Hello and welcome to this Track of Words author interview; today I’m absolutely delighted to be joined by author Frances White to talk about her debut novel Voyage of the Damned, which is out on the 18th January 2024 from Penguin Michael Joseph. I’m lucky enough to have read an advance copy of Voyage of the Damned, and I can confirm that it’s a joy to read – I loved everything about it! I’m really excited to talk about this book, so I couldn’t be happier to welcome Frances to the site to give us the lowdown and explore some of the characters, ideas and themes waiting within its pages. So read on, and I hope you enjoy this as much as I enjoyed the book!
Track of Words: To start things off, could you tell us a bit about Voyage of the Damned and what readers can expect from it?
Frances White: Voyage of the Damned is basically Agatha Christie with glitter magic.
It follows the twelve day voyage of the heirs of the twelve provinces of the empire of Concordia. This journey is supposed to be a celebration of a millennia of peace but, unfortunately for them, this peace is shattered by the murder of one of the heirs on the first night.
Our main character must play detective as the heirs are picked off one by one. And just to make things more complicated, everyone on board has a secret magical ‘Blessing’ which bestows on them a unique power.
I’ve been told it has cosy vibes, as far as multiple murders can be cosy. With a cast of quirky characters and a main character with zero filter.
If a ‘magical gay murder mystery cruise’ sounds like your sort of thing, then you may enjoy it!
ToW: Without spoiling anything, who are the main characters and what do readers need to know about them?
FW: The main character of the book is a chap called Ganymedes Piscero, but it’s easier to call him by his nickname, Dee.
Dee comes from the lowest regarded province, Fish, and has a dark secret of his own—he lacks the magical ‘Blessing’ he should possess, which places himself and his province in great risk.
Readers should know that Dee has a very dry, sarcastic sense of humour. He consistently does and says the thing even when it’s a very poor decision to do so. This can get him in a lot of sticky situations of his own making. He is also a queer, plus sized man with fabulous fashion sense!
ToW: What can you tell us about Concordia, the setting for this story?
FW: Concordia is an empire comprising of twelve provinces, all named after various animals. The provinces have individual rulers, but they are united under, and answer to, the dragon emperor. These individual rulers are all blessed with magic, which is passed down to their heirs at random. The heir who inherits the Blessing is deemed to become the next ruler. The twelve passengers on this ship are all the heirs who have inherited the Blessings (apart from Dee, but he’s a rather unique case.)
Concordia is a place that prizes peace and unity above anything else, and on the surface all are deemed equal and united. Dig a little deeper however, and not all is as peaceful and harmonious as it seems… (Did I mention the gigantic magical wall that seals off Concordia from whatever lays beyond the Empire? Strange, that.)
ToW: How did you settle on the twelve animals that represent Concordia’s twelve provinces? Did you develop those at the same time as coming up with the setting’s mythology, or did one come first and the other develop out of that?
FW: The animals were developed in tandem with the characters and worldbuilding. With so many characters to keep track of I wanted to give the readers multiple ways to remember who is who, whether that’s by their names, animals or their various hair colours (every province has a different hair colour!)
I tried to relate the animals in some way to the heirs and the provinces themselves. For example the Spider Province heir, Nergüi, is known for spinning devious webs, while the Tiger Province heir, Leofric, has a tendency to snarl orders and likes being in charge.
I had the animals in mind before the mythology, but I knew they would feature in it, so I wanted to avoid going too typical or obvious with my choices. For example, the province known for its libraries and learning could have easily been Owl Province, but I went with Tortoise instead, which gives the same ‘vibes’ but felt more memorable and suited their nervous, skittish heir better.
The incredible map of Concordia that features in the book, designed by Sally Taylor (click to expand)
ToW: I thought Ganymedes was a fantastic protagonist, and an absolute joy to read about. Why this character though? Where did he come from?
FW: Thanks so much! It fills me with so much joy to learn that people love Ganymedes!
Dee did originally feature in my plans for the novel, but he fulfilled the role of sidekick. It’s not unusual to have the wise-cracking, funny assistant to the more typical serious, deep thinking detective protagonist. But I just found the guy way more interesting and completely irresistible. Basically, Dee won me over and the second I put him centre stage the rest of the story fell into place around him.
I love choosing protagonists who appear, at least on the surface, ill-suited to the position they find themselves in. Dee is someone who wants to push all these other heirs away, but finds himself in a position where he’s locked in a confined space with them, AND has to find a way to save them, and ALSO he’s the only one without magic to help him do it.
A lot of Dee’s struggles are struggles I share, his lack of self-confidence, feeling that he doesn’t belong. Those parts of Dee weren’t things I was necessarily planning when I chose such a fun, outspoken main character, but gradually emerged as I was writing him. I realised then that this wasn’t just a murder mystery with a wise-cracking lead, but also the story of someone who believes he has no value, and his journey to finding it.
ToW: A big part of what I loved about Dee was the idea that he tells one big lie, but is otherwise remarkably honest about who he is, even if other characters don’t necessarily recognise that about him. Was that always part of the plan for him as a character, or something that developed over the course of the book?
FW: This naturally developed over the course of the book.
Dee is not a natural liar, and the one big lie he has to tell has traumatised him for the vast majority of his life. It is an incredibly heavy burden and has impacted basically every aspect of his life. Because of that I think that he is led by a desire to be overly truthful about everything else to make up for it. He’s a character who has suffered with a lack of control and autonomy for years, so I think he likes to take control of any other aspect he is able to.
ToW: I thought it was interesting how for all the benefits and advantages of being a Blessed, it’s actually very much a double-edged sword, with some considerable downsides. How important to the story would you say that turned out to be?
FW: Without dipping my toe into spoilers, I think it’s pretty important, even just on a character level, when you consider how these heirs act as a result of the burdens of being a Blessed.
I love exploring magic that isn’t all good or all bad, but instead comes with some heavy repercussions for the user, the sort of cost that will deeply impact a person’s life in a profound way. These repercussions are so heavy for the heirs that they are part of why Concordia has maintained its peace and unity for so long – the power of shared trauma, of all ‘being in it together’. The story confronts what happens when that shared trauma which united distinct and separate people is threatened, and the impact that could have on the wider peace of the empire.
ToW: Locked room mysteries are great, although I suppose this is technically a locked ship mystery! Are you a particular fan of the genre? Did you have any specific inspirations or influences you wanted to reference?
FW: Yes! I’ve always adored locked room mysteries, and plenty of them inspired me in some way when writing Voyage of the Damned.
Agatha Christie is the obvious one. She is the queen of the locked room mystery, and there are definitely aspects of And Then There Were None, Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile which can be found in Voyage – that sort of classic setting with a closed space and ticking clock as people are picked off one by one.
I also really loved The Decagon House Murders by Yukito Ayasuji which places seven university students in a secluded island and has a fantastic twist (and boy do I love twists…Voyage may have a couple of sneaky ones!)
And more recently, Gideon the Ninth was a big inspiration for combining a SFF setting with a murder mystery, along with a voicey protagonist with their own agenda.
Another big influence for me were games like Zero Escape, Until Dawn and especially Danganronpa, which features colourful, larger-than-life characters whose individual skills factor into the mystery.
ToW: There are a couple of fascinating blog posts on your website about your journey to writing this. Do you think you would ever have written this book if you hadn’t gone through that journey? And if so, how do you suppose it would have come out?
FW: I think it’s unlikely I would have written this book full stop without that (long!) journey. Voyage of the Damned was written after facing a lot of rejection, even for novels I wrote with ‘the industry’ in mind. Because of that long journey I was beginning to lose my passion for writing entirely, so Voyage of the Damned was written with the intent to capture that passion again. I tore down my walls and allowed myself to just focus on the things I enjoy writing, as weird and wacky as they were.
Basically, for once I ignored my inner voices telling me ‘No you cannot dress your main character in sequins the entire novel’ and just did what I wanted!
I think if I had tried to write a novel with the same premise before I took that journey the more extreme/unusual aspects would have been toned down as I would have been worried about them alienating people. It’s a fantasy murder mystery so I probably wouldn’t have had exploding glitter dragon butlers or characters with rainbow hair, and likely would have written something with a darker, more serious setting and tone.
My journey to publication was a tough one, but it did help me find a voice as a writer, so for that I am grateful.
ToW: From a writing craft perspective, is there anything in particular that you learned during the process of working on Voyage of the Damned?
FW: I’ve written books with mystery storylines before but never one that was a straight up murder mystery and it was a big learning process.
One of my biggest hurdles was giving just enough clues so the readers could work out the killer if they really thought hard about it, but also not to make it super obvious. I wanted the solution to be satisfying, but not immediately clear and that’s such a fine line to walk, especially when your cast is rapidly depleting.
I did some research as to what murder detectives look for when determining the perpetrator in criminal investigations – means, motive and opportunity. I plotted these three aspects into a spreadsheet with all the facts and plans about the murder plot I had, fitting them under the relevant headings. This helped me determine which of these three key aspects needed more attention in order for the overall mystery to feel satisfying and well-rounded. So, if I was lacking clues relating to opportunity, for example, I could go back through the book and add some more in.
Writing something so plot focussed was a new experience for me, and it very much felt like a process of going back to the book over and over again, adding and taking away and tweaking until it all fell into place (hopefully!).
Another fantastic Sally Taylor-designed map, this time of the ship on which the book is set! (Click to expand)
ToW: What do you hope readers will get out of this book, once they’ve finished it?
FW: I’m all for using literature as escapism, so if all readers get out of it is that it was an enjoyable escape for a few moments of their lives I will be completely content with that.
But the book also deals with some rather tough themes around Dee and his sense of self-worth. If any readers can resonate with that, or if they’re going through similar issues of their own, it would warm my heart if Dee and his story helped and made them feel less alone, even if just in a small way.
ToW: Are you planning more stories set in this world, or is this a standalone?
FW: I never like to say never to returning to Concordia, because who knows what the future holds! But at the moment the book is a standalone and the story told and finished. This is the first fantasy standalone I’ve ever written, and it really made me fall in love with standalones in general. As much as I love series, I don’t think every story needs to be one.
ToW: What can you tell us about what’s next for you, once Voyage of the Damned comes out?
FW: Screaming into the abyss? Or maybe I’ll stop screaming into the abyss?
Also, I’m writing a new book! It’s another standalone fantasy, which skews a bit more horror, but with an equally quirky protagonist.
I’m not sure how much I can say about it currently, but it involves a group of children solving impossible tasks in an eldritch labyrinth. I would call it a bit of an IT/Stranger Things mashup with some Pan’s Labyrinth thrown in there for good measure.
If Voyage of the Damned is my take on a fantasy murder mystery, then my next is my take on a fantasy escape room!
ToW: To finish off…if you lived in Concordia and could choose a province to live in, which would you choose and why?
FW: This is a tough one! Some of the Provinces, like Grasshopper, Bear and Ermine are easy to rule out because they’re so dangerous and I don’t fancy getting savagely mauled to death, but there are lots of nicer ones I wouldn’t mind living in!
But I think my choice is Bunnerfly, it’s a really beautiful province with temperate weather, luscious streams and mountains, and it all just seems quite chilled and calm. The only issue is it’s filled with monasteries and I’m not sure how good a monk I would make…But it also has flying bunnies so I think that beats out the competition!
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Frances White is the author of Voyage of the Damned, a fantasy murder mystery at sea, coming in 2024 from Penguin Michael Joseph. Born in Leicester and now a Nottingham resident, Frances is a creative writing graduate from Royal Holloway University of London. She has a soft spot for writing unlikely, flawed, messy heroes and loves mixing humour and heartbreak. Frances is also passionate about bringing more LGBTQIA+ representation and fat positivity into fantasy. When not writing, she can be found sewing costumes for comic conventions. She also loves to perform on stage, with a fondness for musicals and Shakespeare.
For more information see Frances’ website.
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Thanks so much to Frances – these are great answers, and I think they give a real sense of what to expect from this brilliant book! I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did – keep an eye out for a review of Voyage of the Damned coming soon.
Voyage of the Damned is out on the 18th January – check out the links below to pre-order* your copy:
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