Q&A: V.L. Bovalino, Author of ‘The Second Death of Locke’

We chat with author V.L. Bovalino about The Second Death of Locke, which is a devastatingly romantic epic fantasy about the undying bond between a knight and their mage, perfect for fans of Rachel Gillig and Alix E. Harrow.

Hi, V.L.! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?

Hi! We’re friends, you can call me Tori!

I’m originally from a small town near Pittsburgh, PA, but I’ve been living in the UK for the better part of a decade. I have a very small tabby cat and a 10-month-old puppy (interspecies relations are plodding along; the cat is not impressed). When I’m not writing, I like to go on long walks around the countryside, read books, and hang out with my partner as he tries to get me into different TV shows I will inevitably never finish.

When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?

I’ve been writing as long as I can remember. When I was a kid, I used to fold up my own little books and handwrite them, then inflict them on various family members. Like many, I spent a lot of time cutting my teeth on fanfic alongside developing my own worlds and characters. I started working on novels when I was a young teenager, then seriously started pursuing publishing when I was in college. I always knew I wanted to be an author, but it took a bit of trial and error to get there.

Like most authors, I’ve always had a love for reading—I was that kid at family events who was reading in the corner, or who had a fiction book tucked into their textbook during class. I loved spending hours at bookstores and libraries when I was younger, carefully choosing the books that would come home with me, and I’m honored to have my stories on those very shelves now!

Quick lightning round! Tell us:

(I love a lightning round)

• The first book you ever remember reading:
  • Ironically, I was just looking at picture books with my sister and stumbled across some oldies! I was OBSESSED with A Night in the Dinosaur Graveyard by A.J. Wood (and hers was Stellaluna by Jannell Cannon).
• The one that made you want to become an author:
  • I think the book that stuck with me most when I was a teenager was Fire by Kristin Cashore. I think City of Bones by Cassandra Clare and Lisey’s Story by Stephen King were pretty important for understanding voice in fiction! My entry to romantic fiction was To Catch a Pirate by Jade Parker, which I got from a school book fair and read repeatedly.
• The one that you can’t stop thinking about:
  • Recently: You Weren’t Meant to be Human by Andrew Joseph White and The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar. Both authors are auto-buys for me!

Your latest novel, The Second Death of Locke, is out September 23^rd! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?

Traumatized co-dependent fools finally kiss

What can readers expect?

At its heart, it’s a book about the different ways you can love a person and the connotations of that, whether it’s platonic or romantic or some secret third thing. For me, the most important part was creating a relationship in which there was never actually doubt—of course Grey and Kier care about one another from the very first page, and they trust one another implicitly, but the nuances of that are where the tensions lie.

Beyond that, I hope readers find found family with a cast of characters who care about each other even when they’re making terrible decisions, plus a world with layered history and a magic system that relies on trust and teamwork.

Where did the inspiration for The Second Death of Locke come from?

When I first started working on it, way back in 2013, I was a teenager and I had LOVED both Fire and The Selection. In that version, the Isle of Locke and the destruction of it were there and a lot of the characters existed, but they didn’t reach their final forms until 2023.

I was inspired by a lot of books in shaping the worldbuilding for the final version: The Queen’s Thief series by Megan Whalen Turner helped with the political intrigue; A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin and Sansa, in particular, inspired parts of Grey’s character; Gideon the Ninth by Tamsin Muir for some aspects of the co-dependent system; Down Comes the Night by Allison Saft informed some of the more medically-centric worldbuilding; and The People We Meet On Vacation by Emily Henry helped me to really think about the friends-to-lovers trope. I also read a lot of critical work about fantasy worldbuilding, magic systems, and lit crit about fantasy as a genre, so I took a lot of that into account with the construction (and deconstruction) of tropes. I know all writers say how important it is to read, but I think it’s also important to deconstruct the things you read, especially if anything you’re writing is in a similar space: taste is subjective, so why exactly did you and didn’t you like aspects of different books? By pointing to building blocks I loved and fully examining how they functioned within the book, it helped me when I needed to deepen my own characterisation and worldbuilding.

The landscape of Locke and Idistra as a whole was also inspired by my travels. Though my contemporary books are usually set in Pennsylvania, this one is more inspired by the culture and terrain of Iceland, the Highlands, and the Lake District.

Can you tell us a bit about your worldbuilding process?

It used to be pretty straightforward in that I would just have a cool idea, write it down, and try to make it make sense on the page. Something I’ve been trying to do more, especially as the world of TSDOL expands, is ask, “What are the wider implications of this?” It’s intriguing how much this has helped with worldbuilding, but also with plot. Grey has a lot of power, and every decision has a knock-on effect—that has an impact on the book itself, but also on political alliances outside of the nations of Idistra, on trade and more far-reaching markets, and on the day-to-day lives of everyone around her, for example. It felt daunting when I really started thinking about it, so I did a lot of background developmental writing to see how the world functioned before the war that we read about here, and what the reality was when things were in stasis. That gave a good starting point to see where things changed, and a good foundation for what happens after the book—and how Grey’s decisions potentially impact that stasis. I spend quite a lot of time living in my head, if you can’t tell.

Something that helped a lot was creating worldbuilding sheets for each nation that listed things like currency, ruling structure, major religions, and the like. That means I don’t have to comb through the books every time I need to refer back to something, and helps with consistency.

Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?

I loved writing any moment between Grey and Kier. They have such a fun dynamic from the very beginning, and I found it super easy to slip into. I could spend three more books just writing banal scenes with the two of them (this is why I had to cut so much, and also why I have so much bonus content hanging around). Besides that, the more comfortable scenes with Grey, Kier, Ola, Brit, and Eron were so much fun. I love a good found family dynamic, and I was hoping to capture that for the group.

In terms of worldbuilding, I’m character-driven to a fault, so poking the various histories and backstories was a great time. It also helped to inform a lot of the worldbuilding, so it felt like none of the background writing I was doing went to waste.

Did you face any challenges whilst writing? How did you overcome them?

Honestly, the writing process for this book was very smooth! I do think it’s a voice and world I clicked with on a fundamental level, so I could keep going with it easily. This is my fifth (?) book and probably the easiest to write. It’s also a book I wrote purely for my own enjoyment, and I think the editing process allowed me to heighten parts of the book I already enjoyed.

I think finding a way to make the three books cohesive together while all acting as standalones has been an interesting process. My way around that is to work on them early, so I still have time to make changes that impact that cohesion – though I can’t fully say book 3 is cooperating, at the moment. Plus, there are two things that I REALLY, REALLY WISH I had figured out before TSDOL went to copyedits – like, that the adjective for Locke is Lochan, which would’ve made my life significantly easier. I hope most of those little catches are things that only I know or care about!

What’s next for you?

My next YA horror, I, in the Shadows, is out in January! It’s a retelling of Cyrano de Bergerac set in small-town Pennsylvania, featuring a girl who moves into a new house and finds it haunted. I like to think of it as Beetlejuice meets Bottoms.

After that, The Hand and the Heart 2 is coming out (tentatively) in September 2026! I’m keeping this one close to my chest for now, but I can say that though the narrator is a completely new character, we’ll see a lot of friends from Locke making a reappearance.  The three books in The Hand and the Heart series are all standalones but they are linked together in the same world and feature some characters—but every time we see an old friend, I want to show a new side of them.

Lastly, what books have you enjoyed reading this year? Are there any you’re looking forward to picking up?

Sorry not sorry, I’m fully in for the knights trend. I have read and adored The Everlasting by Alix E. Harrow (what an incredible journey of psychic damage), The Isle in the Silver Sea by Tasha Suri (come for the hot knights, stay for the thoughtful critique of folklore and empire and heartbreaking found family), The Starving Saints by Caitlin Starling (MESSED UP BEES! WEIRD RELIGION! CANNIBALISM!), and The Knight and the Moth by Rachel Gillig (cannot wait for book 2). I feel like I’m collecting them like infinity stones.

On the non-knight front, I’m thoroughly enjoying Moth Dark by Kika Hatzopoulou and I had a great time reading Reliquary by Hannah Whitten.

On my radar, I can’t wait for An Arcane Inheritance by Kamilah Cole, There Are Ghosts Here by Adrienne Tooley, and Gutterwitch by Esmie Jikiemi-Pearson! And let’s be real—the second Ninth House 3 is out, I will clear my entire schedule.

Will you be picking up The Second Death of Locke? Tell us in the comments below!