About the Book

Book: The Burning Tree

Author: Helen Dent

Genre: YA Fantasy

Release Date: September 10, 2024

There’s a secret growing in the woods.

In Ellie Caster’s town of Bishop’s Gap, the Casters and the powerful Levy family have been feuding for generations. The families share just one thing in common—they both dread the mark, a scorch that appears at random on their doors, bringing a curse from the Burning Tree. When the mark hits Ellie’s door, her sister Jean falls into a coma. Ellie knows the Burning Tree is to blame, and desperate to save her sister, she braves the forbidden woods to confront it. But this choice ignites a chain of unintended consequences, forcing her to work with her nemesis, Charlotte Levy.

Together, they must complete an impossible task, uncover the ancient secret of Bishop’s Gap, and end the curse before time runs out for their entire town.

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I received a complimentary copy of this book and all opinions given are my own and not an endorsement of all authors opinions.

Author Interview

● How do you weave Biblical truths into your writing?

I love seeing how the the big picture story of God’s mercy in rescuing His people and His creation plays itself out in so many individual stories of redemption throughout Scripture. Joseph,for example, and Daniel and Esther and Paul. Who could anticipate the trajectory of any of those story arcs? They’ve transformed my imagination. So when I write, my stories revolve around that same theme of mercy.

● Are any of your characters based off of yourself or those close to you?

Yes, if setting counts as a type of character (which to me, it does!). Every summer, I visited my grandparents in a place that seemed larger than life. My grandmother grew mint and tomatoes in a back garden that always seemed to be misted with dew, and a few times a week my grandad would take me with him on his errands into town, which oddly involved buying cheese (at a discount) at a gas station. He and my grandmother were the librarians for their church, so the errands also included a trip to the church library for a fresh supply of books. Grandad would open the creaking library door with a skeleton key, and then I’d have the whole library to myself. I still remember how it smelled like sun-warmed wood and old paper and lemon pledge. That place has definitely found its way into my stories, though the characters themselves are NOT based on anyone in real life!

● Was your writing process spontaneous as it came to you or very planned and organized? Why?

The idea for The Burning Tree actually hit me while I was waiting for one of my children at a sports practice. Fortunately, I had a notebook with me and I scribbled the whole plot down. Some details changed in the writing process (which took several years), but the basic idea remained the same.

● Do you have a favorite time of day you are most productive in your writing?

I’m most productive just after breakfast or very late at night. I’ve tried pre-dawn writing — the idea of having pages done before the sun even comes up is inspiring — but apparently my creativity takes more time than that to warm up!

● Why did you pick this genre for your book?

I’ve always been drawn to stories that are grounded in this world but also have a magical or fantastical element. One of my favorite scenes of all time comes from Phantastes by George MacDonald (who was one of the most important influences on C.S. Lewis in his journey to faith). In this book, the main character wakes up to find that his very ordinary room has become entwined with vines. In fact, it is now half-room, half-forest, and he’s invited into a journey where everything is more than meets the eye. I wanted to capture that same feeling of awe and surprise in The Burning Tree, which is why I chose the genre of low fantasy for this book.

About the Author

Helen Dent’s career as a writer began at age nine, when her grandfather paid her a dollar a page for what turned into quite a lengthy story. She studied monster theory (among other things) in graduate school, taught English at a Chinese university, and toured the Scottish Hebrides in a car with a needy radiator. Now she lives in Texas with her husband, kids, a cat, and a hamster. She belongs to the DFW Writers Workshop, the Fort Worth Poetry Society, and Art House Dallas.

More from Helen

“‘Oh, Trees, Trees, Trees,’ said Lucy (though she had not been intending to speak at all). ‘Oh, Trees, wake, wake, wake.’

. . .

Though there was not a breath of wind they all stirred about her. The rustling noise of the leaves was almost like words.” - C.S. Lewis, Prince Caspian

This scene of the enchanted trees in C.S. Lewis’s Narnia sparked my imagination the very first time I read it. As a child, like Lucy, I could picture how the trees in my own backyard might look as wood-people, what they might say if they spoke. Even now, when I walk through woods, they still hold an enchanted quality for me. I want to follow all the footpaths . . . to a meadow, maybe, rich in wildflowers . . . or a haunt of bats . . . or an ancient, lightning-struck tree.

There’s a particular wood near my house that I walked week by week during a difficult season in my life. Flowers bloomed, birds nested. The light changed. Leaves fell, then budded again. It was a comfort to wander under the sheltering trees – and that comfort wasn’t just the peace of being out in nature.

Each rustle of the trees carried an echo of a much greater story.

It’s always struck me as particularly beautiful that there are individual trees at the beginning and end of the Bible: the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in Genesis, and then the tree of life again in Revelation, this time described as having “twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations” (Revelation 22: 2b ESV).

So every walk in the woods reminds me that brokenness isn’t the end of the story. Death isn’t the end of the story.

It’s probably no surprise, then, that I set my book, The Burning Tree, in an enchanted forest. where the trees have been twisted into something destructive, but where there’s always the possibility of a different outcome . . . just waiting to be unlocked.