the first book that I’ve ever deleted more than the occasional line of. I removed about a chapter and a half at the editor’s suggestion.
Generally, I just write one draft, it has a light edit and that’s the end of it. This was the first time I feel I’ve ever really worked on a book after typing the last word.
What do you hope readers will get out of your book?
It’s definitely a book that can be enjoyed on several levels. My main hope is that a reader will enjoy it on at least one of them, with “all of them” being my stretch goal!
Primarily the book’s a story about characters, and the reader gets to share their triumphs and losses as the tale unfolds. So, there’s magic, violence, a touch of romance—all the fun stuff.
On another level it’s a love song to books and the places we keep them. The trilogy concerns itself with libraries, librarians, bookshops, and tellers of stories.
On a third level there are themes to do with knowledge vs wisdom, access to information, truth vs information, and such things.
So, I hope the reader will be excited by the drama, remember the ambiance, and ponder the questions posed.
If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?
Entertain yourself first.
Robert Lee Brewer is Senior Editor of Writer's Digest, which includes managing the content on WritersDigest.com and programming virtual conferences. He's the author of 40 Plot Twist Prompts for Writers: Writing Ideas for Bending Stories in New Directions, The Complete Guide of Poetic Forms: 100+ Poetic Form Definitions and Examples for Poets, Poem-a-Day: 365 Poetry Writing Prompts for a Year of Poeming, and more. Also, he's the editor of Writer's Market, Poet's Market, and Guide to Literary Agents. Follow him on Twitter @robertleebrewer.
