Fantasy Book Critic: SPFBO Finalist Interview - Hiyodori, the Author of The Forest at The Heart of Her Mage

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Hiyodori is not a bird. But she is dearly fond of her namesake, a plain-looking brown-gray bird that likes to perch near her Tokyo apartment and unleash the most incredible primal screams. Hiyodori (the human author) loves stories with fantastical settings and complicated, difficult-to-define relationships. All of her books—including Carrion Saints, her latest standalone novel—take place in the same shared fantasy universe.

The Forest at The Heart of Her Mage links: Amazon, Goodreads

Thank you for agreeing to this interview. Before we start, tell us a little about yourself.

Thanks for having me! I’ve just emerged from a month spent obsessively playing the latest game in the Trails series (epic story-heavy RPGs from a company called Nihon Falcom). I'm still reeling! In a good way, that is.

I’ve been based in Tokyo for a while now, and I love it here, but I pretty much live the opposite of a bustling city life. Some areas are actually very quiet, with plenty of greenery and few high-rise buildings. Each Tokyo neighborhood (usually centered around the nearest train station) feels like a town unto itself. There’s a place for every type of personality.

Do you have a day job? If so, what is it?

Yes—one that uses a totally different part of my brain, so it feels like a refreshing break from writing (and vice versa). Loosely speaking, my role has elements of marketing, business strategy, and project management. So I get to do a lot of planning and light number crunching.

Who are some of your favorite writers, and why is their work important to you?

I really admire Megan Whalen Turner. Every single book in her Queen’s Thief series is a gem of elegant writing, tight plotting, and subtle characterization. She’s unbelievably good at evoking powerful emotions through implication, with understated language. I first encountered her work decades ago, and I love it just as much today. The Queen’s Thief series also happens to contain one of my favorite romantic arcs in any storytelling medium—which, for those familiar with the details, probably tells you a lot about my taste in romance.

I also have a soft spot for Haruki Murakami because (many years ago) his novels were among the first books that I read from start to finish in Japanese.

What do you like most about the act of writing?

Not to turn this question around on you, but there’s really only one aspect of writing that I strongly dislike. Everything else—planning, drafting, line editing, working through story-related roadblocks, and so on—is fun and rewarding in its own time and its own way. I don’t think I could pick a favorite phase of the process.

The one part of it that I find downright grueling comes right after finishing a first draft. This is when I make myself read through the entire manuscript without making any changes. I go pretty quickly, and I take notes about plot issues or things to expand on. I hate this read-through because it kills me to breeze past all my clumsy first draft prose without fixing it right then and there.

Still, I’ve never considered skipping that first read. It’s an invaluable way to get a big-picture view of how the story flows before starting in on line-level edits. Everything else about writing feels like pure joy in comparison!

Can you lead us through your creative process? What works and doesn’t work for you? How long do you need to finish a book?

The Forest at the Heart of Her Mage is around 144,000 words. My final outline for it ended up at almost 48,000 words: a third of the length of the actual book.

Proportionally speaking, my outlines usually end up being just about that long. But I don’t complete the entire thing before I dive into the first draft. I start with an outline of a couple thousand words in length, and then the outline and the novel itself grow side by side, from beginning to end. I keep the outline on my screen at all times when drafting, so I never feel like I’m facing a truly blank page.

All of my novels have been written in Scrivener. Couldn’t live without it.

I write and publish two to three books per year. Counting from the moment I start the first draft, I can have a sub-100k book ready for publication with about four months of near-daily work. But that leaves out all the time I may have spent pre-planning the story (whether in past years, or while wrapping up work on a previous novel).

What made you decide to self-publish The Forest at the Heart of Her Mage as opposed to traditional publishing?

This was my fifth self-published novel. Once I got started with self-publishing, it immediately felt so right that I never considered any other path.

What’s your favorite and least favorite parts of self-publishing?

I love being able to do everything myself. And I really, really love having immediate access to sales data. I suppose my day job gave me a taste for that. I’ve got a ton of respect for traditional publishing, but I would struggle with not being able to see daily orders, royalties, etc. That being said, I don’t do anything terribly sophisticated with all this data. I just happen to find it extremely motivating.

As for my least favorite parts of self-publishing… well, I've completely opted out of social media, for instance. Other than that—self-publishing does offer an astonishing amount of control, but even then, you can't control everything. You’re ultimately still reliant on the fairness and accuracy of publishing platforms, which aren’t one hundred percent perfect for everyone at all times (nothing is).

Why did you enter SPFBO?

I’ve followed the contest with great interest and admiration for several years now. (Another standalone novel of mine—The First and Last Demon—ended up being a semifinalist last year.) It’s an incredibly unique opportunity, especially given the fact that there are no entry fees. I’ve never considered entering any other contests, to be honest.

How would you describe the plot of The Forest at the Heart of Her Mage if you had to do so in just one or two sentences?

Tiller is finally ready to revisit the deadly forest where she grew up. But the charismatic mage who enlists as her bodyguard might end up being more dangerous than any of the forest’s magical monsters.

What was your initial inspiration for The Forest at the Heart of Her Mage? How long have you been working on it? Has it evolved from its original idea?

I wrote and published this novel in 2023. From start to end, it took me about five months total. At the same time, many of the basic story ideas came from an abandoned manuscript that I'd left untouched for almost a decade. Perhaps because of that, I honestly have no memory of what originally inspired me.

While key concepts carried over—the names of the main characters, family relationships, the forest, certain monsters, core emotional dilemmas—what I essentially did was salvage my old novel for parts. I wouldn’t even describe it as rewriting from scratch, because I had no interest in creating an improved version of my unpublished past work. I wanted to cook something brand new with similar ingredients.

What genre does it belong to?

It’s a sapphic fantasy romance. (However, the central romance is very slow-burn and low-heat.)

The story takes place in a fictional world with relatively modern amenities—neither overtly futuristic nor medieval, although the characters spend much of their time trekking around in uninhabited wilderness. In that sense, it could be also described as secondary-world contemporary fantasy.

If you had to describe it in 3 adjectives, which would you choose?

Off the top of my head: eerie, pensive, layered.

Is it part of the series or a standalone? If series, how many books have you planned for it?

This is a standalone novel set in the same overall universe as my other stories (including the Clem & Wist series, which has five books to date). I intended for it to be approachable even with zero prior knowledge of the setting.

Who are the key players in this story? Could you introduce us to The Forest at the Heart of Her Mage’s protagonists/antagonists?

Tiller, the protagonist, is a thirty-year-old refugee from a fearsome magical forest. She’s spent the past two decades living quietly in a major city, helping out fellow refugees while also striving not to attract unwanted attention. At the start of the book, she commits to journeying back to the long-lost village of her childhood.

In romance, the main character’s love interest is often positioned as an antagonistic force—not always in the sense of being an evil villain (although I’m personally all for that), but rather in terms of how they serve to spark conflict and drive the story forward. That’s why I’m labeling the following character an antagonist, despite this not being an enemies-to-lovers story.

Carnelian, the love interest and arguable antagonist, is a military mage with a terrible reputation. She’s a frivolous, charming flirt, better known for drinking and gambling than for following orders. Given the horrific risks posed by the notorious magical forest, she’s also the one and only mage willing to accompany Tiller there as a paid bodyguard.

Personality-wise, they’re total opposites. But both of them have a ton of secrets, which get peeled back little by little as they venture deeper into the monster-ridden wilderness where Tiller first grew up.

Does your book feature a magic/magic system? If yes, can you describe it?

It does! I will attempt to describe it as succinctly as possible.

Some people are born with a metaphysical organ known as a magic core. This appears in the population at random; it’s not hereditary in any predictable way. Each core has a specific number of magic branches (kind of like long trailing veins). In most cases, that number is zero—which means you can’t actually use magic, period, and your core just sort of sits there. Also, each branch needs to be imprinted with a specific magic skill before you can use it. So a one-branch mage would be able to learn and utilize a single type of magic (for instance: a limited variant of short-distance teleportation).

All of the above pertains to human magic, which is heavily regimented. The eldritch magic of the forest is something altogether different. It defies human understanding and all attempts to define it. So this novel features the interaction of those two overarching magic systems: one with strict rules, the other wild and loose.

Have you written the book with a particular audience in mind?

I wrote this book for myself. And—by extension—for anyone who shares my penchant for complex, intense, slow-developing sapphic relationships in a magical world.

That’s what I had in mind when I wrote it, at any rate. Personally speaking, as a reader, the promise of that relationship is what would hook me. On the other hand, I’ve heard from people who’ve enjoyed my novels simply as works of fantasy, even if romance in general isn’t really their thing. It’s an honor to think that my writing might have something to offer other types of readers as well.

What’s new or unique about your book that we don’t see much in speculative fiction these days?

I hesitate to assert that anything in my novel is 100% unique or even rare. I read widely, but the umbrella of speculative fiction covers so, so, so many fascinating stories and concepts. Any one feature I choose to highlight might very well be commonplace in a different niche.

I guess I would instead point to the total package—the way these elements combine together. The main characters are both adult women in their thirties. The setting is contemporary, albeit without a direct parallel in the real world. Magic and technology are seen as complementary forces. The romance becomes emotionally intense over time, but it’s low on sentimentality (and any hints of spicy content are all fade-to-black). There are terrifying monsters and zombie-like beings and violent battle scenes, and there are obvious issues with the society that the characters live in, but the deepest conflicts and the highest stakes are all internal.

Anyway, magical forests are a dime a dozen in fantasy! I hope that the particular details of the one in this story make it feel fresh and intriguing and real (or should I say surreal?).

Cover art is always an important factor in book sales. Can you tell us about the idea behind the cover of The Forest at the Heart of Her Mage and the artist?

I made the cover with an illustration licensed from Shutterstock. The wonderful artist, Tithi Luadthong, can also be found at the below sites.

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/grandfailure9/

Fine Art America: https://fineartamerica.com/profiles/tithi-luadthong

As for why I chose that specific art piece: I was looking for something with magical forest-y vibes, and it fit perfectly, right down to the mystical figure in the middle. (Which could be interpreted as either good or evil, inviting or menacing.)

What are you currently working on that readers might be interested in learning more about, and when can we expect to see it released?

I’m currently working on a hefty standalone novel (another sapphic fantasy romance) that still needs an enormous amount of editing. It’s quite dark, but also weirdly cozy at times. I’m hoping to have it ready for publication sometime within the first few months of 2025.

Thank you for taking the time to answer all the questions. In closing, do you have any parting thoughts or comments you would like to share with our readers?

It was my pleasure! I’m tremendously honored to be a finalist. I’m a bit reclusive by nature (and that might be an understatement). So I’m continually touched and amazed by how people keep finding and reading my books. I owe a huge thanks to everyone who has ever given my work a chance.