2020 has been a YEAR, and this week was especially life changing, but now I want to shift gears (if only for a little it) to shout about the phenomenal author I got to interview! If you haven’t picked up any of Kiersten White’s books, I highly suggest you do! Kiersten White has a wide range of amazing stories that all make you want to keep turning the page until you get to the end, but I must say, I am absolutely in love with her latest series about King Arthur’s queen, Guinevere. Although this is an interview about the sequel of this series, The Camelot Betrayal, I definitely think you should go put The Guinevere Deception on your list today. Now, on to the interview!
Hello Kiersten, can you tell us about yourself and about The Camelot Betrayal?
Hi! I’m the New York Times and award-winning and very tired author of what is now seventeen (!!) books for young readers, teens, and anyone who likes a good story. The Camelot Betrayal is book two in the Camelot Rising trilogy. In The Guinevere Deception, we met the most famous queen who never lived—with a twist. Because our Guinevere isn’t actually Guinevere. She’s a changeling sent by Merlin to be King Arthur’s magical bodyguard. After the revelations about her actual purpose in Camelot and the devastating renewal of Arthur’s most dangerous foe—the fairy queen who wants to plunge the land back into chaos—Guinevere and Arthur have agreed: she will keep being queen, but she also gets to be the lead in the defense against the Dark Queen. The problem is, Guinevere isn’t sure how to do either. With her lack of memories plaguing her, her relationship with Arthur uncertain, and an unexpected “sister” appearing in Camelot, Guinevere has to wonder: Is she Camelot’s defender, or its biggest threat?
In what ways does your writing process change when you’re transitioning from the first book of a series to the sequel?
The first book is all getting-to-know-you fun. Book two inherits all the problems you created for yourself, but you can’t offer final solutions until book three. My biggest fear is writing a book two that just spins reader’s wheels, wasting time and drawing things out until the story matters again in book three. So for me, an essential book two is always about characters. Pushing them to their limits, deconstructing them, and forcing them to grow into the person they’ll need to be to face the challenges of book three. My theory of trilogies is as the end of book one, give the characters what they want. Let them figure out in book two that they don’t actually want that, and then make them suffer until they realize what they do want, so they can suffer EVEN MORE in book three to get it.
Authors are such gentle, loving imaginary parents.
What is a scene you’re dying for readers to get to in The Camelot Betrayal when it’s out? (if it’s not too spoilery)
I rarely say this, but…the ending. I’ve had a longstanding personal policy that each book must have its own narrative arc, and I don’t end books in cliffhangers.
So, while The Camelot Betrayal does have its own arc, I cannot promise I haven’t broken that second policy.
I really loved the female friendships, which relationship did you enjoy writing the dialogue for the most?
I love how both Brangien and Dindrane support Guinevere while being very honest and calling her on certain things. They’re the best type of friends—similar enough that you enjoy spending time with them, but different enough that they can offer a perspective and insight you never would have gotten on your own. It’s always important to me to show the complexity and power of female friendship!
If you could pick a trait of Guinevere’s that you would want to emulate at times, what would it be?
Guinevere is so emotionally generous with those around her. Because she looks past what is immediately presented, she found a dear friend in Dindrane, a knight in Lancelot, a sister in Brangien. She doesn’t always get it right—she has a tendency to assume threats where they sometimes don’t exist, as we saw with the patchwork knight and Rhoslyn in book one—but her heart is so big and her ability to see the best in people is something I try to cultivate more in myself.
Last time, you mentioned Mordred and Dindrane having larger roles in the book than intended, were there characters that had a larger role than anticipated in The Camelot Betrayal?
Actually, the opposite! There’s a new character named Hild—a Saxon ship captain—whom I initially envisioned having a much larger role. In the end, there just wasn’t space in the narrative for her to have that. I shifted plot and pacing so that I could focus more on the real Guinevere’s sister and her threat in showing up in Camelot, since that was a much more crucial development.
Which of your characters is the easiest to get on to the page?
Guinevere’s narrative voice isn’t too big a stretch for me, unlike some of my previous main characters, with whom I sometimes took wrong emotional turns while drafting. I really enjoy writing Guinevere and the fresh, optimistic determination she brings to the world. Of the side characters, I would say Mordred is consistently easiest—I just, like, really like him??—and Arthur is the hardest. (He plays the most against my “type” in love interests, and it’s a huge challenge trying to walk the line between making him accessible versus making him too good for his own good.)
Any hints to what we can expect for book three?
Most of book three is spent outside of Camelot, with one of my absolute favorite characters ever introduced in the form of a Pict Princess. You’ll also finally get answers about where Guinevere’s missing memories are and who she was before she was Guinevere! Not to mention something my editor referred to as “Guinevere and [Redacted]’s Bubble of Lust.” Just gonna leave it at that.
Between your writing, being an amazing Wonder Woman mom, Y’ALL Fest, and everything else going on in the world, how are you taking some time for yourself?
Oof, that’s the question right now, isn’t it? All three of my kids are still in distance learning and have been since March, so it’s been another long learning curve of how to work under these circumstances. As far as time to myself, I started taking an evening walk, but my seven-year-old discovered it and now cheerfully tags along, giving me random animal facts. Then I started watching home renovation and baking shows, but my sixteen-year-old decided she loves them, too, so she joins me. Basically, I’m down to showering and napping for solo activities. It works out nicely though, because I do a lot of plotting in those liminal napping spaces.
In the end, I’m just grateful and extremely lucky to have a job I love and a family I don’t mind being surrounded by at all times. Events like YallWrite are a huge bonus, because at least I get to catch up virtually with the author community I dearly miss.
Will you be doing a virtual tour for The Camelot Betrayal? How can we support your amazing new book?
I will! I’ll be doing my launch event with Mysterious Galaxy on November 10th. You can register on their site. Then on Saturday the 14th, I’m doing an event with my writer BFF Stephanie Perkins with Astoria Bookshop—you can register on their site, as well—and then immediately after that I’ll be on a YallWrite panel about writing for existing worlds! You also have to register to attend, but registration is free for all! You can order signed, personalized copies of The Camelot Betrayal from Mysterious Galaxy, and bookplate-signed copies through Astoria and Blue Bicycle Books!
Lastly, do you have any book recommendations for us?
Oh, do I! My favorite recent read in YA—and a perfect book while you’re waiting for The Excalibur Curse, the conclusion of the Camelot Rising trilogy due out next year—is Legendborn by Tracy Deonn. It’s an Arthurian-inspired modern-day fantasy, set in the real world and following a heartbreakingly real and compelling main character navigating loss and anger as she infiltrates a secret society that may have played a role in her mother’s death.
