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Announcement:
Meet Berna Hudson
Every Friday, we meet a member of the BFS and peer deep into their soul (or, at least, a form they filled out). Want to be featured? Email us: content@britishfantasysociety.org
Name, including preferred pronouns:
Berna Hudson (she/her)
Which region are you based in?
Usually, North London. At the moment, Madrid.
If you write, which genre:
Fantasy
If you don’t write, what do you do?
I read! And play DnD—we wrapped up a two year campaign a few months ago and have delved into Pathfinder for a spell. It’s brutal. We’re not dead due to the GM’s benevolence. I play video games; currently replaying Baldur’s Gate 3 after losing all my progress, and because I’m like I am I can’t play Expedition 33 (which I really, really, want to) ’til I’m done with Baldur’s Gate…
I also paint murals for people I love—once book-themed. I painted a bookshelf of ONLY fantasy books (pictured in progress) for my brother’s little girl. It was eight days of madness and paint everywhere.
Occasionally, when in the mood, I bake. It’s the only type of cooking I enjoy.
I do yoga every day and ramble city streets or parks with my Great Dane, Echo. And I talk. A LOT.
Are you drawn to any specific SFFH sub-genres?
I go through phases in reading. Right now I’m alternating between science fiction and horror, but it was urban fantasy for a while.
In writing, I stick to second world fantasy, focusing heavily on power plays.
Your Influences
Tell us about the book/film/thing that got you into SFFH: What was it? How old were you? What impact did it have on you?
My Grandmother was a writer. Her study was filled with books and like a cave of wonders. She introduced me to Ray Bradbury and Tolkien when I was about eight. That was the start, but then I grew all sophisticated and only read classics and crime—until I was in my late 20s and trying to cement a relationship with my much younger brothers. They insisted I had to read The Deathgate Cycle by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. It was a romp of a series with a very profound understory and a bunch of morally grey characters. I never looked back. And since my Grandma’s not here anymore I can’t thank her, but I did send Margaret Weis an email thanking her for leading me back to fantasy.
How does that early influence show up for you (in life/writing/agenting/publishing/editing/reading) now?
I’m not sure I’d be writing at all without my Grandmother. She persevered even when her family insisted she shouldn’t. Well into her 80s she ran writing workshops and supported aspiring authors. So she provided the initial drive. As to the rest, every single book I’ve read, every hero or anti-hero, every magical world made by another human… they inspire me to do the same.
The other point is that I’ll always love the heroes—who doesn’t?!—and give my good guys all the space, but, like Weis and Hickman, I’ll also delve into the not so good and downright bad guys and let them tell their stories, proving that good and evil is rarely simple.
Where do you draw your creative inspiration from?
That’s a strange one. Usually, I’ll only realise where a story’s come from well after the fact. Sometimes I’ve had somebody point it out to me as I never knew why the story went the way it did or the character did this or that. My Hand of Reason series is a tale of the rise of a totalitarian regime and the rise of the rebellion. The books alternate in POVs between two siblings, one climbing within the regime and one in the rebellion as their timelines overlap. At the time I started, I was writing a story about a girl, which then turned into that of her father kind of by accident. I just kept writing. It was only later, when I’d written the whole series looking at Maia’s POV as a rebel and her brother Raf’s as a son of the regime, that I realised that I was looking at my adolescence under a dictatorship where family and friends were deeply divided politically.
Who do you look to as a genre hero? Why?
Does it have to be one? I’m going for two remarkable women of the same era who, I think, could’ve been friends if they’d ever met.
My Grandmother, Isabel Edwards Cruchaga
(pictured below with Berna)
She was born in Chile and wrote longhand in the ’40s and ’50s in copybooks. Her husband didn’t like her writing and when she went on a trip abroad (as a chaperone for a group of schoolgirls) he burnt her manuscripts. All of them. On her return, she didn’t bow, give up, or put away the pen. She re-wrote everything all over again from memory and went on to publish her work.
Her first book is an absurdist fantastical selection of novella and short stories called Letters to a Thief. The main novella of that name is a series of exchanges between an author and a man who’s stolen her stories and let the characters go. Upset and lost without their author, the characters wander and get into terrible situations. She initially presented the manuscript for publication under a male pseudonym—initials and a surname taken from the Basque town her mother’s family came from. Later, the year I was born, she put her own name on the book. She published with big presses and with small ones in Chile. And many years later, when she veered into poetry which nobody wanted to publish, she set up her own company and published a little book of poems herself—a very early precursor to indie publishing.
She was brave and resilient, ahead of her time, and wrote without caring whether she’d be a bestseller.
In the first few lines of Letters to a Thief (pictured), she tries to explain how the loss of her stories came about and says, ‘…the ultimate reason is because I write, and I write because I was born.’
Ursula LeGuin.
Another brave and relentless woman, also ahead of her time. I discovered her books as an adult and return to them periodically. Apart from loving her writing, I admire her bravery in tackling subjects that weren’t fashionable and writing loud truths in such a beautiful way.
Your Work
You’re stuck in an elevator for 60 seconds with that hero, and they want you to describe your work. Give us the pitch.
An evil regime.
A child doomed to die.
Another doomed to evil.
A man who steps up.
A man who doesn’t.
A woman silenced.
A girl brought up to rebel.
A boy brought up to conform.
The making of a rebel.
The making of a villain.
Path to light.
Path to darkness.
A RECKONING
What are you working on right now?
I’ve been working on short stories/novellas related to the Hand of Reason series, taking minor characters and spinning their stories. I’m having a lot of fun with that. It started as a marketing ploy, to send a story to those signed up to my newsletter when I released each book in the series. But I got carried away… I’ve got nine written now and am considering gathering them all into a ‘Tales of Ankisua’ kind of thing.
In parallel, I’ve started a duology set in the same world, but very different. Darker probably.
Thinking about all the stories/work you’ve done, what sticks out most in your mind? Why?
A short story called The Queen’s Choice. In Shadow of the Hand—book 3 of the Hand of Reason series—the MC asks about a historical event of 300 years earlier. She’s given a brief answer which is, on the surface, correct. The Queen’s Choice looks at that event and tells what really happened 300 years earlier from the POV of the queen in question. I like it because I’m constantly wondering what will be deemed factual in two hundred years about the days we’re living now.
Where and when do you create/are you at your most creative?
I get so many great ideas in the shower and on my walks with Echo. I write anywhere—desk, kitchen table, pub (pictured in progress!), café, local bookshop, buses, trains, and planes. But Echo’s always either lying beside me (snoring) or with her head on my table.
When proofreading, it’s at home, as I read aloud to listen to the flow (and the many times I’ve repeated a word I suddenly took a shine to…)
What’s the best advice you’ve received about creativity?
Don’t wait for the muse. Get those fingers typing and magic will happen.
What’s your writing soundtrack?
For creating, hard rock. For editing, indie folk.
Pictured below: Berna and her dog Echo, always beside her as she creates
The Quick Fire Round
Sci-fi, fantasy or horror?
Fantasy
Quiet or loud?
Loud!
Dark or light?
Dark
Strict lines or genre blend?
Genre blend
Awards or bestseller?
Both!
Fiction or non-fiction?
Fiction
Poetry or prose?
Prose
Plotter or pantser?
Pantser
Reading or listening?
Reading.
Notebook or computer?
Both. And Notes on my phone, voice notes, sticky notes, scribblings on the whiteboard, loose bits of paper… and my ancient Roget’s Thesaurus (pictured)!
Favourite SFFH book of all time?
I can’t do just one. There are three I re-read every couple of years: Lord of the Rings by Tolkien; Something Wicked this Way Comes by Ray Bradbury; and The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula LeGuin.
Last book you read?
I read more than one book at a time… so, a few again:
- How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix. It was absolutely terrifying because I’ve always been scared of puppets.
- Jitterbug by Gareth Powell, which was doubly entertaining as I kept picturing the crew of Firefly as its characters!
- I’m now alternating between Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir, and The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones.
Any SFFH author on auto-buy?
- Jim Butcher: I started reading the Dresden Files when the first book came out in 2000. It started very light but has grown darker as time’s gone by. I’m intrigued to see how and if he’ll ever end the story.
- Stephen King, of course.
- Olivie Blake: There’s nothing she’s written I haven’t liked.
- Leigh Bardugo is amazing. Her Six of Crows is brilliant.
- Sebastien de Castell: I love his writing and he’s such a nice person.
- Brandon Sanderson: His worldbuilding is incredible.
- Since recently, Grady Hendrix; his horror is equally chilling and devastating.
- And though not SFFH, Fred Vargas—the queen of French noir!
There are a bunch more I’d have on auto-buy if they were still alive/publishing… Terry Pratchett, Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman, Ursula Le Guin, Tolkien, Ray Bradbury … do I go on?
Favourite podcast?
I don’t listen to many podcasts, but have been known to have Critical Role going on in the background when I’m tidying or cooking…
The Home Stretch
What’s the best thing about being part of the SFFH community?
THE PEOPLE!
I’m originally from Chile, and grew up in Australia, Chile, and Spain. I’ve been in London for 27 years. I started writing late. Very late. And didn’t know anybody else who wrote. Or if they did, it certainly wasn’t fantasy! So when my wonderful editor, Tiffani Angus, convinced me to go to a conference and I joined the BFS, I found a world of people who spoke my language. I’m so grateful for the support, the friendship, and the laughter. It’s changed my life.
Time to plug your stuff! Where can we find you and your work? What have you got coming up? Consider this your advertising space.
Touched by Light, Book 1 of the Hand of Reason series.
I KILL MONSTERS.
But some masquerade as people.
The Hand of Reason is full of them, and they kill those born different.
A regime of monsters that justifies such cruelty cannot be allowed to exist.
How can I face myself if I don’t fight those who would kill me and my daughter?
Born “Touched by Light”, Maia is doomed to die.
Peryst de Arranu, soldier and monster hunter, takes his sister’s infant daughter as his own to save her from the Hand of Reason’s flames.
Peryst escapes with Maia, always a step ahead of the regime that hunts those born Touched by Light, like he and the child. He joins any who stand against the Hand of Reason in the great struggle to keep the lands of southern Ankisua free from the regime’s hatred and bigotry.
Touched by Light is available as an ebook on Amazon and in print anywhere you buy books. It can be ordered through all major bookshops, in the UK and abroad. The audio version is coming soon.
Rule of Reason, book 2 of the Hand of Reason series
I WASN’T BORN THIS WAY.
They changed me, the Touched, by killing the person I could’ve been over and over again.
So, yes, I’ll show everyone just how touched by darkness I truly am.
Raf Lengahr’s father rears him to rise above his forebears while his mother wilts under the weight of the choices she’s made to survive under the Hand of Reason.
From his education at the Academy to his apprenticeships in the territories governed by the Hand, Raf encounters rebels and the scourge known as the Touched by Light, but rises to the challenge of destroying them however he can.
Plagued by his northern looks and the knowledge that his mother’s kin is Touched, Raf will journey into darkness to prove he’s a faithful son of the land of Reor and a true servant of the Hand of Reason.
Rule of Reason is available as an ebook on Amazon. The print versions are coming soon to anywhere you buy books. It will be able to be ordered through all major bookshops, in the UK and abroad. The audio version is currently being recorded.
The remaining three books in the series—Shadow of the Hand, Rise of the Five, and Dawn of the Light—are all written and in the process of being edited. THEY TOO WILL COME!
More details on my website: bernahudson.com
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