KC author hit No. 1 on NYT list with romance about werewolves in Kansas
“No. 1 New York Times bestseller” is one of the most prestigious accomplishments a book or author can boast.
Kansas City author Britney S. Lewis recently joined that elite club with “Blood Moon,” which was released Sept. 9 and immediately jumped to the top of The Times’ Young Adult Hardcover listings dated Sept. 28. “Blood Moon” dropped to No. 5 in the Oct. 5 listings, but that did nothing to dampen Lewis’ excitement.
“Oh, my goodness, I’m still pinching myself,” she said last week. “I am so surprised, so stunned. … I have always wanted to make The New York Times list, but that seemed so far away. But when I found out, I was just full of tears, in disbelief.”
This is the third novel for Lewis, who grew up in Kansas City, Kansas, lives in Mission and works full time as an editor at Hallmark, but it’s her first foray into young adult paranormal fantasy romance.
In “Blood Moon,” the main character “discovers that the legends of werewolves in her hometown are true,” The Times says in its description. That protagonist, Mirabella Owens, is a Black teenager who lives in the fictional Timber Plains, Kansas, which Lewis said is “kind of the area of Wyandotte County and Bonner Springs.”
Accordingly, the werewolves and vampires generate much of their mischief and mayhem in the Kansas City area.
“I was like, ‘We don’t have any paranormal things here in Kansas or Kansas City, Missouri,’” she said. “’We need things here.’”
Also important to Lewis is that her lead character, who finds herself in a love triangle with a werewolf and a vampire, is Black. The author had found that the paranormal romance genre, both on television and in books, has historically relegated Black girls to lesser roles that usually end badly for them.
“I just envisioned myself or people that looked like me and the communities I grew up in being able to be cast in the world like the ones that I loved,” she said. “So, yeah, it was super important to me to have that representation.”
Rewatching the TV show “Vampire Diaries” a few years back was specifically triggering for her. She related with Bonnie Bennett, a Black character.
“A few episodes in, my favorite character had died like two or three times, and I was not OK with that,” she said. “It was so upsetting.”
That anger inspired Lewis. “There was rage behind my inspiration with writing ‘Blood Moon,’” she said.
She wound up finishing the first draft in four weeks — while working full time and teaching dance lessons on the side. Lewis wrote before work and during lunch breaks or stayed up late. “Doing whatever I could to get this story out of my head,” she said.
“Blood Moon” is the first of a three-book deal Lewis has with independent publisher Page Street. Disney-Hyperion Books, a publishing subsidiary of the entertainment giant Walt Disney Co., published her first two books, “The Undead Truth of Us” and “The Dark Place.”
