Q&A: Maria Z. Medina, Author of ‘Mistress of Bones’

We chat with author Maria Z. Medina about Mistress of Bones, which is an epic, multi-POV debut fantasy perfect for fans of The Bone Shard Daughter and Six of Crows, where a necromancer trying to resurrect her sister gets embroiled in bigger, world-ending plans instead.

Hi, Maria! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?

Hi! Thank you so much for having me! My name is Maria Z. Medina, and I’m originally from Spain. I’ve always been an avid reader and quite the daydreamer, and at one point I thought I might be an archaeologist instead of an artist. Now I write down my daydreams and slay monsters in MMOs amongst the ruins of ancient civilisations instead.

When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?

I’ve always made up stories in my head or while playing with toys (my Legos had very exciting lives!) but what pushed me into actually writing them was when I was about twelve or thirteen and something clicked in my head that made me go, “you know, you could just write this stuff like if it were a book,” and I never looked back. (Honestly, it might’ve been that I ran out of Spanish translations of the kinds of books I liked…)

The first story I clearly remember writing had a Dragonlance-like worldbuilding, and it included an escape through a castle’s underground tunnels that might or might not have been heavily borrowed from the mines sequence in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom… (When inspiration hits, inspiration hits!)

Quick lightning round! Tell us:

• The first book you ever remember reading: Dragons of Autumn Twilight (Dragonlance #1). I’m sure there were many before I still remember reading, but I have such concise memories of being a kid and reading this for 1-2 hours every evening in our living room, it might as well have been the first.
• The one that made you want to become an author: I can’t point to any particular book that pushed me into wanting to be an author, but I think one of the main things that helped me was the fact that I read female authors from the very start. From Margaret Weis to CJ Cherryh to Ursula K Le Guin to Anne Rice and Victoria Holt. In my mind, there was no reason I couldn’t simply become an author.
• The one that you can’t stop thinking about: How many words can you fit in this article, haha. Honestly there are so many! I’m a mood-based, certified re-reader so books that get stuck in my head usually depend on how I’m feeling.

Your debut novel, Mistress of Bones, is out August 5^th! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?

Am I allowed to quote one of my favourite movies? “Death is only the beginning.”

What can readers expect?

My editor called Mistress of Bones “swashbuckling Gothic,” and I’ve never felt more seen. There is action, there are twists, there is banter, there are rapiers, there are necromancers necromancing and fun worldbuilding. But beyond that, it’s all about love, power, and greed, and how it manifests in so many different ways, from deep sibling love to thinking you know better than the gods.

Where did the inspiration for Mistress of Bones come from?

My love for swashbuckling stories like The Three Musketeers. I wanted to write something fun, something that kept me on my toes. At that point in my publishing journey, I wasn’t feeling so optimistic about the process. My novel on sub had died a long, agonizing death, and none of the stories I was starting were working out.

At this point I decided to just go for something I didn’t think I could ever do, and put in it everything that I wanted to write about: types of character I’d wanted to write for a while in a weird kind of world because I absolutely love coming up with weird kinds of worlds. And also, I was going to set it in a Spain/Mediterranean-inspired world because I wanted to have as much fun as I used to when watching or reading swashbuckling stories. The whole death and necromancing part snuck in probably due to my love of Gothic novels…

Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?

I absolutely loved writing the Emissary of the Lord Death. He is my protagonist’s main antagonist but also ally and maybe something more? He’s a devoted follower of the god of death, and it was absolutely fascinating to dig into this thought process and see the cracks appear the longer he spent with Azul, my protagonist. Writing his and Azul’s banter as each tries to outplay the other to reach their goals was, honestly, an absolute joy.

Did you face any challenges whilst writing? How did you overcome them?

My main challenge was how to make everything fit properly! When you have multiple PoVs with their own plots and a dual timeline, it can get really tricky to arrange the characters and their stories’ interactions so it’s a balanced reading experience. Scapple (a whiteboard program) was an absolute life saver, and the resulting mess of notes and arrows makes for a neat party trick in conversations about plotting.

This is your debut novel! What was the road to becoming a published author like for you?

It was long and twisty but so worth it! I began querying back in 2014 and had a couple of close calls (one literally involved a call, haha) until finally signing with my agent in 2018 and then signing my second book on submission in 2022. It took patience and a good number of manuscripts, and back when I started I definitely thought it wouldn’t take this long (past-Maria was very confident). There have been dark moments in the journey, and I’m sure there will be more ahead of me, but I try to treasure each win, each step forward, no matter how small it might be.

What’s next for you?

I just finished drafting the sequel to Mistress of Bones (the Scapple plot murder map is a true thing of beauty this time—it’s going to be an absolute hit in plotting discussions!), and I’m looking forward to starting on my next idea, if I can figure out which one to choose!

Lastly, what books have you enjoyed reading this year? Are there any you’re looking forward to picking up?

I absolutely devoured Rebel Witch by Kristen Ciccarelli and A Rather Vengeful Accord by Danielle Knight, which I had the pleasure as an ARC. Because I’m such a mood reader, I mostly stumble into books rather than keep a list of anticipated ones, but I’m really looking forward to reading The Executioners Three by Susan Dennard, and Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng by Kylie Lee Baker has been burning a hole in my TBR!

Will you be picking up Mistress of Bones? Tell us in the comments below!