Dear Reader,
In the lead-up to the publication of Kindling, I’ve been thinking a lot about the kind of writer I want to be. I want to be bold. I want to challenge myself. I want to tackle stories I’m not entirely sure I can write, because those are the stories that seem to me the most worth telling, whether that’s an epic fantasy meta-narrative like The Reader Trilogy or a feminist folktale road trip like A Thousand Steps into Night.
Kindling is no exception. It’s my first retelling, inspired by Seven Samurai (1954) and The Magnificent Seven (1960), with a plot and characters reimagined for young fantasy readers in the 21st century. Rather than featuring war-worn samurai or gunslingers from a romanticized wild west, Kindling focuses on several magic-wielding child soldiers who were stolen from their homes and forced into battle, where they were promised death, glory, and meaning. But then the war ended, and they were cut loose. Now, abandoned by their institutions and facing a future they never thought they’d see, they wander the countryside, searching for purpose and for peace.
I’ve written before about the inspiration for Kindling, why I thought I had to write it and why I had to write it now. It’s about the trauma we inflict upon our young people. It’s about the fights we force them to fight. It’s about the ways we have failed them. It’s about the things we have lost and the ways we carry on. It’s difficult subject matter. It’s uncomfortable. It’s painful.
If all goes according to plan, it’ll break your heart.
I love this story, and I hope I’ve done it justice, but for the reasons outlined above and more, I also think it’s one of the boldest books I’ve written to date.
Most obviously, it’s in second-person—yes, the whole thing!—with a blunt, in-your-face style that can estrange readers as much as engage them. Intimate and intense by design, it’s hard to escape. It’s hard to find space to breathe. It’s exactly what the story called for, and I wouldn’t have written it any other way, but there’s no question it’s unusual.
Even—dare I say?—bold.
About halfway through the writing of Kindling, I realized—as I often do with my projects—that I’d misjudged. If you know my writing, you know I love writing action. I love fight scenes. I love skirmishes and battles and sweeping, cinematic sequences. That isn’t Seven Samurai. Seven Samurai is a slower story, a more character-driven one. In the beginning, the heroes gather. In the end, they fight. But the entire middle is, as I bemoaned to my colleagues at one point, the characters milling around “having character development.”
Like Seven Samurai, Kindling moves slowly, delving into the psyches of each of its seven characters: their wounds, their secrets, their yearnings. Until the last act, it’s a lot of deep character work and not much action, which my friend Randy Ribay (author of Patron Saints of Nothing) called a “slow burn”—a long burning fuse, a spark here or there, a catastrophic explosion at the end—which might run counter to what you’d expect out of a YA fantasy.
But when have I ever done what’s expected with my work?
Finally, despite its big cast, Kindling actually a small story. The kindlings aren’t fighting a war. (At least, not anymore.) They aren’t saving the world. They’re trying to protect a little backwater village, building dams and fortifications, doing what they can with their own two hands. In a world that’s so much bigger than you, when so many changes are out of your control, it’s about showing up for the people around you. It’s about building a community. It’s about fighting for your neighbors, friends, and kindred. It’s about loving them while you can.
Like all of my books, Kindling took a lot of heart and a lot of guts to write. I wrote it knowing that it would be different and ambitious and challenging, and even now I’m not sure how it’ll be received.
But I also think that makes it a kind of manifesto. It’s a declaration about the kind of writer I want to be.
I want to be different and ambitious and challenging. I want to be unusual and unexpected and strange. I want to say something worth saying. I want to question what a book can be. I want to explore what it can do and how it can do it. I want to try new things. I want readers to go into my books not knowing what they’re in for. I want to sweep them away. I want them to think and feel and imagine and dream. I want them to be delighted and challenged and, if the timing is right, changed.
Most of all, right now, I want to be bold. I want to make art that matters. I want to take big swings. Kindling is a fantasy novel, a retelling, a mission statement, a challenge. It’s who I want to be as a writer and what I want to achieve. Which might be a lot to put into one book, but I never want to leave anything on the table.
That’s the kind of writer I want to be.
In case you missed it
Kindling received its fourth starred review! School Library Journal calls it, “A heartrending, must-read fantasy about youth searching for home and learning to survive a world not designed for them.” This review highlights so many of the ways I hoped this book would reach readers, from the power dynamics between young people and the previous generations' most entrenched institutions to the way that reflects on the uncertainty of our current world and the fights we are fighting now for a future we may never see. Full review to come.
Indigo has named Kindling as their Staff Pick of the Month for March! I’m so thrilled that this book will be featured in bookstores all across Canada—how wonderful! Order Kindling from Indigo here.
Join me for a Kindling Launch Party THIS FRIDAY, March 1: If you’re going to be in the San Francisco Bay Area on Friday, please join me for Kindling Game Show Trivia Night at Linden Tree Books in Los Altos, CA with friends Parker Peevyhouse, Randy Ribay, and Emily Skrutskie! The game starts at 6pm, but please show up early for mingling, book browsing, and light refreshments. RSVP here—can’t wait to see you!
There’s still time to get in your receipts to receive your Kindling pre-order gift!
Linden Tree Books | Bookshop.org | Barnes & Noble | Amazon | Indigo
With your purchase (or library request) of Kindling made before February 27, 2024 at 11:59pm PT, you can receive three beautiful “Polaroids” of the seven kindlings, featuring art by Naomi Giddings! Orders made through Linden Tree Books in Los Altos, CA will also arrive with a special Kindling bookmark. Submit your receipts + your name and mailing address exactly as you’d like them to appear on the envelope to: chee.preorders@gmail.com. Offer open internationally until 02/27/24 at 11:59pm PT or while supplies last.