Thank you so much Kell for the interview! Kell is an Australian historical fantasy author. After the Forest is Kell’s debut novel and I was lucky enough to receive an ARC. Definitely a book to check out.

Interview

What was your inspiration for After the Forest? 

I’d always loved fairy tales – their beauty and their darkness – but I was also fascinated by the gaps. Characters in fairytales often go through terrible hardship and loss, but there is very little description of their suffering. And so often everything ends very neatly – ‘and they lived happily ever after!’ I was interested in looking at what fairy tale characters would be like if they were real people – how hardship and loss would affect them, and whether or not they really could  live happily ever after.  

What was your process for writing your debut novel? 

Like a lot of first novels it took a long time – I made a lot of mistakes, stopped and started again, got lost. I did many (many) edits, did quite a lot of writing courses, and learnt as much as I could. The turning point came when I received a place in the Australian Society of Author’s mentorship program. The opportunity to receive professional feedback from someone in the industry really helped me get the book to the point where it was ready to pitch to agents.  

How did your main character develop over the course of brainstorm to actually writing the novel? 

My main character, Greta, developed constantly during the process. The history of the time the book is set – the mind seventeenth century – really shaped her in the early drafts, and then later, when I was working on the book with my agent and getting ready to pitch to publishers, she changed again, becoming closer to the character she is in the final version. Writing a female main character in a historical fantasy is interesting because the historical side of things restricts the way she can behave – what she can say, how defiant she can be, because of the constrictions society placed upon women in the past. But when you’re writing fantasy as well, there’s a little more freedom.  

What was your process for character and world building? 

I tried to stick to reality as much as possible when I was creating Greta’s world. The landscape, trees & flowers, village structure, food, clothing, customs, farming practices, weapons etc are as close to what they would have been in mid-seventeenth century Germany as I could make them. I did a lot of research, a lot of Googling in German. And I suppose I did the same thing with the characters, too. I wanted to make them real people, with real troubles and real emotions. I read a lot about childhood trauma – I figured characters like Hansel and Gretel would have had a lot of emotional residue after their infamous encounter with the witch.  

How would you describe After the Forest in five words? 

Ooh, I love this question. Let me see… How about:  

Bitter. 

Sweet.  

Gritty. 

Dark. 

Folkloric. 

What was your favourite book growing up? 

The Paper Bag Princess. : ) And fairy tales, of course. The Wind in the Willows, The Princess and the Goblin, Tamora Pierce’s Song of the Lioness series. So many.   

What is your favourite genre to read? 

I can’t pick one! Historical fiction, fantasy, dark fantasy and horror – but then I read all sorts of different things as well. I’m partial to a good thriller or domestic noir.