Hannah Whitten is the author of the upcoming fantasy novel For the Wolf, which is the first book in her Wilderwood series. For the Wolf is the story of Red, who’s sent to the Wolf in the woods as a sacrifice in hopes that he’d return the captured gods of Red’s world. However, Red soon finds out that the Wolf is not a monster, but just a man. If you love retellings and romance-heavy fantasy novels, make sure to pick up For the Wolf!
The Nerd Daily very recently had the opportunity to chat with Hannah, and in the interview she tells us about her favourite fairy tale, what makes a good love story for her, her upcoming projects, and more!
Hello Hannah! Thanks so much for doing this interview! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself first?
Thank you so much for having me! So I live at the top of a mountain in Tennessee with my spouse, our feral kid, two cats, and a dog. I have way too many houseplants, notebooks, and weird postcards. I regularly trespass into the woods behind our house to take instagram pictures. I have never successfully taken care of a begonia, and I can’t do a cartwheel.
For the Wolf, your debut novel, is out now! Would you tell us a little about the book?
The two not-quite-a-pitch ways I’ve described WOLF is as fairytale soup, and what would happen if Brand New decided to do a Red Riding Hood concept album. It’s not necessarily intended as a retelling so much as a melting together, a story that takes elements of classic fairytales and twists them to hopefully feel like folklore in its own right.
For the Wolf will remind readers of fairy tales like Little Red Riding Hood and Beauty and the Beast. What’s your favourite fairy tale, and why?
I actually love Hansel and Gretel, mostly because it’s such a simple story that can be hugely terrifying. The idea of being abandoned and fighting your way back is really appealing to me. It’s something I’d like to write a reimagining of eventually!
A central part of For the Wolf is the romance that develops between Red and the Wolf- who’s a man and not the monster he’s been made out to be. What elements do you think make up the best love stories?
My favorite love stories are the ones where the people falling for each other are in difficult to understand positions, where they think they’re all alone, and someone comes along who does understand. Seeing someone realize they don’t have to be alone—that someone else is lonely in the same way they are—always gets me.
If you could switch places with any of the characters from For the Wolf, who would you be and why?
Oof, no one is having a great time so I wouldn’t want to switch with any of them, hah! But the one I have always identified the most with is Neve.
Are you a plotter or a pantser? What’s your writing process like?
Kind of a hybrid! Now that I’m writing to deadlines, I tend to plan a lot more, but I still leave room for myself to figure things out as I’m drafting. I will usually write until I run out of steam on an idea and then write messy narrative chapter outlines for the rest—it helps me work through blocks and tease out any tangles that I might run into without the added pressure of trying to write them well. Once I have a roadmap, I go back and draft, though things definitely change in that stage, too. I think the key is being flexible, because every book requires something different from you. You’ve just gotta tune into the story enough to figure out what it needs.
What’s next for you, aside from the sequel to For the Wolf?
I have a few irons in the fire, though right now they are all contractually secret 🙂
Do you have any book recommendations for us?
Tons! The Jasmine Throne, The Chosen and the Beautiful, The Wolf and the Woodsman, Sorrowland, Wound From The Mouth of A Wound, and The Atmospherians are all some I’ve loved lately.
