I had the pleasure of interview Violet Lumani, an author whose debut YA fantasy book, FORETOLD, released in July! I was particularly interested in learning more about this book because its main character is grappling with various mental health issues, and this is an area about which I am very passionate.
So, let’s get onto the interview to find out more…
Hello, Violet!
First of all – tell us a little bit about yourself.
I am a first generation American, a wife, a mom to the two best littles on the planet, a marketer, and an author. I live in Connecticut with my family and our two chihuahuas, Kiwi and Coconut (who spend most of their time fighting – the dogs, not the family). I’m also an avid reader of pretty much every genre under the sun.
Your debut YA fantasy book, FORETOLD, released in July 2021. Can you give us a brief outline of the story?
I like to call it a story about OCD, anxiety, and grief, wrapped up in a fantasy candy-coating, but at its core FORETOLD is a story about the agony of always stressing over the future.
Cassandra, my main character, sees death and destruction all around her. In vivid detail.
It’s the price of living with her OCD and extreme anxiety: in every single situation, Cass imagines the worst possible fate for herself and everyone else in her life. Her dad in a pool of blood after a break-in. Her beloved older neighbour, homeless. A splinter in her own finger turned gangrene.
But this time, it’s not her imagination. The boy next door, Colin, is destined to die. Cass has foretold real death before; she knows it’s a true vision.
Desperate to save Colin’s life, Cass immerses herself in a secret organization of soothsayers that promises to teach her how to change the future she foresees. But as she descends into their hidden world of divinatory magic and predictive technology, she discovers there’s always a price to pay for unravelling fate’s strands. And she has to decide just how high a price she’s willing to pay.
Your book’s protagonist, Cassandra, has OCD and extreme anxiety. What was the inspiration behind this?
Cassandra is absolutely a fictional character, but elements of her OCD and anxiety were inspired by my own struggles with both. I had to tweak things enough to make it feel okay to put out in the world though, otherwise it would have felt too personal to share.
Funny enough, despite giving myself that distance I still bawled my eyes out after assuring my agent and publisher that I was comfortable saying the books were inspired by my OCD. I am very high functioning to the outside eye, so to step up and announce this facet of my life to strangers – something I’d wrestled with in the shadows… it hit me right in my social anxiety, and then OCD took over to make sure I freaked out over it for ages
There are a lot of misconceptions around both OCD and anxiety within mainstream media. Were there any parts of these mental health issues that you felt you really wanted to portray within Cassandra?
We’ve all heard someone say “I’m so OCD,” to mean they prefer things neat or organized. There’s a bully in someone’s head, kicking them around, making them doubt themselves to their very core, shoving their face into terrible thoughts and holding their head there – and you like to keep your desk tidy. Not the same.
So I wanted to viscerally show what the drumbeat of OCD thoughts can be like, how exhausting anxiety is, how it can ebb and flow depending on whatever else is going on in your life at the moment.
It’s my hope those who read FORETOLD will either see themselves in the story or walk away with a better understanding of OCD (at least the version I’ve presented, since OCD can manifest in a variety of ways that are as varied as the individuals who have it).
Was it important to you to explore such mental health aspects within your story?
It was. And it was especially important to me to show a character grappling with her mental health who just so happens to also be embarking on an adventure. It’s not an adventure borne of her mental health. She doesn’t have super powers because of her OCD. If anything, OCD is a problem on steroids for scryers. I wanted to show a character that could go off into this fantastical realm and encounter fantastical things, and she’s just dealing with her mental health along the way. The same way those of us who suffer from OCD or anxiety live our everyday lives. We’re not defined by our maladies.
What are your thoughts on the portrayal of mental health within the YA fantasy genre as a whole? Have you read any books that you’ve found inspiring in this respect?
I was obsessed with Suzanne Collins’ depiction of Katniss’s mental state in her Hunger Games trilogy — the trauma, PTSD, her depression throughout. I also liked Leigh Bardugo’s Six of Crows and thought she did a great job conveying the impact of abuse and PTSD. I hope to see more mental health rep in YA fantasy, and in a way that doesn’t vilify or cause harm.
What’s your favourite thing about writing in the fantasy genre?
I lose myself in reading, in movies, in the narratives of shows. It’s always felt a bit like magic that someone can put down a story and pull people into that world. I wanted to do that too.
And least favourite?
It’s fun building a fantasy world, but it’s also a lot of work. You can probably describe an apartment in a handful of words because everyone’s seen one at some point. But to describe a shape-shifting labyrinth that reflects and manifests your thoughts back toward you… that’s a touch harder.
What’s your favourite book from childhood? Has it influenced you as a writer?
My favourite book from childhood is probably Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie. It’s magical and hits differently when you read it as a child and when you read it as an adult. I have about five or six copies of the book floating around somewhere between my house and the one I grew up in.
Where can we learn more about you as a writer—and where can we order your book?
You can find some of both on my website (which was incidentally designed by the fabulously talented author Hafsah Faizul – she has a company called Icey Designs).
Thank you for your time Violet! I can’t wait to read your book.
For any fellow authors who would also like to be interviewed, get in touch with me via Twitter.
Lucy A. McLaren 