THEN WE IGNITE
If you had to choose between the survival of your kingdom and the woman you love, could you?
"The creature leaned down to her, its mass of a face mere inches from hers. She couldn’t see a nose or a mouth, but it had otherworldly, golden, pupiless eyes that bore into hers.
And then it spoke.
The voice was the same scream from her dream, its words seeming to flood her mind rather than be spoken aloud.
Do not leave.
Do not leave.
Do. Not. Leave."
Here is a synopsis of Then We Ignite
Nature is deceptive. Beneath its beauty is a beast far stronger than any fickle human body. Autumn, the princess of Tourmaline learned this painful lesson after being disabled as a child in a tragic accident in her kingdom’s forest. Now, ten years later, her kingdom is dying. The trees in the forests are decaying, crops will not grow, and her people are starving. The island kingdom of Kyanite has resources that could help Tourmaline survive, but on one condition. Autumn must marry Kyanite’s prince, Henry.
Marrying Henry means tethering herself to his cruel mother who has made her abhorrence for Autumn clear, but Autumn loves her kingdom and would do almost anything to end their suffering.
Almost.
Despite knowing the fate of her kingdom relies on this union, Autumn feels torn. She is already in love. And the royal apothecary, Meredith, loves her back.
Now, Autumn must make a choice. Marry a man she could never love and save her people, or stay with the woman she loves and watch her kingdom crumble. But, when she receives a cryptic message warning her against marrying the prince, she must uncover the secret of who sent it and why. She will learn that like nature, her family is deceptive. Now, she must untangle the lies from the truth. But she must do it before the winter solstice. Her people will not be able to survive another winter.
Background on the novel
Then We Ignite is a new adult, sapphic, low fantasy novel. After seven drafts of writing, workshopping, and editing, it is completed at 90k words. While the bulk of the work put into this novel occurred during my two-year master's degree in writing, where I completed four drafts, the journey really began in 2021, during my senior year of college. I began writing the character of Autumn as a means to process my own disability. I was diagnosed with juvenile psoriatic arthritis (JPsA) at age twelve. Although the condition began isolated in my right ankle, it slowly took over the rest of my joints, leading me to spend a good deal of my teenage and young adult years relying on mobility aids. My most common one? Like Autumn, it was a cane. Because I didn't have anyone I could talk to about my experience with disability, I decided to invent someone. So, Autumn was born, with her story being written disjointedly in cafe corners, hospital waiting rooms (and beds), and late at night with my phone on dark mode when I really should've been sleeping. (That haphazard, first draft will never see the light of day, by the way).
I've been an insatiable reader since I learned to read, with my absolute favorite books being fantasy. However, I struggled to find disabled characters in speculative fiction who I really felt like I related to. During my MA, I examined over 100 works of literature with physically disabled characters, and found three trends:
1. Disability was used as a means to justify a character being evil.
2. Disability was used to make the audience feel pity for the character.
3. Disability was used to make the character feel shame about their body.
There are exceptions to this, of course. Kaz Brekker walked (ha) so future disabled characters could run (haha). But I particularly struggled to find a female main character (FMC) who wasn't also presented as meek, angry, or inherently unsexy because of her disability. I wrote Then We Ignite for everyone who, like me, wants to be seen for more than what our bodies can do.
So, while she is disabled, Autumn's story is not about her disability. Her story deals with a mysterious, dark monster that only she can see, a forbidden romance with someone who would burn the world down for her, and deception from the people she was sure should could trust most.
And there is a cat.
“Why can’t I protect you?” she took another step toward Autumn.
“Mer, please—”
“Why, Leafless?” Another step, and now they were separated by merely a few inches of empty air that Autumn swore was riddled with lightning.
“Nothing can happen to you,” Autumn whispered, chin upturned to Mer. It was rare they faced each other this close for more than a moment. More than a heartbeat. But when they did, Autumn took the chance to glimpse the thin, hazel ring that encircled her pupils. To count each of her long, pale lashes. To memorize the constellations of freckles that were mapped across her cheeks. All of this she’d do as quickly as she could before anyone, especially Mer, could notice. Before turning away.
She didn’t turn away now.