Breakdown of a Chapter: Interview with H.M. Long

Hello again dear reader or listener, I am back with another chapter breakdown and, since it’s summer and I’ve made my yearly pilgrimage to the seaside, my guest today is none other than author H.M. Long who, for three wonderful years in a row regaled every one of those summers with the Winter Sea trilogy, a nautical fantasy to rival the likes of Black Sails and Pirates of the Caribbean. This trilogy slingshot its way in my top five series of all time very fast, and I suspect it’ll remain there for a very long time, if not forever. Not even exaggerating when I say it was the thing I was most anticipating each summer as this trilogy was coming out and, the phenomenal ambiance and transporting writing were only half of what made it so good. Long’s characters have such a life to them and her magic system was so fresh and compelling that I never wanted to put the book down nor leave that world. You can never go wrong with nautical flintlock fantasy, let’s be honest. So, here I am, revelling in my chance to pick the author’s brain over one of my favorite moments in the first book, Dark Water Daughter (find my original review for it here).
Join us, won’t you?

Book Blurb

A stormsinger and pirate hunter join forces against a deathless pirate lord in this swashbuckling Jacobean adventure on the high-seas.

Mary Firth is a Stormsinger: a woman whose voice can still hurricanes and shatter armadas. Faced with servitude to pirate lord Silvanus Lirr, Mary offers her skills to his arch-rival in exchange for protection – and, more importantly, his help sending Lirr to a watery grave. But her new ally has a vendetta of his own, and Mary’s dreams are dark and full of ghistings, spectral creatures who inhabit the ancient forests of her homeland and the figureheads of ships.

Samuel Rosser is a disgraced naval officer serving aboard The Hart, an infamous privateer commissioned to bring Lirr to justice. He will stop at nothing to capture Lirr, restore his good name and reclaim the only thing that stands between himself and madness: a talisman accidentally stolen by Mary.

Finally, driven into the eternal ice at the limits of their world, Mary and Samuel must choose their loyalties and battle forces older and more powerful than the pirates who would make them slaves.

 

[This is your official warning for mild spoilers going forth!]

 

Dark Water Daughter – Chapter 31

Let’s start from your writing process for this book a little more in general:

For those completely new to your work and to The Winter Sea trilogy, how did this story first come about?

I had written a pirate story in many forms over the years, early versions of Dark Water Daughter. But I had never found the right voice, or as it turned out, genre! Early versions were a YA historical fiction, and it wasn’t until I made the leap into adult and FANTASY that things really came together. Once I stepped into that space, it felt like the restraints came off, and the story was finally free to run.

Sometimes a new perspective, in this case genre, is exactly what you need to crack it!
Is there something special about this chapter that you can remember thinking or doing while writing it?

I remember being excited to hit this section of the book. I had only loosely plotted this section in general, but I had the imagery of this grand ball and its bloody finale ready in my mind, and a firelit meeting between all the key parties. What the characters would actually do, however, I figured out as I went. 

So then, did you plot out the story beats necessary for it or did you just have a general goal in mind and “let it happen”?

Tying into above, I really just let it happen and followed my instincts. I knew what I needed to happen in a loose sense and from there I wrote what I wanted to be there, and chased what felt natural for the characters. 

Would you say that this chapter made it to the end of the writing and editing process intact or did it go through significant changes throughout drafts?

As far as I recall, this one stayed pretty much the same from draft 1 through to print. The chapters around it got some pretty heavy rewriting (Chapter 32 in particular) but this one felt pretty whole from the get go, and the only changes were wording choices and some continuity errors.  

In other words, letting things happen really worked out for you here! Sometimes one might get bogged down into getting everything just right and they get stuck.

I’m getting that you weren’t too strict a planner for this, so did you need to write everything out in order or did you skip over sections that you got back to later?

Dark Water Daughter was written very much out of order! I knew what I wanted to do and had a pretty clear concept of the sections of the book, their setting, tone and feel, and so I felt confident jumping in here and there and then tackling continuity in editing. It helped me write the book more quickly, since I just tackled whatever kind of scene struck me that day, and there wasn’t so much of a “pushing through” or “slog”. Most of my books aren’t written this way, though! DWD was special.

That could be good advice for other writers out there as well! Keep yourself open and free to trying different approaches so as to bring your story to life.

And now for the deeper dive into this specific chapter:

You do something I found very interesting with your protagonists, and that is that up until this point in the story we’d only heard of Benedict, Sam’s brother, and any impression we’d built of him until the previous chapter was colored by Sam’s baggage, so to speak. Then, in chapter 30, Mary (along with the reader) finally meets him and we get to form our own impressions of him. After which, you switch back to Sam for this chapter that we’re focusing on. 

How excited were you to finally be able to bring Benedict on the page so the readers could begin to understand Sam’s misgivings with his brother? And, did you already know how much bigger his role would become in future books?

I was definitely looking forward to writing this scene and making Benedict’s character more real for readers, and for myself. The evil twin takes shape! (It was about this time I actually realized I had pulled the Evil Twin trope, and I was glad to dig into his character more on page to mitigate any pitfalls there.)

I had no idea how big Benedict’s role would become in the rest of the series, particularly Red Tempest Brother. As authors we talk a lot about characters taking on a life of their own, right, and Benedict very much fits this. 

Well if anyone were to take the reins in that way it would be him so I can believe you there!

What were other key elements you wanted this chapter to have?

I wanted to go from glitter to carnage, and for Samuel to comprehend that his brother was meddling in his life again, continuing to try to take everything that is “his” – including, potentially, Mary. I also needed key interactions between the captains, a proposed alliance, and otherwise setting the board for the next section of the book. 

Do you also have a favorite scene/section in it that you were particularly looking forward to writing?

Ah! The queen’s badass lady guards! They didn’t have as much opportunity to shine as I would have liked but they’re a part of the DWD world I would love to come back to at some point. 

I think everyone reading this would agree that we would love to see more of them! You can never really miss with badass lady guards, let’s be honest.

We mentioned how this chapter works as a narrative gateway as it quite literally shoots into sudden action, propelling the characters and story forward with no chances to look back. How do you navigate and gauge the extent of that change?

Vibes. I know this isn’t a very helpful answer! But it was really just an instinct, a natural progression, and editing (particularly the chapters around this one) helped it land and stand the way it needed to. 

That is a fair answer! It’s good to trust your instincts and let your story breathe. 

And in that vein, why is it important for your storytelling pace for these events to happen at this moment?

I’m not sure I have a terribly intelligent answer to this, other than things needed to change. Leaving Hesten, Mary’s situation could not return to what it was before without feeling mundane, and I needed her heading in the direction of seeing her mother again and getting some face time with Lirr. Samuel needed a kick forward, and Benedict needed to live up, on page, to his semi-villain role. And the story overall needed a hike in stakes as we head towards the final sequence of events in the north. 

Aside from narrative-wise, for this project, we like to pick chapters that will lead to some level of transformation for the protagonist(s) as well. How, then, is Sam different entering this chapter and exiting it? 

Samuel entered this chapter a subordinate, but he exits a rank higher, charging after what he believes to be his moral responsibility and the key to his redemption. He begins aware of his feelings for Mary and believing they are on good terms, but he ends divided from her by Benedict’s interference, while at the same time feeling more bound to her. He entered thinking that he had distance from his brother, and leaves it knowing those days are gone, and there must be a reckoning. Three key shifts, and three pushes forward into the climactic sequence of the book.  

As such, what is the core of this chapter for you? 

Samuel’s internal understanding of the story and events. He’s confronted by the reality that his brother is still involved in his life and may actively harm someone he cares about, which increases his feelings of responsibility and concern for Mary. His captain is killed, and he is forced higher into leadership when he least expects it. Then, in the same breath, he is faced by Lirr, and the opportunity to end it all, then and there. It’s a momentous shift for his character. 

I remember thinking “this poor man needs a stiff drink” every other chapter when reading it the first time and, with everything we mentioned, you can see why, dear reader!

Thank you so much for taking the time to do this with me!

Thank you for chatting with me about this! It was a delight to dive back into Dark Water Daughter and relive this momentous chapter.

Until next time, dear reader or listener,
Eleni A.E.