Though Gillig prefers to allow readers to go into her stories without knowing too much, she did share that readers who loved her previous books can expect the same sort of atmosphere and tone in The Knight and the Moth, albeit with a bit more humor thrown in. "It's a gothic atmosphere. There's a lot of mystery, there's a quest/journey and it's character-driven," she explained. Gillig went on to share that while she never plans to write side characters that totally steal the show (as a reader, though, I'm happy she does!), the gargoyle in this one just might. "I want everyone to prepare their hearts and minds," she said, which has me *that* much more excited to meet this whole new cast.
When it comes to how The Knight and the Moth compares to One Dark Window and Two Twisted Crowns, Gillig said readers will be introduced to a new, more built-out world as the characters quest through five hamlets that each possess their own environment, culture and rules. We can also expect a hard magic system with magical objects, but the magic won't be quite as complex as the cards in The Shepherd King series.
As for where she gleans her inspiration? "When a book comes to me it's like a visual thing...and I tend to want it teased out," Gillig told me. "I had this visual idea of a gothic cathedral upon a hill and then...where do we go from there? I also had a lot of inspiration from folklore and folk music, things like that...After The Shepherd King duology I wanted to stay in that vein." Well, I certainly hope those visuals keep on coming because, personally, I know I'll devour anything Gillig writes with these immersive, gothic vibes.
On writing in duology formats and the popular romantasy genre, Gillig explained that she leans toward twofers because she loves extended stories, sort of TV mini series: "My books kind of feel like one long book with an intermission between. I am also not a patient person...I won't make you wait forever because I don't tend to like to wait forever. So it has to do with my own personality in that what I like to consume...Two is just the sweet spot for me." She continued, "As far as romantasy goes...when I build things out, first it's the world [and] the plot, but my stories are character-driven and I don't think I want to write stories that don't have some level of romance in because they're so fun—for so many reasons. Romance is such a good source of tension, it's a good way to explore characters and I also think romance is really fun in fantasy because you can have really insane stakes that wouldn't work in other genres."
