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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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.

Interview with the Author

What helps you to write? Do you eat snacks, listen to music?

I have a short ritual that helps me click into the writing mode, which is to pour myself a cup of coffee, light a candle, and set a timer. I wish I could listen to music as I write — I know that helps many authors keep a consistent mood in their writing — but for me, it’s distracting. I do listen to music when I’m brainstorming or evaluating what I’ve just written, which usually happens on a walk, and the playlist is different for each project.

If you could travel back in time, what time period would you go to?

I love this question. Victorian England and medieval France are definitely top contenders, but if I had a time machine I’d set it for 1930s Oxford where C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Charles Williams, and others were talking about writing, books, and faith. Many of these authors seem larger than life now, so I’d love to listen in on one of the Inklings meetings where they encouraged and disagreed and helped each other through struggles . . . and where they read their drafts out loud!

What is your favorite hymn and why?

This is a really difficult choice. Sunday night at my grandparents’ church was always hymn sing night. My grandmother played the piano. When one hymn ended, someone would call out another request, and I still remember how alive that room was with people singing parts. If I were there, I’d call out “Be Thou My Vision.” My favorite line is “Heart of my own heart whatever befall, still be my vision, O Ruler of all.” I always need that reminder that the source of my identity and purpose is God’s love for me.

What is one thing readers would be surprised to learn about you?

This is embarrassing, but I lock my keys in the car on a regular basis. This is often because I’m working out a story problem. I set my keys down just for a minute to scribble down a note on my phone, and the next thing I know I’m on the other side of a locked door, staring down at the unattainable keyring in my cupholder. My wonderful husband has packed the kids into the car so many times to come to my rescue that it’s become almost a routine! One of the little-known hazards of being a writer.

What is one question you would like readers to ask you? What would be your answer?

I’d like readers to know more about how writing has impacted my own Christian journey. This writing journey has helped me grow in so many ways – in trust, in awe at the creativity of God, and in perseverance — but one of the most transformative ways it has helped me is in accepting critique. It stung a lot in the beginning to receive honest feedback from my writer’s group . . . and sometimes still does . . . but I need that feedback to craft my writing into what I ultimately want it to be. Sometimes the critique is encouraging, and I need that, too. To me, that’s a small picture of the body of Christ. We’re to speak the truth in love and encourage each other. We truly need each other as iron sharpens iron, to grow and to persevere.