Marieke Nijkamp is the author of middle grade titles Splinter & Ash and Ink Girls, as well as several books for young adults, including graphic novels. She lives in the Netherlands. We asked Nijkamp and her editor at Greenwillow, Martha Mihalick, to discuss City of Secrets, book two in the Splinter & Ash fantasy trilogy, which follows a pair of misfits defending their kingdom against a conspiracy.
Martha Mihalick: Marieke, I still remember the feeling I got the first time I read Splinter & Ash. Because by the end of the very first page, I recognized it as the same feeling 10-year-old Martha got when she discovered a new favorite book: Yes, I belong here. I think that’s what I’m always chasing as a reader and an editor. Is it the same for you, as an author?
Marieke Nijkamp: As an author and as a reader! Especially when it comes to middle grade books. I vividly remember picking up what would become one of my favorite reads growing up—Tonke Dragt’s The Letter for the King—and just falling head over heels in love with the world and the adventures. It wasn’t just that it felt like belonging. I wanted to be able to do that too, to build a world with words and invite people in. Some years later, Tamora Pierce’s Tortall books had that same effect on me.
Mihalick: Tamora Pierce! I think we might have spent most of our very first phone call mutually fan-girling over the Tortall books.
Nijkamp: I still remember how comfortable that call was. To me, geeking out over the same books always feels a bit like magic. Here’s a bunch of words on a page, and they affect us so deeply that years later we still carry the stories with us. How cool is that? Because it wasn’t just that we geeked out over the Tortall books, we talked about how and why they influenced us, and it’s so nice when you’re both looking at stories the same way.
Mihalick: I wish our younger selves could have had a book club together.
Nijkamp: Absolutely!
Mihalick: But lucky us to get to work together now! Splinter & Ash shares a lot of the same kind of appeal as Pierce’s Alanna and Kel stories in particular. Could you say more on what this trilogy is about?
Nijkamp: The trilogy follows two brave—and, according to some—unlikely) heroes: Splinter, a nonbinary kid who dreams of becoming a knight like her brother, but so far, only noble sons have been allowed to be squires. And Ash, the youngest daughter of the queen, who’s spent a lot of time away from the palace, and now that she’s home she’s trying to prove herself in front of a court that only sees her cane and her braces. Together, they navigate a kingdom at war, a deathly conspiracy intent on overthrowing the queen, and a palace that doesn’t readily accept them. At its heart, it’s a trilogy about a friendship so fierce you can build a home in it.
And it’s an homage to the Tortall books, to Tonke Dragt’s books, to so many of the adventures I loved as a young reader (and still do now), but with space carved out for nonbinary, queer, and disabled characters specifically. Because they—we—deserve to be heroes too.
Mihalick: I may or may not have actually fist-pumped for both Splinter and Ash at various times while reading these books, because they have such great hero moments!
Fierce friendship—and through that, found family—is a theme that runs through a lot of your middle grade work. What draws you to explore that?
Nijkamp: I love exploring found family. To me, there’s something so wonderfully empowering to the idea that no matter where you come from, no matter what your home or family situation looks like, no matter how lost you may sometimes feel, there are people out there who will love, support, and fight for you as you are. And I think that’s especially important for tweens (and teens!) who are struggling to find their place.
Mihalick: Splinter & Ash started out as a short story, right?
Nijkamp: It did! In This Is Our Rainbow: 16 Stories of Her, Him, Them, and Us, edited by Katherine Locke and Nicole Melleby.
Mihalick: It seems like quite a feat to expand a short story into a whole trilogy! Was the kingdom of Calinor fully formed for you from the beginning, or did you have to do a lot of exploring?
Nijkamp: Oh no, for the short story I did just enough worldbuilding to give the story context. A midwinter celebration (I love stories set in winter!), a maze full of flowers, and Splinter’s complicated family, since the story was from her point of view. But by the time I wrote the book, I actually got to explore several of those same scenes, only from Ash’s point of view. And it was so much fun to see how changing a scene’s point of view changes everything.
Mihalick: I love that—it’s so true. Character is a part of world-building.
Nijkamp: Perspective is so much more than what a character thinks and feels, it’s what and how they observe too. So for me as a writer, knowing which details mattered to which characters and why gave me amazing insight into how the world had to work.
Mihalick: I remember that you had quite a bit of extra material about Calinor that came with the very first draft, too. What happened after you had those perspective insights?
Nijkamp: I got into the nitty gritty of it all. I wrote a short history of Calinor, including past kings and queens. I sketched out how the kingdom worked, from its political dynamics to the way Calinor’s society is structured, to their limited access to magic. I really enjoy worldbuilding. For me, it feels most like the arts-and-crafts part of writing. There’s a lot of jotting down details, sketching out maps and designs. This is the point where I end up drawing terribly quite a lot.
Mihalick: I also love scribbling and drawing! Even with all the technological advances available, I still think best with a pencil in my hand, so I typically print out a manuscript to do my initial editing and then transfer my comments (and often add more!) to a Word doc, which I send to you. What happens when that email arrives on your end?
Nijkamp: I print it out again. I’m sorry, trees! But I’m totally with you, I think best when I’m able to hold a pen to paper. It’s easier for me to visualize what scenes and chapters look like, and I love being able to draw arrows, scratch out what doesn’t work, make notes in the margins... and then I clean it all up once I transfer the revisions to the Word doc too. But I love that we both have that paper step in between! It’s one of my favorite things, finding a comfortable little nook, holing up with bound edits and scribbling away.
Mihalick: Same! And I think my cats prefer it, too, judging from how comfy they seem to find sitting on manuscripts.
Nijkamp: Ha! Mine prefers to wait until my author copies show up at my doorstep. He’ll take a good, comfortable box over fancier cat beds any day!
Mihalick: So your cat and your readers are celebrating that Splinter & Ash #2: City of Secrets is about to be out in the world, and my cats are celebrating that we’re in the thick of book three, which means lots of paper for them to lie on. And it means... you probably have work you should go do!
Nijkamp: *raises sword* On it!
City of Secrets (Splinter & Ash #2) by Marieke Nijkamp. Greenwillow, $18.99 Oct. 7 ISBN 978-0-06-332631-6
