New York Time’s Bestselling author Susan Dennard took time out of her busy San Diego Comic Con schedule to sit down with me and chat about her upcoming series The Luminaries, The Witchland series and the 10th anniversary of Something Strange and Deadly series.
BookofCons: Tell us how the story came about for The Luminaries?
Susan Dennard: It’s a fun story I think! So I first came up with the idea for the world in 2013. I was trying to sell a new book after my first series didn’t perform very well, which is a hard time as an author when you can’t sell another book. I made this proposal thinking I would follow in a similar genre to my first series which was paranormal and I created this world of The Luminaries with a character named Winnie Wednesday and my publisher at the time said ‘Yeah, no we don’t want that’.
So my agent and I talked about paranormal being a dying genre, so we’ll shelve it. So I did and I ended up writing The Witchlands next and that’s carried me where I am today. But then in 2019, I had some pretty rough personal stuff. I had a miscarriage and I was in a pretty dark state, grieving. It was a healthy grief but you know it is a hard thing and I didn’t like sitting with my own thoughts for very long. I was on a book tour promoting Bloodwitch. Doing all the circuit of events and I was sitting in La Guardia waiting for a flight after BookCon and again, I didn’t like sitting with my thoughts for very long, so I thought about doing a Twitter adventure.
I just want to see if anyone interacts with me and do a choose your own adventure type like You do…. I have a poll, let people vote on what the character does. And then I’ll write the next poll tomorrow. I didn’t think anyone would interact and then suddenly, by the next day, I had like 2,000 votes. That was like ‘Oh Crap!’ Okay, let’s continue!
I had sort of pulled from this Luminaries proposal and world. Suddenly I was spinning out a full story with those characters I had come up with six years before, from that world. From then on, for a little over 6 months, we just kept spinning that tale everyday and people would vote and it was just the most fun! It was such a great community. The Luminerds!
A year later, I was having a really hard time, being a new mom. I had a lot of complications in birth that required some pretty intensive healing, recovery and physical therapy. I did not have the bandwidth to write the next Witchlands when I finished Witchshadow. And so I thought, I’m just gonna dabble and suddenly, the dabbling became a new book. It’s the same characters, same world, but yet again another story with lots of easter eggs for the Twitter people.
BOC: In your other series and now in this one, we see the use of weapons and fighting. When you were writing those scenes, do you act them out?
SD: Not really, it depends on the complexity of the scene. When I do The Witchlands, yes, because there is a lot more fighting of people and I am a Martial Artist. I love making my Sensei come up with fun stuff. My Sensei’s are always in the acknowledgements. But this series, it’s not people vs people, it’s monsters. I don’t really act it out, but I do always choreograph before I write an action scene because I just find it’s easier if I know exactly where my character is going in the moment as I’m getting in the zone and in their head of fear. And I will kind of draw or write out the little beats on them on a white board and then dive in the scene.
BOC: So how much research went into the lore of creating these monsters?
SD: That’s a good question. It’s fun because I wanted to pull from some familiar monsters, but then change them up. So there’s a Banshee in the book. It’s not the Banshee that you think of. One thing I’m really careful about though is appropriation. So I try to make sure that when I am looking at actual ‘real world’ monsters from actual cultures, I’m not drawing from any sort of culture that is not mine.
I try to keep it as western as I can. The Luminaries society is based on this idea that there are these spirits around the world that have formed over the last thousand years and where they are. Monsters form at night when the spirits dream. And so it’s usually in these sort of forested, untamed areas around the world. Winnie’s story happens in the American forest. Which is the newest one. It formed about 100 years ago. The society set up their world there. The very first one to form was in Italy. I liked to look at old, medieval monsters that were written about in the medieval Europe world and then sort of draw my inspiration from that.
BOC: What was the process for creating the different factions in The Luminaries and what was the inspiration behind the names?
SD: It was a pure, simple, fun idea. ‘What if there are these monsters that come out every night, because of this dreaming spirit and the societies are divided into 7 clans. One for each night of the week. The Monday’s guard on Monday night, the Tuesday’s guard on Tuesday night…. It’s pretty simple and I wanted to keep it that way because The Witchlands is such a complex and sweeping world.
I really wanted to make sure The Luminaries leaned in the other way. It’s less important how it works, if that makes sense? The story is about my character Winnie Wednesday interacting in this world, present day. While certainly the roots of it will rise up in some ways in how the culture operates. At the end of the day, unlike in The Witchlands, the history of it and even how the magic works isn’t really the point.
So I have these 7 clans and honestly when I was coming up with what each motto and crest would be for each clan. I thought what does a society and a small town need to function? And I just came up with all the different pieces that maybe would be for that. A huge part of the character, the story in the book, the characters always thinking culture runs thicker than blood here. Meaning the culture that is imposed upon me as a Wednesday, wherein the motto is loyalty and the cause above all else. How does that actually shape who I am? Do I really believe that? And how many people are sweeping aside their own actual moral compasses and personalities in order to adhere to the clans very rigid ideas of virtue.
BOC: In the future, do you plan on sticking with YA as the series goes on or are you going to go more towards adult?
SD: It’s funny that you ask that. The Luminaries is a planned trilogy. There will be 2 more books. I just turned in the second. There’s one Witchlands book left and that series is very crossover. My editor for it is an adult fantasy editor and so it can bridge that gap. I wrote it originally as an adult book. I do have a project in my hard drive that is adult. But I also love YA! I have a project that I would love to sell that’s another sort of paranormal, horror. And I love Middle Grade! So basically “Susan loves doing all the things!”
BOC: In the Witchlands series, it’s now in development with the Jim Henson Company. Can you give us any intel or updates on that?
SD: I really can’t, but I can say that things are actually moving. I can say that. They always say Hollywood moves slow, until it doesn’t. It has been slow, but the Henson Company has been so unusual in that they have committed and stayed committed for years. Most people, they buy up options, they never do anything with it. The Henson Company does not buy many and when they do, they really commit. It’s honestly amazing. I have no complaints to know that even 5 years after they bought it, they are still working on it. I will say that cool things have happened this year and that commitment we hope will pay off.
BOC: Are you apart of any of the process or will you be in the writers room? Casting decisions?
SD: I won’t be in the writing room. I don’t want to be in the writing room. That is not my medium. I know a lot of authors do and they want to work with screenwriters and that’s great. But I am so not that person. I like novels. That is really what I enjoy writing. And I like watching TV. The Henson Company has been very cool and unusual in how much consultation that they have given me on things and sort of getting my approvals on things.
But at the end of the day, I almost view it as a different baby. It’s no longer mine and I know that the medium is different and I want to trust that they will keep the heart of what I had written. They really do care about it. They also understand how you have to modify things for a totally different audience and I trust them on that. Which is cool, I know not all authors get a partner that they can trust that much.
BOC: Can you formally tell us what you’re working on right now?
SD: I just finished Luminaries 2, title TBD. I’m in this uncomfortable position that many parents find themselves in, which is childcare. The ongoing repercussions of a pandemic and specifically where I live, being a childcare desert. Basically a retirement community. There’s not much demand for babysitters. So I’m faced with not having time and I really want to work on [redacted], the last Witchlands book.
Because it’s a complex story. It really requires an immersion and a mental space that I don’t have right now. I hate that because I hate being behind and feeling like I’m letting readers down. But it is what it is. I’m not sure what I’m going to work on this fall. I will have edits for Luminaries 2, that we’ll be doing and I’ll be working with authenticity readers. So it’s not like that book is completely wrapped up. And then I will need to write the third. I think what I’m going to try to do right now is dabble in the final Witchlands with the time that I have.
Thank you so much Susan Dennard and Tor Teen for this great interview! The Luminaries comes out November 1, 2022. Pre order now and submit your receipt for a limited edition enamel pin.
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