5 questions with N.E. Davenport

We love any opportunity to get to know our favorite authors better. So a lightning round of questions sounds like a good place to start. Here, we ask five quick questions (with one wildcard) about books, genres, reading preferences, writing style, and their secret to success. 

We’re grateful that science fiction and fantasy author Nia “N.E.” Davenport was willing to take a moment to answer a few questions for us. Her latest book, The Blood Trials, is a thrilling read complete with action, danger, and revenge. Protagonist Ikenna Amari is a young Black woman determined to survive and avenge her grandfather’s murder. 

Davenport is a huge fan of the science fiction and fantasy genre and has a few insider recommendations for us below.

I’ve been devouring amazing stories since I was a kid, so I have a ton. All of them are in the science fiction/fantasy category because those have always been the stories I’ve gravitated to and enjoyed most. N.K. Jemisin’s The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, L.A. Banks’ Vampire Huntress Legend series, R.F. Kuang’s The Poppy War trilogy, Melissa Marr’s Wicked Lovely series, Tracy Deon’s Legendborn, and Ilona Andrews’ Kate Daniels books are among my all-time favorites.

Hands down, the answer is 1000% science fiction/fantasy. I enjoy all of the subcategories under that umbrella, too: urban fantasy, contemporary fantasy, epic fantasy, space opera, science fantasy, paranormal romance, etc. I read it all and have treasured characters and worlds across the wealth of stories told within the SFF genre.

Honestly, both. I’ve gotten into the habit of buying a book in ebook, audiobook, and hardcopy formats. I find it’s easier to immerse myself in a story and carve out the time to get through it in between work and family life. If I had my way, whenever I find a good book, I’d stalk into a cave, devour it, and not emerge to the land of the living until it’s read. I never have the time to actually do that a whole lot but owning a book in all three formats helps me achieve something delightfully similar.

It often varies depending on what the story needs and what my deadlines call for. But I usually try to carve out dedicated writing time every day and then safeguard it fiercely. Some days, that looks like only a couple of hours that I can steal to tune out the rest of the world and plunge into the joy of creating. Other days, it looks like 6+ hours. It all depends on what’s going on outside of writing. I don’t ascribe to the philosophy: You need to write every day, though. I think each creative has to do what works for them.

I think 85% of it might be due to sheer refusal over the years to not take no for an answer. When I was querying agents and then on submission to editors, I collected a fair share of rejections. But I’m stubborn to a fault. So, I kept writing things and working extremely hard at telling the best story that I could tell. It all resulted in The Blood Trials being bought by my amazing editors, David Pomerico at Harper Voyager US and Vicky Leech at Harper Voyager UK.