I was lucky to get an interview with Raina Nightingale the author of Children of the Dryads, one of this year’s #SPFBO8 entries.

Please, tell us a bit about yourself…
I love fantasy. I love telling stories – and the other side of that, too. Stories are how I think about reality, how I explore and challenge my beliefs. And they can also be a bit of fun escapism! I love both volcanoes and trees (or we could say, dragons and dryads!) in case that isn't obvious, and character development is the really important thing for me. Not so much whether the characters develop throughout the story or not, but that I get a real sense of who they are as people!

Why should I buy your book?
Children of the Dryads is a YA/MG high fantasy (reviewers have said 8-16) that follows a protagonist who has a very good relationship with her parents. In fact, that's how the whole plot gets started! Tara-lin is a half-elf, and her father, Eldor, is a warrior of a special Order. He gets called on a dangerous mission that she believes will kill him, and she wants him to run away. When he doesn't, she determines to follow him in secret.

It's a story about family and friendship, with no romance. I feel like a lot of YA has romance in it, and this one doesn't. Tara-lin's best friend is Alis, and it's a story about the forming of a friendship: they don't always get along perfectly or understand where the other is coming from – for example, Alis doesn't have such an idyllic family and is actually running away from her father! It's about themes of discovering and staying true to yourself, and harmony with the natural world is also a big thing.

That's what I personally love most about Children of the Dryads and Tara-lin in particular: because of the way Tara-lin's magic binds her to the dryads, she is bound to their pact, which involves doing no harm to any living thing. This means that in Tara-lin's personal life, she's a pacifist. But she is an active no-nonsense character, not at all content to just sit by and let things happen, yet in a way that works with her magic and the ways it binds her. Yet she must also learn to accept that others are different and have different natures binding their choices.

If you want a YA/MG fantasy that touches on some more, uh, complicated issues (like betrayal by Eldor's organization and the fact that reality is a little more complicated than “here are the good guys, they're good, and this is the bad guy, hate him”) in a way that's appropriate to a younger audience, with a unique take on dryads and elves, along with a side of some asexual representation, you might find that Children of the Dryads is the book for you!

What got you into writing? And how long have you been doing it?
I just did? There were these stories I read, and, well, I could tell stories too. So I started writing them as soon as I could read! At first, most of them were more or less fan fiction-y. There were some pretty original elements, but I was often inspired by other people's worlds and stories … sometimes something I just didn't want to be over, and sometimes something that I wished were different. Or both.

One of the earliest ones I wrote that was not in any way a fan fiction was short story that was a subversion on the knight, the dragon, and the princess prose. In my story, the princess was an archer who went with her knights to slay the dragon who was preying on the villagers … and it was pretty advanced for an eight-year-old, with a couple lines dedicated to the political situation when she became Queen.

Why did you choose to write fantasy? And why pick this particular subgenre?
I love dragons and dryads, but I think I've said that already! But there's more than that, of course! When you invent your own world, you don't have to worry about the kinds of things you have to be in touch with if you're writing contemporary or historical fiction (I guess this is why I write the high fantasy subgenre)? Most importantly, I see the world as magical and high fantasy gives you the best escapism in my opinion, so, what else would I write? I literally can't stop world-building ….

As for YA/MG it just sort of turned out that way. Which isn't a big surprise, since while I wrote Children of the Dryads in my twenties, Areaer and the first Areaer novels were born when I was 13. The style that I wanted to communicate and explore my thoughts in for Children of the Dryads, combined with the personality of Tara-lin, just made for something with about that age audience. I actually have another fantasy world that's very adult … not in the sense of anything having to with sex, or even more graphic violence, I avoid that, but in the sense of having that sort of complexity in the plot and the style and all that stuff.

Personally, I wish people thought of certain styles less as “for younger audiences.” They are appropriate and often understandable to younger audiences, but they are a method of telling stories and exploring reality that's not in any way inferior to the more “adult” stuff. They arise from a different perception of the world, and allow for a different sort of exploration, and I think that is just as valuable at any stage in life. And it's not exclusive to themes that are generally considered “YA.”

Which other author has had the biggest influence on your writing?
This is kind of complicated, because most of my very favourite authors I only encountered pretty recently, all things considered! Then again, that also makes this simpler, since it leaves me with only one, instead of having to choose one out of five that I can't pick between!

Anne MacCaffrey. I love her dragons and her characters, and her style, and I read The Harper Hall trilogy quite early! It was a real turning point for my ability to develop stories.

What’s the best thing about being a writer?
I get to put these stories that are how I process life and what I think down on paper (or computer screens, but the ultimate goal is always to get it down on paper) so that other people can read it. And so that I can reread it. Remembering the stories, knowing them, is something truly wonderful, but re-reading them is sometimes a whole other level of wonderful!

Sometimes, when I need to remind myself what I believe or how I think about things, if I'm not in the mood to work on any of my Works-In-Progress (or start a new one!) I go and read one of my finished stories!

What’s the hardest thing about being a writer?
What's the hardest thing about doing what you love?

I wouldn't say there is a hardest thing. I mean, it can be really energy intensive, if that's what you mean, and challenging, but I love that! … now, publishing is a whole other story! But even there, I'm starting to love more and more of it: except the figuring out how to sell books part, I haven't figured that out yet, and I'm not having fun with it very often ….

Do you have any tips or an author app, tool, or resource that you can really recommend we try?
If you write to create the perfect book for you, the book you want to read, and you don't compare what you're writing to anything except what you want it to be, it's a drive to excellence all its own, and … in my experience, at least, it takes care of that imposter syndrome issue pretty nicely. After all, only I can create my story....

And now it's time to yank out your Palantir! Let’s talk about the future. What new projects are you working on?
I'm working on creating absolutely beautiful paperback interiors. It's really irritating how I'm always just behind the curve. The prices of paperbacks are going up … while I am discovering how to make interiors that are truly works of art, with interior images, or margin art, or scene breaks, most of it self-done in freehand!

Otherwise, I've got nearer a dozen than half a dozen (I think?) Works-In-Progress going. I might have miscounted, but it's somewhere around there. One of those is a trilogy set tens of thousands of years later, following another half-elf Singer, and related to some of what happens in Children of the Dryads and the Legend of the Singer Duology. But long before you see those, you're likely to see the story of Tara-lin's parents, the elven huntress Lìrulin and the human warrior, Eldor, a prequel to Children of the Dryads. I am 100k into it as I write this, and I except it to be under 120k. I won't make any promises with a manuscript that's not finished, but I hope to publish it Spring 2023. Sorry, I'm not final on the title yet. But if you keep in touch with me, I'll be sure to reveal it when I know!

Do you have any dreams you’d like to share?
Oh, selling a hundred copies of one title would be pretty awesome! I think I've sold about that number total (I could look up my records to see the exact count, but I don't remember), but it would be really great to sell a hundred copies in one title! Or even one series....

I've already got some fan art, so that's something of a dream! And it's a moment to treasure: Oh, this is how a reader imagined my character and my world. (The banner is one of those pieces of fan art I absolutely LOVE ON!! Made by Samantha Kroese.)

Anything else you would like to say before we close?
I love dragons, I really do, and I know I've mentioned them more than once in this interview, but just so you know, there aren't any dragons in Children of the Dryads.... I definitely have other books with dragons, though!

Thank you for the “After all, only I can create my story....“ tip, I really liked that.

Raina, I wish you the very best of luck finding more readers and getting to those 100 copies!