What a year! You’re probably tired of hearing me say it, but it’s been a banner year for Speculative Chic contributors. We’ve published three book release announcements, and two of the three are debut novels! So let’s add another debut to the list: By Wingéd Chair from our very own Kendra Merritt! Think you know the tale of Robin Hood? Think again, and maybe consider it from another view: Marian, in a wheelchair, who wants nothing more than to be a hero. I know I’m hooked — are you? Check out the blurb and our interview with Kendra below!
The Book:
By Wingéd Chair (2018)
Written by: Kendra Merritt
Genre: Young Adult Fantasy
Series: Mark of the Least
Publisher: Blue Fyre Press
The Premise:
Rolling around in the worst fashion accessory ever…
Seventeen-year-old Merry has mucked up another chance to get into the University of Magecraft, so she doesn’t have time to deal with shape-changing creatures bent on stealing memories from the people of Woodshire. That’s her father’s job. But when an outlaw mage mistakes her for a damsel in distress on a drenched train platform, she’s dragged into a fight with the monsters and a sheriff mad enough to use them.
She’d never admit it out loud but the mage is actually kind of fun to work with–when she doesn’t want to run him over with her chair. And he’s exactly the ally she needs when the monsters go after her father’s memories. But with bad guys who can look like friends and friends who look like outlaws, Merry has to decide who to trust and whether returning the stolen memories of those she cares about most is worth giving up her chance to finally earn respect as a mage.
“A wildly original and magical twist on the Robin Hood narrative, Kendra Merritt’s By Wingéd Chair is packed to the spokes with complex characters, wry humor, and flawless world building. Recommended for fans of The Princess Bride, and the books of Cassandra Clare, Kevin Hearne, and the later Harry Potter novels. Simply brilliant.”
~Darby Karchut, best-selling author of Del Toro Moon and Finn Finnegan
It’s funny: when I originally read your premise, it didn’t occur to me this was a twist on the Robin Hood story, but now that I realize that, I can’t believe I missed it! What made you decide to re-tell Robin Hood from the point-of-view of Maid Marian?
What’s really funny is it didn’t even occur to me that telling Robin Hood from Maid Marian’s perspective was different until an agent pointed it out to me. I think I started writing because I never really grew out of playing pretend, and I remember pretending to be Maid Marian a lot when I was a kid. I guess as a girl she seemed more accessible to me, but since I have a hero complex she always ended up being more heroic than her counterpart. By Wingéd Chair itself didn’t start out as a retelling of Robin Hood; it definitely started as one scene about a girl in a wheelchair staring out a window, dreaming of being a hero. Probably because when I wrote it, I was a girl in a wheelchair staring out a window, dreaming of being a hero. Later as the series developed and I realized how much I loved fairy-tales and myths, it occurred to me Merry would make a great Maid Marian. She pretty much took it from there.
That’s pretty awesome. Characters definitely have minds of their own. You mentioned an agent: you’ve decided to forego the traditional publishing route and self-publish. Can you talk a little bit about that journey, and why self-publishing made sense for you?
Oh, that’s a complicated question with a complicated answer, because I’m not sure it was any one thing. When you actually go back and do the math, I’ve been working on this book for about twelve years, and trying to get it published for the last six. I’ve always wanted to be traditionally published, mostly because that’s all there was way back when I first started writing, but also because I need outside validation to tell me that what I’m doing is worthwhile. In that time, I’ve run the full gamut of rejections, ranging from form letters to three pages of editorial notes. I’ve sent cold queries, I’ve pitched in person at conference dinners and in the elevator. If this was an RPG, I would have all the achievements. When the rejections started saying things like “I really love this story, but…” I realized that I had all the validation I needed. These professionals all loved parts or even the whole book, but they still didn’t want to take a chance on it. And even if they had, I didn’t want them to anymore. I finally figured out that my priorities had changed. After years of writing I had so many things I wanted to do with the series, and the traditional publishing world couldn’t really give me the freedom to do them, whereas self-publishing could.
So By Wingéd Chair is the first book in a series?
The short answer is yes. The long answer is that Mark of Least is a series in that all the books take place in the same world and have an over-arching theme and story, but each book is about different characters and the stories all stand alone. In the end, you can read them in whatever order you want.
Okay, last question: how many books do you have planned so far, and what tale are you re-telling next?
There are six already in various stages of editing, along with five short stories that take a look at some quieter stories in between the novels. And there are four or five other novels waiting in the wings to be drafted. I know, it makes me sound like a crazy person, but there are just so many fairytales I grew up loving, not to mention some from different cultures that I can’t wait to explore. And after years of sitting on all of these mostly-written books, I’m really excited to finish and share them. Speaking of, a short story is coming out in January titled When Quiet Comes to Call. It’s about falling in love with the boy-next-door with some magic thrown in. However if we’re talking about novels, I’m doing one of my absolute favorites next, Beauty and the Beast. Skin Deep tells the story of Léon, a young lord cursed for maiming an enchantress, but the only one who can free him is the young woman he’s hurt the most. I think Beauty and the Beast has always been so compelling to me because it’s all about redemption. And who among us hasn’t needed redemption at some point? Léon sure does. That one will be out in April, which seems like forever from now.
That sounds great! Readers, do you enjoy reading fairytales with a spin? Don’t forget to check out By Wingéd Chair by Kendra Merritt, on sale today at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo!
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