Interview with Rachel Neumeier, Author of Eight Doors from Dawn to Midnight

What’s the story behind the story? What inspired you to write Eight Doors from Dawn to Midnight?

Long ago, I fell in love with Doris Piserchia’s Spaceling, where the main character travels between alternate dimensions reached by leaping through doorways most people can’t see. Eight Doors draws on nothing from this novel except that one essential element, which is central. Then, much later, I fell in love with Martha Wells’ The Wheel of the Infinite—both her Southeast Asian–inspired setting and her fearless, powerful female protagonist. Reading that novel made me want to create a story that evoked a setting filled with lotus flowers blooming amid rice terraces and tigers stalking through every shadow. Plus, writing this novel gave me an excuse to dive into one of my favorite things about fantasy: building a truly ornate world. It doesn’t get much more ornate than the world of layered realities in Eight Doors.

What’s your favorite genre to read? Is it the same as your favorite genre to write?

About half my reading is fantasy, but the other half is wide, wide open: science fiction, mysteries, romance, horror, and practically everything else. But nearly one hundred percent of the time, no matter the genre, I’m reading for character and for depth of setting. I also read nonfiction – history, sociology, psychology, and ethology. I only wish I had more time for reading!

What books are on your TBR pile right now?

Literally thousands of novels and a good handful of nonfiction. Let me just peek at the tippy top of my TBR pile … The Pomegranate Gate by Ariel Kaplan, A House Between Sea and Sky by Beth Cato, Scorpio by Marko Kloos, The Discarded Image by CS Lewis — I’d forgotten about that one, but yep, I picked it up a little while ago when I saw a reference to it somewhere. The Finest Hat in the Whole World by Colleen Parkinson, so I’ll add “Classics” to my list of genres I read. Jade Dragon Mountain by Elsa Hart. The Incandecent by Emily Tesh. There’s no end, truly. My TBR pile goes down forever. I keep expecting it to collapse into a black hole of electrons.

What scene in your book was your favorite to write?

When the nightmare tiger finally steps into the moral realm, that was fun. I love all the scenes with that tiger. But I must admit, none of those is my FAVORITE scene. Identifying my favorite scene would constitute a terrible spoiler!

Do you have any quirky writing habits? (lucky mugs, cats on laps, etc.)

I always write surrounded by spaniels. I have six Cavalier King Charles Spaniels and two cats, so I never write alone.

Do you have a motto, quote, or philosophy you live by?

I reach straight for Ursula LeGuin: “Fantasy is true, of course. It isn’t factual, but it is true.” And again, in a different essay: “The truth is a matter of the imagination. The artist is not recording a fact, but making a truth.”

If you could choose one thing for readers to remember after reading your book, what would it be?

I hope readers remember shouting in surprise at some of the plot twists!

Rachel Neumeier is the author of the new book Eight Doors from Dawn to Midnight

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