I am so lucky to have been asked to interview Sacha Lamb for the Sydney Taylor Book Award Blog Tour!
Kayla: How did you get into writing?
Sacha Lamb: I was a big reader and storyteller as a kid, and started writing my own stories down once I learned how to write. I have piles of notebooks in my closet with fantasy stories in glitter gel pen.
K: Have you always wanted to be an author?
SL: Since I was in my teens I knew it was something I wanted to try out. I didn’t study writing in college—my degrees are in history and library science, because I also knew that I wanted to be a librarian (technically, I’m now an archivist). After I graduated I decided that I really wanted to write the kinds of books I wasn’t seeing a lot of on bookstore shelves, and that’s how I got into publishing. WHEN THE ANGELS LEFT THE OLD COUNTRY, my debut, was actually my first finished manuscript, which is pretty unusual. But I had been studying publishing for five or six years before ANGELS sold.
K: Do you prefer to write in silence or have music in the background?
SL: I don’t listen to a lot of music, I get too caught up in it. Sometimes I write with TV or a podcast on, something I’m not too invested in so it doesn’t distract me too much. Honestly, I wrote a good portion of the third act of THE FORBIDDEN BOOK sitting in a barn listening to my dog bark at groundhogs.
K: What made you decide to write such Jewish stories?
SL: I wanted to read them! I’m really happy that there’s more Jewish fantasy adventures coming out now, but then I first started writing there were barely a handful in children’s literature. The first one I read was Chris Moriarty’s Inquisitor’s Apprentice series (sadly unfinished, only two books from a trilogy out). That’s a Lower East Side story with dybbuks and magic and I thought this would be 100% perfect for me if it also had queer people in it. So I wrote the books that were that Jewish and also had queer characters.
K: Is there a scene you loved writing more than any other?
SL: In THE FORBIDDEN BOOK I had a lot of fun (not to spoil anything) with the scenes in the Angel of Death’s mansion. The idea of a fairy revel in a Jewish setting was really delightful to me. I enjoyed every moment the sort of sexy vampire fairy queen Angel of Death was on the page, and surrounding her with other odd creatures and details.
K: Do you have one book you loved writing more than any other?
SL: Each one has been different. ANGELS was really easy to write, and THE FORBIDDEN BOOK was really hard to write. The reason it was hard was that I had the pressure of knowingANGELS was so well-received. It was hard to follow my own act. But THE FORBIDDEN BOOK was also written directly for someone very special and writing it was an act of love for both that person and myself. Having the result of that be a second book that’s now won a Sydney Taylor honor feels like it’s exorcised the fear of not living up to expectations. I’m working on something new now that’s very easy again, so far, and I’m crediting THE FORBIDDEN BOOK and stubborn Sorel for that.
K: What’s your favorite part about being Jewish?
SL: There’s always more to learn. Keeping myself curious and interested in learning new things is the best defense I’ve found against stress. And Jewish history and folklore are so deep and vast you’ll never run out of new things to discover. I mean, I’ve been reading the Talmud for five straight years and I’m not even done with it yet.
K: What’s your favorite snack when you’re writing?
SL: I love all kinds of snacks. Mostly sweet and salty. I get a variety from my local HMart every couple of weeks and they’ve always got lots of different things so it depends what I’m in the mood for. My dog likes it best when I get seaweed crackers though. He loves seaweed for some reason.
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