In her powerful debut novel, Legendborn, Tracy Deonn brings a searing new story into the Arthurian canon. I recently got a chance to ask Tracy some questions about her writing and research process, the fandoms she shared with her mother, and what books and TV she is looking forward to in this crazy year of 2020.
Hello and thank you for taking the time to answer some questions for The Nerd Daily! Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and Legendborn?
Sure! Sometimes I describe myself as a second generation fangirl who happens to write books, and I think it’s actually pretty accurate! I am an 80’s kid who wore out her VHS of The Neverending Story, a former academic, and an author. Legendborn is my debut novel, and it’s a contemporary fantasy set on the campus of UNC-Chapel Hill. It’s about a sixteen-year-old girl named Bree who infiltrates a campus secret society that she believes may have a connection to her mother’s death. When the secret society, who call themselves the Legendborn, reveal that they are the descendants of the knights of the Round Table and are fighting a centuries-old magical war, Bree’s mission to find the truth gets more fun, more complicated—and more dangerous.
What was your writing process like for Legendborn? Do you have any particular writing traditions?
My favorite writing rituals include incense (I prefer amber, but nag champa is a close second!) and my Spotify playlist of movie soundtracks. The one I had on rotation the most for this book was the Captain America: The Winter Soldier score. I also like the score to Jupiter Ascending. Both have a big, epic feel but focus on different emotions that all felt very appropriate for Legendborn.
What kind of research went into the crafting of this story?
I did tons of research for Legendborn. Tons. One of the more challenging aspects of working with the legends of King Arthur is that there are so many stories in a very old canon. I call it “fifteen-hundred-year-old global fanfic” because there truly is no single King Arthur story or legend; there are multiplicities of them. Writers and storytellers across the centuries and in different countries have introduced new characters, put their own spin on existing stories, and found new ways to tell even the same story in movie or TV adaptations. I treated the big wide canon of Arthuriana like a giant toolbox, and pulled the aspects I knew I wanted to most work with to tell my story and left others behind. I also worked with a Welsh language consultant and medievalist, two American medievalists, and consulted with two people trained in swordplay for fight scenes. For the history of the campus, I did a lot of primary source research and consulting about UNC’s campus, and drew on my own experiences there as a double graduate.
What was your favorite scene to write in Legendborn? And were there any that were particularly challenging?
I have tons of favorites, but one that stands out is the tunnel sequence about two-thirds of the way through the book. I won’t say any spoilers, but the back and forths between Bree and the other character, and the revelations in that scene, were circling my brain probably 2 years before I actually wrote it. The climax scene was very challenging; endings usually are for me. You have to bring all the threads together in a satisfying way and keep the reader engaged while fulfilling the promises from earlier in the book.
There are a lot of hard issues handled throughout the story, particularly Bree dealing with the death of her mother. How do you decompress from writing such heavy topics?
Writing through those very topics is actually a way to process them for me, so I didn’t always need a ritual afterward. Other times, I had to escape into something completely different that used a different part of my brain, like a humorous Webtoon that has lots of artwork and tells a story in a visual medium.
Legendborn has one of my favorite covers of the year! Did you have any input with the process of creating the cover? What was your reaction when you saw the cover?
Isn’t it fantastic? I actually sent my very short wishlist of input to my publishing team before the cover was even discussed because I wanted my thoughts in the mix as early as possible. I knew I wanted an illustrated cover like the fantasy novels I grew up with, I knew that Bree had to be prominent with big, curly hair, and I gave them a suggestion of using one particular image from the book. When I saw the cover I was totally stunned that they’d taken my input at all—that’s not a given in this industry. I immediately recognized the image as Bree, and could tell in the way that Bree was illustrated that Simon and Schuster had made it a priority to select a Black artist. Hillary D. Wilson, the cover artist, went above and beyond and completely floored me.
In the author letter that came with the Legendborn ARC, you mention how your mother introduced you to comic books and Star Trek. Were there other fandoms that you shared? And how have these shared fandoms shaped you as an author?
My mother was such a fangirl. She loved Star Wars so much that she even geeked out about Return of the Jedi in my baby book, so I definitely fell in love with Star Wars through her! She and I both loved X-Men, the Indiana Jones movies, and tons of 80s and 90’s SFF TV shows. Anything from SeaQuest DSV to Hercules and Xena to Quantum Leap and Alien Nation. I was introduced to Frank Herbert’s Dune through her old, tattered paperback copy. I grew up staring longingly at her science fiction and fantasy-filled bookshelves, so the SFF genre has always been around me. In more ways than one, I wouldn’t have the career and passions I have without her influence, so when I call myself “a second generation fangirl” it’s an homage to her. But my engagement with fandom looks a lot different than her engagement, because I grew up with the internet. Participating in fandoms online has definitely changed the way I think about story and informed how I craft relationship dynamics in my writing. I very much wrote Legendborn with lots of invitational “openings” for fandom, whether that’s fanfic or fanart.
Do you have any favorite books, movies, or TV series from 2020 that you can recommend?
I haven’t seen it yet, but I’m really looking forward to the third season of Star Trek: Discovery. I can’t wait to read Naomi Novik’s A Deadly Education and have already bought two editions. This isn’t out in 2020, but I am really looking forward to Marvel’s Loki TV show whenever that premieres.
