Our SPFBOX interviews continue with M. Verant, author of Miss Bennet’s Dragon.
SPFBO (the Self-Published Fantasy Blog Off) is a free online contest run by author Mark Lawrence. 300 authors compete across ten judging teams to see who will be the winner! You can read more about the contest here.
INTERVIEW WITH M. VERANT
Tell us a little about yourself and let our readers know which blog you’ve been assigned to for SPFBOX!
What inspired you to write this book?
Can you tell us a little bit about your writing or editing process? What’s most exciting to you about writing or editing?
Each day, I start by editing what I wrote the day before, then—hopefully—putting down new prose. Editing is fun for me. I have a rhythm I get into. Writing new scenes can go fast when I get to something I’ve played through in my head many times, or it can be a real grind.
Writing historical settings is both fun and risky for me because research is a great way to procrastinate from actual writing. I spent a whole day reading about a particular traditional Chinese end-blown flute just so I could drop the name once (a xiāo).
[Mary Bennet’s] brilliant, on the spectrum, and a raging social activist.
Who or what have been your major literary influences?
For this book, Jane Austen obviously, but Mary Shelley played a big part, too. Shelley wrote Frankenstein in 1816, the same time that Jane Austen wrote Emma, which always blows my mind. It shows how diverse thought and style were in the Regency.
More generally, I have a long list of authors I admire. A sample in random order: China Miéville, Erin Morgenstern, Joe Abercrombie, Susanna Clarke, Madeline Miller, Neil Gaiman, William Gibson.
What makes your SPFBOX book unique?
Do you have a favourite character from your SPFBOX entry? Tell us about them!
I wanted to explore what her characters would do if you tweaked Regency England by adding fire-breathing creatures and a more realistic portrayal of society.
How does your work fit into (or challenge) its genre?
What do you hope readers take away from your SPFBOX entry?
What are you currently working on?
Two projects. Miss Bennet’s Dragon is the start of a trilogy. The second book is Emma’s Dragon, which came out last year, so right now I’m nearing the end of book three to complete the story.
In parallel, I’m working on a contemporary fantasy featuring a Hindu goddess called Tiger Seed. I am very excited about that project, but it’s at least a year from publication.
Miss Bennet’s Dragon
Royal Dragonfly Award Winner for Fantasy. Foreword INDIE Finalist for Fantasy.
An unforgettable fantasy retelling of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice that is romantic, funny, and more relevant than ever.
Elizabeth Bennet is hiding a forbidden power. She can speak to draca, the fire-breathing creatures kept as status symbols by English gentry. If only Mr. Darcy would stop noticing… and hinting at his own dark secret.
When Elizabeth’s sister falls deathly ill, the cure lies in the mysteries of draca. Elizabeth, aided by her brilliant sister Mary, defies restrictive English society to hunt for lost draca lore. She must hurry. England’s war with France has drawn other hunters, and they have darker goals.
Elizabeth’s search leads her to the fabulous Pemberley estate, home of the entitled and infuriating man whose proposal she scorned. There, Elizabeth’s worlds smash together—protocol against passion, and exultation against the risk of love.
But the stakes are greater than her sister’s life. Elizabeth must test herself against a distant war.
And her enemy is not who she thought.
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ABOUT M. VERANT
M. Verant writes fantasy, sci-fi, and thrillers, all with the same Spotify playlist. His stories celebrate empowering themes, always with a dash of romance, so the genre is… noblebright, kind of?
His latest work is Emma’s Dragon, book 2 in the award-winning Jane Austen Fantasy series that includes Miss Bennet’s Dragon. The Great Wyves, book 3 of the trilogy, is next, followed by Tiger Seed, a contemporary fantasy rooted in ancient Indus history. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, where he helps organize East Bay Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers while dodging Teslas and wild turkeys.
I loved the first two books of Pride and Prejudice reimagining. I am still waiting for the third novel. I had thought it would come out in the fall of 2024 or early 2025 but have seen nothing. I follow M Verant on Amazon but nothing new as yet.