Open Book interviews: Hannah Mae, author of "Celestial"

Elizabeth Wolfram
Mar 1
11 min read

Welcome to the first installation of a brand new blog series, "Open Book Interviews" where Kari Elizabeth W. & I chat with some incredible authors about their books! We have a long list of authors we want to feature, and our first guest is an author you may already know from "The Wordsmith's Edge Book Awards."

Introducing Hannah Mae,

award-wining author of "Celestial"

Hannah Mae won first place in our competition for the book of the year for 2025. Celestial is still one of my personal favorite books and one that I think of frequently. Hannah Mae has created such a unique story that beautifully highlights the worth of God's grace and gift of salvation. I'm honored to feature her today with an exclusive look into the inspiration and heart behind her book, Celestial.

SYNOPSIS:

For millenniums, angels like Captain Jediah had waged war against their former brethren: the demons. As Keeper of the Abyss, it's his duty to ensure Appolyon's army remains imprisoned until the end of the age. Unfortunately, despite all that God had entrusted him with, Jediah is plagued by an unceasing guilt. It drives him to thirst for Christ's redemptive power, but there's one glaring problem. He's not human. God's gift of salvation is meant for mankind alone.

When God appoints him to lead a task force of five wildly different angels to capture two dangerous demons, Jediah ponders if his return to earth might be his only chance to learn what the core of human salvation truly is. However, one of Jediah's angels hides a secret agenda, and Jediah's dark past is hellbent on hunting him down too.

Can Jediah risk everything for the relief he's desperate for? Or should he even bother chasing what he cannot have at all? What does living redeemed mean?

- Winner of the ACFW "First Impressions" Award and 2023 Realm Award Finalist! -

- Winner of The Wordsmith's Edge Book Award 2025

AUTHOR INTERVIEW:

ELIZABETH: First off, we are so happy to get to reconnect! We were honored to get to award your book in 2025. It's still one that, after all this time, I still think about frequently! What was the spark or seed that inspired Celestial?

HANNAH MAE: Well, there’s actually two sides to this coin. On the frontside, Celestial’s creation stemmed from my initial intent to design videogames that not only threw players into grand adventures. I wanted them to experience epic stories where its lore was organically built upon a Biblical foundation. Let the grand weight of God’s character and Word truly breathed and speak for itself so to speak. I’m glad to say some faith-based studios have begun pushing these boundaries lately. However, Christians do not yet have their God of War: Ragnarok or Clair Obscure: Expedition 33 like we have Chronicles of Narnia in literature or The Lord of the Rings in films. So as I studied and began drafting gaming concepts, the one I considered most capable of such a grand scale was what I then called the ‘angel’ project—a third person action RPG (role-playing-game) based around spiritual warfare. That was Celestial’s conceptual spark. As for what sparked Celestial’s heart, though, God opened my eyes to 1 Peter 1:10-12. It hit me how dearly precious and unique our saving relationship with Christ is. Even the angels—who outclass humankind in power, strength, and knowledge—don’t fully comprehend it and are awed by it. The second I meditated upon that reality, I knew God had just shown me Celestial’s defining soul. So for Christian readers, I wanted Celestial to rekindle their awe for their salvation and truly consider what living saved means. As for unsaved readers, I wanted them to be fully entertained as well as gripped by how truly epic this real-world Gospel story is. All in a way they’ve never seen before.

ELIZABETH: You give a unique perspective by having an entirely angelic cast. Why did you choose to write Celestial from this perspective and were there any challenges you faced? How did you overcome those?

HANNAH MAE: I actually had several reasons, but here’s the primary one. With 1 Peter 1:10-12 as Celestial’s fundamental foundation, it was clear this story would be best told strictly from the angels’ viewpoint. The Bible confirms redemption and the indwellment of God’s Holy Spirit is an exclusive gift offered to mankind alone. What better way then to emphasize how desirable, meaningful, and striking this mystery of salvation is than to feel it from the perspective of those who greatly value it yet can’t have it? Of course, (as you expected) I knew I faced a gauntlet with this. Any story featuring an all angelic cast automatically contended with centuries worth of theological scrutiny. Thankfully, Christians aren’t called to please everyone. God’s opinion is all that matters, and since He Himself created the angels, then what He revealed about them in His Word outweighs anything mankind—no matter how educated—may think. Thus, I decided I’d honor Him first by solely trusting His Word. The Bible would guide Celestial’s portrayal and not church tradition or theological essays. So for three months I poured over everything the Bible said about angels and demons and tested my research with fellow Believers who were mature in His Word. I tell you, the whole process blew my mind. There was so much I wrongfully assumed or never considered about angels. Sure, the Bible doesn’t clarify everything about their side of life, yet wherever imaginative speculation needed to fill the gaps, Biblical principles still helped shape their direction. Make no mistake. God’s faithfulness and His Word built Celestial into the plausible tale that it is. I overcame nothing. He overcame everything.

ELIZABETH: I know it is hard for me to choose a favorite scene in Celestial. Some I love because they are hilarious! Some I love because of the emotional depth and beauty. What is one scene that you get excited for readers to reach or that you are especially proud of?

HANNAH MAE: Oof. Tough question. To me, every single scene mattered, and whether they be funny or dramatic, they were designed to be strongest as a flowing whole. Buuuut if you’re gonna force me, I’ll cheat and select two. (1.) The moment Alameth grips Jediah’s sword and shares a short phrase with him after the underground battle and (2.) the man’s prayer at the bridge near the very end. I chose the first scene, because it’s the exact moment Captain Jediah—the angel who’s longed after Christ’s redemption the most—experienced a shadow of what salvation is like. As for the second scene, I chose it because, unlike the majority of the book, I didn’t plan it. It came out of nowhere, yet I don’t see the rest of Celestial working nearly as well without it. You see, I constantly prayed God to make this story His own. I asked, ‘Let Celestial be the book You’d want, Lord.’ He, of course, came through on that multiple times, but when I drafted that last scene, that unforeseen moment brought everything together. It literally felt like Jesus was taking my hand and finalized the whole project with His own period. Simply put, that scene was far beyond me. I could never replicate it, and it’s a memory I find precious and humbling.

ELIZABETH: Are there any stories/songs/shows that inspired you as you wrote Celestial?

HANNAH MAE: Tons actually. Yes, the Bible stands tallest as chief foundation and inspiration, but I certainly drew and learned from plenty of outside works for Celestial’s presentational execution. To name a few, some inspiration came from movies like The Musketeer, Star Wars, Kung Fu Panda, Into the Spider-verse, and a whole host of Marvel films. Other ideas birthed from shows like Avatar: the Last Airbender, Naruto, Teen Titans, and My Hero Academia. Videogames like Journey, Kingdom Hearts, and Ori and the Will of the Wisps influenced the book also. Yet the vast majority of my best ideas came while I listened to musical compositions from my favorite composers including: Hans Zimmer, John Powell, James Newton Howard, Austin Wintory, Yoko Shimomura, and Gareth Coker. Finally, when it came to world building, atmosphere, and all-around excellence, I held Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings as my personal standard. Sounds like a messy amalgamation of sources doesn’t it? Yet I wouldn’t consider their presence in my life as any accident.

ELIZABETH: One of the aspects of Celestial that I appreciate is how your characters, though they are spiritual beings, still have this human side to them in that they feel our emotions. They laugh, they cry, they worry. Each angel was unique and had their own personality that made it so easy to relate to them. Is there a character that you relate to the most and why?

HANNAH MAE: Hmm. That’s tricky because I often saw a little of myself in most of my characters. To give a couple examples: Akela, the ever curious messenger angel, embodies my outgoing and silly side. Alameth, on the other hand, possessed my serious and withdrawn side. However, I think the main protagonist, Captain Jediah, might be the one I relate to the most. It’s not necessarily because he’s close to my personality per se. It’s more like the mistake that drives him to ache after Christ’s salvation so much in the book mirrors some past mistakes that I’ve regretted. Basically, Jediah’s resolution in the book speaks towards God’s resolution for me.

ELIZABETH: I know from reading the author’s note in Celestial that a lot of research went into creating this book. It was an eight-year writing journey! I know the tenacity and devotion it takes to keep at a story for that long! What is one of the most exciting, interesting, or inspiring facts you learned throughout your research?

HANNAH MAE: Perhaps the most striking thing for me was the moment I realized angels weren’t perfect. Think about it. They can’t possibly be; not when the Scriptures repeatedly emphasize God alone is fully perfect in power, in knowledge, and righteousness. There are even passages like Job 4:18 and 15:15 that state point blank that even God’s loyal angels can’t compare to His holiness. This agrees with Romans 3:23 and 8:20-22 too, which declare all fall short of the glory of God and the whole of creation was subjected to sin. That’s not just talking about physical matter, my friend. Yaweh is maker of the intangible as much as the tangible. That includes angels. I mean, God created the heavens and the earth, right? (Genesis 1:1) And He’s not just coming back to establish a new earth but a new heaven too. (Isaiah 65:17) So yeah. My brain exploded the second I noticed that. And it snowballed into a million more tantalizing questions and realizations. I can tell you that!

ELIZABETH: What did your writing process look like for Celestial? Did you have any habits that you found helped with writing?

HANNAH MAE: My writing process honestly started out rather haphazard. A significant reason why writing Celestial took so long was because I was literally learning how to write a book as I went. Overtime, though, I learned my own process. Turns out my writing thrives best after I’ve rejuvenated my mind and soul with personal Bible/prayer time first. I’m also better able to get in the emotional zone if I’m listening to the appropriate musical score. And though this is not commonly recommendable, I constantly self-edit. Yeah. I know. Many discourage that. It’s true that it’s typically good practice to write as many words as fast as possible in the first draft then edit later. I agree it’s practical. I’ve just never seemed able to do it. A few sentences in and I’m already going back; rereading what I wrote; and adjusting it over and over till I’m satisfied. Yes, that makes me a terribly slow writer. In eight years, I only finished four drafts for Celestial, but I’d like to think that my oddly meticulous method makes a single draft worth ten.

ELIZABETH: As a writer myself, I know I’ve had to make the hard decisions to cut scenes that I really loved for the sake of the story. Were there any scenes you had to cut that you wish you could’ve kept?

HANNAH MAE: Yes, and like many authors, I died a little inside every time I had to. Whole chunks of content and characters were cut just transitioning Celestial from game to book alone. Yet even after the switch, even more stuff had to be trimmed or condensed. The most significant deletion was an entire chapter where Akela barely manages to rescue Jedd from a demonic surprise attack. The whole thing was meant to be this exciting wind up for the big storm scene, but sadly, it kinda disrupted the pace and felt more like a side-quest diversion. It got harder and harder to justify, so it missed the final draft by a hair as Celestial’s lost chapter. But who knows? Perhaps some of that cut content might find it’s way into the new set of Celestial books I’m working on. Wink. Wink.

ELIZABETH: Do you have anything you would like readers to know about Celestial that they might not know or realize from reading your book?

HANNAH MAE: The fact that Celestial had every reason not to exist. I was no author. I was a recently graduated seventeen year old who hoped to design games. Yet even with that passion I had no team, no money, and barely enough time to myself to get anything beyond a few conceptual papers off the ground. But from convincing me through my loved ones to try authorship; to my trials learning how to write well; even those days when I cried, thinking Celestial would never be completed; God kept opening doors and kept me going. I daresay He enriched my awe for Him throughout this unlikely experience. So much so that even if Celestial was never published, I say writing it with Him was more than worth it on it’s own. The fact that He’s impacted readers’ hearts so intensely with this book is more reward than I deserve. Celestial is here because God wanted it to be. Simple as that. To Him be the ultimate glory and credit.

ELIZABETH: What advice would you give to aspiring authors in this genre?

HANNAH MAE: It’s the same advice I’d give any author who calls Jesus ‘Savior’. Writing takes immense time and effort, and every author who itches to create the next big hit exhaust themselves chasing trends and dodging cliches. Both shift quicker than winds. And even if one strikes that moving bulls-eye, what excites today soon becomes last decade’s relic. The timeless stories, however, hold to timeless truths. The tales that resonate strongest ring from places the heart hears regardless if it understands. Who understands timeless truth better than a timeless, truthful God? (John 8:58) Who knows the secrets of the heart better than He who made every heart? (Psalm 44:21) So to every writer I say, seek Christ first. Be His student of His Word before being an author. Learn His ways as Creator and Author of Life. Let it re-fashion your heart from the inside out, so not only will you thrive in Him. Whenever your pen scratches the paper or your finger types the keys, His wisdom and His unlimited creativity—wholly unique from the world’s—spills over the page. And don’t regard the book as the end in itself. For the story He’s inspired you to write isn’t just yours. It’s His gift. It’s an opportunity, tailored just for you, to draw closer to Him in deeper ways as you create together. Books are finite. He is forever. It’s not just writing. It’s worship. More-so, it’s a special way you can nurture a relationship—the most fulfilling and enlivening relationship you’ll ever have. So hold fast to these truths, and you’ll write the resonant stories the world never could and not at the cost of your soul or your joy. “All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him. Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” - Jesus (Matthew 11:27-30)

FIND THE BOOK:

Celestial is available to purchase on the Hannah Mae's website HERE or on Amazon

About The Author:

A born again Christian, Hannah Mae uses her wide variety of interests to show how a saving relationship with Jesus is no limiter to creativity, fun, and wonder. She's a dance studio owner, runs FlyingFaith.org, and is a 1st place recipient of the ACFW "First Impressions" Award. From her love of Marvel movies to studying Scripture, Hannah absolutely cherishes all Jesus gave her and eagerly awaits her eternal life with Him to come.