Interview with a secretive wizard ✨

You know those fairy-tale stories with characters who can't lie but manage to mislead very well all the same?

Alexander Hartgrave from The Opposite of Magic is that sort of twisty soul. It's not that he literally can't lie, mind you. But for various [redacted] plot reasons, he's hiding things with selective truth telling.

(That, plus the fact that he's a secret wizard, is absolute catnip for the nosy, slightly fantasy-obsessed coworker whose computer he has to keep fixing for various other [redacted] plot reasons.)

Here's a guy, I thought, who would be fun and/or infuriating to interview.

Without further ado, here's how it went—free of major spoilers, of course:

Q: Why don't you want people to know you're a wizard?

A: I'm most certainly not a wizard.

Q: Yes, OK: Why don't you want people to know you can manipulate magic, which you named "convincing" just so you can call yourself a convincer rather than a wizard?

A: Among other reasons, it substantially reduces the amount of requests I get to do impossible things.

Q: What are your other reasons? List them all, please.

A: No.

Q: You promised you'd answer my questions.

A: Technically, "no" is an answer, which is why you should have been more specific in our bargain. Tsk.

Q: OK, true. But while we're on the subject of technicalities, "I'll never write a novel about you that you won't like" doesn't cover novellas, novelettes, short stories, epic poetry or limericks.

A: If you write an actual limerick, I will eat my hat. With taco seasoning.

Q: There once was a wizard named Hartgrave ...

A: Hah! Good luck finding rhymes for that.

Q: Dark cave.

A: Weak.

Q: Tart save.

A: Now you're just stringing random words together.

Q: Unmarked grave.

A: [Annoyed glare]

Q: You do that very well. Nice eyebrow work.

A: I've had a lot of practice. [Different annoyed glare, one that implies things about the experience of being a main character in a Colleen Cowley book]

Q: Oops. Sorry.

A: How about an addendum to the bargain? You won't write anything about me I won't like, poetic or not, and I'll answer your questions to your satisfaction until the interview is over.

Q: [Thinks carefully about whether "answer your questions to your satisfaction" could be twisted to mean the opposite]

A: Well?

Q: All right, you have a deal. Now, how do you like Emily Daggett, PhD, history of magic specialist?

A: [First smile of the interview appears, reluctant and rusty with disuse]

Q: Awww.

A: This interview is over.

Q: Expect your awful limerick forthwith.

A: You realize you neglected to bargain about the length of the interview or who could end it.

Q: Damn it!

A: Always a pleasure.

Have a question for Hartgrave? Hit reply and he'll answer it. No guarantees about whether you'll find the answer satisfactory.

Find Hartgrave and Daggett's book here.

Already read it? Scroll to the bottom of this email, click the book-gifts link, and grab the free collection of stories about them.

Now:

➡️ Vote here on the character you'd most like to read an interview with. ⬅️

(Among my characters, that is. I don't have any pull with other characters.)

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