Photo courtesy of Lucas Peterson

Novelizing the free-spirited and excited energy of a high-seas adventure is a tall order on its own. That challenge is exacerbated when a writer wants to have a wickedly ambitious fallen noblewoman serve as the main character who is entangled in a romantic web with the elusive pirate Valerian Kane. But for Victoria Aveyard, #1 New York Times Bestselling author of “Red Queen” and “Realm Breaker,” writing her new debut adult fantasy “Tempest” was as easy as letting loose a story that had long been brewing in the back of her mind.

“I’ve always been looking for a book that scratches the itch of ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ that really hits on what made that story so exciting, so universal, and so popular,” Aveyard said. “If I can’t find someone else to scratch the itch, I’m just gonna have to do it myself!”

On Wednesday, Sept. 16, Aveyard spoke at the Clark Family Branch of the St. Louis County Public Library with “The School for Good and Evil” author Soman Chainani to give insight into “Tempest,” her worldbuilding process, and the mental image of pirates we all share.

“Pirates wouldn’t leave me alone, and it was almost like I would have to stop my brain from ideating the story,” Aveyard said. “And then finally, I said, ‘Okay, let’s just give it an hour.’”

One walk and one listen to the iconic “Pirates of the Caribbean” soundtrack later, Aveyard had a clear vision for the entire story of “Tempest,” its opening scene, and her main character. The novel follows Catrine “Cat” Rose, a lady of the fantastical Meridian Empire who moves to the islands of the Lyrian Sea. The book switches between two timelines: “before,” when Cat is a restless noblewoman, desperate to explore the sea and become independent, and “after” a mysterious event, when Cat has become an experienced pirate and walks through a city strewn with the corpses of those she betrayed. Or, as Aveyard put it, “she’s essentially surrounded by her ghosts and her guilt.”

When asked about what is so alluring about pirates, Aveyard emphasized the powerful feeling of independence she seeks to capture in “Tempest.”

“It is the freedom. It is the swashbuckling. It is the bring me that horizon [mentality]. It’s the possibility of being bound to nothing and no one except for yourself, and following your own compass.”

Despite being set in an alternate world, “Tempest” is a low fantasy, or more realistic story. Aveyard’s novel contains relatively few magical elements while including traces of historical realism with warring empires and indigenous groups.

Aveyard emphasized how her novel explores “the cost of this imperial mindset, this colonialist mindset, and what it has done to the sea and the people in it.”

That pursuit of realism in a fantastical setting appears not only in the world itself, but also the principal pirate storylines.

“If I were to ask all of you to picture a pirate in your head right now, there would be so much overlap, which is very rare, because everybody has these sort of touchstones and these ideas of piracy. The great challenge in this book was figuring out how many of those things I wanted, those expectations I wanted to honor, and how many I wanted to subvert,” Aveyard said. 

A complex and fully-realized world is a constant throughline for Aveyard. Her work is characterized by richly-designed fantasy settings filled with life, whether they be the superpowers and futurism of “Red Queen,” or the high seas of “Tempest.”

“That is the core of why I write fantasy. I love building worlds,” Aveyard said.

She jokingly explained that each fantasy setting from “the ocean up” shapes more than just the names of various islands and towns, but also language, politics, and trade. For “Tempest,” Aveyard created two maps — an official one used by the Meridian navy, and an unofficial one relied upon by the pirates of the Lyrian Sea. Aveyard actually commissioned full-size paintings of those maps, the results of which are printed on the inside covers of the print edition.

As an adult novel, “Tempest” serves as a crossover from the young adult audience she wrote for with “Red Queen” and “Realmbreaker.”

“I was frustrated with knowing I was missing adult readers,” Aveyard said. “I have had a very, very rare privilege of writing books that have grown up with me, but have also grown up with [my readers].”

On her podcast, Plot Twist, Aveyard emphasized that she means an adult book in the sense of the maturity of the characters, not the amount of explicit content on the page: “It is an age category, not a genre.” For her, “Tempest” being an adult novel manifests in a different vocabulary, world, and kinds of characters than are found in young adult books.

Aveyard’s novel is not self-contained, but is actually the first part in the upcoming “Lyrian Sea” duology. Before she knew that it would be two books, Aveyard submitted a monstrous 300,000- word draft that proved infeasible both for storytelling and production purposes.

“I set out to write a standalone. I failed miserably, crashed and burned, and it’s now a duology,” Aveyard said.

Despite initially submitting a thousand-page manuscript, Aveyard’s editorial team asked for more time with the scenes, characters, and world she had created to allow her richly-crafted story to breathe. Aveyard agreed and announced that “Tempest” would be split into two books.  During the event, Aveyard teased that the sequel, “Tyrant,” releasing next year, will feature a red cover in contrast to the vibrant blue of the first novel.

But for now, Aveyard’s eyes are set on the endless horizon of the Lyrian Sea in “Tempest,” and she hopes that her readers will discover just a bit of the seafaring wonder with which she wrote.

“Tempest” is now available for purchase.