Tales of a Kids’-Lit Power Couple

Fairy tales usually involve a happily-ever-after, and Ransom Riggs and Tahereh Mafi’s love story is no exception.

Riggs, 37, and Mafi, 28, were already best-selling writers when they met: he is the author of the Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children series, a time-travel story about a Florida teen who visits Wales and discovers a community of kids with magical powers. She is the author of the Shatter Me series, whose heroine lives under a corrupt regime and has the power to kill by touch. The two swam “in the same waters of Southern California young-adult-bookhood,” Riggs says, and a mutual author friend introduced them. Both had recently gotten divorced, and the shared state of mind “fast-forwarded our friendship,” Mafi says. They married in 2013 and later held a reception at the Last Bookstore in downtown L.A. Mafi carried a paper bouquet made of pages from one of Riggs’ books.

Now as their fans head back to school, they are each releasing a new book. Mafi’s is a novel for middle schoolers called Furthermore, about a magical land where powers are manifested in people’s colorful skin and hair–except for protagonist Alice Alexis Queensmeadow, who is as pale as milk, with snowy locks to match. (The name is a nod to both Alice of Wonderland fame and the late fashion designer Alexander McQueen.) The plot turns on Alice’s search for her missing father amid ever more fantastical worlds. Meanwhile, Riggs is publishing Tales of the Peculiar, a collection of original fables intended to be a companion to his Miss Peregrine series. It recalls not only books like J.K. Rowling’s Potter compendium but also medieval works like Giovanni Boccaccio’s The Decameron.

The couple’s joint book tour includes a dozen stops and an appearance by Mafi on Late Night With Seth Meyers. Soon after, they’ll attend the premiere of the Tim Burton–directed movie adaptation of Miss Peregrine. “It’s still difficult to believe,” says Riggs, who studied film before writing the book. “I’ve been a huge fan of Tim’s ever since I’ve been old enough to know what movies were.” Mafi’s Shatter Me series was also optioned and is being adapted for TV.

When the dust settles, the couple will return to their home office in Santa Monica, where they write side by side at a long desk looking out on the lawn. Each serves as the “in-house cheerleader” for the other, according to Riggs. At the end of the day, they often read their output aloud–for encouragement, not criticism. “When we share work at that early stage,” Mafi says, “it’s because we’re looking for reassurance.”

“It’s easy to give her reassurance though,” Riggs says, “because her early drafts are ah-mazing.”

“Oh, my god, yeah, says the man who is an incredible writer himself.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah.”

They may have millions of devoted readers, but it’s clear Mafi and Riggs are each other’s biggest fans.