Guest Author Interview with P.L. Stuart
I recently had the wonderful opportunity to interview fantasy author P.L. Stuart, who is also an active blogger, and was one of the judges for SPFBO8. I hope you enjoy our Q&A! – AJ
Hi, PL. Thanks for giving me the opportunity to interview you today. Can you introduce yourself and your book(s) to our readers?
Thank you so much A.J. for providing me with the opportunity to be interviewed! I’m a big fan of your writing! Love your “Relics of War” series! As for me, I’m P.L. Stuart, a Canadian author, married to my lovely wife Debbie, who’s also my business partner in my journey as an authorpreneur.
Debbie and I have seven wonderful children between the two of us and at the time of this writing, two beautiful grandchildren and one more on the way, in about a week or two, about which we’re very excited! I’m born and raised in the Toronto area of Canada, and currently reside a few hours west of there. I’m a Federal Law Enforcement Officer, in my regular job, outside of being an author.
My first two published books are currently out in the wild. The debut is “A Drowned Kingdom”, and the sequel is “The Last of the Atalanteans”. The third book, “Lord and King”, will be released in spring 2023. These books are part of a planned seven-book epic fantasy series known as “The Drowned Kingdom Saga”.
The series follows a flawed and bigoted, but capable prince called Othrun. Othrun is the leader of the survivors of the downfall of my version of Atlantis. He leads the last remnants of his people who escape the cataclysm that sinks his island homeland, across the Shimmering Sea, to a new continent. Othrun plans to re-create his homeland’s glory in this new continent.
But he also plans to re-create his homeland’s brutal colonial past, conquer and subjugate the people of the new continent, betraying any allies he makes along the way, if he must to achieve his desires. He also plans to impose his former homeland’s monotheistic religion on the continent.
But the people on the continent, who believe in magic, and are led by fierce pagan warlords, mages, and druids, have no plans to allow Othrun to accomplish his goals. They’d sooner kill him. Thus begins the saga of the man who wants to rule it all, in the face of intense rivals who want to take him off the board, and prevent him from rising to power. WIll Othrun ascend, or will he and his refugees be wiped out, and fade from history? That’s the premise.
Would you like to talk a little about your writing process?
I’m definitely a plotter, perhaps to the extreme. I have this current seven-book series all planned out, including the essence of the plot, all the book titles, all the cover art, and pretty well everything else about those future installments.
Beyond this, I have two prequel trilogies planned, and a subsequent seven-book series, picking up the story where “The Drowned Kingdom Saga” ends.
My writing process is pretty straightforward in some ways, a bit chaotic in some ways. Sometimes, I’ll write the ending of a book, or the middle, before the beginning. Mostly, the character’s fate is written in stone, but sometimes, as I think many writers find, some minor characters demand more agency, and end up playing a more prominent role than I planned for them. So they may survive longer than I originally intended, or even emerge to become a point-of-view character.
I do love the whole writing process! I listen to my favourite movie or TV soundtracks, often, to help inspire me while I write! Particularly when writing a big battle scene! I might throw on the soundtrack from “Gladiator”, or “Game of Thrones”, to get me in the mood to pen an epic fight!
I’ve always been interested in the myths surrounding Atlantis, which was what drew me to read A Drowned Kingdom originally. What I really loved about your book was that it was set in a completely different world from our own. Can you talk a little bit about your inspiration for writing it?
Thank you! So happy you enjoyed “A Drowned Kingdom”! Atlantis, Plato’s original myth, is a huge inspiration for me. I wanted to pay homage to that tale, while making something that felt fresh and inventive. I am a big fan of classical stuff, such as the Iliad and the “Odyssey”, “Le Morte D’Arthur”, “Paradise Lost”. I wanted to write a tale written in an old style, reminiscent of such grand heroic tales.
I’m an English major, specializing while I was in university, in Medieval Literature, with a minor in History. I wanted my work to read as if one were reading a historical account of something that actually happened, from the perspective of this flawed lord, this unreliable narrator, that will always have the reader asking themselves: did this really happen the way he describes it?
Your books feature some pretty intense combat/battle sequences that feel very realistic. How do you go about creating them successfully?
Thank you so much for the kind words! I really enjoyed your fight scenes in your books too! I must note, with this very good question you’ve asked, that some of the best combat scenes in fantasy are written by authors like Evan Winter, John Gwynne, Bernard Cornwell, and three whom I’m also honoured to call a personal friends, Janny Wurts, Tim Hardie, and Christian Cameron.
I can only hope one day to write battle scenes half as good as these authors I’ve mentioned. I don’t have the reenactment experience, and experience in fencing and archery, etc. as someone like a Christian Cameron. But I’ve had enough training through my job, and enough physical confrontations over my career in Law Enforcement, and enough research and reading about medieval combat, to strive to make my fight scenes as realistic as possible.
And for me, realism means quick, intense, bloody, brutal, where one side loses – badly – and even the winner is often hurt. I never thought I’d be praised for my battle scenes, never thought that’d be a strength of my writing. That said, I’m humbled that so many readers, including real experts in that craft, like Christian Cameron, have praised my battle scenes.
As the story progresses, particularly into the second book, The Last of the Atalanteans, more is revealed about the conflicting religious beliefs in your world. The Atalanteans’ religion seems more rigid, with a single, all-powerful god, whereas the land they find themselves stranded in believes in multiple deities, magic, and mysticism. I believe there were some real-world parallels, but can you describe your process for designing the various belief systems in the series?
The Atalanteans’ monotheism, in their “Single God” religion is based on an amalgam of several of our real world’s current major religions, including Islam and Christianity. What the Atalanteans considered “heresy” and “witchcraft” are pagan faiths such as worship of the Six Elemental Goddesses by the Eltnish, and worship of Norse-inspired gods and goddesses like Thyr, Undyn, and Nyrn in the northern region of Sanaavia.
So you are quite astute in pointing out the real-world parallels. One thing I try to point out, as a general theme in my books, is what I consider to be the difference between “religion” versus “faith”. Religion is, for me, as I allude to in the books, the trappings, hierarchy, bureaucracy, around faith, which is the essential spiritual belief. Sometimes the lines between religion and faith become blurred, and religion, while it can be a force for good, can also be a force for evil. Because religion is a human-made construct, while faith is not, at least for me.
Faith is more a pure, unvarnished thing, the relationship between someone and their deity. And religion, being a human made construct, is subject to human flaws, avarice, and corruption, though of course, that doesn’t necessarily mean it will be flawed or corrupted. Of course religion can be quite benevolent. But in the wrong hands, it can twist and pervert what true faith is all about, or at least that’s my opinion.
We flawed human beings don’t always do a good job of handling the power that comes with religion, and we certainly haven’t always done a good job of respecting and appreciating, historically, the faiths and non-faiths of others. We can potentially be prone to persecuting other faiths, believing our faith is “the right one”, and that others are “heretics”. Othrun is a perfect example of this sad reality.
And I understand you were a judge for the preliminary round of SPFBO in 2022. What was that experience like?
Being a judge for SPFBO is amazing! I’m part of the Before We Go Blog Team for SPFBO, the “Self-Published Fantasy Blog Off”. Now that the preliminary round is completed, it’s time for we judges to evaluate the ten selected finalists! It’s a tough job, but so worthwhile. All 300 entries in the contest, I honestly believe, any could be good enough to earn a finalist berth.
It comes down to the individual evaluations of the blogging sites that judge the contestants, including the personal tastes and subjective opinions of the bloggers who read the books. Many great books don’t make it into the semi-final and final rounds, and get cut in the preliminary rounds, and all but one of nine great books out of ten finalists, ultimately won’t win the contest. It’s a wonderful, intense, incredibly challenging contest, where the self-publishing fantasy world focuses on for the whole year.
The preliminary round is often equated to what literary agents do when they receive queries from aspiring writers. They go through what’s perhaps somewhat derogatively known as “the slush pile”, to find the best among the submissions. So the ten blogging site (judges) roughly split the 300 books into 30 among each blog site. Each blog site reads at least a portion of each of the 30 books, and from that selects their semi-finalist, and then their finalist.
Next comes the current stage of the contest we’re in, which is when each of the other nine blogs reviews the other nine finalists they haven’t read. The book with the highest average score from all ten bloggers, wins! Exciting times ahead! Some fabulous finalist books this year, as in years past!
Do you have any upcoming releases you’d like to talk about?
“Lord and King”, book three in “The Drowned Kingdom Saga”, as I noted above, is coming soon! Othrun has a lot more responsibility in this book, but he’s finding just how difficult his new duties will be. And, as usual, he’s fighting for his life, as people want him dead.
He’s also dealing with personal tragedy, a VERY complex love life, and some terrible, I think shocking events that could really challenge his leadership role. He also makes some brilliant, and some HORRIBLE decisions, that will have a lot of future repercussions.
Finally, he continues to struggle with his faith, his need for magic that he part-believes if heresy, that he also part-believes is real, and that he needs to survive. It’s a complicated time for Mr. Othrun, our protagonist who’s also the antagonist of the story. I hope readers enjoy this book, as much as I had fun writing it!
What project(s) are you currently working on, and can you share anything about them?
While “Lord and King” is already in the editing phase, I’m feverishly working on book four of “The Drowned Kingdom Saga”, with an anticipated release of spring 2024. But if you don’t mind, I’ll keep the title, and any more details a secret for now! Don’t want to spoil the fun!
Besides being a writer, what do you like to do in your spare time?
Spending quality time with Deb is my number one enjoyment! And of course, spending time with our many children and grandchildren, other family, and friends.
Many of those friends are wonderful people from the writing community that I have only met virtually, but have nonetheless become dear to me. I also try to exercise when I can.
Reading is a huge part of my spare time activities, blogging (as I’m an assistant editor with the amazing “Before We Go Blog”, led by the incredible Beth Tabler www.beforewegoblog.com ), reviewing books I read, and of course all the author-associated activities that have nothing to do with actually writing the books! Marketing and promotion is probably the lion share of those activities.
I’m also a kind of part-time booktuber, and privileged to be a co-host of PAGE CHEWING, an interview feature, where Steve Talks Books, Maed Between the Pages (two outstanding booktubers and dear friends), and I feature amazing creatives in the writing community: authors, bloggers, literary agents, booktubers, etc. Hoping you’ll come on the show one day too A.J.! Standing invitation for you!
Thank you! I may have to take you up on that offer… Anyway, do you have any parting thoughts you’d like to share?
First, I just want to thank you so much again, for the honour of being interviewed by you, and wish you continued success in your own writing! I’m very much looking forward to your next book!
Finally, I’d like to say a word of encouragement for all those aspiring writers out there! If I can do it, you certainly can! Persist, don’t give up, publish your work, however you can, by either self-publishing or traditional means, get your story out there, and your readers will come!
A huge thank you to P.L. for taking the time for this interview (and for mentioning my books in the process!) You can learn more about his books on his website, plstuart.com.