– Thanks for joining us here at YALC. We would love you to introduce yourself
Hey! I’m Katie Abdou, a young adult historical fantasy and adventure author from Massachusetts in the United States. I write for marginalized teenagers to make up for the lack of books I had growing up.
– Can you give our readers an overview of your YA novel A Prince Among Pirates
A Prince Among Pirates is a historical-ish* young adult adventure about a young nobleman named Kit who runs away from home the morning of his wedding, and through no fault of his own, accidentally becomes a pirate! It’s a light-hearted romp about a rakish, impulsive teenager forced to come face-to-face with the dark truths of colonization, class war, and systematic misogyny and racism while discovering who he is and learning what it feels like to be loved.
– And, if you could do it in just 5 words or less, what would they be?
OFMD for teens.
– Who was your favourite character to write and why?
Kit is an easy choice, so I will say Thomas. You don’t meet him until act three, but he was such a fun, unexpected character. He challenges Kit in a different way from Captain Sharpe – matching his sass and meeting his temper with unwavering steadfastness and loyalty.
– Is there a character that you relate to?
Kit, 100%. Kit is very much like me in the way he catastrophizes the smallest inconvenience (me for a bit, but him for real) and his sense of humour is all me. He was extremely easy for me to write because of that.
– Is there a particular scene that felt rewarding to write?
There is a scene in act two where Kit explores the market at Nassau and falls in love with the melting pot of culture around him. He meets a Turkish man who gleefully accepts him as a peer and teaches him to smoke a hookah. That scene was written for teen me who wanted desperately to find roots in my Arab culture.
– What first inspired the idea for A Prince Among Pirates?
I was watching Treasure Planet while pregnant with my son, and felt the sudden itch to write a fun piratical adventure for him. Later, after watching Our Flag Means Death, I was inspired to add the romantic subplot.
– What first drew you to write about a fantasy adventure centered on pirates?
I have been a lover of pirates my whole life. Growing up in Plymouth, Massachusetts absolutely had a heavy influence on my obsession. It felt like a natural progression to combine my love of the romantic tales of hijinks on the high seas with my love of the written word!
– Did any of the story change from what you planned while you was writing?
I am a discovery writer — which is a nice way of saying I make everything up as I go along! Nothing in the story was planned in advance, I just sat down and let the words pour out as they came to me. Kit had a mind of his own as I wrote the book, and often sent the story twisting into unexpected, unplanned territory.
– How did you go about creating the world of A Prince Among Pirates?
A Prince Among Pirates is set in real history. I researched a ton to make sure everything was historically accurate, outside of certain changes I had to make for the plot (or comedic anachronistic colloquialisms). I decided to change the line of succession for the book, and deleted Queen Anne from history (sorry Anne, I had good reasons!) and replaced her with a ninth Henry. I don’t want to explain too much to avoid spoilers!
– Is there another characters backstory you would love to explore in another book?
Yes! Captain Sharpe’s backstory has always been the plan for the sequel (fingers crossed!). I would also like to dive more into the twins’ and Mr. Tydes’s backstories. I wouldn’t mind the chance to delve a little more into Kit’s briefly-mentioned “gap year” at Eton.
– Why do you think pirate stories continue to capture readers imaginations?
For the same reason readers love a good hero story — pirates represent a rebellion against oppressive government power. This is why they are so romanticized: they challenge the status quo, and people desire change.
– Did you have to do much research before you started the writing process for the book?
My previous obsession with pirates and love of history fortunately provided a solid backdrop for the beginning of my book. After that, it was a “research-as-you-go” situation. My friend James E. Wadsworth, author of Global Piracy, helped a lot.
– How did you come up with the title? Was it a hard process?
This is actually a funny story. The title I sold this book under was The Brine Prince, but after my meeting, my acquiring editor at Simon & Schuster emailed me to say “how attached to this title are you? It makes us think of shrimp.” We laughed and quickly settled on A Prince Among Pirates, which is a thru line in the book. I emailed my editor at HarperCollins to let him know about the change, and he responded “good, I, too, was going to have the shrimp-based conversation.”
I think we made the right choice.
– Where do you write?
Most of the time, I write my childhood bedroom, which I remodelled, intending to make it my son’s nursery. After I lost him, it became my writing space. I still have half of his nursery furniture set up in there, as well as a desk and bookshelves. It’s very cozy in there.
– What is your favourite genre to read?
Historical fiction and fantasy, hands down. I also really love steam-punk settings or post-apocalyptic settings. Basically, I hate cell phones in fiction, heh.
– Where can our readers find you on social media?
I am @KaitlynAbdou on all socials, but I am most active on Instagram. After that is threads, and I try to remember to post on Tiktok. I have Bluesky and Twitter, but don’t use them.
– Finally can you give us your favourite quote from a novel (it can be yours!)?
“I could recognize him by touch alone, by smell; I would know him blind, by the way his breaths came and his feet struck the earth. I would know him in death, at the end of the world.”
- Madeline Miller, The Song of Achilles
This quote gives me chills every time. I hope to be half the writer Madeline Miller is someday.