When Rebecca Yarros began writing the Empyrean Series, she created a lead character who was both close to her heart but who also hit close to home. Violet Sorrengail is a character with symptoms similar to Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS), a condition the romantic author also deals with in her own life. Now she’s opened up about how Violet doing things differently at Basgiath was inspired by "accommodations" Yarros has figured out for herself.
Rebecca Yarros On Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome Impacting Her Own Life
Part of Violet bonding with Tairn (and Andarna) meant she had to get used to a little public humiliation. I don’t think I could even count the number of times Violet fell off her seat, with Tairn saving her from swift death, before the two negotiated a saddle for her to sit on. Though the falling is something I’m very much looking forward to seeing play out on the small screen. And despite her consistently wrapping her joints, they still give her problems – in fact it’s a common trend in the books that she frequently has to be mended and re-mended when her hyper-mobile joints pop out of place.
It's an unusual characteristic for a fictional character, but Yarros says showing that journey was important to her, as it impacts her day-to-day working as a writer as well. She told Today the process was “cathartic,” noting:
It was cathartic to say, ‘Hey, you can have a saddle. You can still be a rider. You just have to do it a little differently.' I can do everything that other writers can. I just have to do it differently. My legs have to be up for POTS flares. I have to support underneath my knees so that my joints don’t, you know, go all wonky on me.
Yarros shares other characteristics with Violet Sorrengail, the silver hair-tipped heroine at the heart of her latest novel Onyx Storm. Her own, long blonde hair is purple on the ends and she’s often pushing herself beyond the limits of what she should be able to do as a writer given the struggles that come with EDS. But she says in order to write the Navarre-set books – of which Fourth Wing is being made into a TV series – she does have to write for 12 to 15 hours every day.
It’s just knowing what accommodations I needed. And it was through writing Fourth Wing that I found those.
Fourth Wing became the first of five planned books which include recent release Onyx Storm, the third in the planned series after FW and Iron Flame.
Rebecca Yarros Is Taking A Break Before The Fourth Empyrean Book
We’ve known for a while now the generally prolific author is taking a break before producing the fourth Empyrean series book. It’s honestly gotten me a little concerned about the timeline for the Fourth Wing TV series, but she’s not pausing to eff fans out of getting the TV adaptation. She’s pausing to give her body a break.
It was me kind of talking to myself about what I needed to do to slow down, to protect my own body. And I think I’m finally starting to listen to it two-and-a-half years later.
In the past she's written a contemporary romance in the interim, which will give her a chance to keep flexing her writing muscles, but won’t require 15-hour work days. Meanwhile, I’m still out here every day asking what the hold-up is with the Fourth Wing series, which feels like the ideal project to fill the gap. But there has been some forward momentum with the Amazon adaptation, so that’s something I guess.
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