Travel the World With Hotel Magnifique

May is here and we are super excited for our late spring and early summer line up of author interviews! Please keep an eye out for interviews with authors such as Jenn Lyons during the summer while we celebrate some of the latest releases. But today we are thrilled to have talked to Emily J. Taylor about her newest release, Hotel Magnifique. We devoured this book the moment we got our hands on it. It is full of magic and intrigue, including a scene with our main characters trapped on one bed together getting closer and closer. As soon as we started reading, we knew that we had to talk to Emily about her process and are happy to share some more background about this book with you all! We hope that you’ve enjoyed it as much as we did, but if you haven’t picked it up yet this will be sure to give you that final push to grabbing it from your local bookstore. 
“All her life, Jani has dreamed of Elsewhere. Just barely scraping by with her job at a tannery, she’s resigned to a dreary life in the port town of Durc, caring for her younger sister Zosa. That is, until the Hotel Magnifique comes to town.
The hotel is legendary not only for its whimsical enchantments, but also for its ability to travel—appearing in a different destination every morning. While Jani and Zosa can’t afford the exorbitant costs of a guest’s stay, they can interview to join the staff, and are soon whisked away on the greatest adventure of their lives. But once inside, Jani quickly discovers their contracts are unbreakable and that beneath the marvelous glamour, the hotel is hiding dangerous secrets.
With the vexingly handsome doorman Bel as her only ally, Jani embarks on a mission to unravel the mystery of the magic at the heart of the hotel and free Zosa—and the other staff—from the cruelty of the ruthless maître d’hôtel. To succeed, she’ll have to risk everything she loves, but failure would mean a fate far worse than never returning home.”

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BT&W: Hi Emily, thank you so much for this interview! We love Hotel Magnifique and are excited to dig deeper into this magical hotel with you. First off, can you tell us about your author story as to how you got to writing books in the first place? ​

EJT: So I didn’t start writing books until well into another career as an art director in design and ad agencies. I was feeling pretty burned out and uninspired in that career, and a wise friend told me that I needed a hobby where I could make creative work that was just for myself. I’d always been a voracious reader and dreamed about writing a book, but it seemed so daunting! But then I stumbled upon National Novel Writing Month—where in the month of November, you write a 50,000-word novel. The idea seemed somewhat impossible, but when I broke it down into a daily word count, it was much more manageable. So in November 2015, I wrote nonstop. I “won” NaNoWriMo and finished a book-shaped thing that will forever live in a drawer. I also fell head over heels in love with writing. After that, I never looked back and wrote about four more book-shaped things over the next year and a half before I got the idea for Hotel Magnifique.

BT&W: Hotel Magnifique is such a beautiful story about sisterhood and sibling love in general. What is it about siblinghood that made this form of relationship the most prominent relationship explored for this particular story? 

EJT:  I have a deep fascination with sibling dynamics, like how you can love someone unconditionally, but also be rivals and jealous of them at the same time. There’s so many messy emotions to play with! For this particular story, the sibling relationships fit so naturally. And since the hotel is such a dangerous place for the staff, those relationships helped raise the stakes for most of the characters you meet and made for some tense moments.
BT&W: The hotel itself is such a big character in general. Was it difficult to write a story where the setting is basically a main character and can you walk us through that process? 

EJT: Weirdly, it wasn’t very difficult. I’m a big premise and setting-first writer; I can’t really start a story until I know what the “big idea” or premise of the book will be, along with the world that idea will take place within. Then my characters usually fall directly out of that, and plot is the last thing I come up with. I’m always on the hunt for interesting and unique settings that can carry a story—like a magical traveling hotel, for instance. Because of this, I think my settings tend to feel like characters. I also love twisting all the built-in world-building that might already exist in a setting. For HM, I remember making a list of hotel things like itineraries, room keys, guests rooms, elevators, etc., then brainstorming how there could be a magical twist on them based on my premise. I think all of it went into making the hotel come alive.

BT&W: Now the magic system itself is also very much a character. How did you come up with the idea of having artefacts as a huge source of magic, the system in general, and the overall views of magic in this book’s society? 

EJT: So the magic system was a little more difficult. I didn’t have the version that’s in the book now until a few drafts in. But I knew that I wanted more of a soft magic system that felt understandable in the context of the story, but also vast. I also already had all the weird objects that eventually became artefacts in the first draft, but they didn’t have any rules and nothing was connected! It was such a mess and took hours of brainstorming and connecting dots and long walks to figure out how it all fit together. Then the idea of the artefacts hit and it felt so simple and encapsulated everything that I already had in the manuscript. I also wanted the magic system to have a historical French feel in that all the artefacts could easily be props in a 19th-century French magic show!
BT&W: What is your process like for coming up with characters? There is such a large host of characters in the hotel, with Jani as our narrator and Bel being perhaps the most seen of the secondary characters. How do you keep them all straight and make sure that each has a unique voice that will stand out to the reader? 

EJT: So I actually had a story with sisters before I began drafting HM and I loved that dynamic and knew I wanted to explore more with siblings, so I brought my sisters over as the characters going to work at the hotel. But Bel’s character truly fell right out of the premise. I remember the idea of a traveling hotel coming to me, then Bel and his role popping into my head a few minutes later. At that time, he had two other brothers named Poe and Con (I bet you can guess their full names!) but I already had the sisters and some ideas for other siblings, so I cut them. Poor Bel. 
As far as making characters distinct and keeping them straight, I start with their speech patterns and that usually informs everything else, down to their backstories and physicality. For instance, Yrsa has a very brusque way of speaking that I loved and everything else about her fell out of that. Then I made sure when I created other characters, they spoke in a way that sounded different from Yrsa and from each other.

My favorite dynamic though is Jani and Bel. Their chemistry and banter was the most fun to write, and their personalities came alive whenever I stuck them in scenes together! So dialogue is a huge part of my character development. I love writing it. Get your characters talking and it’ll tell you so much about them!

BT&W: What was the inspiration behind the suminaires becoming birds of all the animals that Alistair could have decided upon? Also… I def wanted more about those leopards! I fell madly in love with them. 

EJT:  I was obsessed with the idea of the glass aviary in the center of the hotel. I also loved the symbolism of the staff essentially being caged birds. And then looking through art nouveau design and architecture, I noticed feathers were brought in as a decorative element. So the birds felt like such a great fit for what I needed. But if I ever write a second book, I’ll make sure to put in more leopards.

BT&W: I loved the hints about LGBTQ+ themes within the book. Can you talk about the decision to make those themes smaller but super organic where the characters didn’t even think twice about any of it? 

EJT:  I love that you asked this question! I gave this a lot of consideration when I drafted the story. I wanted readers to take away that the world of Hotel Magnifique was queernormative without ever coming out and declaring it. I found that to do it convincingly, I had to make sure that you understood a character’s role and cared about them as a person before their sexuality ever comes into play. This is why you don’t learn some of the juicier relationship backstories until well into the second act.

BT&W: If you were to have any of the artefacts/ magic powers that you’ve created for this book (whether we see them or not in the published story), which would you have? 
EJT: I mean, I would absolutely want Bel’s key! It would be so cool to be able to move my house across the world in a second. But if I didn’t have the key, maybe I’d want some artefact that let me fly. Or be invisible. Definitely not the teacup! Or the inkwell!
BT&W: The cover for this book is absolutely stunning. Did you have a hand in designing the cover and picking out those little details that have such big parts in the book itself since you have a background in art directing?

EJT: Isn’t it gorgeous? I know people who wait for their cover to drop with terror, and I certainly felt some it. But I shouldn’t have worried. Penguin has an amazing in-house design team who sent me a deck of concepts each with an illustrator who could pull them off. One of the pages had Jim Tierney’s work and I remember staring at it in awe. His illustrations had a classic yet modern feel, and felt the closest to what I had always imagined the cover could look like in my mind. Luckily Penguin agreed and they hired him. They sent me sketches, then a more final version that you see now along with different color options. But it had to be purple! In the end, it came out way better than I could have hoped for. It’s truly a dream cover. I’m pinching myself.

BT&W: What is your general writing process like? I heard you talking to Marissa Meyer on her Happiest Writer podcast about having pinterest boards and such. Do you also do playlists and where can our readers find your boards/ playlists? 

EJT: You’re right—I love to start with a visual! I think it comes from my art direction background. I have a hard time writing a scene if I can’t picture it. Sometimes I’ll pull up my Pinterest Board and scroll through it for a few minutes before I start a writing session to get in the right headspace. You can check out Hotel Magnifique’s Pinterest board here: https://www.pinterest.com/emilyjoy/hotel-magnifique/

As far as playlists, I only write to either silence or instrumental music. And I have to have zero distractions, so I use the Freedom app to block out social media and the internet. Another trick I like to use is writing on my couch and pulling up an ambient Youtube video. There’s some amazing ones out there. Earlier today, I drafted to a Victorian nighttime cityscape, complete with smoking chimneys and sound effects!

BT&W: If you were to create a tea that would encapsulate the Hotel or any of the main characters, what would that tea look like?  
EJT: It would have to be extremely dark, so probably a black tea infused with oranges, except when you brew it, it comes out bright purple and maybe a little glittery. That’s a thing, right? Of course it would also have to come packaged in the most expensive tin you have ever seen, probably with gold edging, pastel stripes, and elaborate type. Then when you opened the tin, the tea bags themselves would be affixed to miniature velvet pillows with tassels that may or may not be stuffed with spun clouds, naturally. 
BT&W: Now for a question about the “whiskers” part of our name… tell us about any furry writing friends that you have? 

EJT: I have a furry senior citizen friend named Enzo the weimaraner. He likes to sit at my feet while I’m writing, but he often gets extremely jealous of my computer and paws at it.

BT&W: What are you currently reading/ what have you recently read that you can’t stop talking about? 

EJT:  I finished WITHIN THESE WICKED WALLS by Lauren Blackwood a couple of months ago and I’m still thinking about it! It was this gothic Jane Eyre retelling with creepy demon hyenas and rooms full of blood. I also fell into a deep Blake Crouch hole late last year and since then I’ve re-read both DARK MATTER and RECURSION on audio. I love how impossible and epic his stories are while also being intimately human. I can’t wait for UPGRADE! It’s probably one of my most anticipated reads for this year. On my flight yesterday, I ploughed through most of an arc of Mara Rutherford‘s THE POISON SEASON and it’s wonderful! I’ve loved Mara’s writing since I read CROWN OF CORAL AND PEARL. Last but not least, I loved THIS VICIOUS GRACE from fellow ’22 debut Emily Thiede. It’s an Italianate romantic YA fantasy that I’m fairly certain will be the next big thing come the end of June. Everyone should keep an eye out for it!

BT&W: What is up next for you? Can you share anything with us about future books? 

EJT: I’m working on my second book. It’s a totally new standalone set in a different world from Hotel Magnifique. I’m not allowed to say much, but I will say that it feels like a spiritual cousin of Hotel Magnifique in that it has romance, magic, whimsy, and a dark heart. It also began as a premise/setting-first idea that I haven’t seen done before. I’m dying of excitement to announce it!