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Katie O'Connor: Hi, listeners. I'm Audible Editor Katie O'Connor, and today I'm so excited to be speaking with bestselling author Lauren Roberts about . Welcome, Lauren.
Lauren Roberts: Hello. Thank you for having me. I'm so excited to be here and chat.
KO: Congratulations on the launch of , the final book in the series. What are your emotions right now as this last book in the trilogy is going out into the world?
LR: I am a little bit terrified, but in the most excited way. It's been so surreal to grow up with this series. It's something I started when I was 18, so it's crazy to get to wrap up the trilogy and hear all the thoughts and opinions, but a little terrifying at the same time.
KO: I mean, I think we as your listeners are maybe a little terrified, too, of where you're going to take us, but that's fine. A little background for the rest of our listeners: So, the Powerless Trilogy takes place in the kingdom of Ilya, where a plague has left some people with power, known as Elites, and some without, known as Ordinaries. Our heroine, Paedyn Gray, is an Ordinary, forced to live in the shadows and pretend to have minor psychic abilities to survive. When she winds up saving Kai Azer, one of Ilya's princes, she gains notoriety and is forced into the Purging Trials, a competition showcasing the powers of the Elites. The series and all of its delicious tension and drama and romance unfolds from there. What was your originating idea for this series?
LR: Yeah, first of all, that was an incredible pitch. That was probably better than anything I could have come up with. I'm so horrible at pitching my own book. But, yeah, it actually started with a single shower thought, where all good ideas come from. The initial thought was just, “What if I flipped the ‘chosen’ trope?” I had read so many incredible books about these female characters who found their power and saved the kingdom, and I thought, “What if I switched that up a little bit and had everyone around her have powers, and Paedyn be the only one without?”
It's nothing profound, it's been done before, but that was kind of the initial spark. And then from there I just started building the characters and tried to understand them before I ever put them in the world. I had this super supportive team of people on the internet around me that were kind of helping everything happen. So, it was just a blast, honestly, in my childhood bedroom.
KO: I love that. And where so many good ideas start, right? Amongst the books that inspired you, what were some of those early influences, would you say?
LR: Growing up, I was obsessed with Peter Pan. I don't know where this love for him came from, but I read and reread Peter and the Starcatchers, and I was obsessed with the multiple different points of view and how everything tied together. That was one of the first books I ever remember being a diehard fan of. But aside from that, I had been in the romantasy book space for a couple of years. It's what got me back into reading, truly, was finding this balance between fantasy but also I love a little tension. That was what kind of hooked me. So, Hunger Games, and the Red Queendid the powers, and I just loved that style and the idea of playing around with almost a dystopian fantasy world. I would say there are so, so many books and so many authors that I could look back on and be like, “They so inspired me,” and they're all still on my bookshelves, and I love it.
KO: On your bookshelves, and now your peers too.
LR: Yes. Which is so insane.
KO: So, Book 1 ends very dramatically. I will not spoil it here. And Book 2, Reckless, sees Paedyn on the run and fighting for survival outside of Ilya. At the end of the book, we see her returned to Ilya and caught up in a dangerous triangle with the Azer brothers—Kitt, now the king, and Kai, now the enforcer of Ilya. Book 3 begins in a very unexpected place, based on where we started the series. It has Paedyn preparing to ascend the throne as Kitt's queen. Did you always know where the series was going when you started it?
LR: I knew from the very start that I wanted it to be a trilogy. Powerful was tacked on as a novella, which was so fun for me, but I always knew it needed these three books. And Reckless, Book 2, was pretty thought-out in my mind. I knew what needed to happen. I knew Paedyn and Kai needed to have their time to rebuild the damage that was done, basically.
"I owe everything to social media, simply put."
Book 3 was more of like this daunting, vague idea where, again, I knew the ending, so the ending has not changed, I knew exactly how I wanted the series to conclude, but it was a lot of what-ifs in between getting to that point. I kind of left it up to older Lauren to figure out. I was 18, I was like, "Ah, I'll figure that out in a couple of years." And I did, thankfully. Sometimes I'm like, "Ugh, 18-year-old me, I could've helped myself a little bit more." But it all fell into place, and the conclusion is exactly what I envisioned it being, which I love. I'm very proud of this book. And now I have this incredible team behind me to help kind of fit all the pieces together. So, in short, I did know to an extent what was happening from the beginning.
KO: Right, the ending, but maybe not necessarily the entire journey of how you were getting through it.
LR: Exactly.
KO: One of my favorite parts of this series is the multiple points of view that we get in the trilogy. Fearless delivers a very unexpected point of view, that of Edric Azer, a.k.a. Kitt and Kai's father, a.k.a. the former King of Ilya. When did you decide to add his voice to the mix?
LR: That's a great question. I rewrote a lot of parts of this book just so that I could see it on the page and rework it and it would help me kind of envision things better. I had written the first draft and I was struggling with some pieces of it. I was talking to my editors and we kind of collectively came up with this idea to add Edric in, because he has a lot of information that we needed to get on page. Obviously, he has a horrible ending in Book 1, and so he's not around to tell his side of the story. I really wanted to do this almost zoomed-out third-person perspective of him when he was younger, all the way until what we see in Book 1. It was so fun for me. Actually, it was the first time I've ever gotten to play around with third person in a book, and it was such a blast.
I loved being inside his head. He's such an interesting, twisted character in a way. It was really important that his side of the story was told at the right moments without letting the reader know everything at once. So that was actually something that came along, I believe, in the second draft, where I was like, “I think we really, really need him to tell the story rather than the characters kind of info dumping everything.” So, it fit really, really well with what we wanted to do.
KO: That's really interesting because that was going to be my follow-up question to this, was how did it work with your writing process? I was curious if it was a linear action, that he just sort of flowed through with you as you were going through the scenes, but it sounds like these were more in this second-draft moment, opportunities to insert him where it helped bring the story together.
LR: Yes. I am a very linear writer. I struggle to go out of order. I hear authors always, they give great advice about if you're stuck on a scene, just jump ahead to something you look forward to and write that. And every time I try, it's like I'm stuck. I can't do it. So when it came to the Edric chapters, I wrote them all at once, actually, during that second draft, and I just compiled them all in a document, and then we went and fit them in between chapters that we felt flowed well and where the reader needed to learn this new information within the story. It was fun to fit it all into place, like a little puzzle.
KO: That's an interesting insight there to that process. I'm sure, too, getting to switch to that third person definitely almost helped in a refreshing kind of way to be able to remove yourself a little bit more from the character, from the experience, and look at the story holistically in that sense.
LR: Absolutely. I love third person because I love the literary fiction style of writing. It's like the stream of consciousness, just witty, and the way the sentences are formulated is different. I love that style, but in fantasy, when you're inside of a character's head, it's hard to spew poetry and make these beautiful sentences and things like that. Kai is kind of my outlet for that. I let him spew a little bit of poetry sometimes, but it was great to be in third person because I felt like I got to write how I would write rather than how a character would write. So that was really, really fun for me. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
KO: Another voice on Book 3 is yours. You read the prologue for the audiobook. Can you tell me what that experience was like?
LR: Oh, it was, I'm not kidding when I say, one of the coolest things I've ever done. Genuinely, I was geeking out the whole time. I was so, so nervous. I have a lot of drama roots, all in high school. You can probably tell a little bit, but in high school I loved drama and I loved acting. And so getting to step into a studio and read the words that I had written in the tone that I wanted them to be said was so surreal. It was just magic. I was so nervous, but everyone in the studio was so kind. I kind of just settled into my theater roots and was like, "I'm going to perform this." It was so fun. I would do it again, 100 percent.
"There are so many girls out there who have felt powerless in multiple different ways, in a spectrum of ways. I really wanted this book to be for them and for them to hopefully feel seen in Paedyn, and know that they are powerful."
KO: I have to tell you, I'm not blowing smoke, you were very good. I thought for a second that I had gotten too early of a version or something and I was like, "Oh, I guess it's not Lauren, it's Cecily." And then I was like, "No, wait a minute, that was Lauren."
LR: That is the biggest compliment. Oh, my God, that is such a huge compliment. Thank you.
KO: Take it. Honestly, if writing doesn't work out... [laughs]
LR: There was a producer on the call and she was so kind, and she also gave me some great tips. At the end, she was like, "You know, you should think about doing this. This is pretty good." I was like, "Really?" It was amazing. It was so, so fun. It felt like I got to play a character as well, even though it wasn't a character speaking. It was really cool to kind of sink into those drama roots, like I said. It was amazing.
KO: Speaking of Cecily, that's a good segue for me there. You have been blessed with an amazing cast for your audiobook.
LR: Amazing.
KO: Cecily Bednar Schmidt as Paedyn, Chase Brown as Kai, and Jared Zeus as Kitt. Cecily and Chase, in particular for me, just so captured my heart as Paedyn and Kai. Did their performances impact at all how you see your own characters?
LR: Absolutely. I remember the first time I ever heard their voices, because I had a few options to pick from. I was very lucky to get to kind of pick out the voices that I wanted to have. I remember I heard Cecily for the first time, and it wasn't even a question. I was like, "That is Paedyn. Absolutely." She just nailed it. Like, it was gorgeous. I knew immediately I wanted her as Paedyn. And I heard Chase, and I knew that he had that ability to be kind of this cocky, arrogant—
KO: Moody [laughs].
LR: Yes. I knew he could encapsulate that, and he absolutely has. I mean, the girlies are obsessed with him. I've actually had the pleasure of meeting him in person and he is lovely, just such a fun person. He whipped out the Kai voice as we were eating food and it was crazy to hear him say like, "Darling," right in front of me. It was insane. But they're both just so incredible.
I think when I hear the audiobook, because I'll go back and listen to it because it doesn't feel like my words when they're speaking them. It feels like I can really immerse myself in the story and not think about what I've written. They definitely shape the character so much. It helps me when I'm writing future books to think about their voice and think about them saying these lines. It's just amazing. I feel very lucky to work with such talented people, truly.
KO: That's amazing. Yes, they really do a wonderful job with this series. So, going back to Fearless for a second, by the end of Book 3 you have taken us all over Ilya. Paedyn survived the Scorches in Reckless, and in Book 3, minor spoiler, she will face the Shallows where, rumor has it, some sea creatures have also seen the benefit of powers from the plague. If you were an Ordinary facing the desert or the sea, where do you think you would be more likely to survive?
LR: Oh, wow. I get horrible motion sickness, so I think the sea for me is just not even an option. I don't think I could survive the gentle part of the Shallows because I would just be unwell the whole time. At the same time, I mean, the Scorches are brutal. So I feel like I'd pick the Scorches just because at least I'm on solid ground. But the Shallows might be more enticing to someone who isn't prone to being ill on moving objects.
KO: Fair, I feel like that's a fair answer. So, when you first launched this series, it really took off with you reading snippets of it on TikTok. Obviously, social media has been such a huge part of your journey, but talk to me about what you think about the growing role of social media as part of an author's, quote, "job."
LR: Yeah, it's so interesting because I think even a decade ago the publishing world looked very different. It was a little harder to get your foot in the door. It was very traditional. You query for an agent, you get a publishing house, and your career hopefully takes off from there. And now social media has opened the door to so many incredible authors who haven't been able to get in with a publishing house in the more traditional sense. I think now it is just such a huge part of publishing in general. Even the publishing houses are on social media and they're promoting the books that they publish.
It's really beautiful to see everybody come together. I love being able to watch authors grow from social media in a way that maybe they might not have been able to without social media. There's so much talent out there that sometimes it's hard to get in at the right time, but with this, it's like everybody's on an equal playing field and you can share your work to anybody in the world, basically, with social media.
I think it's so interesting now that it is kind of part of an author's job. You really do have to promote yourself and kind of grow a community around you. But I don't find it to be work. I owe everything to social media, simply put. I always want to engage with the people who have supported me and stood by me through the years of writing and just me yapping on the internet. I love just getting to hang out with them. I think it's also really beautiful to have an outlet where you can literally ask your readers what they want to see from you, and they are right there in front of you and they can tell you what they want. I think that's beautiful to have that relationship with those supporting you.
KO: Has that back-and-forth, that conversation that you have with your listeners and your followers on social media, has that impacted any of the storylines within the trilogy?
LR: I really try to stay true to what I intended the story to be. There's a lot of noise on social media of what people want and what they don't want. I hear it all, I see it all. But I really have tried to stay true to, at the end of the day, this is what 18-year-old me started, so I'm going to finish it the way that she wanted to finish it. But I definitely see if someone, or a group of someones, are really pushing for a certain trope, like, "We would love to see this trope, more like a scene like this, between two characters." If it's something that doesn't alter the course of the trilogy or the plot, then I'll throw it in there. I'm like, "That's for you guys. You want to see this trope? Absolutely, I'll put it in." Because I love tropes just as much as the next. I do enjoy picking up those smaller things that aren't going to change the plot and throwing it in. That's kind of how I give back.
"I think I'm going to stay in the romantasy space for a little longer. I love it here."
KO: I love that, an author who really is giving it to the fans. That's beautiful. I actually first heard about this series through my colleagues in the UK. They were the ones that were like obsessive, getting me hooked, et cetera. You definitely have a massive global reach with this series. What's it been like to interact with fans all over the globe and sort of outside of your home bubble?
LR: I keep coming back to the word surreal because it really is. It is so insane. Before any of this book stuff took off, I live in Michigan and I had never left the Midwest. I think I had been on a plane once. And so getting the privilege of traveling all over to meet readers on the other side of the world is so insane, to think that they're reading the words that I had written in Detroit, Michigan. It is so beautiful, the spread that literature has, and the reach.It's been just insane to see the different thoughts and conclusions that different readers have drawn from all over the world. It's interesting, each fan is different from every place. I love getting to meet them and seeing all the different editions with opening up a book and seeing a different language, because I know how many people were behind that and how many translators, and that's a whole team of people just to create that book for a different group of people to read it. It's just been so insane and I just feel very, very honored.
KO: The moment that you hooked me with this series came shockingly early. It was actually your dedication for Book 1, which reads, "For every girl who has ever felt powerless." I feel like there's a story there. What inspired that dedication?
LR: Yeah, I think obviously as I was writing Powerless, the title kind of wrote itself. It made sense that the title would be Powerless. Once I finished the book, my favorite thing about it was that powerless is innately a negative word, most of the time. I loved that this book, in a way, almost took it back. She is powerless in the sense that she doesn't have a physical ability, but it is very obvious that she is not powerless within herself and her own strength. And so even though it's kind of negative, it's not at all by the time you finish it. When I was looking to write the dedication, again, it kind of just wrote itself. Because I know that there are so many girls out there who have felt powerless in multiple different ways, in a spectrum of ways. I really wanted this book to be for them and for them to hopefully feel seen in Paedyn, and know that they are powerful.
Even in the book Powerful, the novella, I talk about the girls with softer dreams, their purpose being just as powerful. With Paedyn, I wanted to showcase a physically strong and emotionally strong girl. But in Powerful, Adena, her best friend, is softer and sweeter, and just because she's not picking up a sword doesn't mean she's any less powerful than Paedyn is. I wanted to showcase, again, a spectrum of personalities and of girls and how every single one of them is strong in their own way.
KO: That's beautiful. Yeah, we can all find our inner power there. I will say, I did appreciate the moment in Book 3—I don't want to give too much away—but when Paedyn walks back in after achieving something and Kai asks her how she felt and she says, "I felt powerful." I love that sort of full-circle moment there.
LR: Yes. I think this trilogy, each book, has shown Paedyn coming into herself even more. With every book she gets more powerful, truly. She grows stronger and she starts to realize like, "I don't need a power, I'm up here with the big dogs" type thing. She's like, "I'm here holding my own with all these Elites." So, she's just been very special to me to write.
KO: So, the trilogy is done. We got some rumblings of some fun TV news last fall. But what is next for you, what's on the horizon?
LR: So, there is another novella, and I'm allowed to say that.
KO: Ooh.
LR: There is another novella coming. I can't say who it's about or when it will arrive, but there should be more on that very soon. It is coming, it's coming, I promise. And then in the future, I think I'm going to stay in the romantasy space for a little longer. I love it here. It's so fun. At the end of the day, I just love romantasy, it's amazing. I'm going to stay there for a little while. I have some exciting things planned, which I can't talk about yet, but hopefully very soon. I have lots of thoughts swirling, there are a lot of things happening in my brain right now. So that's what's next for me, is some more romantasy things in the future.
KO: I love that. It's a great community and I know everyone is very happy that you're here.
LR: Thank you. I'm so glad.
KO: Well, thank you so much for your time today, and congratulations again on the launch of Fearless.
LR: Thank you very much. This was amazing.
KO: And listeners, you can get the Powerless Trilogy right now on Audible.
