Lana is the New York Times bestselling author of Payback’s A Witch and the forthcoming From Bad to Cursed from Berkley Books. Writing as Lana Popovic, she is also the author of YA novels Wicked Like a Wildfire, Fierce Like a Firestorm, Blood Countess, and Poison Priestess. Lana studied psychology and literature at Yale University, law at Boston University, and is a graduate of the Emerson College publishing and writing master’s program. She was born in Serbia and lived in Bulgaria, Hungary, and Romania before moving to the United States, where she now lives in Chicago with her family.
SE: What inspired you to create the magical world of Thistle Grove, and how do you develop the intricate relationships and dynamics among the characters in this series?
LPH: I’ve loved witches and the occult since I can remember—I don’t think I’ve ever written a book that doesn’t include some element of witchcraft. Fun fact, there’s a creepy/charming drawing I made at age five in which a bunch of stick figures are dancing around a tree, and there’s also a sort of bear creature (?) involved, and I titled it “oracles.” How did five-year-old me have any idea about either that visual or the word? I couldn’t tell you, but my mother seems to think it makes perfect sense and we’ve sort of never questioned it. (I take this to mean that I must have been a very weird child.) In 2020, when I was looking to transition fully from young adult to adult books, my agent suggested I consider an unusual hybrid (at least, at the time)—rom-com meets witches, and more specifically, “John Tucker Must Die, but two of the women fall in love.” Obviously, I was immediately captivated by that nugget of an idea, and the town of Thistle Grove and the four magical families grew from there so organically that they felt like they’d existed before I ever wrote about them. Muc of the town and the powers its magical inhabitants possess is wish fulfillment for me. From my time in Boston and Salem, I love apple orchards, immersive haunted houses, occult bookstores, and Renaissance Faires, and I was especially intrigued by what sort of hierarchy you’d wind up with if you had four magical families with such different abilities. The couples in each book also came about organically, from my own curiosity about what those pairings and emotional journeys would look like.
SE: Can you walk us through your writing process from initial idea to final draft? How do you balance plotting with allowing the story to evolve organically?
LPH: I’m both a pantser and a plotter. When I begin, I usually jot down about a page of plot beats, as well as very basic character sheets for the main cast. After that, I jump right in, using the first sentence as the doorway to the story. I can’t properly get going until I feel like I’ve nailed that opener, and it’s only changed once in all my books during revisions. While I tend to follow the general outline—what I refer to as the “signal fires” of the scenes I know need to happen—I’m often surprised by what comes next.
SE: You have a diverse background, having lived in several countries and studied various subjects. How have your personal experiences and academic background influenced your writing, particularly in your fantasy novels?
LPH: Yes, I was born in Serbia, but I grew up in Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria as well. A lot of my Eastern European background, including its enchanting lore and mythology, surfaces in both my YA fantasies (Wicked Like a Wildfire and Fierce As a Firestorm) and in some of the families of Thistle Grove. The Avramovs, in particular, are of Russian origin, but since there’s a good bit of overlap between Slavic folklore from different regions, I had the chance to apply it as flexibly as I wanted when writing about their necromancy, divination, and speaking to the dead. My fascination with the occult obviously also influenced all these books, and while the magic I envisioned for the stories is much more elaborate and impressive than anything I’ve seen in real life, I genuinely do believe in the power of will and words to shape one’s life.
SE: Your characters are known for their depth and complexity. What is your approach to character development, and how do you ensure each character’s voice remains distinct and authentic?
LPH: What a lovely compliment, thank you! Usually, I begin with The Trauma—the underlying wound that must be healed over the course of the emotional journey the character is embarking on. With the romances, I also consider what constellations of traits might be interesting when it comes to deciding who to pair up. Often, I have a sketchy sense of the character as I begin, but by two or three chapters in, their voice will have clarified to the degree that some of the traits they exhibit in the story aren’t ones I ever planned for them at all—they simply emerged on their own. I don’t “hear” my characters in my head the way some writers seem to, but they do feel extremely real and compelling to me—possibly the fact that I’m so interested in what makes them tick translates to the distinctiveness of the voice. Of course, a little bit of me (and those closest to me) tends to sneak its way in, so many of the emotional trials and tribulations my main characters have undergone reflect painful struggles I was going through at the time. What can I say… it’s cheaper than therapy!
SE: You write both young adult novels and adult fantasy romance. How do you navigate the different demands and expectations of these genres, and what do you enjoy most about writing in each?
LPH: I don’t write YA anymore, not because it isn’t incredibly valuable and important, but because the issues and personal transformations I wanted to explore have become increasingly adult-tending since I began writing in earnest ten years ago. The lovely thing about YA is how shatteringly BIG all the emotions are; I remember being sixteen or seventeen and being in such love with my friends, so attuned to the electricity of the world in a way that maybe becomes a little blunted with age. But writing adult is also beautiful in its freedom. For one thing, I enjoy sensual, open-door scenes, and I definitely wasn’t writing those—or the more adult voices—in my earlier books. In terms of demands and expectations, I don’t know that they’re terribly different, in the sense that both good YA and good adult books need a well-developed story, fleshed-out and compelling characters, and an atmospheric setting. Of course, rom coms also need their happy endings, but I’ve always been partial to those anyway!
SE: Can you share any details about your upcoming projects or any new directions you are excited to explore in your writing?
LPH: I can only say that there will definitely be more books, HOORAY, though not in the Thistle Grove series ☹ I’m writing something completely new, but you can count on witchcraft, gods, demons, and much darker and grittier fantasy world as the backdrop to the romantic elements.
Interview: SHELF ESCAPE
