A Chat with Brett Armstrong, Author of the Quest of Fire Series

Scrivenings Press, has an award-winning speculative imprint, Expanse Books. Brett Armstrong is one of those award-winning authors published by Expanse Books. Brett is featured as my guest author today and discusses his new book, his series, and his deep faith.

Tell us a little bit about your new book Devastation.

A terrible plague called the Devastation is ravaging those seeking to restore Viceroy Ecthelion and the Commonwealth of Ecthelowall. At the same time, a series of betrayals within the Restoration directly threaten the lives of the young Thomas Fenwrest’s beloved, Baroness Mia Sornfold, and his cousin, Heir Apparent Gregor Fenwrest. Thomas must risk everything to keep them safe even as the Restoration crumbles around him. Hiding within the mountainous lands of Albaron, they learn of a dark secret held deep in Albaron’s Wyvares region. If this terror is unleashed by their Monarchist enemies, it will mean the end of the Restoration and death for thousands all across the Lowlands. To stop it, Thomas must face an awful truth—he may not be able to save both those he loves and stop the great evil. But to fail at either will destroy him.

What are you working on right now?

Probably too many things at once! I like to work on multiple stories at a time, but right now, what I should be working on as my #1 writing project is the last book in the Quest of Fire series. Quest of Fire has two story threads in different eras of the Lowlands and Devastation sets up the final conflict in the Middle Era, effectively the past akin to the Renaissance or early Enlightenment period of our world. But the last book is going to wrap up everything for both timelines (the other timeline is equivalent to 1910’s-1920’s). All the arcs across the whole series, the intersection of the two timelines, enormous story world spanning battles, and intense, personal moments that will define the characters—good and bad—for better or worse. Because of how I write, I know the ending (the last scene of the whole series has been with me since book 1 was released), but there are some valleys between the starting peaks and the finishing ones and I’m not sure all of what will happen in between and which characters will make it out of them.

What is your next writing project?

I have a couple projects lined up. In keeping with my too many things at once thread. Right after the final Quest of Fire book is due, I may have a secret project due, but that is still awaiting confirmation. If that doesn’t get confirmed or soon after, I have a couple other stories I’ve been really wanting to tell. One is a sci-fi story that was based on a dream I had and does some really interesting things with time travel that make it kind of a blend of The Time Traveler’s Wife and Inception.

My other project is a sci-fantasy duology that verges on space opera and that I’ve made so many notes and written so many scenes for that I feel like its story world is already one of the most rich and interesting I’ve gotten to explore as a writer.

If you could be any fictional character, who would you be and why?

That’s a tough question. There are a ton of characters that come to mind, but I tend to over analyze things, so I immediately start thinking of the cons to even characters I know have happy endings. Like Peter or Edmund from The Chronicles of Narnia. I think it would be wonderful to see and feel Narnia. Not to mention to get to draw near Aslan who during his romp with Susan and Lucy was alternatingly described him as like a thunderstorm and soft and approachable in one. It would be so incredible to experience. But the practical side of me remembers that Peter became Narnia’s high king and that would be a tremendous burden to bear even if for only a few years, not to mention acclimating to the normal world again after being in Narnia. With Edmund that wouldn’t be such a concern and he got to go back one time more than Peter, but I would loathe to go through the portions of the story where Edmund was cruel and betrayed everyone to the White Witch.

I thought about what it would be like to be some of the characters in the books I’ve written. Especially in Devastation, the characters definitely have some rough roads to travel. Of course, if the characters do not go through hard times and face challenges and grow then the story isn’t really of much use to us readers. It might still be a fun story if there were no harrowing or trying moments, but I feel like the best stories leave us with something more for completing the journey and that usually comes from traversing the story via its characters and growing with them as they face their trials and enjoy their triumphs. And while I can admit to there being trials for Thomas and the others in Devastation, you’ll have to read to see if there are triumphs…

What are you most thankful for?

My faith in Jesus Christ. I accepted Christ as my Savior and Lord at a pretty young age and I’ve often looked back and tried to imagine how my life would have played out had I not decided to follow Him. What inevitably results is the conclusion that everything since that day—the good, the bad, the silly—has been used by the Lord for my good. To shape me and guide me ever closer to Him. So, everything else in my life that I hold dear is in some way there because of Him. I wouldn’t have been the man my incredible wife fell in love with if I hadn’t chosen to follow Christ and I don’t know that if she had she would have wanted to stay with the person I could have become. Which means my son, whom I treasure, would never have been born. My parents and I might not be so close if I hadn’t been reminded by the Spirit regularly to honor my father and mother. I know unequivocally that I would not be the writer I am now without Him. Beauty, virtue, honor, truth, love—I see all of it through the new eyes He gives and so I know I could never capture in words any of them the same way. My whole aim as a writer is to be a brush in the Master Artist’s hand. So, whatever flaws and foibles I as an ineffective tool may bring would only be compounded if I was living in resistance to the strokes He seeks to make with me.

I’m sure anyone from outside the faith reading this would do so with a fairly skeptical eye towards what I’ve said. Which I suppose is fair and I don’t hold it against them. I wrote last year about how before you come to Christ it’s a lot like being a child imagining adulthood. You may think you know what that other existence is, what the reality of adulthood is, but you really honestly don’t. Not until you’re on the other side of it. Which taken a step further is perhaps the most profound reason why I’m most thankful for belonging to Christ. Just as one apart from Christ can’t truly perceive what life is with Him, we who are His can’t fully understand what it will be one day to be fully, eternally with Him. The Apostle Paul said, “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.”* A key note is that mirrors in Paul’s time weren’t like ours where the clarity is so sharp. They were generally made of bronze and provided a blurry reflection, giving a perception of what the person was like but not with the contrast of actually beholding the person. Even with our mirrors today, a mirror image is only an image, not the thing itself. And there are any number of great theologians and philosophers who are quick to assure us that the thing itself is so much more than the image of the thing. Knowing that, “But as it is written, ‘What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love Him’…”** I bear with every struggle, every heartache, every failure, every setback, and every triumph knowing that He is with me. He loves me. And one day I will see Him as He is and all of it will be the offering I lay before Him because it, as much as I treasure and prize every blessing I’ve received, is eclipsed by something far better than I have ever known.

* 1 Corinthians 13:12, ESV

** 1 Corinthians 2:9, ESV

What genre would you like to consider in the future that differs from that/those you do now?

My wife tells me, pretty regularly, I need to write a romance novel. Almost all of my books to this point have had romance in them, but I’ve never tried my hand at out-and-out romance. I would probably have an easier go of romantic suspense. It’s kind of scary to hinge an entire story on two character’s interactions and it stand on just that. My secret project I alluded to earlier might satisfy my wife’s romance request enough to buy me some more time to figure out the mystery that is romance writing though. So, we’ll have to see. And, one thing I’ve said across my whole writing career is that I want to go where the Lord leads. If He leads me into a story that is best told as a romance. Then that’s where I want to go. Even if it’s hard and I do a lot of literary stumbling and fumbling and tripping along the way.

What book or book series have you recently enjoyed reading?

I had my eye on this sci-fi series called Starganauts for some time because of their cool covers, but recently started following the author, CE Stone, on Instagram, and discovered she’s a really cool person with such vibrant faith. She reached out to me and asked if I would like to be on the launch team for her most recent book, Starganauts: Invasion, and I agreed. That is book four in the series and I’ve been going back and reading through the other three, because I love how she handles issues of pain and loss and hardships with her characters. As well as representing people with varying degrees of faith, from boldly devoted to Christ to steadfastly unbelieving. You can see that vibrant faith she has woven into the story and there have been some real moments of encouragement and insight for me from those.

What’s your best advice for other writers?

I’m pretty consistent about giving one bit of advice to just about everyone who mentions an interest in writing. Besides, go write the story you’re imagining, anyway. Because talking about writing is good, but a lot of good stories have died in that gulf between what is imagined and what is actually put to paper. Uh, so, I guess that was a freebie thrown in… my actual best advice is, know why you write and cling to that reason fiercely.

I have not always had a smooth course in my publishing journey. The Lord has blessed me abundantly above all that I could ask or imagine in my publishing career, that I will whole heartedly confess. But I’ve made some mistakes along the way that have complicated things. Sometimes I’m a very stubborn brush in His hand. My bristles tend to be too stiff and clumping. It’s led to a number of times where I’ve hit some pretty hard rejections, seen disappointing sales, and so on. Every writer who wants to be published is going to have to go through those, and maybe I feel like my pains are more intense than they really were relative to others, but that said, the way I weathered all of them and keep weathering them is knowing why I write.

For me, it’s not about the money, though I hope the books succeed in sales. It’s definitely not about the admiration that comes with the label author. I’ve had book festivals where people have told me reading is pointless or big deal that I have a book, they know random person x, y, z published a book and their cat is thinking about becoming published too (that last bit is a minor exaggeration). It’s not about attention, I’m not sure whether someone telling me they’re reading a book I wrote elates me or terrifies me more. From the way I clam up and lose all sensible reasoning of what to respond, probably the latter. I can’t say it’s about contest wins. I have more books than I do wins or finalists. Not reviews or even purely reader interactions. Those can each have their dark sides.

So, if my reason for writing is none of those things (and I promise it bears relevance to my overall advice to other writers and not just me talking about my own reason for writing), then why do it? I write to honor the Lord. Eric Liddell is credited with saying, “God made me fast. And when I run, I feel His pleasure.” That’s how it has been for me and writing. I feel like He made me to write. Wherever the road of writing and publishing leads, so long as it is where He leads, I want to be on it.

For believers who are writers, even if you aren’t writing to the Christian market explicitly, know why you write and make sure that it’s about His glory. That means that when storms and jagged rocks and deep ruts make it hard going, you can keep going. You’ll know He’s with you, making more of what you’re doing than you can accomplish on your own. And in doing it you will feel His pleasure.

For everyone else, still knowing what your goal is, what your writing is about will help tremendously to cut through the harsh noise publishing will blare at you. Though, I would point out that all of life, writing included, is a much easier race to run when you feel His pleasure and purpose in each step.