Today I’m pleased to welcome author Brianna Tibbetts to the blog! Brianna is stopping by to tell us a little about her world-building experience with her newly released novel, Head Over Tails (Uncommon Universe Press). Half way through the book already myself, I’ve particularly enjoyed how she tackles the challenge of blending land-lubber reality and undersea fantasy. I hope you enjoy what she has to say about the setting herself:

​Head Over Tails is a story with two worlds. The first is the Island of Hawai’i, and the second is what lies below the surface of the ocean. A lot of research went into both of these worlds, to make them feel real and to ensure they were accurate. The most important setting to the story, however, is where these two worlds meet. It isn’t Sevencea’s home underwater, where her family and clan live. It isn’t Hilo, where Jacob visits his father. And it isn’t Kailua-Kona, where Sevencea learns how to be human.

The most important setting in Head Over Tails is the beach below Jacob’s home where he meets Sevencea for the first time. This book started as a short story, years and years ago, and even back then, the most important setting was the beach. Originally, it was a pretty generic beach. It was really just the backdrop on which to set the story. Once I began to develop that original short story into something more complex however, I learned that there was a lot more to that simple beach.

To start, it wasn’t just some random beach with golden sand. It was a black sand beach, and it was on the Island of Hawai’i. I visited Hawaii several times when I was young, and one of my most striking memories of the islands was a black sand beach I visited with my family. Additionally, it was Jacob’s home. His house is just uphill a little from the beach. The area is secluded enough that he’s usually the only one there. Jacob’s home was also based on somewhere I visited on the island, a small house with glass walls.

Perhaps most importantly, a beach is the perfect meeting place for characters of two worlds. Having Jacob meet Sevencea on a beach meant that, given the right kind of magic, both of them had easy access to each other’s worlds. Jacob spending most of his time alone on the beach meant Sevencea had the opportunity to spot him in the first place. It also made him easily accessible when she decided to introduce herself. The beach was like the portal they could step through to access another world. Even though it’s not the only place in the book where that transition occurs, it is the most significant one.

There were other pieces of the worldbuilding for Head Over Tails that I really enjoyed. Researching what kind of plant life exists underwater around the islands, double-checking where buildings and roads were on land, creating the magic system of the merfolk, and the layout of the home Sevencea makes for herself were all interesting challenges to tackle. But the most important setting in the book, to me at least, will always be that black sand beach where Jacob and Sevencea meet for the first time.

Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts Brianna. Congratulations on the birth of your salty book baby! 😘🧜🏻‍♀️

You can get Head over Tails here (affiliate link) in paperback or digital.