We chat with Justin Lee Anderson about his new release The Lost War, which is a sensational epic fantasy that follows an emissary for the king as he gathers a group of strangers and embarks on a dangerous quest across a war-torn land.
Hi, Justin! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
Hi! I’m Justin Lee Anderson. I’m originally from Edinburgh, Scotland, but I spent 11 years growing up bouncing around the US following my dad’s football (soccer) career. I’ve been a professional writer and editor for most of my adult life, and my first book, Carpet Diem, was published in 2015. I now live with my wife and the youngest of our five kids just outside Edinburgh.
When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?
I loved reading from as early as I can remember. I read a lot of comics, in particular, like X-Men, Justice League and Teen Titans. I got more into books with stuff like Choose Your Own Adventure and Encyclopedia Brown when we had Scholastic Book Fairs at school – so even then I was into the same genres I am now, fantasy and mystery. The first time I can remember getting excited about writing them myself was a school assignment when I was about 9. We were asked to write a short story on one side of A4. I wrote both sides and could have kept going! The teacher had me read it out in class, and the other kids seemed to like it. Soemthing similar happened in my teens, where we were asked to write a new final chapter at the end of a book called Collision Course, that we had just read. Again, the teacher had me read mine to the class, and it also seemed to go down well. I think those were the seeds of me falling in love with telling stories.
Quick lightning round! Tell us the first book you ever remember reading, the one that made you want to become an author, and one that you can’t stop thinking about!
Ooh! The first book was probably one of those Richard Scarry books you get as a young kid. I had a few of those and would spend hours on them. One that made me want to become an author? Probably Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series, I think. That was about the right age and it blew my mind. One I can’t stop thinking about: Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy. It’s so good and tragic that he didn’t live to see it published, and that we’ll never get to read any more of his work.
Your latest novel, The Lost War, is out May 16th! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Twisted Scottish epic fantasy mystery
What can readers expect?
A familiar fantasy setting that takes them places they’re not expecting. I like to usurp people’s expectations, so while they might begin thinking they’re in an epic quest fantasy, they’ll find themselves in a mystery, conspiracy thriller with horror elements and character-driven drama. And they won’t see the ending coming!
Where did the inspiration for The Lost War come from?
It came from three different things. The first is hard to explain without spoiling the ending of the book, so all I can say is that I wanted to write a metaphor for a particular aspect of modern politics and culture. I also wanted to write something using a group of characters that friends and I had roleplayed over the course of about ten years. And I wanted to write something set in a country based on Edinburgh. Those three things came together to become The Lost War.
Were there any favourite moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
There is one scene set in the ruins of Caer Amon that I wrote while I was on diazepam for my back. I literally fell asleep at the keyboard at one point. But the scene ended up one of those I was most pleased with and a few people have told me it’s one of their favourites, so I guess it worked out! Other than that, there are quite a few conversations getting into things like morality, politics and religion that I really enjoyed exploring. I’m very interested in all of those topics.
Can you tell us a bit about your worldbuilding process?
For Eidyn, it involved a lot of research into Edinburgh. I used to edit a tourist guide to Edinburgh, so I already knew a lot, but I did some specific research into the etymology of place names, which I then used to feed the worldbuilding. For example, I knew I was going to have an order of religious knights trained to fight demons. There’s a place just outside Edinburgh called Balerno, which comes from Baile Airneach, which means the place of the hawthorns. Hawthorn bushes produce white flowers with thorny branches, and so Baile Airneach became the home of the Order of the White Thorns. There are also half a dozen real Edinburgh pubs in the book, at least one character directly inspired by a real person, and a few scenes inspired by real events. So all of Edinburgh’s history, mythology and etymology fed into creating Eidyn and the world of The Lost War.
What’s next for you?
Book 2 of The Eidyn Saga, The Bitter Crown, is currently in edits and I’m writing book 3 at the moment. It’s a four-book series so this will be my focus for the next few years! After that, I have four or five ideas for what I’ll do next. All of them very different!
The Lost War is out on May 16th (US) and May 18th (UK) and The Bitter Crown will be out at the end of 2023, so not too long to wait to find out what happens next!
