Kathie: Welcome to MG Book Village, Nedda! It’s so nice to have a chance to get to know you. Please tell our readers a bit about yourself.
Nedda: Thank you for having me on the blog, Kathie. I am an Egyptian American author who grew up in Queens, NY. Even though I live in L.A. now, once a Queens girl, always a Queens girl. I didn’t pursue writing until later in life. Before that, I enjoyed a fulfilling career in teaching.
Kathie: DAUGHTERS OF THE LAMP is your debut middle-grade novel, coming out on February 20th from G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers. Can you share the inspiration for the book and your journey to its publication?
Nedda: Sure. My publishing journey started during a period of major change in my life. After forty years of living on the East Coast, my family and I moved to Los Angeles for my husband’s job. Even though it was hard leaving behind cherished friends and family, our beloved home, and a teaching position at a school I adored, our big move forced me to ask, “What now?”
During childhood, writing had always been a means of self-expression and reflection for me. In retrospect, it makes sense that years later, as an adult, when so much was uncertain in my life, I would turn to it again. Eventually, my what now turned into what if and how about, leading to, “How about I try and write a novel?”
The stories and characters that have impacted me the most were from books I read when I was young. As a kid, I relished being transported through fiction to magical lands. However, I often wished that the characters in those stories looked and sounded more like me and the people around me. Sahara and her world were born from that wish.
Drafting the initial manuscript of Daughters of the Lamp was far from easy. I enjoyed writing, but I knew nothing about crafting a novel. At forty-one, I was a beginner again, taking writing workshops online, reading books on craft, studying works by other middle grade authors, and making new friends in the writing world virtually and in person. It took me two years to complete the first draft, then another to close the gap between what I read on paper and what I envisioned in my head.I needed help with the latter, and luckily, I found it in the form of input from dedicated critique partners and an exceptional mentor. Taking the time to work on the manuscript led me to a fantastic agent. She helped me hone it further for submission, where it found a wonderful editor who believed in it as much as we did.
Kathie: One of the things I most enjoyed about your book was how it alternated between Sahara’s current-day experiences meeting family and learning about their history protecting artifacts with the perspective of Sahara’s ancestor, Morgana, and her journey to safeguard one of the same treasures generations ago. What made you decide to tell the story this way?
Nedda: One of the novels that inspired me during the writing process was Holes, particularly how author Louis Sachar skillfully wove together the experiences of Stanley at Camp Green Lake with those of his cursed ancestor from Latvia. It made me think a lot about how our families’ legacies, stories, triumphs, and struggles live on in us. I yearned to explore that theme in my own story. How would the lights and shadows of Sahara’s ancestral past manifest in her own life? How would she respond to them? Regardless of the answers, I wanted readers to have an intimate view of both. Some of my favorite books have been ones where I’ve been allowed to make discoveries before the protagonist does. I wanted to give my readers that opportunity too, which is why I decided to include the events in Morgana’s timeline along with Sahara’s.
Kathie: Tell us a little bit about Sahara, and how she developed from your original vision of her to the one we meet in this book? What’s one thing you most admire about her?
Nedda: I knew early on that I wanted to explore through Sahara’s character the experience of growing up as a first-generation American like I had. How would she navigate living in America, which she very much thinks of as home, while her family had so many ties to a land a world away? A land they thought of as home, too.
It wasn’t until I had figured out some of the major plot points that her other characteristics became clearer. I love it when character and plot play off each other, so once I decided Sahara would discover she was part of a thousand-year-old magical legacy, I thought about what traits Sahara should possess to make this world one that would push her to transform on the page. Who better to have to learn to accept her magical legacy and all the wacky things that happen around her when she arrives in Cairo than a kid who starts off being completely guided by logic and science? And the road to transformation is not easy for her. There are a lot of missteps along the way. But Sahara is resilient. That’s what I admire about her most.
Kathie: You grew up with an extended family in Egypt that you visited each summer. Did you face struggles similar to Sahara about your identity, and what do you hope readers might learn from her?
Nedda: Absolutely. Even though Queens is what I called home, I couldn’t deny the ties I had to Egypt because my extended family, with whom I spent almost every summer as a kid, lived there. But beyond those ties, there was a feeling that would come over me when I arrived in Egypt. It’s hard to describe, but while Cairo is very different from Queens, I felt at home there too. Sahara grapples with the question I often asked as a child: “Which one is home?”
Growing up with one foot in America and one foot in Egypt wasn’t always easy. But like Sahara, I came to learn easier isn’t always better. And that the answer to the question above is “both are home.” I don’t have to choose one. I can check more than one nationality box (literally and figuratively) because the most beautiful things in life don’t always fit into a neat package.
Kathie: You have a very busy year as the book’s sequel, CHILDREN OF THE WIND, comes out in June! Can you tell us a bit about what to expect and how many books are planned for the series?
Nedda: Tell me about it- very busy and very exciting! I’m thrilled that kids will have the opportunity to go on more adventures with Sahara. In CHILDREN OF THE WIND, she returns to Cairo, but this time with her best friend, Vicky, in tow. Sahara must find a way to protect her family’s magical treasures while working through some tough stuff with Vicky, who has no idea about Sahara’s legacy. In this book, Sahara’s POV alternates with that of Husnaya, a tenth-century Fatimid princess who yearns to learn wind sorcery. There are four books planned for the series.
Kathie: Is there anything else you’d like readers to know about this book, and where can we learn more about you and your writing?
Nedda: You can learn more about my writing on my website, www.neddalewers.com. I also am active on Instagram @neddalewersbooks.
Kathie: Thank you so much for joining me today, Nedda, and I look forward to reading about Sahara’s next adventure this summer.
Nedda: Thank you so much for having me, Kathie.
Nedda Lewers is an Egyptian American author and former teacher. She writes books that take
children on fun adventures and feature characters who are trying to make sense of the big,
complicated world and their place in it. Her debut novel, Daughters of the Lamp, will be
released on February 20th, 2024 by G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers. It was
recently selected by the ABA’s Indies Introduce Kids panel as a Top Ten Winter/Spring 2024
title.
Children of the Wind, the second installment in the Daughters of the Lamp series, will follow in
June 2024.
