B.F. Peterson is a poet, philosopher, and regular blogger for the Optiv Network who hails from Madison, Wisconsin.
Her previous published work includes IN SUNSHINE OR IN SHADOW: POEMS FOR EVERY SEASON, a collaborative poetry collection made together with two of her siblings, and she is set to publish THE ELLYRIAN CODE, which is a companion and sequel to THE LAND BEYOND THE WASTE, with Angry Robot Books on June 24, 2025.
Hello, B.F., and welcome to FanFiAddict! To start off, tell me: what motivated you to write The Land Beyond the Waste?
I had written another book before this that was a more sprawling, multi-POV fantasy saga, and some of the feedback I got included that people weren’t sure what it was primarily “about.” I wrote The Land Beyond the Waste to be a prequel to that series in the hopes that if I started with something more tightly-plotted and suspenseful, from a single point of view, it would be easier to pitch to publishers.
Why tell a story about a diplomat, rather than a warrior or ‘chosen’ magic user, as we more often see in fantasy?
Writing about a diplomat allowed me to play to my strengths in a lot of ways. I don’t know the first thing about combat myself, but I have a keen interest in psychology, philosophy, and language learning, and my favorite board game is Resistance, so writing about someone who has to learn how to connect to very different kinds of people and persuade them to her view made a lot of sense for me.
Why did you choose to make the elves in your book look Black?
I thought it would be a nice thing to create a race as full of grace, beauty, wisdom, and power as Tolkien’s elves but to make them look like an underrepresented race instead of white like his were. Plus, in a lot of the fantasy I see today, people of varied real-world races appear alongside one another within single fantastical categories like ‘dwarves’ or ‘pixies’ or among the inhabitants of a single small town like the Two Rivers—and I wanted to do something different that would make more sense in terms of the homogeneity we would expect to see separate ethnic groups.
Why did you choose to make your main character, Rydara, look Black?
I started working on The Land Beyond the Waste in 2020 in the wake of George Floyd’s death and the ensuing riots, and the plight of Black people in majority-white spaces was very much on my mind. There’s not a lot a writer can do to change the world, but we can write characters that people identify with and see themselves in, and I wanted to provide not just another side Black character, but a Black character who was the main character and the biggest hero in the story I was telling. Plus it fit the story really well for Rydara to turn out to have some Elvish ancestry.
Were you trying to make a point about real-world races with this book?
No. The point I actually wanted to make was about religion. The elves’ religion has a lot of parallels with Christianity, and I wanted to draw attention to how radical Christ’s way of loving was and how very few people who espouse Christianity actually practice that kind of love.
How does your own background influence the themes in this book?
I grew up in an evangelical Christian home – in fact, my dad is a pastor – and it kind of breaks my heart to see how different the Christian church is – and how different its reputation is – from what Jesus wanted it to be when he said they will know you are my disciples by your love.
Do you worry people will misinterpret this book as trying to send a message about race?
Yes. There’s a real anxiety about touching on race these days, and it’s so easy to get things wrong. But I’ve done my best, and ultimately, my hope that there will be Black readers out there who want to read about Black elves and a Black Rydara made me not want to take that representation away from them.
What was your experience pitching this to agents and publishers?
Mostly, form rejection letters. I only had the opportunity to discuss it with three industry professionals face to face prior to getting an offer from Collective Ink, and they were all wary of the racial dynamics—though they each cited a different reason why they were concerned about it.
Will there be a sequel? What’s next for you in your writing life?
Next, I’m turning my attention to The Ellyrian Code, which was the more sprawling fantasy saga I wrote before this. It is set in the same world and has some connections to The Land Beyond the Waste though it takes place in the distant future.
The Last Beyond the Waste can be pre-ordered direct from Collective Ink Books in paperback and e-book here.
Also available on Amazon here.
Leave a Reply