The Burning Tree: Author Interview, Tour, and Giveaway with Celebrate Lit

About the Book

Book: The Burning Tree

Author: Helen Dent

Genre: YA Fantasy

Release Date: September 10, 2024

There’s a secret growing in the woods.

In Ellie Caster’s town of Bishop’s Gap, the Casters and the powerful Levy family have been feuding for generations. The families share just one thing in common—they both dread the mark, a scorch that appears at random on their doors, bringing a curse from the Burning Tree. When the mark hits Ellie’s door, her sister Jean falls into a coma. Ellie knows the Burning Tree is to blame, and desperate to save her sister, she braves the forbidden woods to confront it. But this choice ignites a chain of unintended consequences, forcing her to work with her nemesis, Charlotte Levy.

Together, they must complete an impossible task, uncover the ancient secret of Bishop’s Gap, and end the curse before time runs out for their entire town.

Click here to get your copy!

Author Interview:

What makes your main characters tick?

In The Burning Tree, my main characters are driven by a feud, fueled by loyalty to their families. Under the feuding, though, they have a deeper motivation, if they’re brave enough to find it. 

What famous author do you wish could be your mentor?

This is a terrific question — it’s like picking your ideal dinner party, only better! It’s also really difficult to narrow the choices down, so I’m going to pick two, if that’s okay: an author from the past and one from the present. 

From the past, I’d choose Dorothy Sayers, the author of the Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries. In these books, she delves deeply into character and theme while keeping the plot of the mystery going, and I’d love for her to teach me how she did that! 

For the present-day mentor, I’d choose Leif Enger, author of Peace Like a River. He describes scenes and characters and feelings with voice and precision, all of which I’d like to learn from him. 

When did you write your first book? Is that first one published?

I wrote my first book in 2016 — or at least, that was the first book I intended for publication. It was not published, however . . . and neither was the second, or the third! That was disappointing at the time, of course, but now I wouldn’t trade that process for an easier one. Those first books were learning experiences. I tried different genres, experimented with different methods of storytelling, and along the way, I found my voice.  

What has influenced you the most as a writer?

I debated the answer to this question because there have been many transformative influences on my writing — the books I’ve read (and re-read), the writers groups I’ve attended, the encouragement of family and teachers. I could write pages on each one of these. But I think the greatest influence was actually a podcast. Several years ago, I ran across a series of talks by poet Malcolm Guite about the Inklings (the group that included C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien). In those talks, Guite discusses how faith and imagination intersect, and how valuable the imagination is in shaping how we view the world. That’s why stories — and other creative work — are so powerful. They’re filling our imaginations up with the good, the true, and the beautiful . . . or otherwise. So, there’s no such thing as “just” a story, and writing is important work. 

Now, when I’m struggling with a scene, or having to rewrite a character arc for the umpteenth time, or working through critiques, I return to that original purpose . . . and type on! 

Do you write in one genre or several? 

I write in several genres, usually low fantasy (where there’s magic but it occurs in our world), or magical realism. Some of my stories, though, don’t contain magical or fantastical elements, but they still have a fairytale-like feeling. 

About the Author

Helen Dent’s career as a writer began at age nine, when her grandfather paid her a dollar a page for what turned into quite a lengthy story. She studied monster theory (among other things) in graduate school, taught English at a Chinese university, and toured the Scottish Hebrides in a car with a needy radiator. Now she lives in Texas with her husband, kids, a cat, and a hamster. She belongs to the DFW Writers Workshop, the Fort Worth Poetry Society, and Art House Dallas.

More from Helen

“‘Oh, Trees, Trees, Trees,’ said Lucy (though she had not been intending to speak at all). ‘Oh, Trees, wake, wake, wake.’

 . . . 

Though there was not a breath of wind they all stirred about her. The rustling noise of the leaves was almost like words.” – C.S. Lewis, Prince Caspian

This scene of the enchanted trees in C.S. Lewis’s Narnia sparked my imagination the very first time I read it. As a child, like Lucy, I could picture how the trees in my own backyard might look as wood-people, what they might say if they spoke. Even now, when I walk through woods, they still hold an enchanted quality for me. I want to follow all the footpaths . . . to a meadow, maybe, rich in wildflowers . . . or a haunt of bats . . . or an ancient, lightning-struck tree.

There’s a particular wood near my house that I walked week by week during a difficult season in my life. Flowers bloomed, birds nested. The light changed. Leaves fell, then budded again. It was a comfort to wander under the sheltering trees – and that comfort wasn’t just the peace of being out in nature.

Each rustle of the trees carried an echo of a much greater story.

It’s always struck me as particularly beautiful that there are individual trees at the beginning and end of the Bible: the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in Genesis, and then the tree of life again in Revelation, this time described as having “twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations” (Revelation 22: 2b ESV).

So every walk in the woods reminds me that brokenness isn’t the end of the story. Death isn’t the end of the story.

It’s probably no surprise, then, that I set my book, The Burning Tree, in an enchanted forest. where the trees have been twisted into something destructive, but where there’s always the possibility of a different outcome . . . just waiting to be unlocked.

Blog Stops

Inspired by Fiction, September 14

Library Lady’s Kid Lit, September 15 (Author Interview)

Texas Book-aholic, September 15

Stories By Gina, September 16 (Author Interview)

Jodie Wolfe – Stories Where Hope and Quirky Meet, September 17 (Author Interview)

Locks, Hooks and Books, September 18

Guild Master, September 19 (Author Interview)

A Reader’s Brain, September 20 (Author Interview)

Back Porch Reads, September 21 (Author Interview)

Truth and Grace Homeschool Academy, September 22

A Modern Day Fairy Tale, September 23 (Author Interview)

Fiction Book Lover, September 24 (Author Interview)

Tell Tale Book Reviews, September 25 (Author Interview)

Becca Hope: Book Obsessed, September 25

Happily Managing a Household of Boys, September 26

Through the Fire Blogs, September 27 (Author Interview)

Giveaway

To celebrate her tour, Helen is giving away the grand prize package of a $50 Amazon gift card and a signed copy of the book!!

Be sure to comment on the blog stops for extra entries into the giveaway! Click the link below to enter.

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/00adcf5442