About the Author
Brittany Leake
Brittany is a former Middle Grades Science teacher who graduated from UNC Chapel Hill with degrees in education and biology. She lives in North Carolina with her seven cats, who are really just small dragons. She spent over ten years committed to cat rescue before stepping back, allowing more time to write.
Author Notes
Let’s talk about Sapphire!
At its core, Sapphire is a YA/new adult novel with magic and dragons. The story follows Zhafaera, a princess on the run after a coup, the only one of her family left. She’s powerfully magical and a determined fighter, but when you’re fighting dragons, you can’t do it alone. She flees to her friend, Delan, who will do anything to keep her safe. There are strong themes of found family, duty vs the right thing, and never giving up. There are strong, healthy, loving relationships of all kinds, illustrating all different kinds of love. A partner, a brother, an adopted child – families come in all forms.
Writing – it started young!
Sapphire was actually my very first attempt at writing – I started when I was 14. Over the years I put it down, and came back to it, starting almost from scratch in college and progressing from there over the years. This story has grown with me – developing and changing with my life experiences. The characters grew naturally and led me through their journey to the conclusion.
Writing is hard.
The most challenging part of writing this book for me was knowing where I wanted to go, but figuring out the path to get there. I knew the characters, but sometimes they surprised me. Sometimes you write something and it’s just…not right. So, you rework it. Sometimes you scrap it entirely. In the end, you’re left with something that might be different than what you first imagined, but ultimately, it all works out. The best advice I ever read was “you can’t edit a blank page.” So I learned to just push through and keep writing. You can always go back later and change it.
Welcome to Arenthia! 