Q&A: Sara Omer, Author of ‘The Gryphon King’

We chat with author Sara Omer about The Gryphon King, which  is the first in a sweeping Southwest Asian-inspired epic fantasy trilogy brimming with morally ambiguous characters, terrifying ghouls and deadly monsters, perfect for fans of Godkiller and Samantha Shannon.

Hi, Sara! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?

I’ve been a technical editor for medical and engineering publications and am now pursuing teaching. You can find my (sometimes unsettling) speculative poetry and prose in places like The Dark, PodCastle, Small Wonders, Strange Horizons, and elsewhere.

When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?

My mom and grandmother read books to me every night before bed when I was little, and my dad and I made up an ongoing saga of stories together about a mystery-solving gang of children that we’d add to whenever either of us was bored.

Quick lightning round! Tell us:

• The first book you ever remember reading: I loved Jan Brett books and beautiful illustrations—and stories about very brash and independent girls (even if those girls were spiders, mice, or squirrels). The Gingerbread Baby and The Miss Spider books stick out to me—I think both involved the threat of being eaten.
• The one that made you want to become an author: When I was young, the Warriors Cats books—when I was much older the A Song of Ice and Fire series. Both involve a bit of backstabbing and dynastic politics. I also used to open a collection of classic Grimms’ fairytales and would write longer versions of my favorite stories on my iPod touch.
• The one that you can’t stop thinking about: One Thousand and One Nights is always on my mind. Scheherazade should be every writer’s favorite fairytale protagonist. We love a storyteller manipulating an evil king (and an enemies to lovers arc?).

Your debut novel, The Gryphon King, is out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?

Toxic royals fight ravenous monsters.

What can readers expect?

Lots of action, violence, peril, and all the tension—it’s a slow descent into a world of chaotic magic and a safari tour of magical animals who want to eat you.

Where did the inspiration for The Gryphon King come from?

The Ottoman Empire and Turkic tribes of Central Asia were a major source of inspiration. A visit to the Topkapi Palace in Istanbul planted the first seeds. Take those sweeping historical and cultural inspirations and add a dash of 8-bit anime chess because The Gryphon King is also inspired by the fantasy RPG series Fire Emblem—where you can make any female character a pegasus knight and are guaranteed heartbreak playing with perma-death on.

Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?

I most enjoyed exploring the fictional country of Dumakra through my characters. It felt like going on a dangerous vacation by proxy. The traveling scene through the desert and visits to different towns were really fun for me.

Describing the rich opulence of the palaces from the perspectives of a royal family member felt a bit like playing princess, and Bataar’s POV is always fun to be in because he sees the world so differently with his powers.

Did you face any challenges whilst writing? How did you overcome them?

Keeping the alternating POV’s perfectly balanced meant sometimes struggling to get all the pieces of the story organized how I wanted—but I got to write more meaningfully exploring different scenes from different POVs. Sometimes I had to rearrange some scenes or else decide “okay well what insight could Nohra get here instead of Bataar.”

This is your debut novel! What was the road to becoming a published author like for you?

I’m very lucky and The Gryphon King is the first novel I queried. I started writing stories when I was very young, and fanfiction after that, and an earlier version of The Gryphon King was the first novel-length work I finished. I immediately shelved it, wrote a few other books, rewrote TGK, queried it, suffered a bit in the endless slush piles, received agent offers, revised, went on submission, and it sold to the most welcoming home.

What’s next for you?

Book two!

Lastly, what books have you enjoyed reading this year? Are there any you’re looking forward to picking up?

I loved S.A. MacLean’s Voidwalker and would enthusiastically recommend it to both fans of monster romances and dark fantasy fans not afraid of trying a romantasy. The brutal worldbuilding is exquisite.

I’m excited for too many books to count. One I need to start is Gabriella Buba’s Daughters of Flood and Fury. I’m looking forward to finishing this stormy, rage-filled, anticolonial duology.

Will you be picking up The Gryphon King? Tell us in the comments below!