I'm convinced that by now everyone who's been following me on any form of social media has noticed that I am always eager to shout about my love of Irish author Helen Corcoran's debut f/f YA fantasy QUEEN OF COIN AND WHISPERS. After some understandable delays (publishing in the age of pandemics, am I right?), we are nearing the release day for the book and I am ecstatic to watch this wonderful novel make its way into the world. To celebrate its release, I reached out to debut author extraordinaire Helen Corcoran herself, who was kind enough to answer some of my questions. Please note that I tried to stir away from any potential spoilers to give you all the chance to read it first! Without further ado, here you go:
• You've mentioned before how you had a bunch of other projects on the backburner. How did you know that QUEEN was the one that you needed to stick to for so long?
With QUEEN, I'd always wanted to write about a princess who was ready to assume responsibility and the throne, and not decide to throw off duty with an oddly 20th-century attitude. I always wondered if those princesses knew how to cook or that food cost money. I was also fascinated by spy-craft, and the relationship between Queen Elizabeth I and Walsingham. I also wanted to read a fantasy novel where a queen fell in love with a woman, and how that would affect the fundamentals of monarchy: marriage and heirs.
I've read fantasy since I was eleven, and had never seen queer people like me properly represented. I got the idea for QUEEN in late 2013, when there was much less queer YA genre fiction than there is now, and I knew there was a huge gap in the market. I couldn't be the only one who wanted to see a queer queen in a novel, never mind a queen/female spymaster pairing, which is an amazing trope. I spent so much time in Lia and Xania's heads that I felt giving up was also giving up on them. When I finally trunked the book in early 2018, after hitting dead ends everywhere, I was horrendously angry and sad that only a small number of people would know that they'd ever existed.
• Were there any major changes from the initial drafts of QUEEN to the final version? Were there any elements that you were adamant about keeping? Are there any major changes that you think really elevated the project?
The POV structure and intricate plot were a huge step up from my previous novels, and I blithely underestimated the consequences of challenging myself. I rewrote the third draft almost entirely from scratch. When I started querying, I was adamant the book would remain f/f, that everything concerning consent would remain—and my one flippant thing was that I really wanted to keep my opening scene with the dead sheep.
A friend and I call these our literary hills to die on for each book. Everything else is up for revision and compromise, once it improves the book.
While querying, I did an intensive R&R (revise and resubmit) for an agent that took me from August 2016 - May 2017 (including two breaks where people read the new changes). It involved overhauling most of the first half (primarily because Xania wasn't actually doing a lot of spymastering) and working those changes into the second half. While the agent didn't take QUEEN on after I completed the R&R, I don't think it would have been published without it; it became a much stronger book.
In terms of Xania's spymaster plot thread, I brought in Lady Brenna and Lord Hazell, two characters who hadn't previously existed, and brought back Lady Patrinne, who had been cut from an earlier draft. I was playing Shadow of Mordor at the time, and finally realised I hadn't given Xania smaller antagonists to tackle who were connected to the Big Boss, so to speak, to level up as spymaster—hence bringing in Brenna and Hazell. Those three also have parts to play in the intrigue subplots, which I think really strengthened that particular aspect: at one point I had a bullet-point list and a flowchart of who was working with who; who was double-crossing who; who was working with who while also keeping secrets from them; and how the intrigue all intersected and eventually came together.
• Did you feel yourself gravitating more towards one girls' POV than the other's throughout the writing process?
No. They both bring different things to the book, though Xania is more blunt and sarcasm better fits her voice. Lia is composed and regal, to the point where she often uses it as a shield to convince herself of things she doesn’t want, so I enjoyed when I got to drop the facade and her wry sense of humour showed through.
I kept to a Lia-Xania-Lia-Xania POV pattern, and felt I had to do so for the reader to trust me when the pattern breaks. In earlier drafts, the break wasn’t there, but my critique partners and readers were split down the middle on whether to keep both POVs or not. I was literally the deciding vote.
Now, though, I think I could have occasionally deviated from the POV pattern earlier in the book and not frayed that reader trust. It certainly would have made revising a lot easier. At one point, I thought I’d have to cut an entire chapter in editor revisions, and I nearly cried at being faced with fixing a pattern hole. (I made it work, thankfully.) If I ever do dual first person POV again, the first thing I’m doing is throwing POV pattern out the window.
• Do you think your time as a bookseller has impacted who you are as a writer?
It made me very target orientated—I focused a lot of daily wordcounts or chapter revisions done before or after work, or on my lunch hour. People got used to sharing the staff kitchen table during lunch with my laptop, or my arriving in early for a shift with coffee, laptop, and headphones. I still prefer writing in the morning, as a result—bookselling is a physically and emotionally intense job, and there wasn’t always enough energy left over in the evenings to write well.
Handselling books to customers has made me aware of the value of a great one-line pitch, and also being able to adapt facets of a book to appeal to different customers. Using QUEEN as an example: it’s low-fantasy; it’s got lesbians; it’s got political intrigue; it’s got embezzlement; it’s feminist with many women in power. Different bits of the same book appeal to different people, it’s just a matter of which one they like enough to pick it up.
• What are some of the books that you'd recommend those who have enjoyed QUEEN?
Of Fire and Stars by Audrey Coulthurst, Crier’s War by Nina Varela, and The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon are all fantasy novels with queer women (with some romance). If you like fantasy with political intrigue, The Winner’s Curse trilogy by Marie Rutkoski has similar elements to Xania’s spymaster plotline, and her latest book set in the same broader world is The Midnight Lie, which has a f/f relationship at its heart.
I read Dangerous Remedy by Kat Dunn earlier this year, and it’s one of my favourite books of 2020. It’s historical fantasy set during the French Revolution, with a group of friends saving people from Madame La Guillotine. It’s got an established relationship, a bi love triangle, magic and science, and friendship against the odds, all set against Paris in a breakneck pace.
• Can you tease some of the projects that you have in the works?
I’m not under contract, so I must stress that none of these have sold and may never see the light of publishing day, but:
I’m working on two adult projects now: one which I’m keeping close to my chest as it may go nowhere, but the other is a queer, female retelling of The Three Musketeers, with dragons. I restarted revisions when lockdown kicked in, and finally have a kind of daily routine going so it will hopefully get to my agent soon.
In YA, I have an idea for a QUEEN-related companion sequel, set several years later. It involves a new main character, but many characters in QUEEN return, now older. I’m hopeful the idea is strong enough, but it selling and being published depends on many factors, most of which are out of my control. But there’s hope if QUEEN sells well and has a good reception.
MORE ABOUT QUEEN OF COIN AND WHISPERS:
‘She loved me as I loved her, fierce as a bloodied blade.’
When teenage queen Lia inherits her corrupt uncle’s bankrupt kingdom, she brings a new spymaster into the fold ... Xania, who takes the job to avenge her murdered father.
Faced with dangerous plots and hidden enemies, can Lia and Xania learn to rely on each another, as they discover that all is not fair in love and treason?
In a world where the throne means both power and duty, they must decide what to sacrifice for their country – and for each other …
MORE ABOUT HELEN:
Helen Corcoran grew up in Cork, Ireland, dreaming of scheming queens and dashing lady knights. After graduating from Trinity College, Dublin, she worked as a bookseller for over a decade. She lives in Dublin, writing fantasy novels and haunting coffee shops in search of the perfect latte.
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