Photo Credit: Ashlee Cain
Born and raised in St. Thomas of the US Virgin Islands, Kacen Callender is the award-winning author of the middle-grade novels Hurricane Child and King and the Dragonflies, the young-adult novels This Is Kind of an Epic Love Story and Felix Ever After, and the adult novel Queen of the Conquered.
We had the pleasure of talking to Kacen about Queen of the Conquered, which follows an ambitious young woman with the power to control minds who seeks vengeance against the royals who murdered her family, all set in a Caribbean-inspired fantasy world embattled by colonial oppression. You can find Kacen on Twitter and Instagram!
Your new novel, Queen of the Conquered, publishes on November 12th. If you could only describe your book in five words, what would they be?
Brutal, powerful, surprising, unforgiving, and beautiful.
Now let’s hear a little more! What can readers expect?
This is a fantasy in a Caribbean-inspired world embattled by colonization. The main character, Sigourney Rose, seeks revenge against the Fjern, who have enslaved her people and massacred her family. She manipulates her way onto a royal island with a power to read and control minds and hopes to win the favor of the king, who will be choosing the next successor to the throne—but once she arrives, royal nobles around Sigourney are murdered one-by-one, and she needs to discover who the murderer is before she’s killed as well.
Where did the inspiration for Queen of the Conquered come from?
The first spark of inspiration came years ago when I was a child and I learned that Black people had once owned slaves as well. I wondered what sort of person would be willing to degrade their own people for power, and the question has lingered with me all these years later. The story and Sigourney’s character continued to develop as I found myself in many situations—school, work, etc.—where I was the only Black person in the room, but often times it was my own privilege, like being able to attend college, that put me there. I wanted to look at the ways privilege intersects with oppression. This all came together to create Sigourney’s morally gray character.
What kind of research did you have to do for your novel?
The islands of Hans Lollik are based on the US Virgin Islands, where I was born and raised. The US Virgin Islands were once a part of the Dutch West Indies, so a lot of our street names, surnames, and sometimes islands’ names (such as the two Hans Lollik islands north of St. Thomas) are Dutch. I based the language of Queen of the Conquered on a mixture of Dutch and Danish, so did research by translating words. For example, the magical ability in the book is called “kraft”, which translates to “power” in Danish.
Were there any challenges you faced while writing?
It was difficult to write about the brutality of slavery and colonization. I didn’t want to disrespect the history of slavery by washing over it, but I also didn’t want to use the pain of slavery as gratuitous entertainment. I ultimately hope that Queen of the Conquered is respectful to history.
How long, from start to final revision, did Queen of the Conquered take?
I started writing different versions of Queen of the Conquered on and off in 2012. I sent the first draft of its current version to my agent Beth Phelan in September of 2016, and we revised the beginning before we sold on proposal to Orbit in June 2018. I wrote the complete first draft in October of 2018 and I worked on drafts with my editor until February 2019. So, from start to finish—technically about seven years!
What’s your writing process like?
It’s still evolving and changes from book to book, but right now it seems that I’m settling on a starting with a brief outline that hits all of the major beats, and writing “by the seat of my pants” in between each of those beats. I also tend to write several books at the same time unless I’m on deadline.
What’s next for you?
My next book will be a middle-grade called King and the Dragonflies, out in February of next year. After that will be the young-adult Felix Ever After, out in May of next year. There will also be a sequel to Queen of the Conquered, though I’m not positive about its release date yet.
Lastly, do you have any book recommendations for us?
Yes! Gideon the Ninth by Tasmyn Muir and Empire of Sand by Tasha Suri were two recent favorites.
Huh, why does this cover have the same exact snake used in the ‘Ninth House’ cover?