In her beloved Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy, a portal fantasy spanning Earth and the angel- and chimaera-populated land of Eretz, Laini Taylor cemented her reputation as a creator of rich, expansive worlds, author of impossible love stories, and spinner of narrative spells. In her new Strange the Dreamer duology, she introduces an unlikely hero: Lazlo Strange, an orphan-turned-librarian whose obsession with the lost city of Weep leads him, finally, to its borders. The duology closed in October with Muse of Nightmares, a book that is glitteringly magic, achingly romantic, and stuffed with gorgeous prose. We talked with Taylor about her process, her perfectionism, and her fictional obsessions.