Author Interview: Scarlet Morning by N.D. Stevenson

ND Stevenson’s Scarlet Morning is a story years in the making, first dreamed up when they were twelve, now reimagined with the depth and perspective of an adult storyteller. Blending adventure, emotion, and over 100 stunning illustrations, the novel follows Viola and Wilmur as they navigate Dickerson’s Sea, a world scarred by the past but still full of wonder. In our conversation, ND reflects on revisiting a childhood story, exploring themes of generational inheritance for middle grade readers, and how their art and prose work together to bring this world to life. Check out our interview below and pick up Scarlet Morning, out September 23rd!

Scarlet Morning (Scarlet Morning #1)

by N.D. Stevenson
Published by: Quill Tree Books
on September 23, 2025
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From the powerhouse creator of Nimona comes a breathtaking illustrated novel following two orphans who leave the only home they’ve ever known to sail with an eccentric crew of pirates.

Viola and Wilmur have been waiting for their parents for fifteen boring years in the colorless town of Caveat. Their lives are a drudge of salt, trash, pirate stories, and what-ifs . . . until one very stormy night, when Captain Cadence Chase breaks down their door. They cut a deal with the Chase can take their most prized possession, a mysterious book, but only if she takes them, too. After all, if their parents aren’t coming, Viola and Wilmur might as well have a grand adventure to find them.

Setting sail into the treacherous and beautiful world beyond Caveat, the two inseparable friends must uncover the facts behind legend—and the key to saving all of Dickerson’s Sea from obliteration—before the truth tears them apart.

Wickedly funny, deeply emotional, and sharply incisive, Scarlet Morning is a tale of love, betrayal, and the extraordinary lengths we’d go to save a world broken beyond repair.

Interview with ND Stevenson

Scarlet Morning has been with you in some form since you were twelve, and you describe it as a bridge between past and present. How did returning to a childhood story reshape your approach as an adult as well as a seasoned storyteller?

This story is a return to childhood, but it’s also one of my more mature works. This was the first time I really gave myself the time to worldbuild and dig deep on the research instead of flying by the seat of my pants, which has been my approach on pretty much everything else I’ve ever worked on. My aim was to protect the buoyancy and unselfconsciousness of my childhood heart and use it as a compass while revisiting this story, but also question why I had been so drawn to certain things, and what they meant now in a world that’s changed so much. 

Viola and Wilmur navigate a world broken by the generations that came before them. What drew you to explore this theme for middle grade readers, and how do you balance adventure with such a powerful emotional undercurrent?

I was Viola and Wilmur’s age when I wrote the first draft of Scarlet Morning, and I was very interested in the world of adults—but I viewed them as these idealized, larger-than-life figures whose motives were cloaked in mystery, so it was very strange when I revisited this book in 2020 to find myself now closer in age to the adult characters. Suddenly their shortcomings felt real to me in a way that they hadn’t when I was a kid, as did their guilt about being the last to experience a world that the children never would. I found that generational exchange really interesting. I wanted to explore the often weighty emotions of inheriting a ravaged world, but there’s always a spark of hope there, too, because kids are able to adapt and find beauty in the world as it is without the same burden of nostalgic grief that adults carry—”having something and then losing it,” as Chase puts it. Dickerson’s Sea is a world that’s broken and in great danger, but it can also be a vibrant, fascinating, and even beautiful place for a kid to explore, and that’s where the adventure comes in.

Your signature art style is woven throughout the novel in over 100 illustrations. How did visual storytelling complement or influence the prose narrative as you brought Scarlet Morning to life?

I’m used to relying on the art in my career in comics and animation, and so it felt extremely vulnerable to have my words be so naked on the page after shifting to prose! But drawing is always the best way for me to get a feel for the characters, and so it was pretty easy to decide that this story needed to be illustrated—those were always my favorite middle grade books as a kid, after all. It’s a very different process from drawing for a comic. In a comic, you’re following a character’s line of action across the page, and for an illustrated novel, you have to be very careful not to include anything that will pull the reader out of the prose. You don’t want to step on their toes or squash the image in their head if you can help it, so I tried to keep a sense of mystery in the illustrations by playing with shadow, obscuring information, and using the white of the page to stand in for the white salt that’s covering Dickerson’s Sea.