In this interview, Chinaza discusses putting her characters through the ringer in her new fantasy novel, Birth of a Dynasty, her advice for other writers, and more.

Name: Chinaza Bado
Literary agent: Natanya Wheeler via Nancy Yost
Book title: Birth of a Dynasty
Publisher: Harper Voyager
Release date: July 29, 2025
Genre/category: Fantasy Fiction, High fantasy, Adventure fiction, Historical fantasy, Epic fantasy
Elevator pitch: Game of Thrones meets Children of Bone in an epic story of vengeance.

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What prompted you to write this book?

I have always been a reader of fantasy, historical fiction, and political drama. And I find it fascinating how often fantasy is more of a truthteller to history and politics than anything else—how nations rise and fall, how power is amassed and then lost. However, I often found the visibility of Black characters sparse if any are included at all. Countries with a majority Black population have experienced the ebb and flow of power struggles, too! I wanted to create a world where we exist at every level as the majority and tell the stories that happen in every society: power, drama, love, war, and nation building.

How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?

I wasn’t sure how long it took me to go from idea to publication until I checked my files. I just realized I began outlining Birth of Dynasty on August 8, 2018. So, it has taken about seven years. The idea changed as I was trying to figure out what ancient civilization to base my story in. I did so much research I found myself overwhelmed the first year. So, I put the story down and came back with the idea to base it in fantasy world reminiscent of Africa pre-colonization. Obviously, it’s not a complete similarity but that became my base.

Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?

I had previously written romance under a pen name. When I sent the manuscript to my agent, I told her that it was different. So, I was definitely feeling some nerves and vulnerability. But I had seen the fantasy landscape change as several other fantasy novels with Black or African connections not only became popular, but achieved bestseller status.

After she read, my agent called me to tell me she was floored and that she loved it. And then when we put it on submission, I think we got an offer in two weeks, which I know is incredibly fast. I’ve long admired Harper Voyager’s books and am so honored to be published by them. And I’m so grateful to all the Black authors in the fantasy space who unknowingly helped me and paved the way for my book to be possible.

Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?

I’m not sure if it was a surprise but the most pleasant thing I found as I began writing was just how much history and inspiration I was able to find throughout the whole continent of Africa.

What do you hope readers will get out of your book?

I hope they get renewed sense of adventure, and I hope to get them emotionally invested in these characters. I do put my characters through the ringer, and I want readers to really laugh, cry, and rage with them.

If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?

The advice I think I will always give is to Just Write. Even if you don’t think your idea will sell, even if your idea is too niche, even when you don’t want to; just write. Because a space will open one day and when it does, you can move without hesitation to grab it.

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In this interview, Seth discusses the learning curve that came with working in a different genre for his new science fiction novel, Volatile Memory, his hope for readers, and more.

Name: Seth Haddon
Literary agent: Maeve Lysaght
Book title: Volatile Memory
Publisher: Tordotcom
Release date: July 22, 2025
Genre/category: Science fiction
Previous titles: Reforged, Reborn, Reclaimed
Elevator pitch: This is How You Lose the Time War meets Ex Machina: Seth Haddon’s science fiction debut, Volatile Memory, is a sapphic sci-fi action adventure novella.

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What prompted you to write this book?

I wrote Volatile Memory as a much-needed break from the elaborate and often convoluted fantasy novel I had been working on since I was 18. The first chapter came together when I was around 22, but after that, I set it aside for several years. In the meantime, I focused on completing my World of Reforged series and eventually finished Reclaimed, the third book in that world. After spending so much time in fantasy, I wanted to try something entirely different, both creatively and thematically.

When I returned to Volatile Memory, I saw it as an opportunity to challenge myself. I was drawn to questions of gender, identity, and the ways humanity is treated as an asset under capitalism. These ideas felt timely and important to explore. The project became both a personal exploration and a chance to expand my writing in new directions, outside the comfort of my usual genre.

How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?

I first wrote the opening chapter when I was 22, and now I’m 28, so technically it’s been about six years from initial idea to publication. But in reality, most of that time was spent not actively working on the project. I picked it up again in early 2023, feeling ready to finally explore the full story. Once I committed to it, the first draft came together in about a month. After that, I worked through a few rounds of edits, mostly based on feedback from my agent, before we went out on submission. By August, we were already in talks with Tordotcom, and the deal was officially offered around October. Contracts were finalized by January 2024, and then it was full steam ahead. Now we’re just about a month away from release.

As for the idea itself, it stayed remarkably consistent throughout the process. Of course, there were rewrites, scene adjustments, and polishing along the way, but the core story, characters, and themes remained much the same as I originally envisioned. Even the structural changes were fairly minor, which made the whole process feel very clear and focused once I finally sat down to finish it.

Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?

Since I had worked with a small press before, I was familiar with parts of the process like working with an editor or a cover designer. But with this title, the scale was completely different. There was a full team dedicated to every aspect of the book, from editorial to marketing, publicity, design, sales, and audio. So many more people were involved, each bringing their expertise to help support the book through every stage. I was also more involved in certain areas this time, like collaborating on the cover design and giving input on the selection of audiobook narrators, which was really exciting. It was eye-opening to see how many steps go into shaping not just the book itself but also its launch and life in the world. The coordination and attention at every level taught me a lot about how traditional publishing works on a much larger scale.

Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?

I think the biggest surprise was realizing I could actually write something like this. The first draft came together much faster than I expected, and I was surprised at how naturally the narrative voice and perspective linked with the story itself. It felt very connected to the character, and finding that balance happened more organically than I anticipated. That being said, even though it is a shorter book, it was still one of the more challenging projects I’ve worked on. I was doing a lot of research throughout the process, and since this was my first science fiction novel after previously publishing only fantasy, there was definitely a learning curve. I had to think differently about world-building, pacing, and the kind of speculative elements I was working with. Making sure the science fiction aspects felt grounded while keeping the emotional core intact really pushed me as a writer. It was a new kind of challenge, but a rewarding one.

What do you hope readers will get out of your book?

I think it’s a book that can appeal to a variety of audiences, and so I don’t want people who aren’t familiar with science fiction to feel put off. At its core, it’s an introspective story about two women who are learning to understand each other, themselves, and the anger they feel toward a system built to suppress and control them. While the sci-fi elements frame the world, the emotional and political threads are very grounded and, I think, very relevant to the moment we’re living in. Especially in the current political climate, I hope readers will connect with both the message and the exploration of rage. There are a lot of stories out there that focus on hope and optimism, which are important, but this book is ultimately about taking control of your own circumstances, reclaiming power from oppressive systems, and fighting for justice when no one else will. It’s about refusing to accept what you’re told you have to endure.

If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?

If I could give one piece of advice to other writers, it would be to nurture patience and determination as early as possible. Writing is a skill, and like any skill, you can and should keep improving it throughout your career. But technical skill alone isn’t enough to succeed in this industry. The reality is that creative work involves a lot of rejection, critique, and waiting. Even after you’ve cleared the initial hurdles and sold a book, there are still long periods where you’re waiting for feedback, for approvals, for edits to cycle through, and for different teams to finish their parts of the process. It can be frustrating at times, but learning how to stay focused and keep moving forward during those stretches is essential. If you can build up the resilience to handle both the creative challenges and the business side’s unpredictable pacing, you’ll set yourself up for a much more sustainable and rewarding writing career.

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Enough ink has been spilled explaining why the British Empire was an oppressive, tyrannical regime that I will not repeat all the evidence here. Though history is vast, complex, and sprawling, in this case it can be boiled down to a fairly simple representative statistic: that when the British arrived in 1600s, India produced over 20% of the world’s economic output; by the time the British departed India in 1947, it had dropped to 3%.[4] The UK experienced a nearly exact opposite trajectory in growth. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to determine what happened, and yet British academics and politicians appear to disagree:

• Andrew Roberts, Professor at King’s College London, 2021: “I don’t agree with the automatic assumption that the British Empire was evil. . . . In fact, I think it was very helpful for the development of the native peoples of the Empire.”
• Michael Gove, soon to be UK Education Secretary, 2009: “There is no better way of building a modern, inclusive, patriotism than by teaching all British citizens to take pride in this country’s historic achievements. Which is why the next Conservative Government will ensure the curriculum teaches the proper narrative of British History – so that every Briton can take pride in this nation.”
• Niall Ferguson, Senior Fellow at Harvard University, 2004: “Without the British empire, there would be no Calcutta, no Bombay, no Madras. Indians may rename them as many times as they like, but they remain cities founded and built by the British.”
• UK Foreign Minister Mark Fields on the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, 2019: “I feel a little reluctant to make apologies for things that have happened in the past. There are also concerns that any government department has to make about any apology, given that there may well be financial implications to making an apology. I feel we debase the currency of apologies if we are seen to make them for many, many events.”

It doesn’t matter how much one rebuts every detail: India had strong industrial sectors before the British arrival,[5] India had its own education system before “Western” education,[6] Indian taxpayers funded the railroads while British shareholders received guaranteed dividends covering any investment and a hefty bonus.[7] Nearly a third of the British populace still thinks the empire was a good thing to be proud of, while half thinks it did no harm to colonized countries,[8] and many Americans think the worst of British colonialism was taxation of the thirteen colonies. Historical revisionism presents an easy, engaging narrative: Britain saved India, Britain deserves its bounty, Britain has no reason to make amends. The problem is not the facts. It is the story. And stories are best fought by stories.

Ten Incarnations of Rebellion flips this script, using alternate history to showcase the horrors of colonialism in a world parallel to ours. If history has been bogged down by a mainstream whitewashing of colonialism, alternate history cuts through those narratives by tweaking key details, showing the moral rot at the empire’s core. The story was inspired by a simple what-if. After their failures on the Indian subcontinent, the British Empire innovated new methods of oppression. They used these “improved” tactics to fight anti-colonial movements in their other colonies around the globe, from cutting off entire cities to imposing long-term curfews to placing dissenters in punitive prison camps. So, what if the British had used those tactics to prevent Indian independence?

Check out Vaishnavi Patel’s Ten Incarnations of Rebellion here:

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The book’s timeline branches from real history in the 1910s, with increased violent crackdowns on political parties, freedom of speech, and protest movements. By the 1930s in this world, the major figureheads of independence and their followers have been killed. Over the coming decades, this alternate history India is subjected to militarized rule, constant surveillance, language erasure, and cultural suppression. The main events of the novel take place in a fundamentally altered version of the 1960s, in a city robbed of its young men, where a group of young women take up the torch of rebellion. This is not alternate history done in the apologist way—that is, without tether to reality. While the events of the book are fictional, inventing subjugation does a disservice to the billions who have suffered under colonialism. In Ten Incarnations of Rebellion, every act of brutality, every tactic of oppression, every traitor and martyr, is inspired by real-life events that took place either in India or elsewhere.

The same is true not just of the sins of Empire, but of the struggle for freedom. India’s freedom movement is credited with being a nonviolent, inclusive movement. But there were also many freedom fighters who undertook violent operations, and their successes in terrorizing the British helped pave the way for the nonviolent movement’s victories. And while Indians of all creeds took part in the struggle, there were great rifts and injustices within the movement, on religious, caste, and geographic lines. In the West, where this history is often sanitized to the point that one must struggle just to show that colonialism is bad at all, it is nearly impossible to examine these nuances. How can you discuss fair criticisms of freedom fighters when the need for the fight itself is being attacked? By moving into an alternate history space, the protagonists of this story can face the same questions as their real-life predecessors—How do they reconcile the caste and religious divides within their people? Can they work with the British to improve their condition? When is violence justified?—without delegitimizing the struggle for freedom.

From India to Ireland and everywhere in between, the British left a trail of genocide, famine, engineered sectarian violence, cultural repression, and theft. And through programs like Operation Legacy, they have put records of their crimes into literal bonfires, hiding the truth from the light of day. It is this erasure that allowed them to build a new narrative for themselves. But this erasure also provides an opportunity: rewriting history to highlight and honor freedom movements. The fights of freedom movements and the legacies of colonialism are not confined to history. Even today, millions live under physical and economic colonialism—as but one example, the United States has “territories” that pay taxes but are unable to meaningfully participate in the election of the government taxing them. And billions continue to be affected by the laws and actions of their former colonial masters, suffering from centuries of deindustrialization, looting, divide-and-rule, and more.

There is no easy answer to healing the ills of colonialism. But until those of us living in the west can grapple with the true cost of our wealth and status, we will be the ones living in an alternate history.

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[1] Tombs, Robert. “In Defense of the British Empire,” The Spectator, May 8, 2020. https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/In-defence-of-the-British-Empire/

[2] Jordanna Bailkin. “The Boot and the Spleen: When Was Murder Possible in British India?” Comparative Studies in Society and History 48.2 (2006): 463-494.

[3] Elkins, Caroline. Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain’s Gulag in Kenya. New York: Henry Holt, 2005: 39, 359.

[4] See Tharoor, Shashi. Inglorious Empire: What the British Did to India. London: Hurst, 2017; Broadberry, Stephen, Johann Custodis, and Bishnupriya Gupta, “India and the great divergence: An Anglo-Indian comparison of GDP per capita, 1600–1871,” Explorations in Economic History 55 (2015): 58-75.

[5] Clingingsmith, David, and Jeffrey G. Williamson, “Deindustrialization in 18th and 19th century India: Mughal decline, climate shocks and British industrial ascent,” Explorations in Economic History 45, no. 3(2008): 209-234.

[6] Dharampal (2000). “Introduction,” The Beautiful Tree: Indigenous Indian Education in the Eighteenth Century. Goa, India: Other India Press. The availability of such pre-colonial education was extremely divided along lines of caste and class, but the British were not particularly active in fixing these—or indeed, any—forms of discrimination.

[7] Bogart, Dan, and Latika Chaudhary.  “Regulation, Ownership, and Costs: A Historical Perspective from Indian Railways,” American Economic Journal: Economic Policy 4, no. 1 (2012): 28–57.

[8] Matthew Smith, “British Attitudes to the British Empire,” YouGov Jan. 29, 2025. https://yougov.co.uk/society/articles/51483-british-attitudes-to-the-british-empire.

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(The 5 Core Ingredients of an Unputdownable Novel.)

These are primarily books written with the female gaze in mind, featuring female-driven stories with romance as either the primary plot line or a significant secondary one. In these books, female characters pick up swords, go questing, and kiss their enemies. They’re as likely to be the ones doing the saving as their love interests, these authors spend as much time describing a ball gown as body armor, and readers can’t get enough of it.

Fantasy books with female characters aren’t exactly new, but there are some clear delineators from their predecessors. Romantasy usually features first-person POVs or present tense to immerse the reader instantly in the world, the characters skew younger (think coming of age), and there’s often a certain modern feel to the world (characters curse, flip each other off, and keep a running commentary in their head).

But with the explosive sales, there are already grumblings about oversaturation. In reality, I expect we’ll see romantasy start spinning off in new and exciting ways. Here’s where I predict we’re heading.

1. More LGBTQIA+ content. If we look back a little over a decade ago to when the billionaire romance trend, spawned by books like Fifty Shades of Grey and Bared to You, mainstreamed high-heat novels from spinning racks at the grocery store to front tables at the bookstore, one of the first offshoots was a rise in gay romance. Publishers and authors soon realized there was a huge readership in both the queer and cis communities. Indie authors like Ruby Roe are already doing the same in romantasy, and there have been several notable publishing deals announced for upcoming books featuring queer leading characters. It makes sense. Romance readers like love stories in every form.
2. More niche genres. We’ve already seen the popularity of cozy fantasy where magic is real but the stakes are less life-and-death. Expect to see cozy romantic fantasy increasing in visibility and sales. Readers are people, and people are more stressed out than ever. Sometimes you want to read about a magical enclave where a nosy old crone is brewing up love potions for unsuspecting villagers while tending her dragon eggs. I predict we’ll also see a rise in full-blown fantasy rom-coms, super-dark romantasy, dystopian romance, and, dare I say, authors will figure out how to blend the immensely popular sports romance genre with fantasy.
3. Older heroines and main characters. Much of the most popular romantasy on the market also falls into the new-adult category. That means the characters are usually in their late teens or early twenties (although there’s frequently a centuries-old love interest), and their stories tend to center around finding their way in the world as…new adults. As more romantasy books hit the market, expect to start seeing older characters take the page with a clear idea of who they are in the world, facing the challenges of adulthood: cynicism, healing from trauma, paying the bills…even magic has its limits, right?
4. New creatures and races—other than fae. To be clear, fae aren’t going anywhere. They are a romantasy staple, largely due to the overwhelming impact of Sarah J. Maas’s books on the market. But both readers and editors have expressed wanting to see something new or new takes on traditional fantasy races. Dragons, another fantasy staple, are quickly approaching the same market saturation following the success of Rebecca Yarros’s books. I suspect a new fantasy creature or race will soar to the top of the bestseller list sooner rather than later.
5. More starter romantasy, particularly urban romantasy. As the popularity of the genre increases, new readers wanting to dip their toes into romantasy can feel a little overwhelmed when confronted with starting 600+-page books set in series and multiverses. Enter urban romantasy, which blends the world we know with magic and often features epic, world-shattering plots. My current series, Filthy Rich Fae, has all the hallmarks of romantasy: fae, magic, bargains, and prophecies, but the fae court is located in modern New Orleans and its gun-toting prince feels more like John Wick than a fairy-tale creature. Urban romantasy eases readers into world building and larger-than-life fantasy arcs.

These are just predictions…for now. But wherever romantasy heads next, it’s certain to keep growing.

Check out Geneva Lee’s Filthy Rich Fae: Fallen Court here:

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In this interview, Karina discusses the challenges and rewards and building a fantasy world with her new romantasy, Realm of Thieves, her advice for other writers, and more.

Name: Karina Halle
Literary agent: Taylor Haggerty at Root Literary
Book title: Realm of Thieves
Publisher: Ace
Release date: June 10, 2025
Genre/category: Romantasy
Elevator pitch: The lord of a cartel that deals in black market dragon eggs kidnaps a thief (and her magical dog) and blackmails her into working for his criminal empire.

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What prompted you to write this book?

I wanted to read something that mashed together a few of my favorite fantasy tropes (heists, dragons, political intrigue) but with the dark and sensual vibes of a mafia romance. Every book I write comes from a place of wanting to read something and it not existing yet.

How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?

The idea hit me in summer of 2023. I’d just published a pirate romantasy called A Ship of Bones and Teeth and wanted to write something more in that vein because I had so much fun with that book. Not so much pirates, but the crew and camaraderie—those kinds of vibes. I was also reading Fourth Wing and rereading Dune, and everything sort of started mashing together in my brain. A week later I was emailing my agent with the outline and then a few weeks after that, with some back and forth and narrowing down on the plot and the world-building, I had the first five chapters written and we put together the proposal. I believe it was end of September when it was ready to go on sub, but we had to offer to my current pubs, Berkley Romance, first. It took maybe two days for my editor to say she was waiting for me to come forward with a romantasy and that they loved it. They (through Ace) offered quickly and that was that.

Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?

Yes. One was that the first cover I’d been shown didn’t at all suit the book, so I had a real moment of panic (from my self-pub background, I know covers are everything and I am super particular about them). But they listened to my feedback and now I absolutely adore the cover. I was also concerned that in this day and age of every romantasy getting hardcovers and sprayed edges, that I would be left behind because I was just getting a paperback. But again, they heard my concerns and did what they could to jazz the paperback up, which resulted in this really pretty, iridescent shimmer finish that I’m really happy with and hopefully stands out in the bookstores!

Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?

This was my first real fantasy (my previous fantasies all had basis in the real world, such as my Finnish Mythology portal romantasy or my dark Little Mermaid retelling) so I didn’t expect the world-building to be so time consuming and overwhelming. I’m a really fast writer and this elaborate world-building really cut into that, so it was a major adjustment to need the extra time to work it all in.

What do you hope readers will get out of your book?

Honestly, I hope they have fun. That’s my goal. Just to enjoy the ride and escape to a whole other world for a few hours where the biggest problem is trying not to get eaten by a dragon. I also hope that with my FMC having chronic pain (something like endometriosis) and my hero being neurodivergent (ADHD, like me), the characters are something that readers can relate to.

If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?

It’s funny, I have been reading Writer’s Digest far before I published my first book (in 2011) and I always loved reading the answers to this question. Now that you’re asking me this question, I can’t help but think my answer is totally cliché. But here it goes: Stay true to yourself. Throughout your career you’re going to be tempted to write the trendiest, most commercial thing—and while writing to market can be a good thing (authors have bills too), don’t sacrifice your personal happiness to do it. In the end, the only thing that you can control (to a degree), the only thing that really matters in this topsy-turvy, ever-changing industry is how you feel when you’re writing a book that calls to you. No matter how weird, no matter how niche or hard to pin down the genre, stay true to what sets your creative spirit on fire. That’s where you feel your purpose. And eventually it will pay off.

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(On History, Historical Fiction, and Historical Fantasy.)

It’s human nature, I think, to find a moment or a person in history and latch onto them. We are inspired by their bravery or awed by their struggles. After all, history is our story, so how could we not empathize? Still, it’s a valid question when we discuss how historians actually go about researching and presenting their findings to the public. We can certainly sympathize with historical figures, but can we really empathize, or is our reality so markedly different from theirs as to make them almost alien to us? Are there times of such profound change in the world order that those who come after cannot look back and truly understand those who came before? Should historians even try, when it undoubtedly introduces a greater degree of bias to their work?

The empathy question is one that I thought of almost constantly throughout the process of writing my debut novel Crueler Mercies. Though it’s a second-world fantasy, my book nonetheless borrows substantially from the lives of my favorite historical figures. I approached my initial idea from a particular angle, in which I asked myself: If I can’t relate to people of the past, could I use the medium of fiction to try putting myself into a similar headspace? Could I gain a better appreciation for their struggles by forcing my character into analogous situations and having to write my way out?

There are two figures in particular who formed the basis of my main character Vita’s childhood, which gave me the insight into who I wanted her to be.

The first is Elizabeth Tudor, who was eventually crowned Elizabeth I. We talk a lot about her years as England’s Gloriana, what with the Spanish Armada, Shakespeare, and the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, but her childhood was just as interesting. Elizabeth was only a toddler when her mother—the infamous Anne Boleyn—fell from her father Henry VIII’s favor and was subsequently executed. I was fascinated by the impact this would have on a child. Elizabeth was very young, but she was nonetheless incredibly intelligent and certainly noticed when she stopped being princess and started being Lady Elizabeth. The stain of her mother’s supposed crimes and the question of legitimacy followed Elizabeth throughout her adolescence and into early adulthood. When she became queen, she showed fierce loyalty toward those who had remained devoted to her and her Boleyn side during those tumultuous years.

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The second figure of importance in shaping my character’s origins is Tsar Ivan VI, who was only a few months old when his great aunt, the Empress Anna of Russia, named him as her heir. This was an entirely political move, done because Anna wanted her lover to become regent after her death (which, notably, did not work for longer than a few weeks before the lover was sent off to Siberia). Ivan himself lasted only a year in “power” before being overthrown by the daughter of Peter the Great. Baby Ivan was then locked away and grew up in an isolated prison. He saw no one except his guards and was barely taught to read. This, unsurprisingly, had a tremendous impact on his cognitive development.

There was an understanding between the new empress and the guards that, should anyone ever try to free Ivan, he was to be killed immediately. Even years later, when Catherine the Great became empress, this order was maintained. She knew that anyone seeking power could use Ivan to stage an uprising against her. When Ivan was 23 years old, someone did try to break him out: an opportunist named Vasily Mirovich, who wanted to reinstate the former tsar as a pawn for his own ends. Ivan was completely unaware of these ambitions and had no contact with the outside world, but it didn’t matter. The empress’s orders were followed, and Ivan was killed.

The lives of these two young people—who met remarkably different fates in the end—have fascinated me for a long time. The question of my ability to empathize with them is still up in the air, but it became an almost-obsession to explore facets of their realities using the conduit of a fictional character. Could I understand Elizabeth’s complicated family dynamic in which her father executed her mother? Could I reconcile with the immense trauma that Ivan suffered in being locked away for so much of his childhood?

Vita is not a direct one-for-one representation of either of these historical figures, but her experiences emulate both. I dove into her headspace and wrote what I believed to be the most authentic representation of those traumas as possible.

My last major source of inspiration for Vita’s character came partly from a historical figure and partly from a Biblical one. In the 1600s, an artist named Artemisia Gentileschi rose to prominence for her stunning Baroque paintings. While still a young woman training under her father, she was raped by another artist and eventually brought him to trial. Though she won her case, Gentileschi first had to suffer through the use of thumbscrews during her testimony to prove she wasn’t lying. Themes of violence against women (and also women committing violence) became central to her artistic practice, which led to the painting of what I consider to be her masterpiece: Judith Slaying Holofernes. This aptly-named painting depicts the story in which Judith beheads the enemy Assyrian general Holofernes with the help of her maidservant.

Gentileschi’s choice to paint this scene has often been seen by audiences and many academics as a response to her own trauma. Can I empathize with Gentileschi? Or even the quasi-historical Judith? It became another challenge to me. What did I need to put my character through to get her to a similar point in her own story? What horrors would she have to experience, and moreover, what strength of will must she gain, for her to take such drastic actions? For such an act to be a true scene of liberation rather than blind carnage?

So much of the fantasy that we read and write is derived from history. Can we ever truly empathize with those figures who inspire us? In the end, I still don’t know the answer to that original question. What I do know, though, is that trying to understand the horrors and triumphs and small, quiet moments experienced by the people who came before can help writers create characters worthy of a reader’s empathy.

Check out Maren Chase’s Crueler Mercies here:

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(5 Tips for Giving Your Character Powers.)

Frequently originating in the oral tradition, the retelling of these ancient tales has always fascinated authors—and none more so than the stories of Camelot and King Arthur. Writers as diverse as John Steinbeck, Kate Mosse, J.R.R. Tolkien, Meg Cabot, and Bernard Cornwell have all found inspiration in these centuries-old stories that themselves have their roots in a fusion of ancient Celtic folk tales, Graeco-Roman legends, and early British socio-political histories.

What Appealed to Me About the Arthurian Legends

The fact that they have a semi-historical setting—taking place within the so-called “Dark Ages” where even today very little is known about the actual history of Britain, gives an added frisson of possibility, which I think enhances their enduring appeal and explains why, to this day, people are still seeking the Holy Grail.

I have always been fascinated by these stories, but as I have come to know them more intimately, I have become far less interested in the quests and the sorcery, and much more intrigued by the characters that sit at their heart—and with one in particular—Igraine, the mother of Arthur and his two half-siblings Morgan Le Fay and Morgause, Queen of Orkney.

I have become more and more convinced that to understand both the beauty and the tragedy of Camelot, you need to understand the origins of the stories—and for me, these do not begin with a callow youth plucking a sword from a stone, but with a much darker tale of murder and deception, at the heart of which is Uther Pendragon’s rape of Igraine, resulting in both the conception of Arthur and a blood-feud as dark and powerful as any Greek Tragedy.

When I decided that I wanted to retell the stories of Camelot—beginning with the story of Igraine—I immediately realized that choosing to retell an ancient and familiar story provides both challenges and opportunities to a writer. On the one hand, there is a narrative framework which provides you with a welcome structure to work with, but on the other, there are constraints placed upon you because of the established characters and storylines.

An added complication within the Arthurian canon is that there have been many versions of the stories—some of them hundreds of years old—and these versions are frequently inconsistent. I turned this to my advantage by deciding that this gave me the freedom to determine which version was more in sympathy with the story I wanted to tell—whilst still remaining true to my source material.

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4 Tips for Retelling Classic Myths and Legends

This approach has also helped me to come up with my top tips for other writers who may also want to retell or reimagine ancient stories taken from myths and legends:

1. Do your research—Understand the different versions of the story, note down where the differences lie, and think through how these differences impact both your characters and your plot. For example, in some renditions, Igraine dies on giving birth to Arthur, in others she lives on to marry Uther Pendragon and have more children with him, whilst in yet more versions, she is transported by Merlin to the enchanted castle of Carbonek, where she will ultimately be reunited with both Arthur and her daughter Morgan le Fay.
2. Plot your story—Yes, you have a framework to work with, but you also have the freedom to decide which elements of the story are important to you, to build your own narrative so it tells the tale in the way you want to tell it. For example, I decided to create a “behind-the-scenes” focus on the machinations of Merlin and Vivian, who I have portrayed as puppet-masters, responsible for so much of what happens in The Chosen Queen.
3. Get under the skin of your characters—Who are they? What motivates them? How do they feel about each other? Particularly if you are working with established protagonists within a classic story, you need to have considered exactly why they behave as they do. For example, I decided to make my Merlin more a political than religious adviser to Uther Pendragon, with his primary motivation being the unification and security of the Realm, for which he was prepared to do almost anything—including engineering a civil war and aiding and abetting in the deception, rape, and imprisonment of Igraine, a woman he had known since early childhood, and for whom he actually harbors an underlying affection.
4. Be clear about perspective and “twist”—Whose story are you telling? What is their point of view, and what is unique about the version of the tale that you have chosen to tell? I have never read another book in which Igraine is centerstage, in most narratives she is mentioned almost as an afterthought. My intention in writing The Chosen Queen was to redress that balance. I spent many hours mulling on her thoughts, behaviors, and responses, making sure I was seeing each scene from her perspective. This was the primary reason I chose to write the story in the first person, so her voice is being heard throughout.

These are my top four tips for anyone wishing to retell/reimagine an established story, myth or legend, and as with all such suggestions for writers, these can never be more than pointers. There is neither a right or wrong way to write a book, but I hope that sharing my own experiences and learning may help you in your endeavors!

Check out Sam Davey’s The Chosen Queen here:

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(5 Tips for Writing a Fast-Paced Fantasy Novel.)

When I grew up and entered various male-dominated fields of work, the definition became even more rigid: Emotion and whimsy are a no-no. You want to work in some of the world’s toughest places? You have to be a predetermined version of hardened, inscrutable, preferably seasoned. It’s hard to be both inured and wide-eyed. And if you’re writing fantastical stories? You’re definitely running away from the real world.

Luckily, I was raised by two aunts who took on that real world by chanting the opposite. When I was little, a request to go to the local public library and check out a stack of books too heavy to carry alone was never once turned down. My aunts encouraged me to read widely and to read what I wanted. Until the day she died, one of my aunts listened to me read her everything I ever wrote, from half-baked poems when I was seven and we were living in Mill Valley, to my calling her years later from Tripoli, Libya, and reading her a piece of a story about portals between places.

My other aunt, the scholar, raised me on Star Trek, fantasy books, and politics on our back porch that sat facing the creek. The year I moved from Italy to California, she left her job in San Francisco early every day to pick me up and walk me home from middle school. She was the one I called when I wanted to throw both my college theses out the window, the one who told me I would finish them, and encouraged me to “sprinkle a little magic in there, you like that” (I did finish them, but I didn’t sprinkle anything in). No matter what else my aunties were doing, they were always there, and whatever version of myself I was in that moment, that was fine by them.

Still, when I stepped into the humanitarian field, I was going to be Serious. Much of the reading discussed by my colleagues was nonfiction, classical books, or research—the type of literature that I can also enjoy but that often felt like an unspoken competition and always brings to my mind the word “tomes.” Once, during a trip, some colleagues made a comment about a book I had in my backpack (“I thought you were smarter than cutesy books!”). For years after that, if I read what at the time was termed “chick lit” or speculative fiction that wasn’t sci-fi (with strong female characters, even!), those books didn’t take center stage on my bookshelves, but lived crammed at the back. It didn’t occur to me that not everybody was going to be diminutive. I just simply decided I wasn’t good enough. But I was going to be good enough. I was going to be Tough Enough.

If we were in the field and some of the men side-eyed me because I was a woman and therefore going to freak out about malaria, I was going to show ‘em. I spent years reconfiguring pieces of myself, reading what I thought I should, swallowing tears if something happened in a conflict area that was hard, or even if I just missed home. I still wrote the stories, because if I didn’t, the pressure would build until it was just under my skin. But I never talked about them. And I never, never shared them, because if I did, it would mean that I wasn’t able to handle real life.

Click to continue.

And then, slowly, without my allowing it, the magic seeped in anyway. During my third move to a new country, I started to dread that inevitable feeling of uncomfortableness. I took a deep breath, and I decided to think of it as a spell.

There’s always a moment, often extended, when you’re in a new place and you’re so uncomfortable. Great. That’s one of the ingredients of the spell. You’re going to look silly trying to speak a new language. That’s another ingredient. You’re going to do something culturally inappropriate. Third ingredient. You’re going to learn from it. Fourth. You’re going to desperately need a cleaning product at the supermarket, and you’ll communicate it purely through the one word you remember, which happens to be “beetle,” and a lot of arm movements. Fifth. You’ll go home to an unfamiliar apartment and write it all down (or paint it, or photograph it, or whatever you do that is yours). Six. You’ll meet someone (this does not have to be romantic). Seven. You mix it all with the most important element: time. You have to give it that. Sometimes it won’t work. But often, it will. And it will be a transformation. And after that, a place is also yours (and vice versa). And it’s very hard not to care about what happens to a place once it’s yours.

For me, the magic seeped in through the people I met, family I found along the way, places that felt like portals, connecting to each other. It crashed in when I realized that the people I really looked up to, also in my professional life, were women who did things their own way, who followed their meandering hearts and celebrated others following their own callings. These women, like my aunties, were not only unapologetically themselves (and certainly read whatever they wanted), but they also reminded me I get to follow my path whatever way works for me. My writing style slowly evolved, and I realized it was actually harder to write in a way that was easily readable, and with that came admiration for some of the books I’d seen scoffed at as being “unserious.” Were they, though? My bookshelves started to be what they wanted to be.

A little uncertainly, I started writing the book I wanted to write—the one that had started burning in my chest around Tunis in 2019, that I didn’t start really writing until Rome in 2021. I suppose it’s not a surprise that in discovering pieces of the soul of a new place, that falling in love with cities and ways that had previously felt so alien, colored the gods of The Web of Time, so that they are tied to that which they love and can’t understand: places, humans, the ages of history before ours and how they paint modernity. And so, it came to be that The Web of Time is a mix of real historic cities, real life, and fantasy, because I think that’s what real life is: a weaving of the mundane and magic.

Writing a story about portals and history and errant deities, about loss and grief and hope, helped me realize that stories are how I am fully a part of what happens in the real world; that this is how I come towards things, not run away from them. That opening to a new place and a new culture so that it can, in turn, open to you, can be scary, can be magic. That if there are tears, it doesn’t mean I do my job any less well (and that, by the way, that’s not true only for me or for women). That I get to sprinkle a little magic in there, because I like that, and that this does not cloud my logic or reason. Also, that it’s not weird to be scared of malaria.   

Like many of us, I write despite the branches pulling me back, scratching at my face, and the branches are often also me. Maybe it’s through traveling, or writing what I actually like, or the people I get to call my community, or being raised reading with two elderly aunties on the back porch facing the creek, or a mix of all of those things, that I’ve learned my armor in tough situations can be made up of stories, encrusted with tears (also, especially, the happy ones), that it can be both porous and impenetrable. A girl needs her armor, there’s no doubt about that, and a strong one because it is a tough world. But porous, to let what you need in, and to let what needs to go out, so there is space. After all, you never know where the portals might be.

Check out Flavia Brunetti’s The Web of Time here:

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In this interview, Ari discusses what goes into writing a tie-in novel with his new contemporary fantasy novel, The Eternal Warrior, his hope for readers, and more.

Name: Ari Marmell
Literary agent: JABberwocky Literary Agency
Book title: The Eternal Warrior
Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
Release date: May 20, 2025
Genre/category: Contemporary Fantasy, Action/Adventure
Previous titles: Dust (Obelisks, book 1), Ashes (Obelisks, book 2), The Iron Devils, Litany Of Dreams (Arkham Horror tie-in), Hot Lead, Cold Iron (Mick Oberon, book 1), Hallow Point (Mick Oberon, book 2), Dead To Rites (Mick Oberon, book 3), In Truth And Claw (Mick Oberon, book 4), In Thunder Forged (Iron Kingdoms tie-in), Thief’s Covenant (Widdershins, book 1), False Covenant (Widdershins, book 2), Lost Covenant (Widdershins, book 3), Covenant’s End (Widdershins, book 4), The Goblin Corps, Darksiders: The Abomination Vault (Darksiders tie-in), The Conqueror’s Shadow (Corvis Rebaine, book 1), The Warlord’s Legacy (Corvis Rebaine, book 2), Agents Of Artifice (Magic: The Gathering tie-in) Gehennal, The Final Night (Vampire: The Masquerade tie-in)
Elevator pitch: For millennia, the immortal Gilad Anni-Padda has stood between humanity and supernatural, monstrous threats most people could not even comprehend. But now, his memories stolen from him by cultists of the god Nergal, Gilad must reclaim who he is from an enemy with access to his most dangerous secrets.

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What prompted you to write this book?

Well, I’d love to share some moving story about a spark of inspiration or stumbling across a detail in a historical documentary that ignited everything to follow. But as this is a tie-in novel, the truth is simply that I was approached by Brendan Deneen at Blackstone, with whom I already had a longstanding working relationship, when he needed an author with a proven track record in action fantasy and licensed properties. So, I guess what prompted me to write this book was a combination of opportunity, an interesting character, and past experience.

How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?

If we’re talking about the idea of “an Eternal Warrior novel,” it’ll have been a little shy of two and a half years between the time I came on board and publication. If we’re talking about the specific story elements, though, I’d say probably closer to a year and a half.

And yeah, it went through quite a few iterations. With a tie-in novel like this, it’s not enough for the writer to have a story they like. It’s got to be something the writer, the editor/publisher, and the licensor (Valiant Comics, in this case) all like.

At first, I had a story concept everyone was on board with, but after sitting with it a while, I realized I had some issues with it. (Yes, I had “creative differences” with myself. Anyone can have them with someone else, but when you’ve been doing this as long as I have, traditional hurdles and problems aren’t satisfying anymore, and you have to master far more advanced forms of putting obstacles in your own path.)

I think it was the third or fourth story concept that we finally ran with—which is good, since it’s the one that allowed me to get deepest into who Gilad is as a character.

Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?

You know, there really weren’t. I hate to give that as my answer, since it’s boring, but it’s also true. On that side of things, the process went very much like the other tie-in novels I’ve done.

Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?

Here, though, I can be at least a little bit more interesting.

Every tie-in novel is the product of multiple contributors, even when there’s a single primary author. Partly that’s just true by definition, since tie-in builds on characters, setting details, and/or plots initially created by someone else. I’m talking about more direct contribution, though. In most cases, story concepts and characters for a tie-in novel have to be approved by editors, by licensors, and so forth. Very often in that process, said editors and licensors will make their own requests, suggestions, or mandates.

In the specific case of The Eternal Warrior, though, the general structure of the plot was a full-on collaboration between myself and Brendan, my editor. That makes this my first book, after about 20, that I wrote based on a foundation—on an outline, basically—that someone else significantly contributed to. It wasn’t a dramatically different process, so the “surprise” was really more about how it felt than anything I can realistically convey, but it was a change.

Oh, there’s also a significant character in this book with a demographic identity I’ve never written before. There are always surprises involved in doing that, at least if you’re doing it right, if only because writing from a new perspective makes you—or at least should make you—question certain basic assumptions and viewpoints. (I’m being deliberately vague to avoid spoilers here.)

What do you hope readers will get out of your book?

For the most part, if they simply have a good time with it, a few moments of excitement or suspense or just passing distraction, I’ve done my job.

That said, though, I’d love for existing fans of Gilad to discover that they’ve got a brand-new way to appreciate the character they already love. I hope that they find it rewarding to get into his thoughts and beliefs through different paths.

And just maybe for a couple of readers to re-examine a few of their own beliefs in light of those held and espoused by a multi-millennia-old immortal.

If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?

You mean other than “You should tell all your readers to buy my books after they’ve bought yours”?

Don’t be afraid of guardrails. A lot of authors worry that writing a tie-in, or working hand-in-hand with other people on a story’s development, will constrain their creativity. Make the final product less “theirs.”

But speaking as someone who’s done plenty of both sorts, working with an existing property, or on an outline partly developed by someone else, isn’t any less creative than starting with a blank slate; it’s just a different kind of creativity. It’s “How do I best use the ingredients that are available to make the dish that was requested, while still making it my own?” It’s a fascinating process. More than that, you’ll learn more about your own craft, and you’ll be stronger for it.

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Martial Arts in Fantasy

It was necessary that Tilly, Zach, and Jess receive training in hand-to-hand combat if they were to head into the dangerous territory of the Witch of Wythic Wood. They are new to magic, and it was logical they have more than magic to defend themselves. There are several reasons characters learn this skill in fantasy stories.

Action

Fantasy stories are adventure stories set in a fantasy/magical world, so this is a way to bring action into the story—an important feature of adventures.

Character development

Training in martial arts helps to develop a character—showing their improvement in the craft and giving them credibility to set out on the hero’s journey.

Enhanceable

An important element to fantasy is magic and martial arts leans into this nicely. It’s fun letting your imagination see the character’s ability to jump and spin high in the air, to increase strength in a strike, or have the heat in their hand leave a mark on their opponent—the potentials are endless!

Why a Goblin Style of Martial Arts

Outside of the fun I had with this, I wanted to show that it’s important not to judge a person based on their looks—it’s their actions that matter. Goblins are often portrayed as evil creatures—and their features certainly lean into this—with their origins in European folklore with the word meaning rogue or evil spirit. So, why did I deviate from this?

Sadly, people tend to fear those who are different to them. This fear, xenophobia, seems to be so deeply ingrained in the human psyche that it’s hard to switch it off. It also means that, if one person, or a small group of persons, who look a particular way do something bad—that anyone who looks similar to this person or persons, will be unfairly tarnished.

I explore this idea with both good and evil goblins in this series. It’s also why my character Mort, is a good goblin who is highly skilled in martial arts.

On their way to Mort’s, Tilly, Jess, Zach, and Jenny (a fairy) discuss how Mort’s a good goblin who cares deeply about his friends, and how this is completely different to how goblins are portrayed in the fantasy books they’ve read. Tilly comments that you “can’t judge a book by its cover.”

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Creating Gobight Martial Arts

There were several things I needed to consider when writing the training scenes where Tilly, Jess, and Zach meet Mort, who’s asked three of his goblin friends to help train the children in martial arts. One, how could children go up against fully grown goblins who have longer arms, giving them greater reach? and Two, Goblins have weapons at the ready with their sharp fingernails and toenails.

These attributes made it necessary that the fight stances, strikes, and blocks be modified to counter them—whether it was a goblin fighting another goblin, them attacking another type of being, or another type of being attacking them. I don’t go into much detail of the technical aspects of this, preferring to leave this up to the reader’s own imagination, but this is the concept behind it. To help you picture this, let’s consider Tilly’s seer magic and Zach’s wizard magic within the martial arts training scene.

Tilly’s Seer Magic

How can seer magic (the ability to see past, present, and future events based on current decisions) help in combat?

In Vanishings, I considered how Tilly’s always seeing a few seconds into the future, but her magic’s been bound—limiting her visions in this first book. In the following books, she has full access to her magic, and will therefore know exactly what she needs to do at every second of the fight. However, I realized she still needed to be trained in how to block and strike her opponent when she’s at a physical disadvantage because simply knowing what’s going to happen doesn’t give her the skills to defeat her opponent.

Zach’s Wizard Magic

It’s in this training session that I write in the discovery of Zach’s magical abilities with strength, stamina, and camouflage—perfect for combat! However, it was clear to me that he still needs to learn how to control these talents, as well as how to block and strike his opponent.

Even with his surprising strength, he still needs to get within reach of the goblin—whose long arms and sharp nails are problematic—and controlling his camouflage while avoiding these weapons wouldn’t be easy. I also considered that, while stamina helps, it’s no good if he makes a mistake and gets injured, increasing the necessity for him to become a skilled fighter with his magical abilities enhancing this.

Naming It?

Because of the modifications, it made sense to come up with a name to describe this new style of martial arts. In addition to that, naming it helps make it a unique feature of my story.

Coming up with a name was relatively simple. I wanted the name to identify it as a goblin style of martial arts, which is why the word gobight takes the gob from goblin.

Gobart, Gobtial, and other ideas didn’t sound right, so I switched from considering martial arts within the name to using the bulk of the word fight. Mashing gob and ight into one word we get—gobight, and I was happy with that.

And that’s how I ended up creating Gobight Martial Arts.

Check out Catharina Steel’s Vanishings here:

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