GRACE O’CONNELL
In 2012, readers went wild for Rachel Hartman’s YA fantasy Seraphina – which was a Quill & Quire book of the year – shooting the debut author up the New York Times bestseller list. The William C. Morris Award followed in 2013, along with a successful sequel, Shadow Scale. In February, the Vancouver author returned to the kingdom of Goredd – with its dragons, repressive religious orders, and unexplored lands – in Tess of the Road (Penguin Teen), featuring half-dragon Seraphina’s entirely human and entirely imperfect eponymous younger sister. Q&Q asked Hartman about this latest adventure.