Liberation is Lit Podcast

Storytelling is Freedom with Sarah Raughley

• Tayler Simon • Episode 22

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In this episode, we are joined by author Sarah Raughley to discuss her upcoming book, The Queen's Spade. We dive into Sarah's writing process, her inspiration behind retelling the story of Sarah Forbes Bonetta (Queen Victoria’s goddaughter), and the importance of imagination and creativity in storytelling. Sarah shares her experience with historical research, her motivations for writing young adult fiction, and the significance of Afrofuturism and social change in her work. 


00:00 Welcome to Liberation is Lit

00:18 Meet Author Sarah Raughley

02:10 The Inspiration Behind The Queen's Spade

05:13 Exploring Afrofuturism and YA Literature

09:18 The Challenges of Historical Research

14:43 Upcoming Projects and Celebrating Wins

17:11 Reading Recommendations and Final Thoughts

19:45 Advice for Making a Positive Impact

21:32 Where to Find Sarah Raughley

22:52 Closing Remarks


Sarah’s Books

The Queen’s Spade (out January 2025)

The Bones of Ruin

The Song of Wrath

The Lady of Rapture

Flames of Fate

Siege of Shadows

Legacy of Light


Books Mentioned in This Episode

Long Live Evil by Sarah Rees Brennan


Where to Find Sarah

Sarahraugley.com

@S_raughley Instagram, Threads, and Bluesky

Thank you for being part of the Liberation is Lit podcast! If you have stories to share, want to suggest topics, or just want to connect, find us on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok @liberationislit or visit our website at liberationislit.com. If you enjoyed the episode, please consider leaving a review! Remember, your voice matters, and together, through the lens of stories, we're making a difference in the world.

Tayler Simon:

Hey y'all, welcome to the Liberation is Lit podcast where the power of storytelling meets the force of social change. I'm your host, Tayler Simon. And in this podcast, we believe in the profound impact of stories. And I'm so excited to be joined today by author Sarah Raughley and we're going to get all the tea on the upcoming book. It's like, I've been talking to people about queen of spades for so long, but then I'm like, okay, but it's not out yet, but. Keep it on your radar. So I'm excited to talk about that and all things writing process. Hi, Sarah.

Sarah Raughley:

Hi, Tayler. Thanks for having me here.

Tayler Simon:

Yes. So can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your work as an author? And what do you enjoy most about storytelling?

Sarah Raughley:

Oh, man. Well, my name is Sarah Raughley I am a Black writer of mostly young adult books, although The Queen's Spade is kind of my first young adult adult crossover. So if anybody who's kind of More interested in the adult space. I think you'd like this book. What I will love about storytelling is it's just freedom. You know, you can create your own world. And you can create your own outcomes and you can escape into these, you know, worlds of your choosing. The Queen's Spade, it, you know, it's about a actual character, like a historical character and her life is very different than the life that I imagined in this book, but that's kind of the point of writing. You can be as creative as you want and imagine whatever. Kind of life that you like. So I don't know. It's kind of like my escape, I guess.

Tayler Simon:

Yes. And I was like, okay, so this feels like it's based on the life of a real person. What was your inspiration behind writing the story of Sally or Sarah Forbes Bonetta?

Sarah Raughley:

Yeah. So Sarah Forbes Bonetta is or was, the adopted God daughter of Queen Victoria, who reigned for a long time in the 19th century. You know, when people say the Victorian era, the 1800s was the Victorian era. And, you know, you think of shows like Penny Dreadful and you know, things like that. Yeah, that was the Queen Victoria era, but I never knew being so obsessed with the Victorian era and like steampunk and stuff like that. I never knew that Queen Victoria had an African goddaughter and I just thought wow, she had a black goddaughter and nobody knows this. It was like she was erased from history. And at the time, you know, she was like the socialite and newspapers would talk about her and stuff like that, but she was just erased from history. So something about that never really sat right with me. So I wanted to take the story. First of all, I wanted to put it out there into the mainstream. So more people maybe can Google her and find out about her. But I also just wanted to imagine what her life would have been like and spice it up a little bit, you know, so I kind of took her story and turned it into a revenge thriller because there is something kind of weird about, her being presented to Queen Victoria as a gift. And being used as part of this propaganda of how wonderful Britain is, like, look, we adopted this poor little African princess whose parents and family died. Aren't we so amazing and benevolent? And then when they were done with her, she was erased from time. So it's like, yeah, let's turn the story into a revenge thriller. Let's just do it.

Tayler Simon:

And I think that's why I love young adult books because I feel like as adults, sometimes we get caught up in our heads about protecting our livelihood and like, Oh, we don't want to say the wrong thing because we don't want to get fired from our job or whatever. But I feel like with young people, they just take so many daring risks. And I love reading about just young adults who. aren't afraid to take the risk because, not to spoil anything, but her revenge plot is against like the whole monarchy institution and I was just like it is so badass to have this person Like this one girl who is aiming to get revenge on the entire institution of the monarchy to get revenge against Queen Victoria herself. And that was just such a fun way of reimagining that. And something else that is really cool to me about this story is it almost reminds me of Afrofuturism, even though it's historical fiction, because it, it, it lays out a whole plan on how this 1 person was trying to go up against this institution. And for, for me, that felt very inspiring. About how we can take those lessons into the future and so I would love to hear your thought process on. Why do you like writing young adult stories?

Sarah Raughley:

Well, I think it's cool that you mentioned Afrofuturism because I never thought about it like that. But I think the connections you're making are really powerful because, you know, Afrofuturism is about, I mean, when you break it down, it's about imagining Black people in the future, which is in and of itself, it's in and of itself a radical act of, you know, fighting against those powers. Those power structures, those European racist power structures that really don't want us to be around, which ties back to, I mean, the, the future is tied to the past. Right. It's tied to how we were treated in the past is tied to colonialism is tied to slavery. It's tied to all of these things. And all of these systems that sort of, you know, try to make black people disposable. Right. And I think that's definitely what, Sarah slash Sally, her pet name was Sally, is fighting against. I mean, even her name, Sarah Forbes Bonetta is not her real name. She was named by a captain of a ship, a white captain of a ship, and her real name was, Ina Moba. And, like that was just thrown out the window. So it's just like the dehumanization of her. And so I definitely see sort of the ways in which Afrofuturism, like books by people like Nnedi Okorafor and Nala Hopkinson are, you know, saying, no, let's resist this, let's resist this by imagining a completely new future. And I think YA is a space. Of imagination where you can also imagine radical things. And the publishers actually expect it, they want it, which is really great, you know, especially after some of the movements that I think a lot of authors of color have been putting out there and like pushing for, to get publishers to really take diversity seriously. I think YA has more than any other market become a space where you can really imagine. All these radical things, especially because you have these young characters, you know, like these teenagers or, you know, Sally's like 18, 19 years old, who still has that space for transformation. Like, like you said, she's not bogged down by this and that like societal expectations and. You know, she's not jaded by society yet. So I think that's the perfect age to start to imagine fighting against these structures. Although I would say that even though like the adults have bills to pay and you can get like a little cynical. It's never too late to fight against the system for sure.

Tayler Simon:

And that's why I'm always continued to be inspired by young adult novels. So, what was your research process like and how did you even discover the story of Sarah Forbes Bonetta? And how do you balance research with the actual writing part? Because I think sometimes I get in my head about researching too much instead of just like, okay, at some point I need to just write. Yeah.

Sarah Raughley:

That's definitely my problem too. Like, especially when you're writing historical, you've got to research a whole lot and the researching never really ends even as you're writing, because like, as you're writing, you may, you know, have a scene in mind and then say, Oh crap, I need to, you know, remind myself, what would, a party in a parlor, or what would a musical scene look like in Britain in the 19th century? So you have to go back and like, who would be, who were the hot performers at the time and stuff like that? Little things that readers may not realize or notice or appreciate, but as a writer, you want to take it seriously, especially if it's historical. So we do the research. For me I do a lot of research beforehand and I have like My charts and all my like my documents and stuff like that, but sometimes it does get hard. I think there's a lot of perfectionism and even a lot of anxiety involved in like, Oh, I don't want to get this wrong and have like a future historian read this book and be like, Hey, you got X, Y, and Z wrong, or a, Kirkus reviews or something, or some other like big, you know, Review be like, oh, it was historically inaccurate and et cetera, et cetera. So so you research and research and research to try and get it as right as possible. But at some point, you have to pull yourself out of that anxiety loop and just say, okay, let me just write. And that can be really tough, but. You know, I've managed to do it. I think with, the Queen's Spade, what really helped is I've just finished a trilogy called The Bones of Ruin, which is, I like to say, I like to pitch it as X Men in the 19th century. So it does take place in 19th century London. It's fantasy, it's YA. And I did a lot of research surrounding the 19th century for that book. And actually that's when I learned that Queen Victoria had this. adopted African goddaughter. And I was like, Whoa, but it wasn't really relevant for the story that I was writing at the time. So I stashed it away until I was ready to pull it out again.

Tayler Simon:

That's awesome. I love that. And I need to get more organized with like charts and all the documents and stuff because I just end up going on rabbit holes on articles and then not writing anything down. So it's so good that you stay organized. So what keeps you grounded in your work as a writer?

Sarah Raughley:

I've been asking myself that lately, because it's like being a writer is a full time job. Like I'm sure you know, it is not easy. And I'm looking at people that, they write amazing works. Sometimes you can compare yourself a lot to others, like say, Oh, this person writes so much better than me, or this person has a lot more readers than I do. And I think what keeps me grounded is just that, that imagination, that imagination, that spark that I was talking about earlier. Why do I write? It's because I can escape into these stories, I can create these worlds, the worlds that I want to make. that are very different than the life that I live. Very different than the world around us. I mean, you take a look at what's going on now in the world, and there's so many reasons to be depressed, and sometimes you can feel really powerless. But I, I bring it back to the power that each writer has to create a world and to create circumstances and to create, situations. Of their choosing and there's so much power and excitement in that, that I don't want to give that up. So I just keep reminding myself, like, this is why I love writing. And, you know, at the end of the day, deadlines and reviewers and, you know, readership and sales and all of that stuff might bog you down a little bit, but you've got to remember why you love writing in the first place. And, it's something that's in you, you know, like when you have a story to tell, you're going to tell it, it doesn't matter how long it takes, you're going to tell it. So, that's that remembering my love of writing is what sort of keeps me grounded.

Tayler Simon:

I love that. When you have a story to tell, no matter how long it takes, you're going to tell it. I love that so much. What are some of your upcoming projects that you have working on besides the release in, is it January? Right?

Sarah Raughley:

Yeah. So The Queen's Spade comes out January 14th, 2025, and I'm actually working on a companion novel, which stars. Queen Victoria's adopted, second I got to adopted goddaughter because it's Sarah's actual child. So like the more that I learned about Sarah, the more I just fell down the rabbit hole of who she was and she married, she married a character in the book. She goes on to have a, bunch of children that are kind of like socialites in West Africa, socialites in like Nigeria, Lagos, which is so interesting to me. So I'm writing a companion novel based off of, Sarah Forbes Bonetta's daughter and her life and stuff like that. But, you know, I'm also kind of learning to celebrate my wins and things like that. And, recently it was at a festival where I got to talk about my, the books that I have published. So I have two trilogies out there. You know, I'm still a relatively unknown author, but I can say that I published two trilogies from Simon Schuster. The first is the Effigy series, which I kind of like to say is kind of like Sailor Moon, meets Pacific Rim, meets The Winx Club, if you're into that kind of thing. And, also The Bones of Ruin, which was published by Simon Schuster. Those are two full trilogies that I just completed so I'm kind of like letting myself bask in that glow a little bit and say, Oh, I did this. And so while I'm working on sort of the companion novel for The Queen's Spade, I'm just kind of like. Letting people know that these books are out there and if you're interested in more fantastical works for young adult audiences, then. You know, check them out.

Tayler Simon:

Yeah, it's a perfect time to catch up on them before the Queen's Spade comes out in January. So I'll be linking those in the show notes and description. So you can check those out. What have you been reading lately? I know a lot of authors say that they don't read the same genre as what they write when they're actually writing. So what have you been reading lately?

Sarah Raughley:

I can completely understand why authors feel like they can't read in the same genre, just because it's so. You just end up comparing yourself all the time, but, I have been reading an adult fantasy book by Sarah Rees Brennan, might be pronouncing that wrong, Sarah Rees Brennan, who, is an, Irish author, and she did start off in the young adult space. And she has, an adult book called Long Live Evil, a story for who's ever fallen for the villain. I think, it's so interesting because, you know, I'm a big anime fan. I love web comics as well and manga and stuff like that. And I've noticed that in the anime space, there's a lot of what's called isekai novel, isekai stories, where it's kind of like portal fantasy, where people die in the real world and they end up reincarnating in this fantasy world where they reincarnate as the character of a story. Right. So it's like, Oh, you're reading your favorite fantasy novel and then you die in the real world and then you enter the fantasy novel and you become like the villianess or you become the main character or something like that of your favorite novel. It's this weird trend that's been happening. I think in a lot of Korean web comics as well. And I love that, Sarah picked up on that and brought it into sort of the Western space. So yeah, Long Live Evil is definitely like her version of that. Isekai villainous genre and she's doing a great job. I'm just reading it slowly. Cause you know, I don't have a lot of time, but I am like finding time to decompress and read it and it's so cool. So for anyone who likes that kind of like, I reincarnated as a villainous type manga stories, And you want to read, the adult English language version of that, then definitely read, Long Live Evil by Sarah Reese Brennan. And she's, she's killing it so far. I love it.

Tayler Simon:

I'll be linking that one down in the description too. So my last question for you is what I asked all my guests is what advice would you offer to listeners who want to make a positive impact in their communities?

Sarah Raughley:

That's such a wonderful question. I think it's so I think it's so connected to what we do as writers as well, because, when you write a book, people read it, and they can learn something, even if it's just for entertainment, you can write books for social change, and, you know, when I think about the Queen's Spade I think, okay, I just want to write a really fun, revenge thriller that's a bit spicy and it's a bit, exciting and a bit dark. I mean, not super dark, but, the main character is a villainess in and of herself, but that in and of itself is social change. Being able to imagine, a black girl taking control of her own story and her own destiny and being a little bad. And, those stories. Do intervene in society. So I would say, like, find what you're good at what you love. If you really want to intervene in your community, you have to sort of know who you are and what you are into, you may not be a writer, you may be an artist, like a painter or, You may be somebody that's really into stem and to science, and maybe that's going to be your way into, intervening in your society. So figure out what you love and turn what you love into something that can be positive for others.

Tayler Simon:

I love that so much. What you just said is. All what liberation is what it's about, so I'm so happy that you talked about that and thank you so much for being on the podcast. Where can people keep up with you and find out more about your work?

Sarah Raughley:

Well, thank you for inviting me and, people can find my work at Sarah Raughley. com all one word www. sarahraughley. com. That's my website. And I have like all my books there, the Effigy series, the bones of ruin trilogy, the queen spade and some standalones that I've written. And if you want to keep up with, me on a more personal level. You can follow me on Instagram at S underscore Raughley I used to be on Twitter and then it kind of became a dumpster fire, but I, I still kind of peek in there every once in a while, but you know, I'm on pretty much all the socials, just find me at S underscore Raughley and or Google my name and the, the is the, the platform. I'm most active on Instagram, these days and threads, but I'm also on blue sky and another social. So come find me, say hi, and I'm always happy to talk to, talk to folks.

Tayler Simon:

And I will link all those in the description as well. So y'all have easy access to it, but thank you so much again, Sarah, for being on the podcast. If you listeners have any stories you want to share, want to suggest any topics or just want to connect with us, you can find us on Instagram, Facebook, and Tik TOK at Liberation is Lit, or visit our website, Liberation is Lit. com. If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a review and remember to Your voice matters and through the lens of stories, we're going to make a difference in the world until next time.