Author N.D. Stevenson Discusses New Novel ‘Scarlet Morning’ (Exclusive)

N.D. Stevenson is opening up about the origins of his new novel, Scarlet Morning.

In an exclusive chat with PEOPLE, the Nimona author, 33, revealed that he first started writing the book as a teenager. He picked it up again and completed it after rediscovering the draft years later.

“I wrote the first draft of it when I was a young teenager,” Stevenson told PEOPLE. “A few years back, I was dealing with a lot of burnout from my previous job and I was looking for something to kind of light that creative spark in me again. I dusted off this draft that had meant so much to me as a kid and realized that it still spoke to me.”

Scarlet Morning follows the story of two orphans and a crew of pirates on a world-saving journey where they discover “what it means to be a kid inheriting a world that’s been fundamentally broken by the adults who came before you,” per the book’s official synopsis.

Stevenson’s love for fantasy books as a homeschooled child eventually led him to write Scarlet Morning at around age 15, while he was attending public school.

“I basically just read through the entire [school] library and got to the point where I was running out of things to read,” he told PEOPLE. “My dream was to see my own name and my own book on that shelf and so I poured a lot of that sort [into writing] to distract myself from this time in my life where I wasn’t having a great time.”

“This book became kinda a safe harbor to run home,” the author continues. “I had gotten on the wrong side of someone, or there was some kind of drama going on, I would go home and I would pour those emotions into this book. I wanted to bring this into the present and bring a more adult lens to it, but kind of tap into what I’d been into as a kid and kind of capture some of that magic.”

Stevenson revisited the book after being let go from his job at the start of the pandemic in 2020.

“I was really struggling. And so the book became kind of an expression, just the same way as I did when I was a teenager. And I would pour my feelings into this book,” he said.

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Stevenson called his experience bringing Scarlet Morning to shelves an “epic journey” of “relearning what this world and these characters were and what it meant to me.”

“[I was] trying to find that little bit of spark that I felt like I’d sort of lost touch with for a little bit,” he said. “It’s been so challenging, the outcome. I’m so happy and proud of it. And it means a lot. I can’t believe it’s about to be out there in the world.”

Scarlet Morning is available now, wherever books are sold.