I started writing my Robin Hood retelling, which is Shadows of Sherwood, because I had been really steeped in a study of the Civil Rights Movement and social justice for a long time. I had published a number of novels about those topics, and I really wanted a break from that. I wanted to think about something fun and lighthearted and fantasy based. And I thought, well, what do I love? I love the Robin Hood legend. Wouldn’t it be kind of fun and interesting if Robin Hood was a bi-racial teenage girl living in a city, right? Let’s just put a little spin on that legend.
And so I was diving into that writing process and really enjoying it and having a lot of fun and I got, I don’t know half or two-thirds of the way through the first book and then it just dawned on me that actually I’m doing the same thing I always do, writing about social justice, but through the lens of fantasy, because Robin Hood is a social justice story.
Robin Hood robs from the rich to give to the poor, because the powers that be are taking advantage of the people who don’t have power in the society and his work in the actual legend is entirely about rectifying a power imbalance and making sure that people in a community are actually being cared for and have the resources that they need and not only the king. Right?
And so it was striking to me to realize that even when I’m writing fantasy, something that seems so different from what I’ve been doing all of this time, it’s actually the same thing and that I am always talking about the issues that I care about no matter what lens I’m writing through.
The characters in Shadows of Sherwood are this kind of motley crew of young misfits who find each other and start working together to make change. And again, this is a character who starts as a loner and starts building this crew. Right? Robin Hood has his merry men, and my Robyn also has her little band.
And it’s very much a part of what I always write about. It is about people doing their little part, using their little skills to be part of something bigger, to be part of a social justice movement, to be activists, to be making change, to be using their voices to make a difference.
And young people taking the lead in a social justice movement is also incredibly powerful, an incredibly realistic historical truth. And yet all of that can be reflected in fantasy in this way and feel completely different. And I enjoy that a lot.
