As we celebrate the release of Ignite the Sun this week, we are featuring a special interview with author Hanna C. Howard. Learn more about her new release below – and stay tuned for Part II coming later this week.

Get your copy of Ignite the Sun HERE.

Congratulations on the publication of your new book! What does it feel like to have Ignite the Sun in the world?

Thank you! It’s kind of surreal. Most of us debut writers have years of effort and failure under our belts by the time we get a book published, so to see something that has lived so long in our imaginations alone suddenly in other people’s hands is really hard to grasp. But also really cool. I’m so excited for my little sun book to find some readers who might draw hope or joy from it!

How would you describe Ignite the Sun to someone who is interested in reading it?

It’s a book about a girl who’s never seen the sun—but who finds out she has an elemental magic connection to it—and how she figures out who she is, learns to be brave and selfless, and saves her world from darkness.

What was your inspiration for Ignite the Sun?

Really a combination of things that added up to an idea. The first came while I was out walking my dog, and it was a sort of curiosity about what might happen if you could fly, but only in sunlight. The second was overhearing someone talking about what sounded like “The Darkness,” and wondering what that could be. And the third was my own experience with Seasonal Affective Disorder and anxiety during a winter I spent aching for the return of sunlight and warmth to my frozen, gray world.

What do you hope readers take away from this new release? 

I hope they’ll be entertained, I hope they’ll see themselves in one or more of the characters, I hope they’ll be transported to a new world they’d like to revisit, and I hope they’ll be reminded that there is always light behind the darkness, even when the darkness feels so oppressive you think you’ll never see the end of it.