Every Tuesday, get to know a bit about the stories behind the books you love, and discover your next favourite novel.

Sabitha: What’s better than a fantasy series? A queer fantasy series, and we’re in luck today! Elise Carlson is here to tell us about their epic and portal fantasy Ruarnon Trilogy, staring (mostly) queer young adults. Elise, what inspired you to write this book?

Elise: Short answer, Narnia, Lord of the Rings, the Wheel of Time and a lifelong love of fantasy. Longer answer: The Ruarnon Trilogy began with the question: why do adults fight wars? Which led to the question: what is the worst someone in a position of power could do out of fear (while also being genuinely well-meaning)?

The answers for war against someone’s will in Manipulator’s War delve into coercion, blackmail, assassination attempts, and of course, ultimately greed. But what someone afraid and in power could do led to breeding monsters, rallying sorcerers, initially unclear motives and attacks, and ultimately war and an entire movement that sweeps the world of Umarinaris.

In countering all of the above, the role of friendship in helping characters manage their spirits, emotions and attempt the impossible was crucial, and perhaps inspired by the importance of friendships to me as an asexual, aromantic person.

Sabitha: Have you ever killed off a character your readers loved?

Elise: Book one, Manipulator’s War has the kind of plot where people will not grow into who they or the story needs them to be unless certain people die. So there was a character an advance reader was very fond of. I eceived comments from her as she read like; “Oh no! That’s very bad! *lots of crying emojis*.”

While I write fantasy, I like writing realistic characters and realistic stories. So with epic battles in all three novels, everyone isn’t going to live.

Sabitha: Do you have any suggestions to help people in our community become better writers?

Elise: The two most important things I would advise fellow writers are: reach out to fellow writers on whatever digital platform works for you, connect with them, get to know them, learn from and share your journey with them —yesterday! And when it comes to the process of writing and editing, try whatever you like and feel free to ignore things that don’t work for you. As an author with ADHD, I finished writing, editing, and publishing 360k words of epic fantasy because I threw unhelpful-to-me-personally advice out the window.

Sabitha: What’s your next writing project?

Elise: My next project will also be set in Umarinaris, around three thousand years later. The sorcerer alliances forming at the end of Ruarnon Trilogy will be like the United Nations by then, but with teeth: emergency services, police, armies, and educational institutions worldwide. It’s a small world, Umarinaris having fractured into inward-looking city states after a nuclear war wiped a continent off the map by then, and everyone abandoned modern (especially communications) technology in fear. Except for organised crime, another international organisation, whom Sythe’s characters will ultimately come up against —even before they graduate from school, magic and combat training!

Sabitha: Thanks for sharing your story and your process. We’re looking forward to reading! Where can the Night Beats community find you and your book?

Elise: You’ll find my ebooks at a range of stores and online subscription services via my books page. You’ll find me on: Blue Sky Social, Mastodon and Facebook.