Divergent author Veronica Roth is back with a new book – just don’t call it romantasy
Nicole Abadee
You have reached the maximum number of registered items.
Remove items from your saved list to add more.
“If you really love, you don’t need discipline.” So says stratospherically successful American author Veronica Roth Divergent Science fiction trilogy, when asked how he managed to write 13 books in 15 years. We’re talking via Zoom just before the release of his latest book. Search for the Traitor’s Son; Roth is in Chicago, where he lives, and I’m in Sydney.
Divergent It was released in 2011 and subsequently Rebel in 2012 and Loyal Roth has sold more than 45 million books worldwide and the books have been translated into 48 languages. The films of the trilogy grossed $765 million at the box office. It’s a remarkable achievement for a self-described introvert who grew up in Illinois, the youngest of three children.
YA superstar Veronica Roth.Nelson Fitch
Young Roth read everything he could get his hands on – Judy Blume, Baby-Sitters Club The books his father and brother introduced him to, especially science fiction and fantasy. He started writing his own fantasy books at the age of 11: “Lord of the Rings “robbery” because he had just watched the movie. She didn’t see writing as a potential career — “I thought of it as fun, a source of joy and escape,” she told me.
After school, she enrolled in a creative writing course at Northwestern University in Illinois. In class, students had to listen silently as classmates critiqued their stories, which taught Roth a lesson: “If someone who is deeply involved in your work doesn’t understand what you’re trying to do, it’s because you’re not doing it right. You have to stop being defensive and learn to improve.”
Roth wrote Divergent During the winter break of his final year at university, he returns to the manuscript he wrote four years ago, when he was 18 (though he has made significant changes). His agent pitched it to publishers, and what happened next is something most aspiring writers can only dream of. His agent called him and told him he had a six-figure, three-book deal.
He was 23 and still in college. How did he feel? “Happy. Excited. Scared. The happy part was that I wanted to be published. But the intensity level was high,” he says. “I thought the book would be published normally, but the bid was really high; I don’t mean to be rude, but it was a lot of money. I went crazy.”
