I, Hannah, was able to sit down and talk with S.F. Henne to discuss her upcoming re-release of her book, The Last Lunar Witch. This book is an urban fantasy with a main character finding herself in this world (and maybe others).

Below are parts of prefilled questions as well as our interview (with some updates to language or discussion for readability). 

1. What made you want to be a writer? 

While I always liked to make up stories as a kid, it wasn’t until my sister and I watched an episode of Battlestar Galactica and we were so annoyed at the badly done romance that we both declared we could write a better story… and so we both have been trying to for the last 20ish years.

2. Are there any other stories or tv shows you think you could have written better? 

I don’t know if there’s a “written it better”, but there were definitely times where I could imagine episodes that I would want to have. But around that same time, which was Xena and Hercules, the ones that came out then. I adored them. My whole family sat down and watched them and my Greek mythology love came from there. I think Xena is definitely like the embodiment of every character I want to write. Lots of story ideas came from there. She’s just a badass.  

3. What books inspired you to become a writer?

Like most people in my generation, Harry Potter was a large influence. It got me into reading again, awakened my passion for reading fantasy, and (thanks to my friends) I dabbled in my very first fanfic. (and no, no one will ever read it). 

There was also one and I have no idea who the author is. It was an Australian book and I stumbled across it at my school library. And the first one was called The Named [by Marianne Curley], it was a, I’m going to say middle grade or lower YA book about these Australian kids who were part of this agency and they would travel back in time to maintain the timeline and things like that. It had romance in there and prophecy. And I can remember that was the first [time] I ever wrote, it wasn’t really a fanfic, but it was me writing an extra scene because I wanted it in there and it was this fantastic book. I read the whole series and that kind of got my love of fantasy kind of going after Harry Potter dead. 

But can you tell us more about this Harry Potter fanfic? 

I wrote it as a joke. I had several friends who loved Harry Potter and they wrote Sirius fanfic about Sirius and and the Marauders and I wrote a silly one, incorporating all of my friends into Harry Potter and it was so stupid. And I really hope it is no longer out there because it was very cringey. 

4. Can you tell us a little bit more about what your writing process looks like as a writer?

It varies a lot because my 2 main books that I’ve been working on are very different ends of the spectrum. The Last Lunar Witch was written in three months, and I rewrote it in three months. Then my other book, which is an epic fantasy that I’ve been working on for about 10 years. It varies a lot, but my new plan, which is what I’m following for my next book. I do something called an inside outline, which is a very detailed outline from start to finish. And then once that’s solid, I’ll get into writing so that I know my plan. For my first draft, I always do a developmental edit. I do developmental editing for other authors, so I know how important they are. It’s hard to see problems with our own story and I always want to make them the best they can be. 

5. We are here discussing the re-release of The Last Lunar Witch. Can you tell us a bit more about it? 

Set in an alternate modern world, this urban fantasy series follows Nyssa through her journey. In book one Nyssa is a witch with broken magic, since she manifested she has struggled to contain her volatile magic. If discovered by her people, she will have her magic stripped away. In a last ditch attempt to save her magic and her alchemy– the only magic she can reliably perform– Nyssa moves away from her witch home to Arkirith, a large city where all races live. After breaking into the alchemy guild restricted section, Nyssa accidentally steals a book that calls to her magic but she can only read a single potion recipe that claims to help harness and cultivate the users magic. Juggling working as a barista at a sentient coffee shop and trying to win an alchemy contract with the local law enforcement, Nyssa is getting her first taste of adult life. When her new enforcer friend calls for help after being attacked by demonspawn, Nyssa drinks the new potion and unleashes a rare magic but loses control and tears the veil between worlds. Her world starts to fall apart with this new magic, but Nyssa discovers the cute fox that’s been follow her is actually her familiar who she couldn’t hear until she connected to her lunar magic. Together with her new friends, Nyssa grapples with this new magic that makes her a target for not only demons but law enforcement who see her as a threat. Through the support and strength her new friends and familiar, Nyssa grows to accept herself and her new magic to defeat the warlock hellbent of unleashing demons upon the city.

6. Can you tell us a little bit about what that path looked like for you going into like your first release versus this re-release?

So this book, the first version of this book, was called The Witch of the Lunar Order, which was part of a writing derby. Last year in May you got assigned a cover and a title, and then you had two months to write, and then edit, and then another month to publish. My story was solely based on the title and the cover. I wrote the book and absolutely adored it. But I knew that it needed more because we weren’t allowed to pay for any editing. You couldn’t spend a cent. That was very hard for me. I knew that I loved this story so much, and Nyssa deserved to have her story really shine. That’s why once it was published and done with the Derby, I brought it back, I got it redone, and I added new scenes. Hopefully I’ve made it pretty perfect, at least for now. And that’s why I’m launching it again. 

Was a lot changed or was it just like smaller changes to make them sharper? 

I added I think in the end about 20,000 words. I know I removed one full scene and then kind of others and then put more into it, especially my climax. My climax needed more, so [that was kind of] a shift. And then obviously I redid the title and I got a whole new cover, which was more fitting for urban fantasy and I absolutely adore my new cover.

7. It’s a beautiful cover. I’ve seen it. I know that you said that you work in developmental editing. How does that affect your writing process? A lot like, how does like working with others material like affect you in your own writing process? 

It definitely makes me more aware of the inner story, the character’s journey. That was why I got developmental editing. I was helping other authors and they were like, “Wow, you did a really good job at that. I didn’t think about it.” And so I really have this love for making the inner journey of the character just as strong as the plot, because I’ve definitely read books where the inner journey is lacking, \the character doesn’t change, nothing happens. It was a fun book, but there’s nothing to bring me back to it, and it’s really the books that have that true heart that I love. I always try to bring that out in my stories. 

8. What excites you most about your store? 

Originally this story was just a one-off, a fun story…and then Nyssa was like “Yeah, no. Here is an idea for a full series” And who am I to say no? The world building was one of the most fun things to do, fleshing out this world on the macro level. And I mean macro, as in I have a whole universe planned out and the massive conflict that is going to affect these worlds. But for Nyssa’s story, I can’t wait to get into some of the more epic themes and explore the whole world Nyssa lives in.

9. What excites you most about your characters?

I love exploring two things, their magic and their growth. To know where they will be going on their overall journey through the series is so exciting, building the steps they need to become the wonderful person I know they are. And magic, I love exploring where their magic will take them as they learn and grow.

10. Is there something about your characters that you struggled with while writing?

My biggest struggle was giving Nyssa the self doubt we all feel while not making it too heavy on the page. With my first draft, I had a bit too much that made my early critiquers say it was getting annoying. It was a fine balance to show her self doubt while not sounds like she is just whining

11. This seems like a character who’s been through a lot, but she also seems rather naive and protected. And she recognizes that. What were you hoping to show with Nyssa in this first book?

I really wanted to have a character who was stepping out of being isolated. It was a little like how I was in my life because I grew up in Adelaide, Australia. It’s a very sheltered life even though it’s a big city. My sister and I got on a plane when we were 20 and went to Whistler, Canada. We landed in the snow and we had no idea what we were doing. We’d never been overseas. There was this overwhelming feeling and I felt very small. And that’s what I wanted to get with Nyssa. She’s been isolated in her witch community. And she steps out and she’s surrounded by all of these different magical races. She starts at this very naive but hopeful place. I really wanted her to grow. It’s about discovering who she wants to be in this world. And that it’s that feeling of when you’re an adult and you step out and you’re like, “I have to decide everything. I have to figure out where I’m going in life, no one’s telling me.” And so I really want you to get that daunting thing. And this is obviously her first step to discovering who she is and then as she goes on, she’ll be discovering who she wants to be. 

12. She also seems to be in a very tumultuous relationship with her family, to different and varying degrees. What made you interested in looking at complicated family dynamics? 

I was trying to step away. Because in most, especially epic fantasies, the parents were always dead. I really didn’t want that. I want to have complicated relationships. I wanted to have parents who try to be supportive but have their own conflicts. I’m tackling that in book two, and that’s really fun to write. She has this older brother who’s perfect. And I love that dynamic of being so contrasting. She sees herself as the failure child and her brother as the Golden Child. It was fun to have this family relationship in there. I love found family, but I also want to have a stronger relationship with your with your blood.

13. From reading the excerpt I got, this book is super interesting because you seem to mix a lot of modern technology with a bit of the olden day, epic fantasy energy. It felt like it was layered really well. What was it like building this urban, magical world. 

It was fun. I’ve always been into epic fantasy, but I wanted to write an urban [fantasy] because all the ones I read, they’re so fast-paced and they’re just obviously in the real world. You don’t have to think as much. But then when I came to writing mine, I was like “I don’t want to write humans, humans are boring.” I said, “I’m just going to make this an alternate world,” so then I can really pull in the elements that I love about urban fantasies, but add in the extras of the magic. I could see what our world would look like if we grew up with magic.

14. I wanted to hear a little bit more about the cities you created. Are they based off of anything or is this just like fully your brain hitting the page?

It comes out when I write. I didn’t have much to go by. I’m not a city developer. I’m very bad at planning cities so it kind of grows out from things I needed, like “Oh I need the Alchemy Guild” and then the coffee shop, then I’d weave in extra things. I have an idea of this city in my head, and I kind of base it off the cities I’ve lived in, just because I know them well. Most of the big cities have a big river running through them. That’s the first thing I imagine is this big, winding river that Nyssa hates that goes through the city. There’s a lot to the city that doesn’t come out in the page. One day I’ll have a map, but not yet. 

15. I love you at the magic system you seem to be building with all the different races and witches and how they keep to their own. What other races do we get in these books? I remember orcs (note, there were no orcs) or something along those lines. 

I had to try to rein myself in because I love magical races. What I’ve done is that each realm or world has three main races. In the world that we are set in we have witches, shifters, and nymphs, and nymphs are my favorite. That’s the one that you’re thinking of. There again there are three types, they have dryads, oreads and naiads. They’re just fun. I have a main character for one that I want to play around with. The next realm is the one that most people be familiar with, which is humans, the Nephilim, and then my erebians, who are like demon kin. If you’re familiar with D&D ones. There is a third world we only know dwarfs from there, and there’s two other races that I’m creating which are very different, and they’re lots of fun. 

16. I know that you mentioned that there are six types of magic and it seems like there was a question on exactly what’s going on with Nyssaand her wild magic. Can you tell me about what type of magic there are in these different systems? 

The witches break magic down into systems and the other races don’t. They all have different energies. The witches use solar energies or the shifters use lunar energies and the nymphs earth/nature energies. They all pull from different places, but they all technically can do the same things. It’s just varying what energies they have to what spells they can cast. The branches are abjurations, conjuration, enhancement, alchemy, divination, and augmentation. It’s kind of like if you think like Harry Potter, you have charms class and things like that. At least that is how the witches break them down, not all the races class them the same way. 

17. Is there any character in the first book that you want readers to watch out for that like really excites you?

It would probably be Beylin who is my dwarf. He comes up every now and again. We don’t know much about him, especially because we don’t know much about dwarves. And I kind of [don’t know] how I will write his story or if it’s just going to come out across the book but he’s very interesting and we get little bits along the way. Even I have no idea who this person is. Even though they’re my books.  

18. I loved that you added a part time job in a coffee shop. I thought that that was so unique in this type of world building. What was it like building her part time job?

It was originally when I started writing Witch of the Lunar Order. I was going for a cozy book and I failed miserably. It was going to be Nyssa working in this sentient coffee shop. And I had to keep that because I absolutely love divine coffee. I love writing this sentient coffee shop and the grumpy oven and all of these different things. This is a magical world. But we also need to be making money. And I used to work at Starbucks, so I’d like to have the barista stuff in there because who hasn’t done it once in their life? 

What was your least favorite drink to make at Starbucks? Can I ask? 

Oh my God, there was a lot. There was one customer. I remember. There was one girl who could make the drink. It was a weird caramel [ribbon crunch] frappuccino. You had to put caramel around the outside. You poured half of it in, you put more caramel in and then sprinkles? And then and on and on. 

19. What can people expect from reading your book?

Book one has strong themes about self empowerment, about self discovery throughout book one and the whole series. It’s definitely about learning who you are, who you want to be. Building a strong community and bringing out the best in yourself and those around you. So while there is all of these big [themes] about saving the world and defeating the dark enemies, it’s about who you are and who you want to be, and just being a protector of the world. 

20. How are you planning to celebrate your re-release? 

I’m probably going to bake some cookies, to be honest. 

What cookies, though? That’s very important. 

See, it depends if I’m cooking them for [my daughter] or for me. If I’m cooking for her, I have to be boring and just make like chocolate chip cookies. If it was for me. I would probably be baking what I baked last week, called Anzac biscuits. They’re an Australian “cookie”, if I’m being American. A quick bit of history behind them. These were cookies that the women in Australia baked for the men who were fighting in World War 1, so it was made on rations. It’s a very odd cookie and I love them and I like them because it was just Anzac Day on the 25th of April. 

21. What are you reading/watching, and or enjoying?

I’m trying to think if there’s any books that I have coming up. But yeah, I have. It’s the Other Witch series by Heather G Harris. I’m really excited to dive into that cause it’s a fun the the male main character is a Griffin, so he has a human body, but he’s to turn into a Griffin and he’s and assassin, while the witch is a potion mistress.

Make sure to keep an eye out for The Last Lunar Witch, out tomorrow. There is going to be a sale from May 7-14 for the launch for 99 cents!! Here is a linktree to follow and find S.F. Henne’s Work. 

Buy the Last Lunar Witch