1.- Could you introduce yourself to Jamreads’ readers?
Of course! Hi, I’m Holly, author of Tudor-inspired fantasy Six Wild Crowns. I’ve been an author since 2020, when my debut YA trilogy Midnight’s Twins was published. Before that I worked in television and film as a script editor, which means that I came up with ideas, looked for books to adapt and worked with screenwriters to make their scripts as compelling as possible. Some of the highlights of my career involved working for British institution Aardman Animations, doing research for the Mary Queen of Scots film, and working on the fourth series of cosy crime show Death in Paradise. I live in Cambridge with my husband and daughter in a gorgeous Bridgerton-era townhouse that’s crumbling at the edges, and when I’m not writing or swimming in the River Cam, I can usually be found restoring it.

2.- When did you decide to start writing with publishing in mind?
I’ve written all my life – like a lot of authors I started out writing fanfiction (when I was a child, Narnia and His Dark Materials; when I was a teenager, Buffy and the series that shall not be named). I played around with my own stories in my 20s, but never seriously thought about turning it into a career because I absolutely adored working with writers in my editorial role. In 2011 I had the seed of an idea for an urban fantasy, and it took hold of me and kept growing.
In 2016, my husband encouraged me to apply for the Faber Academy’s ‘Writing a Novel’ course. Taking that course gave me the support I needed to take my own writing seriously. I was made redundant towards the end of the course and shortly afterwards found out I was pregnant, which I took as a sign that I should finish the book and query agents – so I think that was probably the moment I started thinking that it might be worth attempting to publish it! I was lucky enough to secure an agent pretty quickly, and I ended up getting my first book deal in 2018, when my daughter was two weeks old.

3.- Could you tell us about your debut trilogy, Midnight’s Twin?
It’s very different from Six Wild Crowns! Midnight’s Twins is a YA urban fantasy, set between ‘our’ world and the world we go to when we dream. It follows twins Fern and Ollie as they are recruited into the ‘knights’, a secret army that protects dreamers from deadly nightmares. It’s very loosely based on Arthurian legends and was a reaction to my despair over Brexit and the increased nationalism and ‘personality politics’ that seemed to sweep the world around that time (and, arguably, is still going strong today). The main villain is a politician who has the power to manipulate people’s dreams and nightmares – because if you can control people’s dreams, you can control their minds.

4.- How did the first idea for Six Wild Crowns appear?
I’d just submitted the final draft of the third book in the YA trilogy, and I sat down in a café and wrote a list of all the subjects I adore. ‘The six wives of Henry VIII’ was at the top of the list, and next to it I wrote ‘but make it fantasy’. I knew immediately that there was something in that idea, and I knew the kind of themes I wanted to explore – namely, the way in which our society pitches women against each other. My original outline for the story was for a YA urban fantasy take on the six wives. However, after feedback from my agent at the time, I landed on the current way into the world: a high fantasy setting where Henry VIII is married to all six queens at the same time in order to maintain a magical barrier that protects his kingdom.

5.- Why did you choose the Tudor as the main inspiration for the Queens of Elben series?
I’ve been fascinated by the Tudors since I was a child, reading what can only be described as ‘Tudor smut’ found in my local library. Anne Boleyn was one of my first crushes – it was the 90s, when being a ‘pick me’ girl was considered ‘good’, and Anne Boleyn was the ultimate pick me girl! I’m the kind of writer who needs to feel like my characters are real and grounded and rich with nuance before I can really get into a book, and the six queens – particularly Anne Boleyn, Catherine of Aragon and Catherine Parr – were such a gift in that respect. They felt so real to me, right from the start.
It was important to me that I keep their ‘names’ (I use the term loosely, because in Six Wild Crowns they are called by their surnames/ the names of their houses) rather than changing them to something more fantastical. Some readers might find this jarring, which I totally understand, but I wanted people to make direct comparisons to the real women, to see how their stories diverge from reality when they start to question societal norms.

6. Did the own book, Six Wild Crowns, changed much from the first draft to the one we read?
The first line of the novel – ‘Her wedding dress is the colour of the massacre of Pilvreen’ – came to me alongside that new pitch. I had no idea what the massacre of Pilvreen was, or who was getting married, but the story blossomed from there and was the easiest book I’ve ever written. Structurally, not a huge amount changed, but I did add about 30,000 words between first and final drafts. Most of that went into deepening the relationships and character arcs. I did most work to King Henry: in the first draft he was a bit of a two-dimensional misogynist, but I like to think that in the final novel he’s much more nuanced and is even (at times!) sympathetic.

7.- SWC reached the Sunday Times Best Seller list, how did you feel about it?
Relieved! My YA trilogy came out in the pandemic and didn’t sell very well as a result, and I was quite jaded about the publishing industry by the time Six Wild Crowns came out. Getting onto the bestseller list is only partly to do with the quality of the book, and a lot to do with how much the publisher and booksellers get behind it. My brilliant publisher did everything right and I had two beautiful special editions from Waterstones and Goldsboro, so to not get on the Sunday Times list would have absolutely felt like a reflection on my writing! But I am extremely grateful to everyone who made it happen – the readers, my editorial and marketing and publicity teams, and the wonderful booksellers. My editor, Nadia, broke the news in her speech at my launch party, and it was incredible to share that moment with my peers, publisher, friends and family.

8.- You also took from Celtic folklore and pagan traditions to create your world and its beliefs; could you tell us a bit about the investigation process behind this book?
Celtic folklore has always been an interest of mine. Given that the fictional kingdom of Elben in Six Wild Crowns is based on 16th Century England, I wanted to borrow from folklore from the British Isles for some of the religious elements of the trilogy. Cernunnos, who is the dominant god in Elben, was a deity who in Celtic religions was traditionally associated with the underworld, wild animals, and fertility. In my book he is more aligned with stereotypically male gender stereotypes; fertility, yes, but also strength and dominance.
16th Century Europe was rife with religious turmoil, including Henry VIII’s break with Rome. I wanted to play with that in Six Wild Crowns, along with echoing the ways in which religions evolve and battle for control over territories (paganism to Christianity; Catholicism to Protestantism). I won’t say more for fear of giving spoilers!

9.- If you have to choose one of your characters that stayed with you, who would you choose and why?
This comes as a surprise even to me, but – Seymour! She’s the second POV character in Six Wild Crowns next to Boleyn. The two are opposites: Boleyn is outgoing, vivacious and knows exactly how smart she is. Seymour is introverted and has been beaten by her horrible family into believing that she’s stupid. However, she’s got a backbone of steel and once she learns to trust her instincts, she comes to realise that she can manipulate with the best of them. She really wormed her way into my heart and I loved seeing her come into her own during the course of the plot.

10.- What can we expect from Holly Race in the future?
I recently submitted structural edits on the second book in the series, and have been drafting the third. There are three new POV characters in the sequel: Howard, Cleves, and a secret third character, who have all been such fun to write in their different ways. The sapphic longing from the first book turns to sapphic spice, the stakes are even higher, and there’s the most gorgeously brave little lapdragon who I hope will steal readers’ hearts!