—Arshia Simkin, The Underline
Natania Barron is a fantasy author and a fashion historian in an unusual situation: she has not one, but two three-book series coming out within months of each other. Queen of None, the first book in her Queens of Fate series, which Barron describes as a “Arthurian feminist retelling” will come out in May 2024 and Netherford Hall, the first book in her Netherford Hall series, which she terms a “Sapphic Regency witch series” that is a loose retelling of Pride and Prejudice will debut in August 2024. “It’s been a bountiful year,” Barron said, with a shake of her head to indicate her amazement at the situation.
For such a prolific author, and one who has been writing and publishing for almost 15 years now, her journey to writing wasn’t always so straightforward: although she excelled in professional settings and had always been drawn to writing, she struggled privately with life-long undiagnosed ADHD, the challenges of raising an autistic son, and the uncertainties of the publishing industry: not soon after submitting her second book in the Queen of Fate series—Queen of Fury—her publisher at the time folded. Barron feared this was the end of the road for the series until a new publisher took it on. “There’s so much you can’t control about publication. Most of my entire journey meeting editors and finding publishers has been a combination of showing up but also complete luck and happenstance,” Barron said.
Before publishing her first book, Pilgrim of the Sky—a sci-fi adventure tale—Barron had written extensively for herself and her friends, but realized that she wasn’t finishing anything. Barron, who said she is always motivated by the adrenaline of a deadline, had set a goal to publish her first book by thirty. At the time, her son was five and she was pregnant with her second child. Barron recalled she wanted to be able to say to her son, when he asked what she did for a living, “‘I’m a writer.’”
Barron credits costumes with first sparking her interest in historical fiction: “My mom was an avid historical drama watcher…So I remember at a very young age watching things like Doctor Zhivago with her, I remember watching Roots, I remember watching Gone with the Wind, a lot of movies from the forties—and I was so captured by the aesthetic and how beautiful and different the gowns were,” she said.
Barron’s academic background also inspired her love of historical fiction: she has a master’s in English with a concentration in medieval literature from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and much of her writing takes place in this era. For Barron, writing about fashion in her historical fiction is about so much more than aesthetics: she is fascinated with the cultural heritages, labor practices, materials, and changing social attitudes are inherent in the fashion choices of any era. Much of the history of fashion is “horrific and beautiful at the same time and I think people can learn by kind of luring them in with the beauty behind it and then showing them just how much a cost it was,” she said.
It was during the pandemic that Barron was diagnosed with ADHD. She noted that her son also has ADHD, and it’s not uncommon with parents with children who have the diagnosis to begin reflecting on their own experiences with the symptoms of the disorder. The diagnosis was “freeing but difficult,” Barron said. “It really gave me a lot of insight into how much I was struggling…because I’ve always loved learning and people who are socialized female, generally—if they are not interrupting at school and causing behavioral problems, no one’s really going to notice that anything’s going on,” Barron said. The diagnosis has also impacted Barron’s subject matter—she now enjoys writing about neurodivergent characters: “I hope other people can see themselves [and think] ‘…this person has some mental health challenges but they can still be a hero. They can still do awesome things.’”
Learn more about Natania and about her Queens of Fate and Netherford Hall series at the website https://www.nataniabarron.com/; on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/nataniabarron; and on Threads at https://www.threads.net/@nataniabarron