Sarah Henning on Writing the Second in the Sea Witch Duology, Sea Witch Rising
Sea Witch Rising is the second book in the Sea Witch duology by author Sarah Henning. It is a retelling of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid. The novel follows Alia, a mermaid who asked the Evie, the Sea Witch, to help her become human in order to be with the boy she loves, Prince Nikolas. The Sea Witch agrees to the mermaids’ request but with concessions: Alia’s time on land is limited to three days, in which she must make the prince fall in love with her or she will perish, and she must do it without her voice.
Character Development
The novel is led by strong female characters who will not be deterred from their goals. Evie, Alia, and Alia’s sister Runa, said Henning, “must be strong in a male-dominated world” if they are to survive. The Sea Witch, cursed the past 50 years, does not wallow in sorrow. Rather, she has used the time to study and perfect her craft. As Alia follows her heart to Prince Nikolas, placing love above life Runa confronts the Sea Witch and all others who wish to deter her from saving the sister she loves.
Relationships of the main and secondary characters are well developed in both novels. Sea Witch Rising deepens those ties. “We need more narratives where women are friends even though they’re different,” Henning told Spine. Henning has taking the time to develop complex characters with individual voices. Their convictions leap from the page and penetrates the readers psyche.
Going Dark
Unlike Disney’s version of the fairy tale, Sea Witch Rising holds true to the darkness of the original writing by Andersen. Henning has given the fairy tale a unique twist by giving the reader an understanding of the Sea Witch herself. Book one set the stage for what would come, yet Henning surprises us with the choices and consequences of the decisions the Sea Witch makes.
Henning explained that “although YA can be light, as the story progressed, it got darker,” in a similar direction to Andersen’s original. She likens Sea Witch Rising to “a daydream that goes wrong “ and explained “the darkness added weight to the novel by raising the stakes” for the characters throughout the story.
Inspired by History
Sea Witch Rising takes place 50 years after the close of the first novel, placing it in 1914 Denmark at the start of World War I. Henning expertly weaves historical facts into her retelling to bring the reader into a narrative of truth versus tale. Although Denmark was a neutral nation, its men were conscripted to the war. Denmark’s waters were leveraged by both sides. Henning used the true story of ocean mines to develop the subplot surrounding the Mer-King in the novel.
Denmark had experience with witchcraft mania in the early and mid-1600’s. Henning expertly crafted that history into her novels, as well. “During his reign in the 1600s, King Christian IV killed accused witches. Maren Spliid was a real witch who the King burned on November 9, 1641.” On St. John’s Eve in Denmark, the old tradition of setting bonfires to drive away witches continues. Tying those facts into the novel strengthened the legend of witches identified throughout the duology.
Henning is currently looking forward to the publication of her next two books, Throw Like a Girl (Brown/Poppy, January 2020), a romance-meets-sports underdog YA, and The Princess Will Save You (Tor for Teen, Summer 2020), a feminist fantasy inspired by The Princess Bride.
Find Sarah Henning online at www.sarahhenningwrites.com and on Twitter @shhenning.
E. M. Panos's passion for fantasy and mystery began forming at a young age, with episodes of Godzilla and Scooby-Doo. Later, she became enthralled with the works of H.P. Lovecraft, Shirley Jackson, Anne Rice, Marvel Comics, and Joss Whedon. Today, Panos is an avid reader of all things fiction. As an author, she pens short stories, novellas, and flash fiction which contain elements of the supernatural, mythological, and/or fantasy. Find her on Twitter @EMPanosWrites.