You never expect to go viral.
Spokane author Travis Baldree certainly didn't expect his independently published fantasy book to blow up overnight, but that's exactly what happened in 2022.
"Legends & Lattes was a National Novel Writing Month project that I wrote during COVID when I was watching nothing but The Great British Bake-Off and Fixer Upper," Baldree says. "I had no expectation that anybody would read it or care about it at all. It was just the kind of thing that I wanted for myself right then."
The premise of Legends & Lattes revolves around Viv, an orc adventurer who retires from her career to open a tranquil coffee shop, a premise Baldree says started out as a lighthearted joke with extremely low stakes.
Once the book's cover was posted on Twitter and shared by Seattle-based fantasy author Seanan McGuire, it caught fire on TikTok and other platforms in the days after. The book landed on The New York Times bestseller list and was also nominated for both a Hugo and Nebula award.
In November 2023, Baldree released a prequel to Legends titled Bookshops & Bonedust after being scooped up for a book deal by Tor Books.
"Initially it wasn't going to be a prequel at all," he says. "It was going to be a fantasy Murder, She Wrote story. I thought it was a great idea, I had it all planned out, and I wrote about 15,000 words of it and realized I hated it. I compare it to Scooby Doo because nobody cares about the mystery, they only care about the weirdos in the van. I only cared about the weirdos in the van in my attempted mystery novel. Maybe I'm not a very good mystery writer."
Baldree started over three times before he found a story he wanted to write. His "failed attempts" weren't all for naught, though. Most of the characters from the other endeavors find a place within Bookshops & Bonedust.
Bookshops & Bonedust takes place before Viv opens her coffee shop, while she's still working for a mercenary company called Rackam's Ravens. Her career isn't going the way she planned, and she finds herself spending time in a bookshop encountering suspicious characters and planting seeds of change.
As for future books from Baldree, fans will be excited to know that there are at least three more on the way, and one takes place in the Legends & Lattes universe.
"This whole journey has just been unexpected thing after unexpected thing," Baldree says. "And for that, I'm so grateful."
2nd PLACE: The Strange Beautiful by Carla Crujido
3rd PLACE: Unexpected Weather Events by Erin Pringle
