Interview with Susan Dennard, author of The Luminaries

Susan Dennard kicks off a darkly magical, action-packed new collection with The Luminaries, which introduces a mysterious world crammed with monsters. It’s the story of a teen woman named Winnie Wednesday and her quest to rejoin the key group of monster hunters who maintain her city—and the world—protected. Dennard chatted with BookPage about her novel’s uncommon origin story, the surprising methods she nonetheless makes use of her marine biology diploma and the way she continues to develop as a author after eight books and 10 years as a broadcast author.

Can you introduce us to Winnie and what’s occurring in her life after we meet her?
The ebook opens on Winnie’s sixteenth birthday in a city known as Hemlock Falls, the place nightmares rise in a close-by forest every evening. Seven clans inside the secret Luminaries society are charged with preventing these nightmares and defending the world at massive. There’s one clan for every evening of the week, and Winnie is a Wednesday.

Four years in the past, Winnie’s father was revealed to be a Diana—aka a witch, the sworn enemy of the Luminaries. Her dad ran off, however Winnie, her brother and her mother remained behind, nonetheless loyal to the trigger. They got a 10-year sentence to exist as outcasts inside Hemlock Falls as punishment for not seeing what their dad actually was.

Ever since that second 4 years in the past, Winnie has been secretly coaching to take part within the lethal Hunter trials. She is satisfied if she will cross and change into a Wednesday nightmare hunter, her household can be welcomed again into the Luminaries society.

The Luminaries has a reasonably distinctive origin story. For readers who don’t know what I’m speaking about, might you give us a fast rundown?
The Luminaries was an thought I first tried to promote in 2013 with none success, so my agent and I shelved it. Fast-forward six years to 2019: I used to be in a darkish place after a miscarriage and didn’t like being alone with my ideas, so whereas sitting at LaGuardia ready for a flight, I believed, “Let’s do something fun on Twitter.”

I rapidly typed off a tweet that started the story of The Luminaries, and on the finish was a ballot wherein readers might select what to do subsequent. Little did I do know that story would final six months, with 1000’s of individuals voting each single day on what Winnie Wednesday would do!

How did the story change in its transformation from interactive Twitter thread to novel? What was vital to you to protect in that transformation and why?
It modified a ton, truly. For two causes: First, I’m not somebody who desires to rewrite a narrative she’s already written—the enjoyable is within the discovery. Second, if I had tried to duplicate our on-line story, it might by no means have lived up! Ninety-five % of the enjoyable got here from the communal parts, just like the groups that cropped up (like #TeamThirst, who at all times voted towards romance, or #TeamPetty, who at all times voted for the worst choice), the chitchat between readers, the roping-in of associates so they would vote too . . . I couldn’t match that!

So I ended up taking the world and characters and crafting a completely new story. But of course, I made positive to incorporate probably the most iconic moments and a few Easter eggs for the unique LumiNerds.

Winnie’s household’s motto is “The cause above all else. Loyalty through and through.” What did you take pleasure in about creating her character?
It’s enjoyable to write down a personality who very hardly ever questions the why of one thing and easily does as a result of they consider so deeply in a trigger. It makes figuring out what Winnie will do in a scene simple: She will at all times work towards a singular objective. But then it’s particularly enjoyable to introduce cracks into that character’s loyalty, to have them begin noticing and questioning and questioning if perhaps they’ve acquired all of it improper.

You write so empathetically about Winnie’s feelings: She feels harm by her household’s ostracism, however she additionally yearns to be included. She’s justifiably indignant however unsure about when and how one can categorical it. What drew you to a protagonist who occupies this emotional panorama? 
You know, feelings are messy. The coronary heart desires what it desires, even when the mind is like, “That is a very bad plan.” And I believe each particular person out there was caught in a battle like that. Then you throw some exterior strain onto the state of affairs—notably from relationships that matter to you—and there’s actually no method to keep away from a lot of emotions. I discover that it’s in these messy emotional moments that we take advantage of tough selections and are available out stronger for them.

There’s a scene wherein Winnie collects corpses; later, she attends a flowery occasion. How do you get your self in the fitting headspace to write down such contrasting scenes—one so darkish and gory, the opposite so glittery and celebratory?
Ha! I had no hassle transferring from one finish of the spectrum to the opposite. It’s the way in which the entire Luminaries world operates, and I believe it’s how lots of people function. There are so many really robust jobs on the market, however then we go residence to our households and have fun birthdays, and our brains toggle between the 2 lives fairly fluidly.

Of course, it’s not at all times simple—for the world at massive or for Winnie—and we’ll actually see that come into play within the sequel.

Scientific curiosity performs a giant position in The Luminaries. How did your individual background in marine biology affect this side of the novel?
Speaking of toggling between gore and enjoyable, I’ve had the expertise of reducing aside sharks on Arctic ice, then tucking into a comfortable tent and enjoying playing cards all evening. You can’t totally benefit from the latter with out the primary.

I really like finding out the creatures of the world and the way evolution results in such unimaginable variations. It’s what acquired me into marine ecology—so many superb variations in our oceans! It was actually enjoyable to provide Winnie the identical fascination I’ve and to make use of my understanding of evolution and ecosystems to create the forest’s numerous nightmares.

Speaking of that forest, you write about it so vividly—the feel and appear of the bushes, the density of the mist, the sounds and smells of the panorama. Forests typically maintain a form of archetypal energy in fantasy tales. How did you go about crafting this explicit forest? Was it influenced by any actual forests you’ve encountered?
I used to be positively influenced by nights out tenting. If you’ve ever been in a dense forest when there isn’t a moon or different gentle, then you understand it’s a feeling. You actually can’t see, regardless of how a lot your eyes modify. And then the sounds! There are so many sounds, and every one simply takes on a sinister which means (no less than if you happen to’re like me and have an overactive creativeness). It wasn’t exhausting in any respect for me to faucet into that feeling and switch it into a complete world.

There’s a second when Winnie is speaking about her household, and he or she says, “We deserve to dream again.” That’s such a heavy weight for anybody to bear. What would you say to a youngster who’s feeling a strain like that?
One of the principle causes I write YA is as a result of I believe teenagers have all of the smarts and ingenuity of adults however with out the luggage or prejudices. They have a readability of thought that lets them see methods ahead that we adults simply can’t appear to seek out—or that we adults are satisfied won’t ever work.

I don’t need anybody to really feel pressured to dream, however I do suppose hoping and discovering options is one thing teenagers are uniquely adept at. So whereas Winnie’s mother would by no means need her daughter to be doing what she’s doing (secretly getting into these lethal Hunter trials), Winnie additionally has that readability of imaginative and prescient her mother lacks. She sees how this might save her household, and he or she’s prepared to take that danger.

This yr marks a decade because you revealed your first ebook, 2012’s Something Strange and Deadly. What are some methods you’ve modified as a author? What makes you’re feeling excited concerning the subsequent decade of writing?
I’d wish to suppose I’m a a lot better author now than I used to be a decade in the past—each on a prose stage and on a extra macro story stage. And I actually have a way more innate potential to write down now than after I first started. It’s that distinction between “unconscious competence” and “conscious competence.”

Of course, I’m additionally nonetheless studying—which is so thrilling to think about. I can nonetheless get higher. I really like to check craft, and I hope my books solely get stronger with every new title.

Author picture of Susan Dennard courtesy of Susan Dennard.