notes from maximoff ‘fair warning’ hale.

• When she had edited it completely, KoA was originally 1008 pages but the glue they use for binding couldn’t hold together a book more than 1000 pages long
• Bloomsbury reformatted it all to less than 1000 pages because Sarah didn’t feel like she could delete any of it
• She knew what the end would be five years ago while on a trip in Costa Rica at the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve. Saw the landscape and the final sentence of the series came to her
• She ended up crying in front of all of her in-laws
• Lysandra’s return in Queen of Shadows was inspired by the song “Smack My Bitch Up” by The Prodigy. Not the title or the lyrics but the background music made Sarah think of Lysandra shifting into a snow leopard and she knew that she would be a shapeshifter
• She wanted to make Aelin see other girls as allies and friends and to surround herself with strong women and she realized Lysandra would be the perfect best friend
• The scene when Lysandra saved Rowan and Aedion in Queen of Shadows is one of Sarah’s favorites and was inspired by the song in E.T. when the kids are riding their bikes
• As soon as Lysandra was there, she couldn’t imagine the series without her and she’s one of Sarah’s favorite characters
• Every scene and character is inspired by music
• Aelin has a theme song: “Remember Us” from the 300 soundtrack
• Sarah listened to it when Chaol found out Celaena was Aelin, when the army arrives at the end of EoS, and throughout writing KoA
• As she’s writing books, she makes playlists with songs for scenes and characters 
• Helps when she’s editing so she can re-listen to songs that inspired that scene/chapter to re-enter the headspace
• When writing scenes without music, she worries that they will be ‘emotionally dead’ and it can be a really weird experience
• Rowan and Aedion are one of her favorite relationships—especially when they first meet and Aedion is geeking out. Then when Rowan gives Aedion the dagger at the end of QoS and it becomes his most prized possession
• Manon and Abraxos are also one of her favorite relationships because he brings out her ‘humanity’ and begins the change that leads to her character arc
• Abraxos was inspired by Ferdinand the bull and her aunt’s dog, Buddy, who was rescued from a fighting ring where he was used as a bait dog. He was abused, his teeth were all gone, and they abandoned him on the side of the highway before someone found him. Nevertheless, he was the kindest, sweetest, most trusting dog
• She replicated his story in Abraxos
• Aelin and Rowan is her favorite pairing
• Their journey in Heir of Fire is really special for her
• In Queen of Glass, Aelin and Rowan weren’t together because she was in a relationship with someone else but when Sarah wasn’t writing that, she would write fanfic smut where Aelin and Rowan were hooking up on the side
• When rewriting the series for publication, she realized that Rowaelin should be together, although Rowan should come in later in the series because she wanted Aelin to have the journey of going through first love [triangle] with Dorian and Chaol
• When writing Heir of Fire, she planted the seeds of their romance so when readers reread it, they could understand why he… bit her and stuff lol

“Murtaugh Allsbrook and his riders spread the news like wildfire. Down every road, over every river, to the north and south and west, through snow and rain and mist, their hooves churning up the dust of each kingdom. And for every town they told, every tavern and secret meeting, more riders went out. More and more, until there was not a road they had not covered, until there was not one soul who did not know that Aelin Galathynius was alive—­and willing to stand against Adarlan. Across the White Fangs and the Ruhnns, all the way to the Western Wastes and the red-haired queen who ruled from a crumbling castle. To the Deserted Peninsula and the oasis-­fortress of the Silent Assassins. Hooves, hooves, hooves, echoing through the continent, sparking against cobblestones, all the way to Banjali and the riverfront palace of the King and Queen of Eyllwe, still in their midnight mourning clothes. Hold on, the riders told the world. Hold on”