The Mythic Mic Podcast

🎙️ Welcome back to The Mythic Mic Podcast, where sometimes the best fantasy stories don't need heroes at all.

This week, hosts Bethany Amanda and Sara Santillan sit down with V.E. Schwab to discuss Victorious, the long-awaited conclusion to the Villains trilogy, a series Victoria describes as Magneto and Professor X meets The Secret History and a toxic college bromance where superpowers definitely don't make you a superhero.

From the book that helped save her writing career to the finale she waited eight years to be ready to write, Victoria takes us behind the scenes of Villains, her intensely precise creative process, and nearly two decades of building a career by refusing to stay in one lane.

⚡ What if superpowers didn't make you a superhero?
🖤 How do you end a series readers have spent more than a decade fighting for?
✍️ And what happens when you realize you aren't the right version of yourself to write a story yet?

If you love morally gray characters, superpowers, toxic friendships, villain stories, dark academia, complicated rivalries, obsessive characters, and fantasy that makes you question exactly who you're supposed to root for, this episode is for you.

🔥 IN THIS EPISODE, WE TALK ABOUT:
✨ Victoria's journey from poetry to novels and why she believes you don't need to be published to take yourself seriously as a writer.
✨ How a poetry background shaped her obsession with rhythm, precision, metaphor, and making every sentence earn its place.
✨ Why Victoria spends months outlining before drafting and how she preserves the beauty of a first draft without relying on the dreaded “garbage draft.”
✨ The realities of publishing even after nearly two decades in the industry, and why Victoria says no one ever truly figures the business out.
✨ Why writers are the one truly original ingredient in their stories and the importance of writing for yourself instead of chasing trends.
✨ The origin of Vicious, the canceled series and career uncertainty that pushed Victoria to stop writing what publishing wanted and create the story she wanted to read.
✨ Victor, Eli, near-death experiences, manufactured superpowers, and Victoria's original experiment: could she write a book without heroes and still make readers root for someone?
✨ Why Vicious was never an overnight success and how years of reader word-of-mouth transformed a small first print run into a fiercely loved trilogy.
✨ Why Victoria waited eight years to write Victorious and how she knew she needed to become the right version of herself before she could finish the story.
✨ Saying goodbye to Villains, writing the ending backward, and why Victorious feels like both the end of an era and a love letter to the readers who kept the series alive.

CONNECT WITH US

🎙️ The Mythic Mic Podcast – @MythicMic
👤 Bethany Amanda – @BethanyinFantasyland
👤 Sara Santillan – @the_magical_quill
📚 VE Schwab – @VESchwab

✨ If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review. It helps more fantasy readers and aspiring authors find their way to The Mythic Mic.

🎙️ Welcome back to The Mythic Mic Podcast, where the enemy commander taking you captive is complicated enough before he becomes your husband.

This week, host Sara Santillan sits down with author R.A. Raine to discuss Storm, a dystopian romantasy filled with lightning magic, feminine rage, motherhood, fae lands, an oppressive empire, an enemy commander, morally complicated choices, and a heroine determined to protect her children at any cost.

Storm is a 31-year-old pregnant mother who has spent her life in servitude to the patriarchal empire of Halo, a brutal society that controls women and their bodies. More than anything, she wants to get her children away from it. Then Malek, commander of the enemy army, takes her as his wife. He’s older, powerful, mysterious, and far more complicated than Storm initially realizes. As war rages between Halo and the magical fae lands beyond its borders, Storm must decide what she’s willing to risk for freedom, family, and the people she loves.

⚡ What happens when a lightning-wielding mother decides she’ll do anything to get her children out of a dystopian empire?
🖤 What if the enemy commander who takes you as his wife isn’t the man you thought he was?
🌲 And what happens when a world of oppression and scarcity exists just beyond the treeline from a magical fae utopia?

If you love dystopian romantasy, feminine rage, fae worlds, lightning magic, enemy commanders, morally complicated heroes, protective mothers, he falls first, age gaps, hidden motives, rebellion, high-stakes romance, and heroines who will choose their children every single time, this episode is for you.

🔥 IN THIS EPISODE, WE TALK ABOUT:
✨ R.A. Raine’s decision to sell her house, put everything else on hold, and finally go all-in on becoming an author.
✨ Why Storm became the book where Rebecca poured her own rage, love, passion, and emotions onto the page.
✨ Blending dystopian fiction and romantasy through two radically different worlds divided by a single treeline.
✨ Storm, a pregnant mother and lightning worker determined to save her children from the patriarchal empire controlling their lives.
✨ Malek, the mysterious enemy commander who takes Storm as his wife and slowly reveals a very different side of himself.
✨ Why motherhood became one of the most important elements of the story and a source of strength, hope, and love rather than weakness.
✨ Feminine rage, environmental themes, oppression, and the real-world emotions woven throughout Storm’s dystopian world.
✨ The complicated romance between Storm and Malek, why he falls first, and the choices that will always put her children before him.
✨ Creating morally complicated characters whose decisions might be questionable even when readers understand exactly why they made them.
✨ The cliffhanger already sending ARC readers into Rebecca’s DMs demanding to know what happens next.

CONNECT WITH US

🎙️ The Mythic Mic Podcast – @MythicMic
👤 Bethany Amanda – @BethanyinFantasyland
👤 Sara Santillan – @the_magical_quill
📚 R.A. Raine – @R.A.RaineAuthor

✨ If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review. It helps more fantasy readers and aspiring authors find their way to The Mythic Mic.

🎙️ Welcome back to The Mythic Mic Podcast, where cursed bloodlines hide beneath ordinary society, ghosts haunt college corridors, and one forbidden witch is about to become entangled with four dangerously broken heirs.

This week, host Sara Santillan sits down with bestselling indie and traditionally published author Lucy Smoke to discuss Hallowed Bones, the first installment in her Sons of Salem series. 

Lucy shares her nine-year journey from publishing a debut she later removed from circulation to building a full-time author career across multiple pen names, genres, and publishing paths. She opens up about stubbornness, rejection, one-star reviews, surviving unpredictable indie income, finding the right agent, and why fear should never be the deciding factor when choosing whether to pursue a creative dream.

We also dive into Hallowed Bones, where Haven enters Ipswich College despite warnings to stay away from Ezra Bishop, Cameron Good, Lyle Corey, and Reyes Scott, the four cursed Sons of Salem. Lucy discusses combining The Covenant with Wednesday Addams energy, researching the Salem witch trials, interviewing practicing witches, Wiccans, and neo-pagans, and creating a hidden paranormal society filled with inherited magic, demons, blood contracts, ghosts, and other planes of existence. She also explains the immense challenge of crafting four distinct romances and character arcs while refusing to let why-choose storytelling be dismissed as “just spice.”

🕯️ What happens when the witch everyone fears is more powerful than the four cursed heirs meant to contain her?
🩸 Can Haven survive Ipswich College when ghosts, gods, and hidden bloodlines are closing in?
🔥 And how do you fall for four different people without any of those romances or the men themselves feeling interchangeable?

This is a must-listen for gothic paranormal readers, why-choose romance fans, lovers of Salem-inspired witch stories, and anyone who wants layered relationships, dangerous magic, and broken characters fighting toward a realistically messy happy ending.

🔥 IN THIS EPISODE, WE TALK ABOUT:
✨ Lucy’s real-life found family, friend-family vacations, and hunt for the perfect milkshake.
✨ Pursuing writing despite being repeatedly encouraged to choose a more “practical” career.
✨ Studying English literature, professional writing, and education before leaving the classroom path.
✨ Why finishing and releasing an imperfect first book was essential to her growth.
✨ Learning through failure, removing early books, and continuing without regret.
✨ Why rejection letters and one-star reviews prove that a story made someone feel something.
✨ Building a full-time indie career through experimentation, research, and stubborn persistence.
✨ The financial highs and lows of treating authorship as a real business.
✨ Finding her third agent after previous representation ended or became unhealthy.
✨ Challenging academic attitudes that dismiss indie publishing and commercial fiction.
✨ Why affordable books, Kindle Unlimited, libraries, and format accessibility matter to Lucy.
✨ The origins of her Lucy Smoke and Lucinda Dark pen names.
✨ Her introduction to why-choose romance through anime, manga, and reverse-harem stories.
✨ Why writing four love interests means constructing four complete romantic arcs.
✨ Exploring what makes someone fall in love with multiple people for entirely different reasons.
✨ Helping bring why-choose romance from a niche category into mainstream traditional publishing.
✨ Haven Wardwell and the four cursed heirs of the Sons of Salem.
✨ Researching the political and economic motives behind accusations of witchcraft.
✨ Interviewing witches, Wiccans, and neo-pagans while distinguishing their belief systems.
✨ Deconstructing a rigid good-versus-evil worldview while creating the book’s magic.
✨ A hidden paranormal society populated by witches, demons, werewolf-like beings, and ghosts.
✨ Bloodline-based magic that manifests according to the individual rather than copying a parent’s ability.
✨ The beloved aunt, the brutal cliffhanger, and why book two may reveal something even more shocking.
✨ Reader Mafia, accidental branding, chaotic honesty, and Lucy’s infamous eyeliner.

CONNECT WITH US

🎙️ The Mythic Mic Podcast – @MythicMic
👤 Bethany Amanda – @BethanyinFantasyland
👤 Sara Santillan – @the_magical_quill
📚 Lucy Smoke – @AuthorLucySmoke

✨ If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review. It helps more fantasy readers and aspiring authors find their way to The Mythic Mic.

🎙️ Welcome back to The Mythic Mic Podcast, where morally gray vampires, fated mates, touch-her-and-die heroes, and a little leather never go out of style.

This week, host Bethany Amanda sits down with legendary paranormal romance author J.R. Ward to discuss Lover Enthroned, the newest installment in the iconic Black Dagger Brotherhood series. Her irresistible pitch? Hot nerd meets a queen. A literal queen.

J.R. takes us behind the scenes of more than two decades of the Brotherhood, from getting fired by her first publisher to building a series that has spanned more than 20 books, bringing the vampires to the screen with Passionflix, and why showing up for the story remains at the heart of her writing process.

🖤 What happens when the Black Dagger Brotherhood trades its usual alpha hero for a hot nerd?
👑 What secrets are waiting when that hot nerd falls for a Shadow princess?
🧛 And after more than two decades of vampires, fated mates, and morally gray heroes, how does J.R. Ward keep surprising us?

If you love vampires, paranormal romance, fated mates, morally gray heroes, touch-her-and-die devotion, dark fantasy, powerful heroines, found family, and romances where love conquers all, this episode is for you.

🔥 IN THIS EPISODE, WE TALK ABOUT:
✨ J.R.'s journey from writer to lawyer and back to writer, and the unexpected encouragement that helped turn the stories in her head into a publishing career.
✨ Why she describes herself as a “secretary” for her characters and how scenes arrive in her head out of order before becoming a finished book.
✨ The perseverance behind her career, including getting fired by her first publisher and giving herself one more chance with the series that became Black Dagger Brotherhood.
✨ Why readers have stayed obsessed with the Brotherhood for more than two decades: morally gray alpha males, fated mates, touch-her-and-die devotion, tattoos, fangs, leather, and plenty of darkness.
✨ Lover Enthroned, J.R.'s “hot nerd meets a queen” romance between Alan and Shadow princess Denny, and why new readers can jump into the Brotherhood right here.
✨ Bringing Black Dagger Brotherhood to the screen with Passionflix and why J.R. waited decades for an adaptation partner willing to stay true to the books.
✨ Watching a story she never expected to find an audience become a decades-long series with an intensely loyal fandom and more stories still unfolding.
✨ Denny's deliciously satisfying moment of vengeance, new insight into the Shadows, and J.R.'s love for the unexpected final pieces that reveal themselves while she's writing.
✨ Why romance remains at the heart of everything J.R. writes and the enduring belief behind the Brotherhood: in the end, love conquers all.
✨ Plus: J.R.'s favorite Brother, Vicious unexpectedly discovering fatherhood, ancient Dell laptops, terrible roommate options, and why the safest Black Dagger Brotherhood roommate might actually be a golden retriever.

CONNECT WITH US

🎙️ The Mythic Mic Podcast – @MythicMic
👤 Bethany Amanda – @BethanyinFantasyland
👤 Sara Santillan – @the_magical_quill
📚 J.R. Ward – @Jrwardauthor

✨ If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review. It helps more fantasy readers and aspiring authors find their way to The Mythic Mic.

Welcome to another episode of Banter & Books, the monthly Mythic Mic segment where host Amara and a special guest share spoiler-free reviews of the books they can't stop thinking about!

In this episode, Amara is joined by bookstagrammer Kris West to talk fairy-tale villains, dystopian video-game worlds, fated mates, magical academies, hidden identities, devastating cliffhangers, and the wonderfully chaotic world of why choose fantasy.

They dive into Blood of the Fairest by Morgan B. Lee, Codebound by Kendra Moreno, A Crown of Crimson and Crows by Tessa Hale, and Clash of Claws and Edge of Steel by Elizabeth Dear. They also revisit two indie favorites they cannot stop recommending: Veil of Ash by Fallon Hendrix and Rook of Ruin by Elle Youngish.

Along the way, Amara and Kris make the case for giving why choose romance a chance, celebrate golden-retriever heroes, enemies-to-lovers tension, fated mates, groveling, powerful FMCs, and the beauty of having an entire “boy buffet” of love interests. They also discuss evil-queen fairy-tale retellings, LitRPG worlds with deadly levels and praying-mantis companions, sparkly purple snakes, brutal twists, tampered memories, and books that leave you staring at the wall wondering what just happened.

Whether you already love why choose, have been curious but hesitant to try it, or simply want some wildly original indie fantasy recommendations to destroy your TBR, this spoiler-free episode is for you.

BOOKS DISCUSSED IN THIS EPISODE

• Blood of the Fairest by Morgan B. Lee (Check out our Mythic Mic interview with Morgan B. Lee here) 
• Codebound by Kendra Moreno
• A Crown of Crimson and Crows by Tessa Hale
• Clash of Claws by Elizabeth Dear (Check out our Mythic Mic interview with Elizabeth Dear here)
• Veil of Ash by Fallon Hendrix
• Rook of Ruin by Elle Youngish

CONNECT WITH THE MYTHIC MIC TEAM

🎙️ The Mythic Mic Podcast – @MythicMic
👤 Bethany Amanda – @BethanyinFantasyland
👤 Sara Santillan – @the_magical_quill
👤 Amara – @Bored_Military_Wife

✨ If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review. It helps more fantasy readers and aspiring authors find their way to The Mythic Mic.

🎙️ Welcome back to The Mythic Mic Podcast, where sometimes the heroine doesn't defeat the villain. Sometimes she becomes one.

This week, hosts Sara Santillan and Amara sit down with J.E. Caroline to discuss The Venom in Her Veins, a dark romantasy about a cursed fae woman fated to destroy the world and the dragon prince destined to kill her before she can.

🐍 What if your favorite romantasy heroine became the villain and loved it?
🐉 What happens when the man destined to kill you falls in love with you first?
🖤 And just how far can grief, rage, and darkness push a heroine before there's no going back?

If you love villain arcs, cursed heroines, dragon shifters, feminine rage, touch-her-and-die romance, slow burn, dark fantasy, deadly magic, morally gray characters, and heroes willing to burn the world for their girl, this episode is for you.

🔥 IN THIS EPISODE, WE TALK ABOUT:
✨ Going from full-time motherhood and rediscovering reading to writing and independently publishing her debut novel.
✨ The chaotic reality of indie publishing for the first time and what Jessica wishes she'd known before jumping in.
✨ Why Jessica abandoned the traditional hero's journey and asked: what if the heroine became the villain instead?
✨ Creating Verena, a cursed fae woman fated to destroy the world she's desperately trying to save.
✨ Ronan, the dragon prince destined to kill Verena who makes the very inconvenient mistake of falling in love with her first.
✨ Villain arcs, feminine rage, grief, trauma, and what happens when a character's moral balance is pushed too far.
✨ Building a dark and beautiful world of fractured kingdoms, cursed forests, deadly monsters, hidden secrets, and inevitable betrayals.
✨ The slow-burn romance, touch-her-and-die devotion, and a hero willing to burn the world for Verena or right alongside her.
✨ The inspiration behind Verena's venomous curse and why viper imagery became central to her transformation.
✨ What's coming next, including more trauma in Book Two, a dystopian romance, and a future prequel exploring the gods behind Verena's world.

CONNECT WITH US

🎙️ The Mythic Mic Podcast – @MythicMic
👤 Bethany Amanda – @BethanyinFantasyland
👤 Sara Santillan – @the_magical_quill
📚 J.E. Caroline – @J.E.Caroline.Author

✨ If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review. It helps more fantasy readers and aspiring authors find their way to The Mythic Mic.

🎙️ Welcome back to The Mythic Mic Podcast, where forbidden magic, ominous prophecies, and ruthless silver-haired warriors are exactly our kind of problem.

This week, host Bethany Amanda sits down with Geneva Lee to discuss Harbinger, a dark, romantic slow-burn fantasy filled with star-powered magic, dangerous omens, political intrigue, forbidden attraction, and enough twists that almost everything is a spoiler.

Geneva takes us behind the scenes of the fantasy world she's been dreaming about for fifteen years, including the astrology-inspired magic system, ancient beliefs about birds and omens, and the influences that helped shape a story she describes as a female-gaze Game of Thrones meets Divergent, Ladyhawke, and The Thorn Birds.

🌙 What happens when an act of mercy awakens a magic that should never have been hers?
🐦‍⬛ What if one woman is believed to be the omen that 500 years of peace is about to end?
🔥 And how are we supposed to resist a ruthless, silver-haired warrior who has sworn his life to duty?

If you love forbidden magic, celestial fantasy, ominous prophecies, ruthless and competent heroes, slow-burn romance, political intrigue, tortured MMCs, dangerous secrets, powerful heroines, and fantasy worlds where nothing is quite what it seems, this episode is for you.

🔥 IN THIS EPISODE, WE TALK ABOUT:
✨ Geneva's fifteen-year publishing career, and how she got the push to finally write a novel while caring for a newborn and toddler.
✨ The business side of being an author, from contracts and marketing to social media.
✨ Geneva's biggest advice for aspiring and neurodivergent writers.
✨ Why editing has become Geneva's favorite part of the writing process and how even after fifteen years of publishing, she still relies on the editorial process to make each story hit harder.
✨ Creating Harbinger, a dark, ominous, romantic slow burn where almost every revelation is a spoiler, every answer seems to uncover another secret, and readers may want to question everything they think they know.
✨ Building an astrology-inspired magic system where the stars themselves provide power and each noble bloodline draws its magic from a different constellation.
✨ The ancient history behind the book's birds and omens, Geneva's fascination with augury, and why one seemingly small choice involving a raven-like bird may be far more important than readers initially realize.
✨ Why Geneva loves tortured heroes who occasionally reveal the person they might have been before terrible things happened to them.
✨ The deeper themes beneath Harbinger, including grief, fate, powerlessness, the choices we make versus the choices taken from us, and what it means to keep choosing to rise when hope feels impossible.
✨ Expanding Harbinger from a planned trilogy into a series of at least five books, Geneva's refusal to rush the next installment, and why the infamous “Queen of Cliffhangers” has absolutely no intention of giving up her devastating endings.
✨ Plus: sword fighting, sword yoga, future dagger-throwing ambitions, whether Geneva could survive her own fantasy world, the bloodline she'd choose for herself, why readers may need multiple boxes of tissues, and the Filthy Rich Vampires crossover that could cause absolute chaos.

CONNECT WITH US

🎙️ The Mythic Mic Podcast – @MythicMic
👤 Bethany Amanda – @BethanyinFantasyland
👤 Sara Santillan – @the_magical_quill
📚 Geneva Lee – @Genevaleebooks

✨ If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review. It helps more fantasy readers and aspiring authors find their way to The Mythic Mic.

🎙️ Welcome back to The Mythic Mic Podcast, where mythological worlds collide, romance blooms in the most dangerous places, and every monster has a story.

This week, hosts Bethany Amanda and Sara sit down with bestselling fantasy author Olivia Wildenstein to celebrate The Ice Beyond, the first book in her breathtaking new Empress of Thorns series.

Olivia shares her fascinating journey from self-publishing to hybrid publishing, the realities of navigating both indie and traditional publishing, and why perseverance—not overnight success—is the true secret to a writing career. We also dive into writing routines, perfectionism, character art, worldbuilding, and why some stories refuse to let go until they're told.

Then we explore The Ice Beyond, an epic Norse-inspired fantasy filled with wolf shifters, vampires, Valkyries, dragons, forbidden romance, devastating secrets, morally gray characters, and a heroine whose entire identity is shattered when she discovers everything she's believed about herself is a lie.

🐺 What happens when the family who raised you has been hiding the biggest secret of your life?
❄️ Can love survive when it was forbidden from the very beginning?
⚔️ And who are the real monsters in a world filled with gods, shifters, and ancient legends?

If you love Viking-inspired fantasy, morally gray heroes, mythology, dangerous monsters, sweeping romance, love triangles, and immersive fantasy worlds, this is an episode you won't want to miss.

🔥 IN THIS EPISODE, WE TALK ABOUT:

✨ Olivia's publishing journey from selling ten self-published copies to becoming a bestselling hybrid author.
✨ The biggest differences between indie, traditional, and hybrid publishing, and why she now loves working in both worlds.
✨ Why perseverance matters far more than chasing trends or overnight success.
✨ Her writing process, perfectionism, self-editing habits, and why deadlines are both terrifying and essential.
✨ Character art, visual storytelling, and how seeing a world helps bring fantasy to life.
✨ Building The Ice Beyond from a simple vampire story into an expansive Norse-inspired fantasy universe.
✨ Reimagining Norse mythology with wolf shifters, Valkyries, vampires, dragons, and unforgettable monsters.
✨ Writing morally gray characters whose motivations remain a mystery until the very end.
✨ Why Olivia loves heroines who grow, stumble, and make mistakes instead of having all the answers.
✨ Forbidden romance, love triangles, and why readers secretly love emotional chaos.
✨ Advice for aspiring fantasy authors on finding your audience while staying true to your creative vision.

CONNECT WITH US

🎙️ The Mythic Mic Podcast – @MythicMic
👤 Bethany Amanda – @BethanyinFantasyland
👤 Sara Santillan – @the_magical_quill
📚 Olivia Wildenstein – @Olives21

✨ If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review. It helps more fantasy readers and aspiring authors find their way to The Mythic Mic.

⚠️ TRIGGER WARNINGS ⚠️ This episode includes candid conversations about infertility and fertility loss, premature menopause, ovarian removal, unsuccessful IVF, hysterectomy, pregnancy and childbirth complications, loss of reproductive choice, death and grief, abortion, medical trauma, depression, and religious fear surrounding death and the afterlife. Please listen with care.

🎙️ Welcome back to The Mythic Mic Podcast, where heartbreak becomes a fatal curse, ancient towers preserve stories that empires could not erase, and healing begins when a woman finally chooses something entirely for herself.

This week, hosts Bethany Amanda and Sara Santillan sit down with author Ova Ceren to discuss her Turkish fantasy novel, The Book of Heartbreak.

Ova shares her journey from growing up under intense academic pressure in Turkey to spending nearly twenty years in mathematics, computer science, and the male-dominated technology industry. She opens up about entering premature menopause, learning that she could not have another child, and how the resulting grief and loss of identity inspired her to leave behind work she did not love and pursue writing for herself. Ova, Sara, and Bethany also have a deeply personal conversation about infertility, failed IVF, hysterectomy, pregnancy complications, reproductive healthcare, and the grief that can accompany losing the ability or the choice to expand a family.

We also dive into The Book of Heartbreak, which follows seventeen-year-old Sare, a girl cursed to die whenever her heart breaks. After learning that her mother has died, Sare moves to Istanbul to live with her estranged grandfather and discovers that everything she believed about her family may be a lie. Ova discusses drawing inspiration from the thousand-year-old Byzantine myth of Istanbul’s Maiden’s Tower, writing heartbreak beyond romantic loss, creating a hopeful and humorous afterlife, and exploring identity, family wounds, religion, grief, and the memories that can make old pain feel suddenly new again.

💔 How do you survive grief when a broken heart can literally kill you?
🗼 What secrets connect Sare’s curse to Istanbul’s ancient Maiden’s Tower?
✨ And can she reclaim her life when the deepest wounds come from the people she trusted most?

This is a must-listen for urban-fantasy readers, lovers of mythology and magical Istanbul settings, anyone drawn to stories about complicated families, and readers seeking an emotional journey that honors grief while still making room for humor, hope, and healing.

🔥 IN THIS EPISODE, WE TALK ABOUT:
✨ Ova’s life in Cambridge, cycling, traveling, cooking, and searching for creative inspiration.
✨ Her ducks, chickens, allergic husband, and desire to give her son a life surrounded by animals.
✨ Creating a private garden library inside a former artist’s studio.
✨ Growing up in Turkey under intense pressure to perform academically, and entering computer science because she excelled at mathematics.
✨ Premature menopause, ovarian removal, and being told she could not have another child.
✨ Grieving the loss of a possibility even when she had not decided whether she wanted another baby.
✨ Feeling dehumanized by clinical conversations about fertility and reproductive health, and why reproductive loss deserves emotional support.
✨ Reclaiming identity after years of making choices for family, culture, and financial stability.
✨ How writing The Book of Heartbreak helped Ova survive a dark period.
✨ The structural similarities between editing fiction and debugging software.
✨ Ova’s advice to remain patient and never compare one publishing journey with another.
✨ Reimagining the Byzantine legend surrounding Istanbul’s Maiden’s Tower, and why the tower represents a piece of the city’s identity that history never erased.
✨ Exploring heartbreak as an enduring wound rather than a purely romantic experience.
✨ Creating a heroine who ultimately saves herself rather than relying on romance.
✨ Bureaucratic angels, an imaginative afterlife, and comparisons to Good Omens.
✨ Reimagining the afterlife as a hopeful space rather than one governed by shame and fear.
✨ Why old heartbreaks can return through memories, music, scents, and unexpected reminders.
✨ Choosing standalones so every book can explore a completely different world.
✨ Ova’s next Ottoman-inspired dark fantasy about a magical library and dangerous books.
✨ How religion, women’s autonomy, history, and identity continue to shape her fiction.

CONNECT WITH US

🎙️ The Mythic Mic Podcast – @MythicMic
👤 Bethany Amanda – @BethanyinFantasyland
👤 Sara Santillan – @the_magical_quill
📚 Ova Ceren – @ExcuseMyReading

✨ If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review. It helps more fantasy readers and aspiring authors find their way to The Mythic Mic.

🎙️ Welcome back to The Mythic Mic Podcast, where gods wage impossible wars, monsters aren't always who they seem, and fantasy asks what happens when everything you've been taught is a lie.

This week, hosts Bethany Amanda and Sara Santillan sit down with bestselling fantasy author Adalyn Grace to celebrate her stunning adult fantasy debut, The Wretched Divine.

Adalyn shares her incredible publishing journey, from writing wolf role plays on Neopets and working on The Legend of Korra at Nickelodeon to becoming the bestselling author behind Belladonna. We also dive into the realities of modern publishing, balancing creativity with the business of being an author, social media burnout, AI's growing impact on artists, and why writing what you genuinely love matters more than chasing trends.

Then we explore The Wretched Divine, an epic fantasy where a mortal knight becomes bound to both an angel and a demon in the middle of an ancient war. With an expansive magic system, unforgettable characters, anime-inspired action, and questions about morality, faith, and inherited beliefs, this is a fantasy that delivers both breathtaking spectacle and emotional depth.

⚔️ What if heaven wasn't as righteous as you believed?
😈 Can demons truly be monsters if the angels are just as dangerous?
🪽 And what happens when saving the world means binding your soul to both?

If you love epic fantasy, angels and demons, sprawling magic systems, anime-inspired storytelling, unforgettable twists, and fantasy that leads with worldbuilding while delivering incredible romance, this is an episode you won't want to miss.

🔥 IN THIS EPISODE, WE TALK ABOUT:

✨ Adalyn's journey from Neopets role plays and The Legend of Korra to becoming a bestselling fantasy author.
✨ How Pitch Wars shaped her career and helped transform her writing before landing her first publishing deal.
✨ Writing All the Stars and Teeth in just three weeks while recovering from a serious accident.
✨ Why The Wretched Divine became the most difficult, and ultimately most rewarding, book she's ever written.
✨ The anime inspirations behind the novel.
✨ Building a massive angel-and-demon magic system where humans gain extraordinary powers by binding their souls to celestial beings.
✨ Why Adalyn intentionally wrote an epic fantasy that bridges romantasy readers into larger, more expansive fantasy worlds.
✨ The themes of morality, inherited beliefs, religion, and questioning who truly deserves to be called a monster.
✨ Her thoughts on romantasy, fantasy romance, YA versus adult publishing, and where she believes fantasy publishing is headed next.
✨ AI, social media, fan expectations, and the growing pressures facing today's authors.
✨ The shocking ending of The Wretched Divine and why readers won't stop talking about the final chapters.

CONNECT WITH US

🎙️ The Mythic Mic Podcast – @MythicMic
👤 Bethany Amanda – @BethanyinFantasyland
👤 Sara Santillan – @the_magical_quill
📚 Adalyn Grace – @AuthorAdalynGrace

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