Interview: Kesia Lupo

Kesia Lupo, Senior Editor at leading children’s publisher Chicken House Books, is no stranger to the publishing industry, but her perspective is about to change. Her debut young adult fantasy novel, We Are Blood and Thunder, is about to be published. Eleanor Pender caught up with Bristol-based Kesia to talk about strong female characters, world building and diversity in fantasy fiction.

How does it feel for your debut novel to be a real thing? How long has it been since you imagined this could be a reality?

It’s been ages, I started writing it about five years ago, so it’s been brewing for a long time. At the time, I’d just finished a Creative Writing MA at Bath Spa and I went to London and started looking for jobs and internships in publishing. I really liked writing but also loved the editorial side of the process. I’d also written most of the novel for National Novel Writing Month, which filled the following five years full rewriting and more rewriting. There was something there, a scene that is right at the beginning – Lena running down a hill through a dense cloud and being chased by hounds – and that was always the first scene in my head. It was building up around that, explaining why that was happening and exploring the characters and place that inspired me. That one scene was the gem of the whole thing.

Bristol writer Kesia Lupo’s debut young adult novel is published next month

How would you describe We Are Blood and Thunder?

Oh, it’s all adventure, fantasy, mystery, suspense, with many twists! So, without spoilers, We Are Blood and Thunder is the story of two women, Lena and Constance, whose lives are bound by a life-threatening and mysterious storm cloud over Duke’s Forest. The story starts before the storm cloud appears, and then its six years later after it has dramatically affected lives in the kingdom and forced a quarantine.

I think, if you like Melinda Salisbury, Samantha Shannon, or Leigh Bardugo, you’ll enjoy We Are Blood and Thunder. It’s one for fans of magic, fantasy and other worlds.

Your two lead protagonists, Constance and Lena, are strong female characters. Was this a conscious decision?

I think, with other YA writers, like Melinda Salisbury and Samantha Shannon, they’re trying to normalise diversity. It’s not about having strong female characters or a diverse cast of characters. I think we just want it to be normal, that’s certainly what I was trying to do. Lena and Constance just happen to be female, it’s not a big deal and certainly in the world that I’ve created, it’s not a world that’s massively divided by gender. It’s a world that happens to be diverse and where the divisions happen to be different. I hope it says something about gender and how we treat those who are different, or not what we expect or want them to be.

Since moving to Bristol, how have you found the literary scene?

I moved here in 2017 so it’s been about two and a half years. It’s really lovely in Bristol. As I work outside the city, I haven’t done too much yet but I feel like I’m starting to get to know where things are. I know Emma at Novel Nights which is lovely and now we have a bookshop in Clifton, which is great. After growing up not far away and studying in Bath, I’m exploring, and I definitely want to do more. I love finding out what is going on, I love it here.

Where did you start when you were creating a world from scratch?

Living in London at the time, I would write ideas down and sketch out maps on the Tube. The magic system, the Gods and the cities, I’d write it all down. I built the world around this scene of Lena in the storm, and then the characters and the story came out of it. For me, the world came first and then I populated it with the story.

Has the fantasy genre always been important to you?

Yes, absolutely. I was a voracious reader when I was younger. When I was 11, I read Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy twice through one summer holiday. I loved it so much, I didn’t want to leave it. I’m not sure I could do the same thing now! It is quite slowly paced and, maybe thinking back, he might have needed an editor.

As a new writer, what was your route to publication like? Did your job in publishing have an impact?

Well, I didn’t start out as a writer in publishing. Writing came first for me and they were very separate in the beginning. What I would say is publishing is an incredibly small and intimate industry and you will know everyone. As with any industry, the more you work in publishing, the more contacts and connections you’ll make. You will know someone from almost every company. It certainly helps to be in publishing and to have contacts when you’re starting out as a writer. I also have my agent through someone I knew, so that wasn’t unrelated.

If you were to give advice to aspiring writers, what would it be?

There is only one thing that I think is the most reliable advice I’ve had, and that is to write every day. Even if its 50 words in 10 minutes, and those 50 words are terrible. You aren’t writing the last draft first! Let it be rubbish and get the words on the page, and even if it takes you five years to get it published, you’ve got something to work with. The best thing is to create a writing habit. I get up every day at 6am, sit in a café and write for an hour and that is my routine. It keeps me working on something. Even if all I write is 100 words in that hour, or if I’m on a roll and I write 1,000, it means I’ve still carried on.

What are you working on at the moment?

I am working on the second book. It in the same world as We Are Blood and Thunder but with different characters and a different place. It’s set a few months after the end of the first book and explores the aftermath of We Are Blood and Thunder but it’s not a straight sequel.

Kesia Lupo’s debut novel, We are Blood and Thunder is published on April 4. She will be appearing at Novel Nights on June 26. For more info, visit https://www.novelnights.co.uk/26th-may-write-for-a-ya-audience-and-how-to-get-published-novel-nights-national-writing-day/

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