Author J.S. Lenore’s first novel, Burner, comes out one week from today. In honor of its release, she chatted with us about the book’s characters, getting her start with fan-fiction, and more!
About ‘Burner’ by J.S. Lenore
Homicide detective Kim Phillips isn’t like the other officers of the Chicago Police Department. She’s quiet, isolated, and she can speak with the dead. Born with the ability to see into and interact with the afterlife, she is a Burner: a person tasked with hunting down dangerous spirits and sending them to the other side.
When Kim exorcises the ghost of a young girl, she’s dragged into a new and unsettling case, one where people like Kim are being killed. The only problem? There’s no connection between the victims, and no proof that they were murdered in the first place. Kim has to catch the killer before he finds his last victim and unleashes an unknown evil on the world.
Burner, the first book in the Affinity Series, is a dark exploration of how life and death are only separated by a single breath and how even those with power can be powerless.
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1. While the supernatural/mystery genre has been around for a while, ‘Burner’ feels really new and fresh. Where did you find the inspiration for the story and the characters?
I had a dream where a woman and a ghost, who were partners, were trapped in a building by some malevolent force. I spent a long time thinking about those two people, and they eventually evolved into Kim and Priya. The inspiration for the story wasn’t so much inspiration as just idle musings. I knew I’d like to write a murder mystery, so I came up with victims.
How it all interwove didn’t come to me until I was working through my second draft of the novel, and by that point, the story was mainly inspired by how the characters were interacting (and how the ending made the most sense). I wish I could say it was created out of whole cloth, and I just sat down and wrote it in one sitting, but Burner took over three years to plan and write, so the inspiration process was very gradual and mercurial for me.
2. Kim, the detective and main character, and Priya, her bonded ghost partner, have such a tender and complex relationship. In fact, their relationship many times overshadows another prominent (and tantalizingly slow burning) relationship in the novel. How would you describe Kim and Priya’s relationship dynamic?
I’ll admit I’m a big fan of the relationship between Kim and Priya. There’s a little bit of a best friend or sisterly vibe there, where they’re very honest and open with each other, but it’s also kind of a mentor-mentee relationship as well. Priya was a Medium before she died, a very successful one, so she’s familiar with the training and the lifestyle that comes with it. I think she uses that knowledge to try to guide and counsel Kim through challenges. Priya is also somewhat of a mother figure to Kim, who had a poor relationship with her parents. There’s a lot of mutual respect and understanding between the two, as well as a deep and abiding love. And Kim isn’t someone who opens herself up like that to many people, so her relationship with Priya is extremely important.
3. ‘Burner’ has such an interesting and intricate mythology. Did you create and fully understand all the different affinities (and their relationships to one another) before you started writing, or did they develop through the process?
I spent a huge amount of time world-building before I even started writing the book, and defining the different kinds of Mediums was a big part of that. I knew I wanted there to be seven Affinities, as the number seven has historically held magical significance, so I started with the number and filled in each as I went. From that point, I figured out the proportions of each in the society based on their individual powers, and then how those Affinities interacted. I will admit that some of the rules have changed as I was writing, and there are some big changes to how those rules are applied in the next book, but most of it was established during that early planning.
4. You started getting into writing through creating fan fiction and now you’ve just finished your very first novel. What has your writing journey been like and what pushed you to want to become a published author?
I’ve always loved stories, even when I was a young kid. I started reading before I started kindergarten, so books have always been a huge part of my life. I started writing stories when I was in grade school, though I don’t remember what they were about, only that I had stories I wanted to tell.
I think fan fiction is like a gateway drug to original writing. It takes some of the pressure off you because you don’t have to create an entire world and characters. It also gives you a shared understanding with your readers of what everyone and everything looks like. That means that you can be a little lazy with your descriptions while focusing on the characters and their interactions. Switching to original fiction is just a step up from that, in that you now have to focus on world-building and evocative descriptions and characters.
For me, fan fiction was a safe space to share my writing. I struggled with self-confidence as a kid, as most artistic people do, and publishing under a pseudonym gave me an emotional distance from any potential negative responses to my stories. Honestly, what was more surprising to me was the sudden positive response that my stories received, especially my Teen Wolf fan fiction. Between that and just a general maturation that I underwent as I got older, I decided to try writing a book.
Originally, I didn’t plan on publishing. I just wanted to see if I could write a novel. As I went and shared it with friends and family, I started getting more of that positive response I’d received from my fan fiction. I ended up, on a whim, submitting the first three chapters of Burner to a publisher’s open submission period. I thought I’d get rejected immediately, but instead, I made it through the first major cut, then through second reads. I did eventually get that rejection letter, but it was months later than I’d initially assumed I’d receive it. Between that and my husband’s unending support and encouragement, I decided to publish. And now, here we are. It’s definitely not where I expected to be in grade school.
5. ‘Burner’ is just the first book of the Affinity Series. As of right now, how many books do you plan to write in this world with these characters?
Right now, the plan is for seven books total, with a potential eighth if I can’t shake the bug. I’m already part way through the sequel, Reader, which I’m hoping to have finished and ready for publication by the end of the year. I’ve started plotting out the rest of the series more seriously, with the third book taking precedent.
I’ve also considered other stories set in the same world (I was talking to my best friend the other night about a young Medium-in-training whose best friend dies, and then they become a bonded pair, and how that might play out, with more of a YA setting than Burner), but we’ll see. For now, though, Kim and Priya aren’t going away any time soon.
Intrigued by Burner? Want to get your hands on a physical copy while also helping spread the word about the series? Check out the Kickstarter campaign ASAP!