James Trevino and Elizabeth Sagan

Authors James Trevino and Elizabeth Sagan were born and live in Romania. They met on a book blog, later graduated from law school, and started writing together. Their passion lies in exploring dark societies with magical undertones and placing deeply flawed characters in impossible situations for your entertainment. When not writing, they can be found playing with their cat familiars or rescuing pigeons. N Magazine met up with the writers to discuss their journey and their book Gravespell, coming out on 6th of April, 2027.

For those discovering you for the first time, can you walk us through a little bit of your story? 

We are James and Elizabeth and we are the authors of Gravespell, a YA fantasy novel set at a modern school for magic. Four students are accused of murdering their classmate, who happens to be the daughter of the American President of Magic. Each of them hides a secret that could ruin their life and any of them could have done it, but they have to work together to find the killer (or to pass the blame on to someone else) because a prophecy foretells a devastating war if the case isn’t solved. This is actually our fourth book together. We started our first book twelve years ago, but we’ve known each other for close to twenty years. We met on a book blog and talked online for a few years, then we ended up attending the same university. That’s when we actually started writing and working together.

Those who have been following you, myself included, know that you’ve been part of the book community for a long time. How did the shift happen from creating content to becoming published authors?

For us, reading and writing always went hand in hand. It’s quite normal for aspiring authors to find themselves in book communities, surrounded by readers, recommending books, reading books, and talking about books. It wasn’t really that much of a shift for us, because ever since we met twenty years ago, we knew we wanted to become fantasy authors. We’ve been working towards that dream even while we were part of the book community.

Because you’ve been around the book community for such a long time and people have gotten to know you through this medium, do you think there are any misconceptions people have about you?

Oh, we have one main one, for sure. Everyone assumes we’re married or at least that we’re together. Everyone assumes we’re a couple. Nobody imagines that we could just be friends, close business partners, or co-writers. That’s the biggest misconception we have to correct, and we have to correct it very often.

What has been the biggest part of being in this community that you didn’t expect?

Honestly, we think it’s the fact that we got to learn how varied people’s reading tastes are. When we started our Instagram accounts, of course, we had our own particular tastes. But it was so interesting to discover so many people with completely different tastes following us, talking to us, and recommending books. Over time, we came to appreciate that it doesn’t really matter what book makes someone read. What matters is that it makes them read. That’s especially important nowadays because we’re in the middle of a literacy crisis. It’s wonderful to have any book make someone read. We’ve seen many different eras of the book community on social media, and we think the development of BookTok has been such a breath of fresh air. It brought in a new generation of readers, and it’s just exciting to watch. That’s what surprised us and what we appreciate about this entire journey: getting to watch new readers come into the community and give it new life.

“We absolutely love building worlds. The best part of writing Gravespell was discovering this new world. In the same way that we’re planners when it comes to the plot and to world-building, we’re discoverers.”

Your book “Gravespell” is coming out in April next year. What can you tell us about the publishing journey and how you got to this moment here?

Gravespell is our fourth book. It comes after many, many years of trying to make our dreams come true. Our first book received 88 rejections from literary agents. Then we wrote a second book, for which we received 35 rejections. Then a third book, for which we received 139 rejections. Finally, after a decade of trying and failing, we took everything we’d learned and all the skills we’d developed and put them into our fourth book, Gravespell. In the end, after 312 rejections, we got our first yes. Sixteen literary agents wanted to read the book, and seven offered representation. We ended up signing with our dream literary agent. It’s honestly been a wild ride. Some days, it still doesn’t feel real. It cost us so much time and so much hard work, but the fact that we’re finally here after so many rejections and so much time makes it totally worth it. And we’re happy that it was this book that made it, rather than one of the others.

How does the process of co-writing a book differ from doing it solo? How did you manage to find the perfect balance when writing?

First of all, we want to say that we couldn’t do this without each other. We complete each other seamlessly. For some reason, the things one of us isn’t good at, the other excels at and vice versa. It’s amazing. And after so many books and so many years, we’ve perfected our process. We know exactly what we have to do when we start a new book. We’re definitely planners. We plan the whole book before we start writing it, scene by scene. We work out so many details before we even put a single word on paper. Then we each take certain chapters, and afterwards we rewrite each other’s chapters so that the style remains cohesive throughout.

How long did that process take for Gravespell?

The first book took us about two years to write. Gravespell took us about six months, maybe even less. It wasn’t easy to write, but it was a pleasure to write. It was a very fun process, which we think is exactly where you want to be when you’re writing the book of your heart.

You’ve been friends for so long, and now you get to write books together. What have you learned from each other throughout this process?

Elizabeth: For me, it’s not only about the writing process. It’s also about human interaction. I’ve learned how to communicate, how to work together, how to solve our differences, and how to keep my eyes on the goal when something comes up.

James: I’ve also learned patience. I was never the most patient person, but when you work with someone full-time, there’s no escaping it. Even when we’re not writing, we’re planning something or outlining something. It’s every single day. So I’ve learned to become a much more patient person, and I’m incredibly grateful for that because that patience has carried over into every other aspect of my life. I think we each learned how to be better people because of this process and because of having to work together every single day.

“Over the years, especially Elizabeth, we’ve faced a lot of dismissal from people who didn’t believe in this career path. Because, in the end, writing is a career. So many people told us it couldn’t be done, and especially that it couldn’t be done in Romania. And we’re so happy that we proved them wrong.”

You just had your first event for Gravespell recently. How did that feel, and what do you hope for on your future book tours?

Elizabeth: For me, it felt like closing a circle. The event took place at Cărturești Carusel, which is the biggest bookstore in Romania and also the place where I used to write the first book ten years ago. Having the event there felt like a dream come true and like closing a circle. There were over 200 people at the event, which made me feel so blessed, grateful, and happy that there was so much enthusiasm around the story.

James: It also felt validating. Over the years, especially Elizabeth, we’ve faced a lot of dismissal from people who didn’t believe in this career path. Because, in the end, writing is a career. So many people told us it couldn’t be done, and especially that it couldn’t be done in Romania. And we’re so happy that we proved them wrong.

The event really felt like closing a circle for another reason too. The moderator was our Romanian editor, and he also happened to own the book blog where we met twenty years ago. We got to know each other because of him, and then he ended up getting our book. It makes us believe in fate. It’s amazing.

Are there any future plans for possible next books you can disclose?

We sold three books to our publisher, so Gravespell will be at least a trilogy. The second book is already with our editor. The first draft is done, and we’re still editing it. As writers, we have to keep busy all the time. We can’t wait to be able to say more, but that’s all we can reveal for now.

Because we get to talk about books, I really wanted to hear about the books you grew up with that inspired you. I think every person who writes has those books that stay with them.

Elizabeth: My favorite series is The Dark Tower by Stephen King. I loved the expansive universe and the feeling that the story and the universe would continue to exist even if the protagonist disappeared. It has a history and a future outside of the main conflict. I wanted to create something like that.

James: I think expansive world-building is one of our favorite things because we’re fantasy readers first, and now we’re fantasy writers. I’d love to write something like The Wheel of Time one day, which is another expansive fantasy universe. I love epic fantasy.

Elizabeth: We absolutely love building worlds.

The best part of writing Gravespell was discovering this new world. In the same way that we’re planners when it comes to the plot and to world-building, we’re discoverers. We loved discovering a new world for ourselves and then putting little pieces of it on paper. For Gravespell, we have a 60-page world-building document, and what’s actually in the book is only the tip of the iceberg. We love doing that for ourselves. It’s such a fun part of the process. It really is the best part of writing. So, I guess the answer is expansive fantasy worlds. That’s what we love working with and what we love reading.

If we get to do this interview again in five years from now, what would you hope has changed, and what would you hope has stayed the same?

Elizabeth: I hope we’ll be talking about more books that we’ve written. And I hope our friendship and our career paths stay the same.

James: I think that’s the most important thing because I don’t want to do this alone. I just want to be able to do this with her for as long as possible.

Elizabeth: And I don’t want to do this alone either.

James: Hopefully, in five years, we’ll also be talking about many, many readers of our books, because that will allow us to continue working together on these passion projects. They’re essentially passion projects for us.

Talent: James Trevino and Elizabeth Sagan

Photographer: Cătălina Urse

Interviewer: Violeta Nicola