Heather’s Bookshelf: Author Interview with Sara Raztresen

What inspired you to write “The Glass Witch”?

Raztresen: A few things. While I thought of the characters a long time ago, dreaming of a fun little romance with a mean king and a woman way out of her element, I put it on the back burner for a while and, eventually, it became tied to a world where the seasons would move, and the kings and queens of each country with them. All of these were fun ways to set the stage for explaining what, over time, became an increasingly bigger ache for me as I dove into my heritage. As a Slovene-American born with one foot in two cultures, and whose mother was herself two times an immigrant (once from Slovenia to Germany, and once from Germany to America), this story now is a reflection of my and my mother’s experiences.

There’s always a sense of belonging-but-not-quite for my mother, where she’s an American until she has a critique of the country (and then she can go back to where she came from), where she’s a German until someone hears her maiden name (and then she’s just another person from the Balkans here in Germany to do the work no one wants to do), where she’s a Slovenian until someone hears her speak a language she left too soon to learn right (because she must not really be Slovenian, if she doesn’t really know the language). In her words, it’s like being a nomad: never really belonging anywhere, even in places she feels are home. Likewise, I was born in a split world: outside my house was American, all boasting its freedom and singing the praise of the American Dream and all that. Inside my house was Slovenian, where we baked potica for every Easter, where my oma would come from Europe to stay with us three months out of the year and spoke no English, where we knew a world outside American borders and knew mindsets outside the more, more, more mentality American consumerism encourages. With these two mindsets smashed together, I, over time, became like my mother: too American to be accepted as anything other than a cosplayer of my own culture to Europeans, and too European to be understood by my American peers as I rejected what, to me, looked much more like an American nightmare.

In The Glass Witch, Aveline is half of two opposite cultures, and she can never escape it: not in the home she loved and lost, not in the foreign land she technically has a right to call hers, too.

How did you come up with the names of your main characters?

Raztresen: The main character’s name was one that stayed with her since I first thought of her. I love the name Aveline, and I’ve come to associate it pretty exclusively with this feral character that runs around dressed as a potential royal bride. The others were a matter of the lands themselves. I tried to code each country with a certain feeling of places in our world (like the very Nordic/Germanic feel of Winter), and so I spent time looking up names from different cultures that I could reasonably morph into something fitting the fantasy world (and some from our world did stay, like Helen and Clara, but others, like Ristef and Jädrich, were made up. (And Jädrich was actually what I came to after my editor didn’t like the original name for the King, which, the more I think about it, the more I realize does sound a lot better than what I originally had.)

Is there anything that you want readers to know about you, your writing process or your book?

Raztresen: Where to begin? Honestly, I think the most jarring thing people might learn about me is that I call myself a Christian witch—a title with a lot of weight and significance for me, especially given the misconceptions around the word “witch” and the history of Christian folk magic and mysticism. But it’s these religious experiences, beliefs, and themes that also come to weave into a lot of my writing, and undoubtedly people will catch them as they read more of my works (across various series and stories). The Glass Witch is more about the cultural identity and belonging, and the consequences of blind nationalism, but it still has snaps of those theological questions in between. It’s a part of a planned trilogy, so there’ll definitely be more to the story once Book One comes to a close.

Are there any tips that you would like to share with other aspiring authors?

Raztresen: Oh, boy. Absolutely. The first thing aspiring authors need to know is that it’s true: your first draft will inevitably not be what you want it to be. It might not totally suck or anything, but it’s going to need a polish, no matter how good you think you are—and that’s more than okay!

I actually have folders full of all the things I cut from The Glass Witch, and as I write the second book and wonder why it isn’t coming out as nice as the finished, hyper-polished first book, all I need to do is glance into those folders and see how not nice this whole series started. It’s easy to feel like you somehow forgot how to write between one book and the next, but trust me: writing shines its brightest in the editing, not necessarily the writing. Which is why a top quality editor is essential to making your book the best it can possibly be.

What is your favorite genre, book, and/or author?

Raztresen: I’ve been in love with Naomi Novik’s work. Her book, Uprooted, has a special place in my heart for all the romance, Witch vs. Magician fantasy, and twists of Slavic lore. And in that vein, fantasy will always be my favorite (with romance a close second behind it). Combinations of fantasy and romance will always find their way onto my bookshelf, no matter how many of those books I’ve read. There’s something so exciting about magic and questing and adventure, with a little flame sparking between two characters along their perilous journey!

What are you working on next?

Raztresen: There are a lot of projects in the air. I’ve got Book Two of The Glass Witch on hiatus with most of the first draft finished, just to give myself some time away to get fresh eyes before I dive back in. Aside from that, though, there’s a draft of a manuscript I’ve been sitting on—a historical fantasy similar to Katherine Arden’s The Bear and the Nightingale series, but focusing specifically on Slovenian folklore—and I’m also tearing through the research to write a comprehensive guide for starting Christian witches, with a proper theological and historical defense for a mystic approach to faith, as well as ways to weave one’s culture and animist perspectives into a relationship with God. All of these things are exciting, and they pack 2023 with plenty of work.

Learn More About the Author and The Glass Witch:

Website: https://www.sararaztresen.com/

Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@srazzie97

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sararaztresen/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/srazzie97

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@srazzie97

Interested in checking out the book for yourself?

Find it for purchase here

Interested in submitting your book for review? Visit my review page for guidelines and submission requirements.

review