PHOTO: Susan Fletcher, celebrated author of young adult and fantasy novels, shares her creative process and inspirations.
Exploring Storytelling, Science, And Imagination
Susan Fletcher discusses her inspired retelling of The Little Mermaid, her adventures in research, and her thoughts on crafting speculative fiction that resonates deeply with young readers.
Susan Fletcher possesses that rare ability to transport her readers into worlds that are as richly imaginative as they are emotionally resonant. From Dragon’s Milk to Journey of the Pale Bear, her stories shimmer with an alchemy of wonder, depth, and humanity. Her characters, flawed yet determined, often tread the liminal spaces between courage and fear, reminding us that true bravery is found not in the absence of vulnerability but in the choice to face the unknown despite it. With her newest work, Sea Change, Fletcher ventures boldly into yet another frontier, using the speculative prism of science fiction to illuminate age-old questions about identity, transformation, and belonging.
The breadth of Fletcher’s life experiences infuses her work with a vibrancy that feels palpably real, even amidst the fantastical. Whether traversing the ancient Silk Road to write Alphabet of Dreams or observing the Gulf of Mexico’s raw, briny beauty to bring Sea Change to life, she approaches research as an act of immersion. Her stories are not just imagined; they are meticulously anchored in details drawn from history, nature, and culture. And yet, these details never weigh them down—they are buoyed by an effervescent storytelling voice that carries readers effortlessly into strange new worlds.
Perhaps what is most striking about Fletcher’s body of work, however, is her persistent empathy. In writing about polar bears, gill-breathing teenagers, or baby dragons, she ultimately writes about us—about the universal struggles to belong, to love, and to find strength in our imperfections. Her stories encourage us to gaze into the mirror of fantasy and see not the “other,” but ourselves, refracted and illuminated. For young readers navigating their own quests for identity and meaning, her books are more than an escape; they are a quiet, steadfast guide.
Sea Change reimagines “The Little Mermaid” in a futuristic setting; what inspired this unique retelling?
Years ago, my daughter told me that amazing things were going on in the field of genetics; she encouraged me to explore. I discovered that, because of advances in gene-editing technologies, we’re on the cusp of a whole new world. Beyond just preventing and curing terrible diseases, which is going on right now, we will someday be able to edit the human genome for transhuman abilities—to see as well as hawks, run as fast as gazelles, or maybe even breathe underwater like fish. It reminded me of that old story I used to love, where a mermaid changes herself, by magic, to become human. But before long, we won’t need magic to bring about that kind of cross-species transformation. We’ll be able to do it through science. So I thought: It’s time for a 21st century reimagining of that tale!
How did you approach blending speculative science with emotional depth in Sea Change?
The main thing I had to do was create a protagonist who’s been genetically altered to have gills, and then just inhabit her, as I’ve done with my other protagonists. What would it feel like to be part of a cohort of kids who are regarded as freaks by just about everybody else? What if you and your friends could do something really cool that nobody else could do—what kind of joy would that bring you? What if you were taken away from your parents when you were seven—what kind of wounds would that create?
In Journey of the Pale Bear, what drew you to the historical tale of a polar bear in medieval England?
I was fascinated by Daniel Hahn’s The Tower Menagerie, in which he recounts the history of the menagerie of exotic animals kept over six centuries in the Tower of London. One animal stood out to me—the polar bear given to Henry III by Haakon IV of Norway in 1252. They actually let that bear fish for salmon in the Thames River! True, she was attached to a “long, strong cord” and accompanied by her keeper. But polar bears are some of the most dangerous animals on the planet, and the fact that they let her out of her small, cramped cage to swim in the river…felt like a little miracle to me.
Your Dragon Chronicles series features strong female protagonists; how do you craft such empowering characters?
I’ve always been kind of a chicken—not very brave at all—except for one period in my life, when my daughter was young, and a flood of crazy-fierce, mother-tiger energy took over. I would have done anything to protect my daughter. Anything! At the same time, I knew that being brave doesn’t mean you’re not afraid. Being brave is being afraid, and then doing the scary thing anyway. So I allowed my series protagonists to fully experience fear—I had a lot of experience with that! And then I tried to channel that mother-tiger energy for them, as they protected the baby dragons from harm.
What challenges did you face when writing Alphabet of Dreams, set in ancient Persia?
One of the biggest challenges was finding enough information about the setting of my story—Parthian Persia, around the year 1 CE. There’s not very much out there about that period, especially in English. I just couldn’t get a feel for the time and place. And so, in 2002, my sister Laura and I went to Iran. We followed the ancient silk road through the mountains, along the route that my characters would have taken. We stopped at a caravanserai; we gazed at rock carvings that my characters would have seen 2,000 years ago. By the end of our trip, I felt much more confident about the setting, and settled into writing the story, at last.
How have your diverse life experiences influenced the settings and themes of your novels?
One experience that resounds throughout my work is being an outsider. You might wonder what I have to feel “outside” about. Well, when I was a child, my father’s company transferred him multiple times to places all across the country, often in the middle of the school year. Each time, I dropped into a mini-culture where I didn’t know the rules. I didn’t wear the right clothes, my hair was all wrong, I talked funny. Most kids in the new places were nice, but a few of them made sure I knew that I didn’t fit in. I haven’t forgotten what that felt like, and it’s made its way into my books.
Having taught in an MFA programme, how has that experience shaped your own writing process?
Wow, those MFA residencies were intense—so many different talented writers, so many different writing styles, so many different ways to approach doing what we do. Some days, I was so full of new and exciting ideas, it felt like my head was going to explode. It took a while to assimilate all of that, but ultimately, it has shaped my work profoundly.
Also, I had a chance to investigate my own process through writing lectures. I always chose topics that were vexing me in my work, things I wanted to improve. That kind of close analysis helped me to innovate and be more flexible in order to strengthen some of the areas where I struggled.
What advice would you offer aspiring authors aiming to write compelling speculative fiction for young readers?
The main thing I would say is that, beneath the surface, the best speculative fiction is not really about hobbits or dragons or mutants or aliens. It’s about us. Fantasy and science fiction draw their strength from the real world. From staying true, especially, to human nature. So, a few suggestions… Make sure that your characters are fallible. Your protagonists should feel afraid when things get scary. They should make mistakes. They should be vulnerable in some way. They should love someone or something. They should have dreams and struggle to attain them. Sometimes, they should fail. And nearly always, they should grow over the course of the book.
