{"id":5375,"date":"2023-05-04T04:58:35","date_gmt":"2023-05-04T04:58:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/160-the-words\/?page_id=5375"},"modified":"2024-08-08T18:53:31","modified_gmt":"2024-08-08T18:53:31","slug":"ink-blood-sister-scribe-emma-torz-releases-debut-novel-this-mont","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/home-2\/the-words-may-2023\/ink-blood-sister-scribe-emma-torz-releases-debut-novel-this-mont\/","title":{"rendered":"Ink Blood Sister Scribe: Emma T\u00f6rzs Releases Debut Novel"},"content":{"rendered":"

By: Sydney Ellison \u201824<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Ink<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Professor Emma T\u00f6rzs is a professor in the English department at Macalester College, most recently teaching ENGL 150  (Introduction to Creative Writing) and ENGL 294 (Crafts of Writing: Fantasy Fiction). <\/span>Outside of her instruction at Macalester she also remains a writer and translator based in Minneapolis. With a publishing history that includes work in Ploughshares, Uncanny Magazine, Strange Horizons, and American Short Fiction, Professor T\u00f6rzs is getting ready to release her debut novel, Ink Blood Sister Scribe<\/i>, on May 30th in the US. I got the opportunity to ask Emma some questions about this exciting new novel, as well as the process she experienced leading all the way up to its coming release.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ink Blood Sister Scribe<\/i> is a standalone adult fantasy novel following two estranged half-sisters brought up to protect their family\u2019s library of magic books. After a decade long of separation, one sister in Vermont, the other in Antarctica, they are reunited when their father is mysteriously killed by one of his own magical volumes. Describing the aftermath of his death, Emma writes, \u201cGlobetrotting mayhem ensues.” T\u00f6rzs says the book was inspired by her own sister, friends, American singer-songwriters Moses Sumney and Joanna Newsom, the claustrophobia and isolation of the 2020 pandemic year, getting a cat, Maggie Stiefvater\u2019s Call Down the Hawk, <\/i>her own personal work as a translator, and all of her favorite fantasy tropes, as well as many more wonderful things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to d<\/span>iscussing the project itself, I also got to pick T\u00f6rzs’ brain about what it’s like to be a debut novelist and what her publishing journey was like. T\u00f6rzs says it was \u201cexciting and stressful” to balance the mental and physical workload that goes into releasing a novel, on top of the full-time commitment of working at Macalester, but says teaching was a welcome distraction. T\u00f6rzs gives us a little glimpse into what she\u2019s juggling, for example, \u201cI have to sign 11,000 tip-in pages [signed cover pages that will be printed in the hardback] for my UK publishers, which takes about 3 hours per 1,000 signatures, so that’s 33 hours of time I’ve had to budget in the past month amidst class planning, grading, living life etc.\u201d All that being said, T\u00f6rzs says that the most challenging part of her busy schedule is not being able to having any time to write, saying, \u201cBetween work and pre-release anxiety, it’s been a long time since I’ve had the time and mental space to sink into a new project, and I miss it terribly.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

T\u00f6rzs is excited for a<\/span>ll readers of Ink Blood Sister Scri<\/i>be<\/i>, to enjoy her product of laborious love, hopefully enough to continue reading for whatever she writes next, as she already wades into a new project, she was even kind enough to give us a few keywords for what might be to come next. T\u00f6rzs says to look out for: \u201cloon, moon, loom, broom.” A captivating forbearance from an already inspired storyteller, it goes without saying that what Ink Blood Sister Scribe<\/i> has in store for all of us will surely be a magical journey like no other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A book launch for Emma’s book was held at Moon Palace Books on June 1, 2023. The evening featured readings from Emma, Lesley Nneka Arimah, Sally Franson, and Abbey Mei Otis. If you want to order a copy visit <\/span>https:\/\/linktr.ee\/inkblinksis.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Emma,<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

And subscribe to Emma\u2019s website to stay up to date <\/span>http:\/\/www.emmaemmaemma.com\/<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Words<\/span><\/i> thanks Emma T\u00f6rzs for letting us talk about this exciting new release!<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By: Sydney Ellison \u201824 Professor Emma T\u00f6rzs is a professor in the English department at Macalester College, most recently teaching ENGL 150  (Introduction to Creative Writing) and ENGL 294 (Crafts of Writing: Fantasy Fiction). Outside of her instruction at Macalester she also remains a writer and translator based in Minneapolis. With a publishing history that […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":913,"featured_media":0,"parent":5203,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-5375","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/913"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5375"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5375\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7877,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5375\/revisions\/7877"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}