It’s our pleasure to host Steven McKinnon, the author of the epic fantasy series, The Raincatcher’s Ballad, the first book of which was an SPFBO 4 finalist. Today we are celebrating the release of his new book, Order of the Shadow Dragon which starts off a new series, Legacy of Light & Shadow.
Steven McKinnon is an independent writer living, eating and just about breathing in Glasgow.
He is the author of Boldly Going Nowhere, in which he tells the story of how he broke free from the suffocating rut he was in.
When not writing deeply personal stories about his private life and showing them to the world, Steven will either be eating cake, listening to Iron Maiden, or filling his brain with pointless Buffy and Battlestar Galactica trivia.
His first published piece of short fiction, GoogleFuture, appears in Issue 6 of The High Flight.
Steven completed two courses of Creative Writing at the University of Glasgow in 2010, and completed an HNC in Professional Writing Skills at Reid Kerr College in 2006. He is 31, and was born in the bathroom of a high-rise flat in Glasgow on the 18th of March 1986.
He has since moved out.
Connect with Steven McKinnon
Magic is the enemy. When he discovers all is not what it seems, can a young knight survive long enough to protect his kingdom from betrayal?
Adrian Navarro burns for revenge. The lone member of a defunct military sect, the nineteen-year-old can’t shake the horrific nightmare of witnessing his father’s murder by shadowy fiends.
So when a cataclysm devastates a neighbouring kingdom and his superiors blame a powerful sorceress, he gladly agrees to assassinate her to settle the score.
Striking out across another realm’s border, the relentless soldier tracks the evil wielder of the dark arts. But after he’s ambushed by magic-users and captured, he’s shocked to discover his single-minded crusade for vengeance could be built on a stunning lie…
As he’s confronted by soul-shattering truths, can Adrian prevail to embrace his greatest fear?
Order of the Shadow Dragon is the action-packed first book in the Legacy of Light & Shadow epic fantasy series. If you like heroes who grow, fast-paced thrills, and humour along with the danger, then you’ll love Steven McKinnon’s high-stakes adventure.
Welcome back to the Asylum, Steven! Take a seat by the fire, have a glass of beverage of your choice and tell us something about yourself that’s not in your bio!
Thank you, Timy! I’ve got into whisky recently, so I’ll have a dram of Talisker (10 Year-Old, please). Maybe that answers both points in this question?
Sure. Whatever you fancy. *snaps fingers for drinks to appear*
Oh boy, it feels like ages since the last time we were chatting here in the Asylum. And it’s been only 5 years. How’s life been treating you?
Five years! Has it been that long since I was first thrown into the bowels of the Asylum? I’d almost forgotten what daylight looked like…
Time flies when you are having fun, huh? At the same time, it feels like 10 years thanks to Covid years and all the shit going down in the past couple of years…
Life has been good – a global pandemic notwithstanding. I got married in July 2022, visited New York and got a promotion in the day job all within a few months of each other. I finished the Raincatcher’s Ballad trilogy and wrote a new title due to be released on 28th November. All in all, I can’t complain – though I feel like I should have written a lot more in 5 years…
Nah, don’t beat yourself up. I think you did very well! Also, congrats on being married!
The last time we chatted, SYMPHONY OF THE WIND was “only” an SPFBO 4 semi-finalist, later becoming a finalist. What were your takeaways from the competition? Would you enter again?
Oh wow, THAT’S a question! Becoming a finalist was a rollercoaster – I got the news while in Prague to celebrate my girlfriend’s (now wife’s) birthday and hit the ceiling with excitement. Never in a million years would I have predicted that.
I would. Then again, I was close to that judging team and I remember that it was a tight race between SYMPHONY OF THE WIND and Josh Erikson’s HERO FORGED.
In terms of takeaways, I said at the time that making connections within the community is the best part of the competition, and I stand by that. Readers, writers, bloggers – it’s a thriving community and I’m happy to be a part of it, even if I tend to stand in the background. If I hit Send on my submission email before all 300 entries are counted, then yes, I’d happily enter SPFBO again. The new book is called Order of the Shadow Dragon and it takes place in the same world as Symphony, but it’s less than half the length, less complex and more character-focused; I wanted to strip back some of the crazier elements of the last trilogy and really get into my characters’ heads.
Since then you finished The Raincatcher’s Ballad trilogy. I’m sure it must have been a journey! What were the most important lessons you’ve learned during the process? How did you utilize those lessons when preparing to publish your upcoming new book, ORDER OF THE SHADOW DRAGON?
Good question.
While Symphony did well in SPFBO 4, I think readers struggled to connect to it because it borrowed the tropes of different sub-genres of fantasy and squashed them all together. It has a decent rating on Amazon but not many people picked up Book 2, and even fewer picked up Book 3. I’m very proud of all the books in that series but I’ve made a loss every year since I started indie publishing – that’s not sustainable during a cost of living crisis, and with a mortgage to pay. I very nearly quit altogether but the characters in this new story wouldn’t leave me alone, so here we are. Anyway, I wanted to work the creative muscles, so I chose to write something a bit shorter, a bit more straightforward. Kind of like a palate cleanser. In terms of the process, I had a couple of ideas bubbling away – an Urban Fantasy title; the book that became Order of the Shadow Dragon; and a dark Fantasy revenge tale with a single PoV. I took a look at some statistics put together by K-Lytics and drew the conclusion that readers were still hungry for Epic Fantasy. Having already done the worldbuilding groundwork for The Raincatcher’s Ballad trilogy, I decided to do OOTSD since that takes place in the same world. It was a fun write!
Was your approach to ORDER OF THE SHADOW DRAGON (and to the new series it kicks off, Legacy of Light & Shadow) any different to your previous trilogy? I assume, as many other authors, you have quite a few ideas to begin with. How do you decide which idea to focus on?
I should have scrolled and read all the questions before answering that last one! Yeah, ideas are always bubbling away in the soup of a writer’s creative well. I definitely felt burnt-out after finishing the previous trilogy (actually, in the midst of the pandemic, I struggled to finish Book 3 for a long time). I knew I had a much smaller cast of characters to focus on this time around, and that helped me really examine the novel’s themes.
I’m 100% sure you were not alone struggling with writing during the pandemic, so I totally understand. I was also having my own fun time with burnout, so I feel you on that too.
Talking about ORDER OF THE SHADOW DRAGON, what was the main inspiration for the story? Which aspect of the book was the most challenging to write and why?
The inspiration was a desire to write a traditional misfit-band-of-heroes-on-a-journey tale, peppered with some military fantasy – and some full-blown magic. I can’t reveal too much, but magic is resurgent in the world that we first saw in The Raincatcher’s Ballad, and no-one is quite sure why… *arches a conspiratorial eyebrow*
The biggest challenge was figuring out the plot; I knew the events I wanted to describe, and the character arcs, and the themes, but figuring out the order to place them all was tough. I adopted a “skeleton draft” approach, where I rushed out the words for the scenes and the little moments that I knew would take place, then I sketched in the detail later. It meant I had a rough idea of the structure but was able to chop and change scenes around. Some stuff that happens halfway through was originally at the very beginning of the novel; some of the stuff at the start found its way towards the end. It can be tough to see the forest from the trees, but when it takes shape, it’s beautiful.
ORDER OF THE SHADOW DRAGON is being released on November 28, 2023. Congrats! If you could launch a release party with your MC(s) present, how would that go down?
Adrian would be standing silent in a corner, not eating or drinking, and wishing he was elsewhere, practicing sword drills. Cassandra would be making polite chit-chat and sampling appetizers (and arresting anyone who happened to admit to any minor crime), and Dante would be the life and soul, downing shots and playing the fiddle (before crippling performance anxiety sends him running out the door).
Exactly the same as a normal party, really.
Let’s talk a bit about the characters then. What was one thing about your MC(s) that you can identify with, and what were the most challenging bits of their personalities to write?
Great question.
For Adrian, I identified with his snarky humour that masks deep-seated insecurities, and his tendency to dwell on things. The challenging aspects of his personality were fun to write because it meant coming up with things and characters that clash with his beliefs. I identify with Dante’s imposter syndrome, and Cassandra’s belief that anyone should be given a chance (even if she doesn’t have much quarter to give for even the smallest of crimes). All three have their worldviews examined and challenged; I think it’s healthy to reflect and have a bit of self-awareness.
Oh yeah, absolutely!
If you were a character in your book, how would you be described? And what your profession/role would be? How long do you think, you would survive in that world?
As much as I’d love to be described as “ruggedly handsome”, probably: “Tired. Gods, so tired.”
I’d still be an author, I think, or some variation of my day job (I’m a student experience/mobility co-ordinator at the University of Glasgow’s School of Law). Maybe I could combine both and be a travel writer who traverses the world via airship?
That sounds like fun, actually!
Describe an asylum set in the world of your book, ORDER OF THE SHADOW DRAGON!
Not much is known about the asylums here, for no-one committed has ever come back out…
Sounds like a mystery… ????
What you would say is the main message of ORDER OF THE SHADOW DRAGON? Is there something you’d like readers to take away from it?
Without giving too much away, one of the key themes of the story is It’s easy to hate – forgiveness takes strength, which is something I think everyone has been faced with in their life. Sometimes that’s forgiving your enemies. Other times it’s forgiving yourself.
What are your future plans? Are you working on something now? Do you have plans to attend any events in 2023/2024?
I’ve never been to a Fantasy convention, but Worldcon is coming to my hometown of Glasgow next year… I’d love to be in a position where I can host a table or a talk and meet fans, but unfortunately I don’t have that level of brand recognition, so I’d be strictly a guest. I do have ideas for the next book in the Legacy of Light & Shadow, so do watch this space…
Oooh, hopefully, I’ll meet you in Glasgow! I’m not 100% sure yet if I’ll go, but I’m keeping the possibility open.
While you are locked in here for eternity, we will allow you to invite one visitor (fictional and otherwise) – who would you invite? And no, they can’t help you to escape.
My wife Zoe! She won’t be happy that I’ve locked her up forever, but we’ll have plenty of time to work through it…
Mhm… Good luck! ????
Well then, it was a pleasure to have a chat with you! Please allow these nice attendants to escort you out. We hope you’ll enjoy your stay in the Asylum! Any last words?
Uh, well, if you could put the gag away, my last words would be *muffled noises turn into muffled screams*
*locks door*
Grab a copy of Order of the Shadow Dragon by Steven McKinnon!
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