Laini Taylor talks about the inspiration behind ‘Daughter of Smoke and Bone”s Prague setting

We were planning out a graphic novel. Our first had just come out, The Drowned. I wrote it, Jim illustrated it, our first published book,and we were—and still are—so proud. It had debuted at Comic Con, the big US comic book convention held in San Diego, and as we drove home to Oregon—something like a fifteen-hour drive—we cooked up our next project: a vampire story. Our first thought was to set it in New York. We’d go, we decided, and research it on location. Jim could shoot photo reference for the artwork. We could really get into texture and geography that would make the story richer.

It was my best friend who immediately said, “New York? Why New York? If you’re going to go somewhere, go to Prague.”

And Jim and I looked at each other and said, “Yeah.” And we did.

After the fact, though, we didn’t end up pursuing that story. Things happened. I was midway through my first novel and decided to finish that instead. Time passed. Twilight took over the world and a vampire story seemed less of a good idea. I wrote my second novel. My third. All had exotic settings—including London, which is exotic to me—and to none of these places did I go. I always wanted to, and it was never feasible.

And then my fourth book began to manifest. Again, I toyed with settings. Again, New York came first, then Venice, and then …Prague. As soon as it occurred to me, it clicked as the perfect home for my blue-haired art student with otherworldly connections. Its moody Gothic atmosphere, its mazy ways and stunning beauty.

People have been asking me why. I think that’s been my second most asked question about Daughter of Smoke and Bone. Why Prague?

So here’s is my answer:

—Because it gives me a good excuse to go back, and as a tax write-off to boot!

—Because its atmosphere makes the story richer and more fairy-tale-like while remaining firmly real and now.

—Because its history of magic and mystery, not to mention music and art, makes a perfect fit with the subject matter.

—Because there are puppets there! The proliferation of marionettes in Prague was the most delightful discovery. I have a thing for marionettes. *shrugs*

—Because I wanted to create a magical life for Karou, one that readers (and I) would want to climb right inside of and inhabit alongside her, and setting is one of the best ways I know for doing that. The macabre cafe where she hangs out, the palace that houses her art school, even her flat, all were critical in building Karou’s day-to-day life. It would have been so different if she lived in, say, Portland, Oregon where I live!

When people throw around the term “escapism” in a derogatory way, I don’t get it. I don’t read to get more of real life. Well, I don’t only read to escape it either; I also read to become informed, to enjoy a particular writer’s skill, etc, but mainly, I read to be swept away. By story, suspense, excitement, fun, fantasy, geography, culture. My favorite kind of books are the ones that burst with richness and light and color, set in extraordinary places real or imagined.

As a writer I wish to go to extraordinary places too—in my mind, yes, but also for real. I have a huge appetite for travel. I even pay through the nose for a subscription to the Lonely Planet magazine from the UK because it is the very best travel magazine there is (I hope you know how lucky you are!), and every month I read it and pine, wanting to go to every single place in it.

When I chose Marrakesh as a secondary setting in Daughter of Smoke and Bone, I had not been. I pieced together a sense of place out of travelogs, blogs, youtube videos, flickr sites, and guidebooks—luckily there are a lot of resources! But nothing compares to actually going. I used Marrakesh in the first place because I had become fascinated with it (primarily due to Tahir Shah’s two Morocco books and an American expat blog called My Marrakesh), and writing it into the book gave me the pretext for going, which I did last winter with my husband and baby daughter.

Here we are, in situ:

My current book has an exotic setting too, but I won’t reveal it yet, and I’m already scheming what my next book will be after this trilogy, and where it might take place. Contenders? It’s too soon to say, but I am not above choosing the setting first and then the story to fit it! Give me castles and bazaars, strange carved boats, reindeer with decorated antlers. Give me mangoes and baobabs, a tiger glimpsed from elephant back, an islandscape like something out of the faerie realm. Give me the world and I’ll give you some stories.

It’s the least I can do.