Lana Harper: On Adding More Stories to a Fantasy Romance Series

Lana Harper is the New York Times bestselling author of Payback’s a Witch. Writing as Lana Popović, she is the author of four YA novels about modern-day witches and historical murderesses.

Born in Serbia, she grew up in Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria before moving to the U.S., where she studied psychology and literature at Yale University, law at Boston University, and publishing at Emerson College. She recently moved to Chicago with her family. Find her on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

In this post, Lana discusses the process of writing her new fantasy rom-com, Back in a Spell, her advice for other writers, and more!

Name: Lana Harper
Literary agent: Taylor Haggerty at Root Literary
Book title: Back in a Spell
Publisher: Berkley Books/PRH
Release date: January 3, 2023
Genre/category: Rom-Com/Fantasy
Previous titles: Payback’s a Witch, From Bad to Cursed; under Lana Popovic: Poison Priestess, Blood Countess, Fierce Like a Firestorm, Wicked Like a Wildfire
Elevator pitch for the book: Back in a Spell is an awkward-first-date-to-lovers romance between Nina Blackmoore, one of the most powerful witches in Thistle Grove (and an uptight, mundane lawyer by day) and Mortimer Gutierrez, the offbeat, spontaneous owner of the Shamrock Cauldron, the town’s quirkiest bar. While Nina and Morty start off on the worst possible foot, they soon find themselves accidentally soul-bound to each other, even as Nina’s power mysteriously spikes and Morty begins developing unexpected magic of his own. (Spell is also an LGBTQ romance, as both Nina and Morty are pansexual and Morty identifies as nonbinary.)

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Back in a Spell is the third installment in the Witches of Thistle Grove series; all of the books are standalone stories, though they do take place in chronological order. I wanted to write Spell from the perspective of one of the villainous Blackmoores: Nina Blackmoore, younger sister to Gareth, the family scion.

Telling such a poignant Thistle Grove story through the eyes of a member of the strongest, most ruthless family—especially one who’s also unusually grounded and down-to-earth by her family’s standards, and achingly vulnerable from having been ditched at the altar by her fiancée a year ago—allowed me to humanize and flesh out the Blackmoores without giving them a pass for any of their dastardly doings.

The Witches of Thistle Grove series was conceived in 2020, at the beginning of the pandemic. It was a bright spot during a very bleak time—a charming, magical haven I could retreat to even in the darkest hours.

That summer, I sold the first book, Payback’s a Witch, to Berkley Books on proposal, along with ideas for two more companion stories. Payback came out in October of 2021, on a very excitingly condensed timeline. From Bad to Cursed released in May 2022, and Back in a Spell will publish January 3, 2023.

While I originally pitched three books for the series, there will be two more—In Charm’s Way (Delilah Harlow’s story), and a mystery Book #5!

Since Back in a Spell is the third installment in the TWOG series, I’m feeling well settled in the publishing groove for these books. But Payback was both my adult debut and my first rom-com, and I was shocked by how quickly everything unfolded compared to my four previous young adult titles.

I’d only written the first third of Payback when the book sold, and I finished it in under three months after the sale. The book came out a little over a year later—a rollercoaster of an experience, compared to the two years it usually took to publish my fully completed YA books.

Spell was a completely different emotional journey than Payback or Cursed, which never stops surprising me, even though I’ve come to recognize that a new emotional palette is part of my process for these books. This story was a deeper, softer, more vulnerable writing experience than the other two, and much of it felt like the best, most healing kind of pain; it’s the only book in the series in which writing some of the scenes had me in tears.

The idea that something beautiful, stronger, and infinitely more hopeful can often emerge from even the most broken and fragile times in life—a lesson I’ve had to learn more than once.

I used to think writers were either plotters or pantsers, as if this were some innate and immutable quality. But—as a former pantser!—I’ve come to think that every writer can benefit hugely from planning ahead, by doing at least some of the plot arc and character work before diving into a draft.

I’ve gone from almost no planning to always having a Google doc with a basic plot-beat outline and brief character sheets before I start writing. It makes the blank page so much less daunting, and the final product richer and more textured.

Plus, if you have at least the sketch of a plot and a relatively clear idea of your main character and the supporting cast in mind, you’ll almost certainly have to do fewer editorial passes down the line.

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