345: Language as World Building in YA Fantasy - Interview with Ellie Cypher

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Today, I have the pleasure of interviewing Ellie Cypher.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Ellie Cypher grew up in Northern California, received her B.S. in Neuroscience and Behavior from UC Santa Cruz and got her Doctor of Veterinary Medicine from the University of California Davis. She has lived and worked all over the world from New Zealand to Tasmania to the United Kingdom.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">When she is not writing, you can find her spending her time caring for all manner of creatures great and small, dreaming about traveling, drinking too much coffee or generally wandering about the beautiful Smoky Mountains with her husband and eleven-year-old black lab.</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">Today we’ll be discussing her debut novel, a YA fantasy titled</span> <em><span style= "font-weight: 400;">The Girl from Shadow Springs.</span></em></p> <h3><span style="font-weight: 400;">In this episode Ellie and I discuss:</span></h3> <ul> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">How the first line is usually what pops into her head first and inspires her to write the book.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Why the arctic wilderness was the perfect backdrop for her novel as it has “a sense of being alone in a void...massive expanse and insular isolation”.</span></li> <li style="font-weight: 400;" aria-level="1"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">What part language, vernacular, and modulation of voice play in stretching the boundaries of the speech characters use and building the world around them.</span></li> </ul> <p> </p> <p><em><span style="font-weight: 400;">Plus, her #1 tip for writers.</span></em></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">For info and show notes: <a href="https://diymfa.com/podcast/episode-345-ellie-cypher" target="_blank" rel="noopener">diymfa.com/345</a></span></p> <p> </p>