We had the pleasure of chatting with Australia’s #1-bestselling YA author Lynette Noni about The Blood Traitor, the eagerly awaited finale of the Prison Healer trilogy!
Hi, Lynette! Thank you for joining us on The Nerd Daily again. How has the last 12 months been for you?
It’s been an amazing year, thank you for asking! Busy, busy, busy!
When did you first discover your love for writing?
My mother claims I was always making up stories, even as a young child, so I can’t give you an exact age. But it was when I started to work on my first book, Akarnae, that I fell in love with writing enough that it became something I couldn’t not do, even if no one ever read any of my books. (I actually never intended for anyone to read Akarnae — I wrote that manuscript purely for myself, and it was only after I wrote the sequel that I realised I needed to share that series with the world, just so I could have people to talk to about it!)
The Blood Traitor is the third and final installment in your Prison Healer trilogy and it is out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Epic from start to finish.
What can readers expect?
There’s a lot of action and adventure in this finale, right from the very beginning. (Including a quest! *Heart eyes*) There’s also a strong emotional journey for a number of the characters, especially after decisions that were made in the previous two books — and the consequences of those decisions.
What kept you inspired whilst writing The Blood Traitor?
Since it’s the last book in the trilogy, I was desperate to see how it finished, so that helped keep me focused on the end goal. I needed to know if everyone I cared about would be okay or not! It was a very nerve-wracking writing experience, haha.
Can you tell us a bit about the challenges you faced while writing the final installment and how you were able to overcome them?
Oooof, a better question would be what challenges didn’t I face with this book. (And that’s ignoring the general state of the pandemic world!) So I’ll just pick one, and that would be that since this series was on an accelerated release schedule, the deadline windows were incredibly small. So that meant I ended up with something like 4-6 weeks to write this book, and then I had to jump straight into editing less than a fortnight after the draft was done. So that was pretty rough on me, physically and mentally, but I’m so happy with how this book turned out and I love every page of it!
Were there any favourite moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
In this series, Tipp has always been a favourite to write, since he brightens up every page he’s on. I also loved, loved, LOVED writing any scene with Caldon in it. And there’s a new(ish) main character in the final book who I never thought I would love but I absolutely do — she’s someone who was in the first book but not the second, and she totally steals the show in the final book! (Of course I also loved writing about Kiva and Jaren and Naari and so many others as well — I just adore all these characters!!)
What’s the best and the worst writing advice you have received?
The best advice is pretty obvious but worth repeating, and that’s to read widely, and outside your genre. The worst advice would be to ignore your instinct and instead follow a strict writing method no matter what. (I personally have to trust my gut when I write, and if something doesn’t “feel” right, then it probably isn’t — even if that means changing some (or all) of my carefully thought-out plotting plans.)
What’s next for you?
I’m taking a bit of a break right now, and then it’s straight back into the writing cave for me!
Lastly, do you have any 2022 book recommendations for our readers?
Oh wow, so many! It’s been an amazing reading year so far! My three recent favourites were Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan, This Woven Kingdom by Tahereh Mafi, and Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao.
