A Romance of Resistance: A Guest Post by Moira Buffini
Two lost souls, one haunting secret. Elsa has the power of songlight, but her gift propels her into the middle of a world-ending war in this post-apocalyptic fantasy. Read on for an exclusive essay from Our Monthly Pick author Moira Buffini on writing Songlight.
Paperback $15.99
Songlight
Songlight
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Paperback $15.99
Star-crossed lovers, against-all-odds friendship, and a brutal post-apocalyptic world make this first in a trilogy utterly unforgettable.
Star-crossed lovers, against-all-odds friendship, and a brutal post-apocalyptic world make this first in a trilogy utterly unforgettable.
I have been a playwright and screenwriter all my working life. So why have I suddenly decided to become a debut novelist? The answer is that I couldn’t write the story of Songlight in any other way. As it took shape, I knew it was like nothing else I have ever done. It’s a tale of love and war and resistance and it needed a big, expansive canvas. I began to experiment by writing my characters’ voices — and my ideas immediately sprang to into life. I let my young protagonists, Elsa and Kaira lead me into their world. Pretty soon, I had five narrators and the world kept growing. It became too big to be one novel. Torchfire was born — and I’m still writing.
I was about thirteen when I discovered dystopian fiction. I read a book called The Chrysalids by John Wyndham. It’s a post-apocalyptic story, set thousands of years in the future, concerning a group of young telepaths. I found it frightening and inspiring, and I carried that book around with me for years. I began to wonder what I would do with the same set of ingredients. In many ways, Post-apocalyptic stories have a strange optimism, because the worst has happened. We are with the survivors and the Earth is in fragile recovery.
I have always been in awe of writers who can create worlds that are entirely fantastical and yet seem utterly real. Dystopias allow our imaginations to run riot — but they also offer us an opportunity to explore the future we don’t want and the society we dread.They are not safe fantasies and because of that, the stakes for characters are incredibly high. When they find love and connection, it feels extra precious. Against a backdrop of injustice and control, we can write about human fragility. We can write moments of startling beauty.
In an era when many of us feel increasingly isolated, a story about telepathy becomes a way of exploring our vital connection with one another. The part of the human brain that makes song is far older than the part that makes language. Song is the most primal way in which humans communicate. We have all dreamt and imagined what it feels like to be outside our bodies. Our spirits feel light. So out of this thinking, ‘songlight’ was born. Songlight isn’t a superpower, neither is it magic. It is an innate quality that cannot be denied. It is hard to police and control, so it’s a significant threat to power. In Brightland, where Elsa and Kaira live, songlight is persecuted. Songlight fully develops at puberty and for those who have it, it’s a crisis. In Brightland, being yourself becomes an act of courage.
Writing Songlight has been a wonderful journey. I am writing for my young self, for my kids, for the young person in all of us. I am realising that what I have created is an old-school epic. It’s not only about romantic love and friendship. Songlight is a romance of resistance.