Scott Hawkins, author of THE LIBRARY AT MOUNT CHAR, on Inspiration, Mythology, and Sequels

Scott Hawkins’s newest novel THE LIBRARY AT MOUNT CHAR hit bookshelves on June 16 and Annie Tegelan, Fresh Fiction’s Into the Night columnist sits down with the author to pick his brain about inspiration behind the story, a possible sequel and what kind of books he enjoys reading!

Annie: The protagonist, Carolyn can’t really be considered a normal girl anymore. How would you describe her character to readers?

Scott: That’s the thing, though—to me, at least, Carolyn really is a normal girl. She’s in some unusual circumstances, sure, but it’s not like she was born with superpowers or anything like that. The only thing different about her is that she is absolutely relentless.

Carolyn had the exact same opportunities to throw up her hands and say “sorry, this is too hard” as anybody else in her circle. She could have gotten into drugs, she could have thrown herself into an unhealthy-but-diverting romance, or whatever. She chose not to do these things. She makes strategic retreats, she compromises, she has mastered the fake smile, but she never, ever quits.

There’s a bit late in the book where they talk about how things might have gone differently for Carolyn if she hadn’t been taken in to the Library. She had a regular job, but she also did full Iron Man triathlons. I didn’t put this in the book, but I would have if I’d thought of it: she also probably cried herself to sleep once a month, or got blackout drunk, or had stupid affairs, or something. She would have been bored out of her mind.

I think Carolyn is the sort of person who needs a challenge to set herself against. She was fortunate enough to find it.

Annie: While Carolyn obviously plays a major role in this book, there is also Erwin and poor Steve who gets thrown into all this. How do you think their presence helped shape the storyline?

Scott: Good question, but that’s tough to talk about without being slightly (only slightly) spoiler-y. Consider yourselves warned.

Still here? Okay. There were some very early drafts where Erwin and Steve were a single character. That had a consistency problem, though. The key scene with Erwin, plot-wise, was an action sequence. As originally written, that scene starred Steve. But if the events of that scene were going to happen in a plausible way, Steve had to be a lot less passive in his earlier appearances—he can’t just magically become Action Steve because the plot called for it. But I couldn’t do that because if he’s not passive, it broke the first half of the book. So I eventually decided that we needed a third character.

While I was chewing this over, I stumbled across a little character sketch that I’d written maybe ten years earlier, and had zero memory of. It described a guy who was sort of the Army version of a legendary Marine named Chesty Puller, except he was teaching social studies to 8th graders. He was trying to do something with his life that didn’t involve shooting people. He’d had enough. You can kind of root for him, because he’s so earnest and decent, but at the same time he clearly is a killing machine, and he’s a little out of place at bake sales and PTA meetings. Most of that text got cut, but I liked the general idea of Erwin. He struck me as a lively fellow.

Once Erwin had taken Steve’s place in that key plot moment, it kind of begged the question of why Steve was in the book in the first place. By the time I got done with the first draft Carolyn was shaping up to be a truly cold customer, almost to the point of malevolence. When I noticed this, my first instinct was to reverse course and make her touchy-feely, but that just made the whole third act feel watered down. I finally figured out that Steve was Carolyn’s last link to her humanity—that freed her up to be frosty cold, at least for a while, and gave Steve some agency in the story.

Annie: There is some fantastic worldbuilding in THE LIBRARY AT MOUNT CHAR that blends various mythologies and beliefs together. What gave you the idea to create this library that contains so many vast beliefs and theories?

Scott: Thanks, glad you liked it! Like pretty much everything else, there were a bunch of little reasons. Part of it was that I wanted to write something completely new out of laziness. My last book drew from Christianity and Norse myths, so I spent a lot of time reading medieval manuscripts and angel catalogs. That can be fun, but it’s also a lot of work. Also, bear in mind that when I wrote this I was trying to break out of the slush pile. Pretty much every mythology I could think of had already been tapped by someone famous. I thought it would be easier to stand out if I went in a completely new direction.

Another factor was that I was trying to avoid a straightforward good-vs-evil narrative—angels vs. demons, or people-vs.-Cthulhu, or whatever. I liked the idea that even the best of the librarians weren’t really saints, and even the worst had at least a couple of redeeming qualities.

Partly it was just because I enjoyed it. Having a wide-open canvas gave me an excuse to throw in every weird little idea I could think of. I’ve always had sort of a runaway imagination, so this book was like three months of Christmas.

“I know! This one’s job is ambassador to the underworld! And this one hangs out with mountain lions! And there should be ghost children! A walking iceberg! And lions—everybody likes lions, right? Throw some tentacles in the third act!”

It was a lot of fun.

Annie: It sure sounds like it was! Do you have plans to write a sequel?

Scott: I’m giving it serious thought. Right now I’m working on a short story set about a year after the events of Mount Char. I’m going to give it away on my web site to anyone who’s interested. But I’ve also noticed that it kind of wants to take off and be more than a short story.

When I was working on THE LIBRARY AT MOUNT CHAR, I left a couple of hooks in the manuscript in case I ever decided to go back. Again, minor spoilers, but as a for-instance: one of the characters turns out to be Father’s actual biological child. I don’t have any detailed plans, but I’ve got to believe that that character’s mother is going to be something other than ordinary. Most of the librarians have their catalogs explicitly named or at least alluded to, but I left one of them unspecified in case I need a wild card in future books.

At the same time, though, I don’t want to do something that would be a disappointment. So we’ll see. Annie: When you’re not busy writing or reading, what would we find you most likely doing?

Scott: I like to cook, but Georgia summers are just ridiculously hot. From June until maybe October I do a lot of sandwiches. But starting in the fall I like to make really long, complicated recipes, ideally something where collecting ingredients is a scavenger hunt. Once I did the full ramen recipe from the Momofuku cook book. It’s maybe thirty pages long for all the toppings and whatnot. It took something like seventeen hours.

I watch two or three movies a week, and very occasionally binge watch a TV show. I don’t generally play a lot of video games, but maybe once a year I’ll do nothing else for a week or so. Arkham Knight comes out tomorrow, so in all likelihood productivity will stop for a couple of days while I defend Gotham.

Every afternoon that it isn’t pouring down rain I play fetch with my small army of dogs. This is usually the best part of my day. Theirs too, I think.

Annie: Lastly, what was the last book you read and would you recommend it?

Scott: I just finished one called THE MAN WITHOUT A FACE: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin, by a Russian journalist who is not a fan of the Russian president. It’s about Putin, obviously, but it’s also a kind of survey of the political and social progression of post-communist Russia. It’s informative and very well written. Definitely recommended if you like that sort thing.

Annie: Thank you so much for chatting with us today!

About Scott Hawkins

SCOTT HAWKINS lives in Atlanta with his wife and a large pack of foster dogs. When not writing he enjoys woodwork, cooking long and impractical recipes, and playing fetch with his dogs. He works as a computer programmer. THE LIBRARY AT MOUNT CHAR is his first novel.

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About THE LIBRARY AT MOUNT CHAR

A missing God.

A library with the secrets to the universe.
A woman too busy to notice her heart slipping away.

Carolyn's not so different from the other people around her. She likes guacamole and cigarettes and steak. She knows how to use a phone. Clothes are a bit tricky, but everyone says nice things about her outfit with the Christmas sweater over the gold bicycle shorts.

After all, she was a normal American herself once.

That was a long time ago, of course. Before her parents died. Before she and the others were taken in by the man they called Father.

In the years since then, Carolyn hasn't had a chance to get out much. Instead, she and her adopted siblings have been raised according to Father's ancient customs. They've studied the books in his Library and learned some of the secrets of his power. And sometimes, they've wondered if their cruel tutor might secretly be God.

Now, Father is missing—perhaps even dead—and the Library that holds his secrets stands unguarded. And with it, control over all of creation.

As Carolyn gathers the tools she needs for the battle to come, fierce competitors for this prize align against her, all of them with powers that far exceed her own.

But Carolyn has accounted for this.

And Carolyn has a plan.

The only trouble is that in the war to make a new God, she's forgotten to protect the things that make her human.

Populated by an unforgettable cast of characters and propelled by a plot that will shock you again and again, The Library at Mount Char is at once horrifying and hilarious, mind-blowingly alien and heartbreakingly human, sweepingly visionary and nail-bitingly thrilling—and signals the arrival of a major new voice in fantasy.