Guest Post
By Brett Armstrong
(Note: These are the ideas I submitted for the author to choose from and he wrote up them all, so I'm sharing them all.😀
)Top 5 Things Readers New to the Series Should Know
1. It’s a saga that’s got two threads to it, each centuries apart. As
Quest of Fire progresses each strand is woven in with the other and the actions in the past ripple into the present.
2. There are two protagonists, one for each strand. Jason from the present thought the order of knights Anargen belongs to in the past were just legends. And he certainly didn’t anticipate that he would be pulled into the same quest he thought to only be a story.
3. As planned, the series is pretty expansive and set to be told over the course of seven books (four novels and three novellas). At the onset it’s pretty heavy on Anargen’s side of the story, but over the course of the series it will shift towards a balance and then to Jason’s part taking the lead. Like
Succession, the other novellas will have a focus on characters from the novels with stories that have impacts on the novels, but are complete to themselves. If that makes sense?
4. I’m a history fan so there’s a ton of lore around every little place within the story world, known as the Lowlands. Though I’ve not been as consistent with it as I’d like, I try to share out little bits of what can’t be in the books on my website.
5. There are lots of new takes on familiar mythic creatures and monsters.
Top 10 Tips to Living in the Storybook World of the Quest of Fire Series
1. Don’t try to talk up the dwarfs of Ordumair to the men of Ecthelowall and definitely not vice versa. Those two have some serious bad blood between them.
2. Having some wilderness survival skills is a plus. Even if you spent most of your life in the urban sprawl of Brackenburgh, you never know when a quest will pull you out into the woods on the run from monsters straight out of fables.
3. By the way, the monsters in the fables, those are real. For a long time, they’ve been kept at the fringes, but as the Lowlands have darkened, they’ve become freer and bolder.
4. When staying at a secluded inn with a creepy innkeeper who likes to lurk in the shadows, make sure to lock the room door and maybe scoot a chair against the door.
5. Be alert during travels. There can be just as much danger from corrupt and scheming merchants and the lesser nobility as the darker creatures of lore.
6. The Isle of Geists, Ruins of Glastonae, and Dungeons of Castle Valesgard got their names for good reasons, don’t expect fun stays and comfy bedding if you visit those locales.
7. To the average person a Spiritsword is just another blade, but in the hands of Knight of Light, they come to a literal fiery life.
8. If caught in the rain outside the Black River Inn, do duck inside. No sense getting drenched and much of the business to be done in Brackenburgh at night during a storm isn’t of the savoriest sort anyway.
9. While staying at the Black River Inn in Brackenburgh, make sure to stop and listen to Cinaed’s stories. They might change everything.
10. If you pledge oaths of loyalty to the High King, rightful ruler of all realms, be prepared to join right away in the
Quest of Fire.
About the Characters
The Gathering Dark Jason Landsby– Seventeen-year-old protagonist living in the Modern Era of the Lowlands. He was born and raised in Brackenburgh, but for a couple years has been on the run. At the start of
The Gathering Dark he’s forced to return to Brackenburgh to complete a task and settle a score he’d rather leave alone. But a quick detour into the Black River Inn changes his course for good.
Aria Graceline: Teenage waitress at the Black River Inn who catches Jason’s eyes and works her enigmatic charm to keep him listening to the story of Anargen until he’s captivated by the tale being told.
Storyteller: The owner of the Black River Inn and Aria’s grandfather. Mysterious in his own right, and absolutely adamant that nobody misses out on hearing out Anargen’s tale, despite pressure from Councilman Erickson of Brackenburgh to stop touting such tales as true history.
Anargen- Seventeen-year-old protagonist living in the Middle Era of the Lowlands. He grew up in the tiny village of Black River and has led a happy life. All the happier now that he knows the girl of his dreams loves him in return. But after his best friend Caeserus has a vision of a quest, he has to follow his oaths of loyalty to the High King and leave his safe and happy life behind for an adventure more incredible than any of the stories he read as a child.
Seren: Middle era teenage girl from the major city of Stormridge. Intelligent and insightful, she began as Anargen’s friend and like him was a bit shy about her feelings. From him she gains a feeling of belonging and home and from her gains a glimpse of the bigger world beyond.
Caeserus – Anargen’s best friend who has recently joined the Knights of Light and is convinced he’s had a vision of an important quest to save a tower that is holding the dark things of the world at bay.
Sir Cinaed – Anargen and the other teens mentor and a Knight Errant in their order. He is summoned far northward to participate in the signing of a peace accord between Ordumair and Ecthelowall
Grey Scourge – A legendary creature of destruction who is determined to not let the peace accord succeed, nor allow the young knights embarking on their quest discover something pivotal to turning the tide in the battle for the Lowlands.
Succession Meredoch MacCowell – Son of the Defender of the Northern Realm, Augustine MacCowell, his dream is to succeed his father as the next Defender. He’s close friends with Duncoin till a truce between Ecthelowall and Ordumair falls apart and Meredoch is exiled from the only home he’d ever known. As he watches his family crumble, he becomes all the more determined to salvage the family legacy by becoming Defender of the Northern Realm, even if it means facing all the tormentors of his past and risking his life in battle with monsters to do it.
Lydia MacCowell – Meredoch’s younger sister who tries to hold the family together and act as a surrogate mother for the family after Meredoch’s mother dies. She’s always quick to side with their father, which causes some friction with Meredoch.
Duncoin – The only son of Thane Denhard of Ordumair and heir apparent to the rule of the dwarf nation. After the truce ends disastrously, he becomes obsessed with achieving what no one, including his father was able, lasting peace with Ecthelowall.
Elder Ulster – Influential and shrewd noble among the Ords. He advises a young Duncoin on how to lead their people when the time comes. He has his own ambitions though and is keeping his cards close to the vest.
Wirgerd – A monstrous fiend who sees the opportunity to profit off the discord between Ecthelowall and Ordumair and sees the Signet of Thanes as the perfect tool to meet his aims. Crushing anyone who gets in his way is just a bonus.
The Covers for the Books
The Gathering Dark The guy on the front cover is really up to no good. I’m sure most people assume he’s Anargen or Jason, but when I gave the cover artist some of the character descriptions and example aesthetics, she opted to put the villain on the cover, which I think is pretty unique. Also, you’ll notice there are two suns setting on the book. Two suns, for different time periods in the same world. One sun is almost down, and ready to fall into night, the question is which era is about to be plunged into the dark?
Succession This cover is a little more straightforward. In the backdrop is Bracken Forest and in the foreground is the Signet of Thanes. Both play an important role in shaping the direction of Meredoch’s life. The latter being the relic which men and monsters alike would kill to gain.
5 Unusual and Interesting Things about Writing/Writing this Series
1. I approach writing novels in a way that seems similar to trekking along a mountain path. I start looking from one high point out at the other high points (major story beats) in the distance, including where I want to ultimately end. But then as I start to make my way from waypoint to waypoint, I find myself going down in the valleys unseen with a lot of surprise streams and copses, and twists and turns to the path I never expected.
2. I view the plot, characters, and setting as all equally important to telling a good story, because each shapes the other throughout the course of the story. By the end, each should be different for what the other elements have done.
3. Sketching characters is a great way to discover things about them. Little details like whether a character wears a hat can give you a lot of unique ways to show instead of tell, like showing anxiety through a character crumpling his or her hat unconsciously.
4. For those looking to get a book published and it’s been a long wait, don’t give up and don’t stop improving your story. I started writing the
Quest of Fire series while a senior in high school. It took twelve years for it to come together the way it has now and it was worth the wait. Sometimes stories just need time to ripen.
5. Writing this series has really shown me a lot about how there can be layers of stories happening within a scene. When I wrote chapter 15 of
The Gathering Dark, I didn’t realize that an entire novella would come together from wondering why a character was a bit melancholy riding through Bracken Forest.
