Author Interview: Mats Strandberg on 'The Circle' and Fantasy

Realms Young Adult Fantasy Literary Magazine: Will you give us a brief background about who you are and where you’re from?

Mats Strandberg: I come from Fagersta, a small industrial town in the middle of deep forests. It has a lot of similarities with Engelsfors. Except there’s no apocalypse there, as far as I know. I moved to Stockholm on my own when I was sixteen, and after high school, I started working as an entertainment reporter for TV and magazines. My first novel was published in 2006. I love horror, reality TV, Vermont, art, I eat way too much ice cream, and I got married this past week.

Realms: Did you begin your writing career more interested in journalism or in novel writing, and how has that changed?

Mats: I have always had a dream of becoming a writer. There are a lot of pictures of me as a kid sitting by the typewriter. I was almost published when I was seventeen years old, actually. I had written a book that was a complete rip-off of everything I loved at the time; Donna Tartt, Bret Easton Ellis, Stephen King, The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer, and, erm, V. C. Andrews. So there was a lot of incest and coke sniffing ballet dancers…. It was a hot mess. I’m so, so glad the publishing house said no in the end.

Realms: You co-authored The Engelsfors Trilogy with Sara B. Elfgren. How did the two of you come up with the idea of the books and what made you decide to write it together?

Mats: Sara worked at a movie production company and she liked the two novels I had published by then. She asked for a meeting and I was really impressed. Nothing really came of the meeting but we instantly realized that we had a lot of common ground; we both loved really good teenage drama, for instance My So Called Life, Veronica Mars, Twin Peaks, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Freaks and Geeks. We also talked a lot about Curtis Sittenfeld’s novel Prep. We decided we should try to create something together, something about a group of teenagers in a small town with a lot of preconceived notions about each other, who are forced to get to know each other––and themselves––through some sort of mission or project. We had a lot of different ideas about what this project could be. When we realized that they could be witches, forced together to save the world, everything just fell into place. Creating this story was like putting everything we love about pop culture in a big blender. And, also, write the kind of books we really wanted to read ourselves, about characters we really loved.

Mats Strandberg, co-author of The Circle
Photo by: Magnus Liam Karlsson

Realms: What are some of the positive aspects of working with another author on a series and what are some of the challenges?

Mats: Well, there are many amazing things about being two authors. It could have gone horribly wrong, I suppose, but we were lucky. Ideas get twice as good in half the time. I loved reading Sara’s chapters, and I loved reading my own chapters after Sara had edited them. We both edited each other’s texts, over and over, until we couldn’t tell the difference anymore. It’s fun to have someone to play pretend with. We really spent most of our waking hours together in Engelsfors for five years. People often ask if we disagreed a lot, and of course we did. That’s the whole point of collaboration. When we really disagreed, it almost always turned out that none of our ideas were really that strong. That’s when we came up with totally new plot twists and stuff together, which often became our favorite parts of the books.

Realms: What appealed to you about writing from the point of view of YA characters?

Mats: A lot of things. High school itself is such a great arena. It’s a place where you are forced to spend day after day with people you have nothing in common with except being born in the same year. It was also really good therapy writing these books. I have really understood myself at that age so much better––and was able to forgive myself for a lot.

Realms: The books shift point of view between the six witches who make up the main characters, and a couple other characters, as well. What made you and Sara decide to tell the stories from multiple points of view, instead of one?

Mats: That was one of the most fun parts about writing. To play with the characters’ differences, their backgrounds and personalities, and their different views on everything that happens to the group. Also, with more characters, you can take more risks as an author. If you only have one POV, that character has to be relatable, understandable, and preferably likeable for as many readers as possible, which often makes the main character quite bland. I don’t know how many people would pick up a book that was told from only Anna-Karin’s or Vanessa’s POV. Here, the reader almost becomes a part of The Circle.

Realms: Out of the six witches, do you have a favorite?

Mats: I honestly don’t. It changes all the time. The mix of them was what I loved the most. For instance, after writing a lot about Minoo or Anna-Karin, who are very introverted and over-analyzing, it could feel like a relief to write about Vanessa, who is just as smart, but is more spontaneous and driven by instinct rather than logic.

RMV Film, started by Benny and Ludvig Andersson

Realms: Did the Swedish film adaptation of The Circle follow the plot of the book closely? Did you enjoy the film?

Mats: Yes! Sara wrote an amazing script with the director, Levan Akin. And we are both executive producers, so we were both very involved in, for instance, casting. Also, this is the first film made by RMV Film, a production company started by ABBA legend Benny Andersson and his son Ludvig, so they have been just as eager as us to make this film as awesome as possible. I’m so happy with the result. A lot of changes have been made, of course. But the film is so true to what’s important; the characters and their emotional journeys, and the core themes, like the importance of empathy.

Realms: Do you plan on writing or co-writing any more YA Fantasy books in the future?

Mats: I am sure I will! And Sara and I will definitely work together again.

Realms: What are you currently working on?

Mats: I am working on a non-YA horror novel that will be published in Sweden this fall. It is set on a cruise ship on the cold waters between Sweden and Finland, and it all happens within twelve hours at night. It’s a great setting for horror. You can’t get off the boat, and the phones don’t work….

Realms: Which author(s) influence you the most?

Mats: Probably Stephen King. I started reading him when I was ten, and he really made me fall in love with horror and fantasy, and putting it in a familiar every-day life.

Realms: Outside of the world of reading and writing, what is your favorite thing to do?

Mats: Hanging out with friends, really. Talking.

Realms: If there was the kind of magic in this world that is in storybooks, what would you want to be or be able to do?

Mats: I would love to be able to fly. I have dreamt of that ever since I saw my first Superman movie when I was a kid. If that doesn’t work, teleportation would be very practical, too.

The Circle is the first novel in the Engelsfors Trilogy, written by Mats Strandberg and Sara B. Elfgren. Six witches––Minoo, Vanessa, Linnéa, Anna-Karin, Rebecka, and Ida––are drawn together by an invisible force on the night of a blood-red moon. Though they are nothing alike, they must learn to work together to discover their powers, save the world, and survive high school.

For more information about the trilogy, visit the World of Engelsfors. You can follow Mats Strandberg on Tumblr, Twitter, and Instagram. Sara B. Elfgren can also be reached on Tumblr, Twitter, and Instagram. The Circle is available through The Overlook Press, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other bookstores.