Melissa Hope's New Middle Grade Adventure, SEA OF KINGS
Pirates. Monsters. More pirates. As a kid, I couldn't get enough of adventure books likeMelissa Hope's Sea of Kings. I think I wanted to get away from my landlocked life in San Antonio, Texas, and sail away on dangerous ocean, a place I just knew would be filled with opportunities to prove myself. And did I mention pirates?
Image of the book cover for Sea of Kings by Melissa Hope
Ooooh...I love this cover.
Back in my middle school days, if I'd seen the super cool cover of Melissa Hope's debut, it would have been in my backpack in a hot second.
Sea of Kings is about a thirteen-year-old Prince, Noa, who must protect his homeland from vengeful pirates who lay siege to his island home. Noa and his brother steal a ship, assemble a rag-tag crew, and follow a magical map to other kingdoms in search of help. It turns out that the stakes are much higher than Noa thought, and if he and his brother don't figure out the mysterious map and confront the one-eyed pirate, an evil force will spread across the realm, destroying everything Noa loves.
On April 27th, this little beauty is available to the world (Preorder here!), but I got a chance to read an advanced reader copy, and I'm so excited to have this talented author on my blog.
Author picture of Melissa Hope
Melissa Hope, debut author of SEA OF KINGS
LL: Can you tell us a little about your inspiration for Sea of Kings?
MH: Sea of Kings first came into existence from an idea about the world itself. My husband is a Marine Biologist, and he was tagging sharks in the Bahamas when he thought: What if a kingdom sat on each of these tropical islands? He told me this idea, and immediately my writer's brain went into overdrive. We came up with the initial plot together. After we moved our small family next to the beach in sunny Florida, I was able to grab more inspiration from our environment and write, write, write!
LL:Your characters spend a lot of time on ships, and you seem to have a deep knowledge of sailing. Are you an expert sailor yourself, or did you just do a lot of research?
MH: I wish I could say I was as cool as the sailing kids in Sea of Kings! Alas, 'tis not so. Riding a boat in the ocean waves does not do my stomach any favors, if you know what I mean. I built my knowledge of the ocean and sailing mainly through years of research, including books, films, documentaries, nautical museums, and even first-hand experiences from my family's time by the sea!
LL: Let's talk pirates! I love pirates, and you've got a ton in this book. Do you think of pirates as noble outlaws or cruel villains, or is the truth somewhere in between?
pirate flag waving
MH: I think the truth is somewhere in between. No one is all good or all bad, and this topic is addressed early on in SEA OF KINGS when Noa explains that some marine soldiers turned to piracy after the war because they had difficulty integrating back into regular society. I also like to play with cliches and tropes. Many things that feel like a cliché in the book are not what they seem in the end, as you may have noticed!
LL: As a scuba diver, I'm sure you've come face to face with a lot of fascinating sea life. I really enjoyed a creature you created, the electric octopus, and I was wondering if this was inspired by an actual octopus encounter while diving. How did you come up with this idea?
MH: You scuba dive too, right? I love that! You must have seen so much fascinating sea life as well! I'm not sure I remember how I created this creature, but I remember the feeling I had when writing the first draft and thinking this was something exciting. Other ocean animals have electric charges, such as the electric eel or the electric ray, so it was fun to pull traits from these real sea animals and bring them to the book's cute and scary octopus species.
Octopus dancing
LL: Your descriptions of the ocean are really lovely, and you describe storms almost as if they're monsters themselves. Have you ever been in a storm at sea?
MH: Heck no. I choose life. Luckily, I've witnessed raging seas from the safety of the shore.
In all seriousness, I have a massive amount of respect for the people who work at sea, especially those who deal with Search and Rescue, such as the Coast Guard. They are brave to another degree.
LL: The blue men almost lure the main character Noa to his death. Can you tell us a little more about these evil kelpies and how you came up with the idea?
MH: Yes! The blue men are based on the mythical Blue Men of Minch, a blue creature said to occupy a stretch of water near Scotland. Initially, I wrote the book with them being very similar to their mythical stories, but as I listened to Beta-reader feedback and rewrote each draft, the Sea of Kings blue men started to take their shape. Funny story: The chapter of the blue men was the first whole chapter I ever wrote! It also took me SO long because I hadn't yet learned to forego being a perfectionist on a first draft. A little advice for anyone wanting to write a book: DON'T reread your first draft until it's complete!
LL: You're absolutely right. When you're trying to craft a novel, hyperfocusing on perfection too early in the process will absolutely derail you. And speaking of craft, let's talk character. Sea of Kings includes a strained father-son relationship, one that the main character Noa must wrestle with throughout the story. How did that thread come to be? Do you think it's common that parents are overprotective of their children and keep knowledge from them that they really need?
MH: This relationship started to form once I fleshed out my main character's backstory. That's when I began to realize not just who Noa was, but how he would react to different people in his life based on his past experiences, including the trauma of losing his mother.
I do think it's common that parents are overprotective of their children. Parents are more protective now than they were two generations ago, or even one generation ago, and I think in some instances, it's not benefitting the child. Noa's relationship with his father is an extreme example of toxic parenting, but the protective actions' core emotions are real and relatable. As a parent myself, I can more easily identify with Noa's father and his desire to keep his children safe at all costs.
LL: What's next for you? Are you working on anything new?
MH: What's next for me? SO MANY THINGS! I feel like the world is at my fingertips when I write, and after taking a break to have my third child in February, I'm excited to start writing again consistently. Right now, I'm playing around with a few picture book drafts and working on my next (secret!) Middle-Grade project. This is going to be an exciting year!