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: online@britishfantasysociety.org
Name:
E.L. (Emma) Williams (she/her)
Which region are you based in?
Berkshire (but I’m originally from Wales)
If you write, which genre:
Fantasy
Are you drawn to any specific SFFH sub-genres?
The epigraph to my first novel, The First Ethereal, is a W.B. Yeats quote:
‘The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.’
I’ve always loved the idea that magic exists just beyond our perception. I’m especially drawn to stories about women stepping into their power so if anything has ‘witch’ in the title, I’m there.
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 mum was a big sci-fi reader, so as a teenager I devoured John Wyndham’s The Day of the Triffids, The Midwich Cuckoos, and Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451. They thrilled and terrified me in equal measure.
I read Joanne Harris’s Chocolat in my twenties and tumbled into the much gentler world of magical realism. It was her books, then Deborah Harkness’s All Souls series that got me wondering if I could write too.
And then there was Buffy the Vampire Slayer. (Team Spike, if anyone’s asking.) The final season aired just as I switched careers from marketing into corporate sustainability, and I like to think writing about saving the world was me aiming for my own ‘Buffy moment.’
How does that early influence show up for you (in life/writing/agenting/publishing/editing/reading) now?
Those early sci-fi reads gave me a taste for dystopia—something my 20+ years in sustainability, first in-house then as an independent advisor, made all too real.
My first novel, The First Ethereal, is set at a time when our world is collapsing on multiple fronts: runaway climate change, widespread antimicrobial resistance, social collapse, and a civil war in the US, so it’s pretty dark in terms of context.
It took me a decade to write that first book, and I suppose it was my way of being heard when, professionally, trying to change attitudes towards sustainability felt like screaming into the void.
The Butterfly Witch is set in the same world, but it’s nowhere near as dark.
Where do you draw your creative inspiration from?
I abandoned organised religion in my early teens, but I’ve always been drawn to the spiritual. I trained as a Reiki healer and teacher in my twenties and have spent years in nature-based, solitary practices.
My inspiration comes from those experiences and from life’s big questions: What does it mean to live well and do no harm? What happens after we die? While I often despair at humanity, I’m stubborn enough to believe we can do better. Nature, animals, and people who choose love over fear keep me going.
Who do you look to as a genre hero? Why?
Joanne Harris. She blends the ordinary with the extraordinary so seamlessly that the mundane becomes magical and that’s the kind of alchemy I strive for.
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.
I almost literally bumped into Joanne Harris at a conference last year and in a fit of uncharacteristic boldness, I told her how much I loved her work, but it didn’t occur to me to tell her about my own. If I had, I’d have said:
“I write witchy, character-driven, high-stakes fantasy rooted in nature and spirituality. My stories blend the magical and the real, with reluctant heroines, found family, and emotional journeys at their heart. Romance is a sub-plot in my first three books, but it’s the core theme in the new standalone, The Butterfly Witch.”
What are you working on right now?
I’ve been in marketing mode in the run-up to the launch of The Butterfly Witch, which was released on 4 September 2025. It’s a standalone novel in the Ethereal World series about a young woman cursed to carry the orphaned magic of witches lost during the burning times.
At its heart, The Butterfly Witch is a story about love—the romantic kind, but also the wild, aching kind that binds us to the places and people we’ve lost. It explores what it means to belong in a world that feels hell bent on breaking you. It’s a novel, but it’s also a love letter to anyone who’s ever felt lost, rootless, or abandoned.
If you’re a Gen-Xer like me, think Highlander meets Practical Magic. Or, to compare it another way, think V. E. Schwab’s The Invisible Life of Addie La Rue meets Emilia Hart’s Weyward.
Thinking about all the stories/work you’ve done, what sticks out most in your mind? Why?
The Butterfly Witch because I’ve now read it eleventy-million bloody times! Joking aside, while I’ve loved all my books, this book pushed me further as a writer than anything before so I’m slightly in love with it.
Where and when do you create/are you at your most creative?
I write best in the morning, before anything else hijacks my day. Coffee, office, words. Walking in nature and driving are my best idea incubators.
What’s the best advice you’ve received about creativity?
Find your own way of doing things and lean into what feels light and joyful.
What’s your writing soundtrack?
I need complete silence to write, but I’ll often make Spotify playlists to listen to when I’m walking or driving that feel like the soundtracks to various scenes in the books.
The Quick-Fire Round
Sci-fi, fantasy or horror?
Fantasy
Quiet or loud?
Quiet
Dark or light?
Light
Strict lines or genre blend?
Blend
Awards or bestseller?
Bestseller
Fiction or non-fiction?
Both
Poetry or prose?
Prose
Plotter or pantser?
Pantser all the way!
Reading or listening?
Listening, but I would love more time in a comfy chair with a proper book.
Notebook or computer?
Computer. I love notebooks but I ruin them with my chaos then forget where I left them.
(Pictured: Emma’s desk)
Favourite SFFH book of all time?
Oh, that’s too difficult! Don’t make me choose!
Last book you read?
Fairy Tale by Stephen King
Any SFFH author on auto-buy?
Joanne Harris and Adrienne Young.
Favourite podcast?
The Creative Penn, ALLI and Stark Reflections. I loved Alchemy for Authors too but it’s on hiatus. I also love As the Season Turns for gentle, seasonal reflections on nature.
The Home Stretch
What’s the best thing about being part of the SFFH community?
That you can be a total introvert lurker online and still feel welcome. Also, opportunities like this just to share and connect. It’s just brilliant.
Time to plug your stuff! Where can we find you and your work? What have you got coming up? Consider this your advertising space.
The Butterfly Witch landed on 4 September 2025. You can order it everywhere including my website which is www.elwilliamsauthor.com
Hop on my mailing list for a free Ethereal World short story here.
I’m on TikTok, Instagram and Facebook as @ElWilliamsAuthor.
I also write about writing over on Substack.
My newsletter’s called Writing Scared and it’s for anyone who’s trying to work through fear to get their words on the page.
If you’re an ‘in real life’ sort of person, I do lots of in-person events which are all listed on my website.
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