We chat with author Kait Ballenger about Original Sinner, which sees seven deadly―and ultrarich―sins rule NYC, and though she came here to escape her past, one woman’s true path to freedom might be the devil’s bonds in this scorching hot romantasy.
Hi, Kait! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
Of course! My name is Kait Ballenger and I’m an award-winning author of both dark romantasy and paranormal romance. My latest release, Original Sinner, is the first in a series where Lucifer and the other seven deadly sins are billionaire celebrities who rule a God-abandoned New York City. It’s perfect for those who enjoyed Netflix’s Lucifer, but want less police procedural elements and more dark, kinky spice ala Fifty-Shades of Grey.
When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?
I started young. I remember penning my first novella—it was sixty handwritten pages!—at age twelve. It was a story about a teenage girl who fell in love with a vampire. It was very Twilight, long before Twilight was a thing. Anne Rice’s Queen of the Damned had just came out in theatres and I was upset my mother wouldn’t let me watch it, so I wrote my story in opposition.
But I don’t think I truly thought “I want to be a writer” until I was in my freshman year of college. I was reading Charlaine Harris’ Sookie Stackhouse series at the time, and writing yet another vampire story for fun—do you see the theme here?—and eventually it started to reach novel length. I’d been a lover of fantasy and the paranormal for many years, but I was majoring in Spanish, yet it occurred to me that I could be the one writing the kinds of stories I wanted to read.
I switched my major to English shortly after that. Then I finished that first book and started querying. Then I wrote another. And another. When I was twenty-one, just before I began pursuing my MFA, my debut book was published by Harlequin HQN. It’s since been republished under the title, Rogue Wolf Hunter. It’s a paranormal romance about a werewolf hunter who falls in love with his mortal enemy, his local pack’s first female packmaster.
Quick lightning round! Tell us:
- The first book you ever remember reading: Cam Jansen and the Mystery of the Stolen Diamonds
- The one that made you want to become an author: Laurell K Hamilton’s Anita Blake series
- The one that you can’t stop thinking about: Five Broken Blades by Mai Corland
Your latest novel, Original Sinner, is out March 25th! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Devil fake dates preacher’s daughter.
What can readers expect?
Readers can expect an irreverent, high-stakes apocalyptic fantasy plot in an alternate New York City with unexpected twists and turns, lots of spice, and a morally gray hero they can’t help but fall in love with.
Where did the inspiration for Original Sinner come from?
My guiding principle as a writer is that I don’t write anything that I wouldn’t want to read, so all my ideas come from what I’m enjoying reading. When I came up with the idea for Original Sinner, at the time, I was really enjoying the recent surge of Hades and Persephone romances. I wanted to do something like that, but different and fresh, so the idea for Original Sinner was born out of the question: how do you writes Hades and Persephone but in a new and different mythos?
The answer: Lucifer is the Hades of Christian mythology.
And why not give him some sinful siblings who are vying with him for power just for fun?
Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
I’d be lying if I said there was a character I loved writing more than Lucifer. From the start, he already had such a loaded mythos and backstory, but finally giving him a voice, letting him tell his own tale and seeing his perspective on things in a modern Paradise Lost sort-of way was a lot of fun for me creatively. It let me step into darker parts of myself.
I also really enjoyed flipping the script on that. Without giving too many spoilers away, Lucifer is far more complex than he seems.
But I’d be remiss if I didn’t also mention how much I love the book’s heroine, Charlotte. Her growth arc is perhaps my favorite.
She’s the runaway daughter of a cultish Evangelical minister, and at the start of Original Sinner, she’s come to New York City in order to make a life for herself and shed the shackles of the oppressive purity culture she’s been raised in. For the first time, she’s standing on her own two feet and beginning to face the religious trauma she’s endured. She chooses to work at Lucifer’s company Apollyon Incoporated, his multinational luxury conglomerate, because she thinks it’s the last place her fundamentalist father and his abusive congregation will come looking for her—and she’s not entirely wrong.
By the end of the book, Charlotte transforms from being a timid survivor who struggles to believe in herself to stepping into the fullness of her power. She sheds the shame she’s been taught to feel about herself and gains self-confidence, and I think seeing a young woman grow and thrive like that is the true magic of this story.
Did you face any challenges whilst writing? How did you overcome them?
This book was actually a rare gift book. It just flew out of me. Original Sinner was very much a passion project, so my sole goal in writing it was to have fun. I let myself do whatever I wanted creatively in a way I hadn’t allowed myself before, so that made writing it a true joy.
But there have been other books where I’ve struggled, and I think the best way to overcome any challenges while writing is to face them head on. I just put my head down and keep widdling away at the problem. It’s when we turn away and give up on ourselves and our creative vision that the true problems arise.
What’s next for you?
Currently, I’m working on the third book in the Original Sinner series, Beautiful Redeemer.
The sequel, Wicked Believer, will be out on September 9th of this year.
After that, I have tentative plans to explore writing about the other sinners. Creatively, I’m not quite done playing in Charlotte and Lucifer’s wicked world just yet.
Lastly, what books are you looking forward to picking up this year?
Oh, so many! But in particular, I’m looking forward to The Huntsman by Naima Simone and Heart of Ruin by A.C Arthur.
