We chat with author Jessica Townsend about Silverborn: The Mystery of Morrigan Crow, which is the highly anticipated fourth book in the award-winning Nevermoor series.
Hi, Jessica! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
Hello! I’m a children’s author from Australia. I live on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, at the beach, with my two Cavalier King Charles Spaniels, Vivien and Rik. I love swimming and cooking and hosting, but my main hobby is buying all the things I need to start a new hobby and then instantly abandoning that hobby, often before I have taken the aforementioned hobby-specific things out of their packaging.
When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?
I wrote my first proper story when I was seven. It was called The Three Koalas (very Australian, very on-brand). The brief from our teacher was to write a fairytale in three sentences, but I couldn’t stop at three. I kept going until she basically had to demand that I chill. It was a tale of high drama, with dingo villains (who repented in the end) and an embarrassing misuse of the word ‘overexaggerating’ (which I was very proud of having just learned to spell). The librarian at our local public library published The Three Koalas in their monthly newsletter, and I’m afraid I got instantly hooked. I’ve been hurtling headlong down the slippery slope of authorship since then.
Quick lightning round! Tell us:
- The first book you ever remember reading: Babysitter’s Club Summer Vacation by Ann M. Martin. (Truly nothing will ever capture the high of cracking open a fresh Babysitter’s Club Super Special. I pine.)
- The one that made you want to become an author: Tomorrow, When the War Began by John Marsden
- The one that you can’t stop thinking about: Everyone On This Train is a Suspect by Benjamin Stevenson
Silverborn is the fourth installment in your Nevermoor series and it’s out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Murder, Magic, Opulence, Secrets & Lies
For those who haven’t picked up the series yet, what can they expect?
A story about a girl who is cursed to die, but instead, a) fakes her death with the help of a fairly spectacular stranger, b) runs away to an equally spectacular city, to c) live in a magical, living hotel with a giant talking cat… and d) has to compete in a series of trials to join a society of remarkable people with remarkable talents (even though she doesn’t have one). It’s a busy and bizarre life for Morrigan Crow.
And for readers who have, what’s to come in Silverborn?
Readers who’ve finished Hollowpox will know that Morrigan has a big, dangerous secret she is keeping from absolutely everyone she cares about… and in Silverborn, she learns that someone in her life has been keeping an equally enormous secret from her. We explore a wealthy, glamorous district of Nevermoor that we haven’t seen before, and also delve deeper into the exciting (but slightly shady) world of the Dragonsport industry. Oh and there’s MURDER.
Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring further?
I love the way Morrigan’s relationship with her patron, Jupiter North, has evolved in Silverborn amid some very fraught and challenging times! There is some serious (but satisfying) angst afoot. I also really enjoyed seeing Cadence Blackburn launching into full cosy crime detective mode to help Morrigan solve a murder – Detective Blackburn truly has some of the most fun moments in Silverborn.
Did you face any challenges whilst writing? How did you overcome them?
For sure! This has been the hardest book I’ve written. There was some external health-related stuff that kind of sucked (an inconveniently long post-Covid recovery and years of undiagnosed – now thankfully diagnosed – ADHD), but also the book itself was extra challenging, for a few reasons.
Firstly, it’s a murder mystery – the first one I’ve written – which has its own formula and set of rules to work within. And the murder had to play out not just in a fantasy world, but in the fourth book of a nine-book fantasy series. So alongside the murder subplot, there were many other threads I needed to pick up in Silverborn from the first three books, and new threads to lay down for the rest of the series. Basically, just a LOT of things needed to happen in this book, because it’s kind of a turning point in Morrigan’s story.
Ultimately all of this has made Silverborn the most satisfying book to (finally) finish, and my personal favourite in the series by FAR… but maaannnnnnn she was a nightmare to wade through.
What are some of the key lessons you’ve learned between your debut and now?
I came into this industry having no idea what the expectations or hopes might be for a debut author in terms of awards, sales figures or various honours and milestones. I still have no idea, because it all goes in one ear and out the other.
And I wholeheartedly believe that remaining a happy dummy when it comes to that stuff has been an excellent (accidental) strategy. It’s meant that every exciting thing that has happened with the Nevermoor books has been the most delightful surprise, and anything they were meant to do but didn’t, I am blissfully unaware of. It’s a very pleasant way to live.
With over 2.2 million copies sold around the world of the first three books, how did you find the rise to fame, particularly with it stemming from your debut?
See above re: happy dummy.
What’s next for you?
I would like to sleep for approximately one month, then it’s time to crack on with the fifth Nevermoor book.
Lastly, what books are you looking forward to picking up this year?
Super keen for Human Rites, the final book in Juno Dawson’s Her Majesty’s Royal Coven trilogy, and the new V.E. Schwab, Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil. And I’m perpetually looking forward to the latest Janice Hallett – as always, I have her next one (The Killer Question) on eager preorder.
