How Nimona's creator 'collaborated' with his childhood on his first novel

When Stevenson rediscovered a digital copy of that old manuscript five years ago, he immediately fell back into the setting and his childhood obsession. He drew on that story for the new novel Scarlet Morning, about a world of magic and monsters. When the dread pirate Scarlet Morning murdered the beloved Queen Hail Meridian, a mysterious storm followed, turning the ocean to salt and warping the natural world into unnatural horrors. Viola and Wilmur, young castaways in a dark, isolated town, wind up in the hands of the pirate captain Cadence Chase. The adventures that follow start out as familiar middle-grade storytelling, with some of the dark humor of a Lemony Snicket book, and elaborate world-building that feels a bit like Garth Nix.