Emily Wynne joins the blog today to chat about her debut novel, Princess of the Pomegranate Moon
Author Name: Emily Wynne
Book Title: Princess of the Pomegranate Moon
Book Genre: Fantasy
Release Date: November 17th, 2023
Publisher: Balance of Seven
Welcome, Emily! How would you describe Princess of the Pomegranate Moon?
On a dying earth marked by fear and uncertainty, a trans priestess and sorceress disregards ancient warnings to seek the truth of her identity. She endeavors to uncover what she needs to become whole, without losing herself to the mysterious sacred mountain rumored to be the gate to Faerie.
What sparked the idea for this book?
This is an oversimplification–wouldn’t any answer be?–but I wanted to create a wandering trans woman heroine in the style of classic Sword & Sorcery fantasy.
A lot of Sword & Sorcery is built around these sorts of protagonists readers can follow from adventure to adventure, and in particular Michael Moorcock’s doomed hero Elric of Melniboné (and maybe more than a little, the lesbian icon Xena: Warrior Princess) inspired me to want to create a transfeminine heroine in that mold.
That’s the basic genesis of my protagonist, the wandering sorceress Elsinore; the deeper characterization, setting, and story are inspired by my lifelong explorations of fairy folklore, mythology, Neopagan-inflected Goddess spirituality, and my own queerness, and my desire to syncretize and express those themes.
How long did it take for you to write the book? Did you do any research?
The rough draft only took about a month – I did it for Nanowrimo in 2019! Of course that draft was very different from the finished book, and revision took about two years or more. That’s the real work of writing, isn’t it?
I didn’t really do any research specifically for the book, but it is informed by a lot of reading and research I’ve done previously for my own benefit, as readers can see in the appendix of sources and influences. (I love a book with an appendix!)
What drew you to the fantasy genre?
Well–and I realize I’m saying this a lot!–my interests lie mainly in folklore, mythology, and their intersections with ancient history, and I tend to think fantasy is one of the best modern genres for expressing those themes.
Fill in the blank: Readers who liked _____(Book Title)____will also like Princess of the Pomegranate Moon.
I could pick so many things for this, couldn’t I? Everything we read becomes part of how we think in many ways, and that’s reflected in our writing.
I’m going to go at a slightly unexpected angle and say that readers who liked Leslie Feinberg’s classic amateur history book Transgender Warriors will also like Princess of the Pomegranate Moon–obviously very different in genre, the topics and themes of the sacred role of transness and the struggle against class injustice are related, just handled in a fictional narrative in my book rather than an anthropological survey.
More obviously I think readers who liked The Gunslinger, the first novel in Stephen King’s Dark Tower series, will like Princess of the Pomegranate Moon–the tone and setting of a Dying Earth with faded hints of long-vanished civilizations, and a hero who pursues a lifelong quest, were major influences.
What do you hope readers will take away from this story?
The universality of transness – both in the sense that we are a universal natural variation of the human experience, and in the sense that our lives and struggles and interiority are relatable to anyone who takes the time to listen to what we have to say.
What are your interests outside of writing and reading?
I think I’ve made my interest in fairies and folklore pretty clear! Otherwise in particular I practice various forms of pantheist Goddess-centric spirituality and meditation, and I mess around, not too seriously but sort of introspectively and therapeutically, with tarot and dice divination. I also collect wargaming minifigures, in particular for Dungeons & Dragons and Warhammer. There’s just something I find very appealing about being able to see characters and stories from the imagination play out on a table in front of me–almost like playing with dolls combined with dice fortune-telling.
Are you working on a new project? Please tell us about it.
Since completing Pomegranate I’ve been writing a number of short stories following Elsinore’s adventures: exploring ruins, befriending people in trouble, and trying to make sense of the mysteries of her world–that was always my intention when creating the character!
I’m not really interested in multi-part fantasy series where one continuing story or quest is broken up into multiple tomes that have to be read in order to understand what’s going on and to resolve an endless series of cliffhangers. (I’m so tired of “BOOK ONE OF AN ONGOING SAGA.”)
But like I said earlier, my intention was to create a heroine in a series of standalone stories whose future adventures readers can follow in a more leisurely way, more like episodes of Xena, or stories of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, or even something like Miss Marple.
What was the last book you read? What did you think of it?
The Body of the Goddess, by the great and sadly recently passed trans woman writer Rachel Pollack. She was widely considered the world’s foremost expert on tarot, and The Body of the Goddess explores myths and ancient Bronze Age and Neolithic architecture and sacred landscapes as they relate to ancient beliefs about the Goddess as the Great Mother and matron of resurrection.
It was very evocative and moving, and I wish I’d read it before finishing Pomegranate – a lot of the book focuses on the same sorts of topics I was writing about, and undoubtedly it would have informed my book.
Where can readers find you?
Emilywynne.net and linktr.ee/aemiliavind have feeds from my blog and links to my socials – I’m pretty active on twitter and bluesky with the username aemiliavind. I’ll be posting about any readings, signings, and other events there as they come up of course!
Thank you, Emily! Princess of the Pomegranate Moon is out now.
Princess of the Pomegranate Moon
In this late age, seasons have lost their steady cadence, and the Pomegranate Moon rises over the Mountain.
In the Season of Shadows, a silver light is cast by a moon crowned with an ominous rainbow mist—the Pomegranate Moon. A small, fearful village crouches below, hidden in the shadow of a forbidden sacred mountain rumored to be the gate to Faerie.
Out of the darkness emerges Elsinore—a dancer in a brightly colored dress and rainbow shawls. While she drums a hypnotic beat and dances with floating flames, the townsfolk watch and wonder over her origin and identity—mysteries Elsinore herself seeks the key to.
A hallowed priestess and sorceress, Elsinore has spent a lifetime embracing the woman she has always known herself to be. But deep within, the painful enigma of her youth keeps her shackled to the past, haunted by guilt and grief. Disregarding the whispers and ancient warnings, Elsinore descends into the heart of the Mountain, seeking the final truths of her identity.
Will Elsinore uncover what she needs to become whole, or will she lose herself to the Mountain?
Author bio:
Emily Wynne is a devoted pantheist neopagan who tries to express her reverence for the earth and the stars in her writing. Her shelves are cluttered with books and toys and wargaming minifigures, including a sorceress painted to look like her protagonist, Elsinore. Her favorite holidays are the Spring Equinox and Halloween.
Emily currently resides in a lovely city in Lenapehoking. She lives with her girlfriend, who is her star and her heart, and their family of stuffed animals called Bear Gang.
Princess of the Pomegranate Moon is her first novel, and she is presently writing further adventures of Elsinore which she hopes to share very soon. Her poetry and essays can be found at emilywynne.net.