Books Right Now Presents:

I am so excited to feature the talented Serra Swift on Books Right Now! I’m a huge fan of her debut novel, Kill the Beast, and I’m honored to have had the opportunity to interview her!

Intro

RD: For anyone who hasn’t read Kill the Beast yet, how would you describe your book in one sentence?

SS: “Super buff Witcher-esque lady has to take a melodramatic dandy along to kill a monster.” 

A Deep Dive into Kill the Beast

RD: What ideas did you start off with, and what did you flesh out later in the writing process? I’d especially love to learn more about how Brandy came to be such an important part of the story!

SS: The idea for this book came to me in a dream. I essentially woke up with Alderic’s character arc, and for the first few drafts it was his story–though Lyssa was an alternate POV character for a little bit. As I hammered out the plot, I realized that Lyssa is the one who changes and grows the most throughout the narrative, and that it would be more powerful if it was from her POV. 

Brandy was actually in a different book originally, one I was drafting at the same time that I was drafting Kill the Beast. I kept losing track of him in that story because he just wasn’t necessary to the plot. There was a moment when I realized that Lyssa could really use a companion in the early chapters, and I had the idea to move the dog over from the other book to this one. Not to be dramatic, but it changed everything. Lyssa can be pretty brutal, so Brandy ended up becoming her “soft spot,” which I think acts to humanize her to readers that might otherwise be put off by her personality or violent tendencies.

Brandy’s connection to Lyssa’s childhood also worked really nicely for backstory purposes. And of course it’s impossible not to like someone if your dog likes them, so Brandy is a huge reason why Lyssa starts warming up to Alderic.  

RD: Found family is my absolute favorite trope, and I particularly loved the way you wrote Ragnhild’s coven (that’s how I think of Lyssa, Alderic, Nadia, and Brandy in my head!). Why do you think the found family aspect of Kill the Beast has resonated so much with readers?

SS: Oh my gosh, they ARE a coven! I love that so much! 

Found family is my favorite trope as well, and I think the reason it resonates with people is because so often the family we choose ends up being more accepting and understanding than the families we are born into. Found families also allow for someone to change and grow and be the truest version of themselves, whereas I think a lot of parents (for example) might struggle with seeing their children become different than what they anticipated or tried to mold them into. 

RD: Ragnhild has been known to, at times, exaggerate when translating spell requirements that she deciphers from bones, like when she claims that the bones require Lyssa to purchase cake for her or provide her with hot tea in the bath. Are there any particularly egregious or funny exaggerations that didn’t make it into the final version of the book?

SS: I actually think they all made it into the book. Most of my jokes made it, which I was super excited about, haha! 

RD: In the same vein, are there any other scenes or characters that you ended up excluding from the final edition?

SS: One thing I ended up cutting from an early draft was that I wanted Alderic to be genuinely surprised that Lyssa knew how to read. I had a really funny exchange between them focused on that premise, but I ended up changing things around so that he initiates their first meeting by letter–and of course that meant the joke no longer made sense. 

RD: Much of the conversation around Kill the Beast centers on the idea of platonic soulmates, that deep love and understanding that exists between true friends. How did you approach writing that connection between kindred spirits?

SS: I am very fortunate to have married my best friend, so a lot of Lyssa and Alderic’s relationship comes from lived experience. My husband and I have been together for 22 years (as of this month!), and although we do have a lot of similarities, what makes us a great team is our different strengths and weaknesses. I wanted to craft Lyssa and Alderic’s relationship to be similarly balanced in that way. I also wanted to highlight two people working through their differences together, even ones that might seem insurmountable–because to me, love (in all its forms, platonic or romantic) means doing your best to understand someone’s deepest flaws and shadows, as well as growing and changing together and inspiring one another to be the best version of yourself possible in any given moment.

RD: Who would be your dream cast for a film adaptation of Kill the Beast?

SS: Florence Pugh as Lyssa (though she’d need to wear platform boots to be taller, haha). Nicholas Hoult as Alderic, or maybe Andrew Garfield. Miriam Margolyes for Ragnhild. And someone with a Jenna Ortega vibe for Nadia, though she’d need to be younger.

RD: What songs would you say are Lyssa and Alderic’s theme songs? What songs would feature on their Spotify Wrapped (if Spotify or streaming or cell phones existed in their world)?

SS: Hozier’s Take Me To Church but make it platonic–that’s the book, haha. I’m a heavy metal gal but in a different interview I was asked to name a Taylor Swift song for one of the characters, so I did some research and decided on Bad Blood for Lyssa. 

RD: What’s one theme or message that you’d like to ensure readers take away from your book?

SS: That friendship is just as powerful as romantic love, even though we tend to focus so heavily on romance in media.

Meet the Storyteller

RD: What were your favorite books growing up? Did any of them influence your writing style or storytelling voice today?

SS: I definitely can’t list all of my favorite books growing up or this interview will be 1,000 pages long, but there were a few that had a huge impact on me and that I credit with making me want to be a writer. First was The Redwall Series by Brian Jacques. I loved the way he wrote about friendships and family and food.

The other author that really influenced me is Sherwood Smith. I first read her books Wren’s Quest and Wren’s War (which were the second & third in the series–shout out to my mom for doing a special order at the Waldenbooks in the mall so that I could have the complete set!) and I loved the way she wrote character relationships and how approachable her fantasy worlds felt. When I was a little older I read her book Crown Duel and that sealed it for me–I knew that if I was going to be a writer, I wanted to write like her. Both authors gave me a deep love of fantasy adventure with heart.

RD: What has your publishing journey looked like so far, and what advice would you give to new authors hoping to break into traditional publishing?

SS: The journey has been, in a word, LONG. It took me fifteen years to break in, from the moment I decided I wanted to be traditionally published to the moment I actually reached that goal. But now that I’m on the other side of it, I don’t think I would change a single thing. There were times it was really tough, but it made me the writer I am now, and prepared me for publishing in a lot of ways.

My advice to new authors is, first and foremost: do not give up. Persistence is crucial. Also, set deadlines for yourself so that you get used to working on a schedule. Writing is a job, and it helps to learn to do it on command, instead of “waiting for inspiration.” That approach has helped me a lot now that I have other people giving me deadlines! 

RD: You often refer to photos of your book as “your child in the wild” on social media. How does it feel, as a debut author, to see your “child” in bookstores across the U.S. and to receive such an overwhelmingly positive reaction to your work?

SS: It feels absolutely incredible. I thought I would be prepared to see my book in bookstores, but almost a month after release it is STILL surreal to see photos of it out in the wild. Someone sent me a picture from like…a mountain?? In Japan?? (I think it was Japan). That was magical. I don’t know that I’ll ever truly get used to it. 

The positive reaction has been a dream come true as well. I wrote this book to make myself laugh, and the fact that I’m not the only person who likes it has inflated my ego quite dramatically, haha. Seriously, though, it’s another one of those surreal things that I thought I was prepared for and just…was not and probably never will be.

RD: What is the most important thing you’ve learned during your writing career so far?

SS: That writing and storytelling are two completely different skillsets. I was always told I was a good writer, but I realized that I was not a great storyteller. Once I figured that out, I was able to sit down and start dissecting stories to find out what made them work. It felt like a huge “leveling up” moment for me. That was right around when I started writing Kill the Beast, and I think it’s a big reason why this book was successful compared to my previous projects. 

RD: I noticed that three of my favorite authors of heartfelt fantasy, Sarah Beth Durst (The Spellshop), J.R. Dawson (The First Bright Thing), and H.G. Parry (The Magician’s Daughter), blurbed your book. What are some books that were released this year that you would’ve loved to endorse?

SS: Alix E Harrow’s The Everlasting, because she’s one of my favorite authors ever and getting to read that book early and gush about it would make me ugly-cry. Also Red City by Marie Lu. I did get to read it about a week before it came out and I cannot stop talking about how amazing it is! My blurb for that one would be a mile long, I swear. They would never let me blurb again.

RD: If you could only write one fairytale retelling, which fairytale would you pick?

SS: Sleeping Beauty, because I am hellbent on figuring out a way to make a heroine who falls asleep halfway through the story into a character with agency. 

RD: What’s next for you? I know that you’ve shared that your next project involves fairies and bargains. As a fan of your work I have to ask, when can we expect more details or an official announcement?

SS: I honestly have no idea when there might be more details or an announcement. I think it’s just a matter of getting far enough along in the process to have like…a title, haha. I’ve finished a rough draft and am currently in the midst of edits–it’s shaping up really nicely and I cannot WAIT to share it with you! 

More About Serra!

Serra’s Website

Instagram: @serraswift