A Little Night Magic by Lucy March is a delightful book about coming into your own, standing up for your friends and loved ones, and never, ever giving up on love. Oh, and ceramic animals. (You have to read the book to get that question answered, Romantic Readers!)
Anway, I know there are a lot of magical books out there, and I've been reading most of them. This one stands out because, despite the requisite magical good vs. evil plot, it's quite light-hearted and cheerful and lifting.
I am so happy that Lucy (aka find out for yourself right here) has agreed to answer some of my dopey, awestruck questions, and I hope that you all are intrigued enough to give A Little Night Magic a try. It's the month of love, people! Give this book to yourself as a Valentine's Day present.
Plot description here:
Olivia Kiskey needs a change. She’s been working at the same Nodaway Falls, NY, waffle house since she was a teenager; not a lot of upward mobility there. She’s been in love with Tobias the cook for the last four years; he’s never made a move. Every Saturday night, she gathers with her three best friends – Peach, Millie, and Stacy – and drinks the same margaritas while listening to the same old stories. Intent on changing her life, she puts her house on the market, buys a one-way ticket to Europe, and announces her plans to her friends… but then she meets Davina Granville, a strange and mystical southern woman who shows Olivia that there is more to her small town life than she ever dreamed.
As her latent magical powers come to the surface, Olivia discovers that having an interesting life is maybe not all it’s cracked up to be. The dark side of someone else’s magic is taking over good people in town, and changing them into vessels of malevolence… including Millie, who has been a shining example of sweetness for Liv since they were kids. Unwilling to cede her home to darkness, she battles the demons of her familial past and her magical present, and learns that the important things in life – friendship, love, magic and waffles – can get a girl through almost anything the Universe can throw at her.
Onto the Q&A session with the lovely, talented, and hilarious Lucy March!
Give us a quick rundown of the story in A Little Night Magic and a few words about Olivia and the people of Nodaway Falls, New York.
Liv is a waffle house waitress who discovers that, through a family lineage she never knew about, she has magical powers. The powers seem odd and innocuous at first - she accidentally changes household objects into woodland creatures - but as time goes by and the dark threat grows over Nodaway, she finds she's way more powerful than she thought, and it's up to her to rescue the town. Save the waffles, save the world, that sort of thing. 
What I loved best about the magic in ALNM is how for some people it's fairly inoccuous (though oftentimes throughout the day I wish I could magically create myself a cupcake.) What was your creative process in coming up with the magic of Nodaway? Was it a matter of identifying what powers you wish you had and giving them to your characters?
I tried to imagine what I thought magic would be, if people really had magical talents. Whenever anyone has magic, it's always the ability to do something that's actually helpful in a fight - lightning bolts, swords out of ice, mind control, etcetera - and I thought, if I got a magic power, it'd probably be to make freckles disappear, or change the color of tomatoes. I wanted to build a world where magic was as mundane as the other little talents we're born with, like being able to move your ears. Interesting, but not necessarily helpful in any given situation. In the end, magical or not, how you meet a challenge is about who you are, not what you can do.
Olivia is such a warm person, a woman that comes across like the best friend every reader would want to have. I loved that she wasn't the prettiest, smartest, richest, or whatever else superlative you can come with-est in town, and yet she had this very special attribute. What message were you trying to get across with that?
Olivia is like the rest of us. She's simultaneously wonderful and flawed, and that's what makes her interesting to me. Perfect characters are like teflon; nothing sticks to them. I like characters who are real and human; that makes them fun. I don't know that I was really trying to get anything across with that, so much as I was writing someone I would be interested in, someone who, if she served me coffee at a waffle house, I would ask about her story and be fascinated while she told it.
Tobias. Go.
Ah, Tobias. I love writing the stalwart guy who stands by the heroine through the chaos no matter what. It was fun to twist that and make Tobias part of the chaos. I loved the way he loved her; he didn't need for her to know, didn't need for her to love him back (although it was quite clear she did). All he needed was to keep her safe, and out of trouble. There was something incredibly quiet and selfless about Tobias that I loved. Also didn't hurt that he looked like Jeffrey Dean Morgan (in my head, that is.)
Cain. I'm with Stacy: completely irresistible. Go.
Oh, then you're going to like the next book. That Touch of Magic follows Liv's friend Stacy through her own adventures as she dabbles in conjuring, a form of potions magic for non-magicals. As she gets herself into trouble, it's Cain she turns to to help her out. I'm writing it now; should be out next year.
What I loved about Cain was how dedicated he was to his goal; you wouldn't want to get between this guy and what he wanted, ever. He's not worried about being nice or making friends, he's there to get the job done.
How much research into magic did you do for this book?
I've always been interested in magic, but the kind of magic in this book doesn't exist (to the best of my knowledge) so I sort of just... made it up. I did a lot of thinking about how magic works, why some people have it and others don't, how the transfer of powers works, that sort of thing. But I wouldn't call it research so much as daydreaming. 
I love the relationship among the four best friends. Talk a little bit about this, and why you chose to go in the direction you did with Millie. I found her story so moving; that if you live an unexpressed life, it will be detrimental to you in the long run.
I haven't done much work with tragic figures in my work, not until Millie. It was great fun to write her because I loved her and sympathized with her. She spent her whole life loving one man, living on the belief that one day he would eventually see her, and then he falls for her beautiful friend. It's such a blow, and it comes in her late twenties, which is a time when a lot of women begin to realize that life doesn't necessarily work the way they thought it would, and they have to adjust, because there are no other choices. You can't bend reality to your will. Right at Millie's weakest moment, she was given power to bend some reality to her will, for a little while, and it made a huge mess out of everything. Even though she was horribly destructive, selfish and weak, Millie remains one of my favorite characters that I've ever written. I love her and am sorry for her in so many ways.
And what will your next book be and when can we expect it?
As I mentioned before, the next book is Stacy's book (Liv's incredibly beautiful and incredibly messed-up best friend). It's called That Touch of Magic, and will be out in early 2013. Assuming I get it done on time. Back to work for me!
