Interview With Author Nina Corvell
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’ve been writing fiction for years, longer than I care to admit but The Keeper of Brackenwick is my first published novel. I write cozy fantasy about people in the middle of their lives trying to figure out what they’re for. Healers, mages past their prime, villages with opinions. I’m working on Book 2 of the Brackenwick Chronicles now
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
The Keeper of Brackenwick. It started with a question I kept asking, what happens to the person who spent thirty years being useful in a way that cost them everything? Maren is a retired battle-mage at fifty-two who just wants to disappear into a quiet village. The marsh has other plans. The healing magic came naturally from there — if you’ve spent decades destroying things, learning to tend them instead feels like the right second act.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I write the ending before I know the middle. It sounds backwards but it means I always know where I’m going, even when the road gets strange.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Becky Chambers taught me that a story doesn’t need a world-ending threat to matter. T. Kingfisher showed me how to make quiet places feel genuinely alive. Susanna Clarke proved that magic can be ancient and strange and still deeply domestic. Those three live permanently on my desk.
What are you working on now?
Book 2 of the Brackenwick Chronicles. The marsh has more to say.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
Honestly — getting the book in front of readers who already love the genre. Cozy fantasy readers are generous with recommendations when a book earns it.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Finish the book. Everything else, covers, marketing, platforms – can be learned. An unfinished manuscript teaches you nothing.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
Write the book only you could write. There’s no shortage of competent fiction. There’s always a shortage of specific, strange, personal fiction.
What are you reading now?
I rotate between whatever cozy fantasy just released and something completely outside my genre to keep my instincts honest.
What’s next for you as a writer?
The Brackenwick Chronicles is the priority. Maren’s story isn’t finished — the marsh made sure of that.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke. A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers. Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree. And something long I’ve been meaning to reread — probably Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell.
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