We chat with author Hanna C. Howard about Our Divine Mischief, which is a sweeping YA fantasy inspired by Scottish history and culture and takes readers on a journey told in three voices: a determined heroine, an outcast young man, and a talking canine.
Hi, Hanna! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
Hi! Thanks so much for hosting me! I’m a YA fantasy author from Tulsa, Oklahoma, where I live with my husband, our three small kiddos, and our very athletic rescue dog, Elentari (named for the Queen of the Valar in Tolkien’s Silmarillion). I’m a fan of all things cozy and cottagey, I love to garden, strong British tea is my beverage of choice, and I love anything floral, antique, and whimsical.
When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?
I’ve loved reading as long as I can remember, but when I was in fourth grade, my teacher had a book-making station in her classroom—a place you could write, illustrate, and bind your own stories—and I couldn’t get enough of it. The last day of school, she told me I should consider becoming a writer when I grew up, which probably planted a seed. In tenth grade I finally started writing novels seriously, after my best friend encouraged me to write down the stories I was always making up in my head.
Quick lightning round! Tell us the first book you ever remember reading, the one that made you want to become an author, and one that you can’t stop thinking about!
Oh gosh! The first book I remember reading… Maybe The Boxcar Children? Those were pretty early days… The book that made me want to become an author was probably Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine. It’s my favorite book to this day, but I think it showed me how accessible and magical fantasy could be. And one I can’t stop thinking about… I recently read The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels by India Holton, and really loved the dry, witty style as well as the ludicrous premise of Victorian lady pirates flying their houses all over the British countryside.
Your latest novel, Our Divine Mischief, is out October 17th! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Quirky. Scottish. Doggish. Lyrical. Cozy.
What can readers expect?
Readers can expect a rugged, old-world, Hebridean atmosphere, a folkloric mood, enigmatic gods, two varieties of love story, three POV characters, poetry, and faint echoes of Scottish history. Also strenuous tests, a chaotic dog, a determined girl, an earnest boy, and treacherous journeys over the ocean.
Where did the inspiration for Our Divine Mischief come from?
I started drafting this book in 2020, a few months after my beloved dog of twelve years died. I wanted to tell a story rooted in my own experience—in my love for a wild, unpredictable, infuriating, wonderful dog—and so I took the seed of that idea and planted it in a landscape that held great sway over my imagination: that of the Scottish island of Islay, in the Outer Hebrides. I didn’t know much about the story when I started to explore the idea, only that it would be about a girl who went to the island where her small fishing village’s goddess lived, and instead of meeting the goddess, met a dog. And the story grew from that seedling.
Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
My favorite character to write was the dog, Orail, because her chapters are in evolving verse, and also delivered from the mind of a dog. It was so much fun to imagine what a dog’s thought might be like, especially when given poetry as an expression. Hew was another delightful character to write, because he is extremely self-critical even while being almost painfully kind. Both characters offered a radical departure from my own way of thinking, which made for very interesting and rewarding writing.
What’s next for you?
I’ve been working on an adult fantasy novel for a while now (rudely interrupted by my pregnancy and the birth of our twin daughters, ha!), and I’m super excited to continue honing that story to get it ready to go on submission.
Lastly, do you have any book recommendations for our readers?
Always! I love all of Rebecca Ross’s books, but The Queen’s Rising is my favorite. Wind Daughter by Joanna Ruth Meyer. The Beholder by Anna Bright. My Lady Jane by Jodi Meadows, Brodie Ashton and Cynthia Hand. A Dress for the Wicked by Autumn Krause. Splinters of Scarlet by Emily Bain Murphy.
