Devin Madson is an Aurealis Award-winning fantasy author best known for writing stories about badass, morally grey people and making readers bawl by mercilessly killing off fan-favourite characters. Her originally self-published book We Ride the Storm, the first instalment in a tetralogy set in the same world as Madson’s The Vengeance Trilogy, is being re-released by Orbit Books on June 23rd, and we had the absolute pleasure of chatting with her about it!
Hi Devin! First of all, thank you for agreeing to do this interview! Could you tell us a little bit about yourself?
Hi! Thanks so much for having me here! Hmmm about me? Apart from all the lovely things you said in your introduction, I’m an Aussie who lives in the middle of the bush with many a kangaroo, my partner and Doom Child, and a pet blue tongue lizard. If I had any spare time, I would probably work in it, but if my partner had hidden my computer keyboard I might garden, play video games or… find another keyboard.
What can readers expect going into We Ride the Storm?
We Ride the Storm is a fast-paced, epic fantasy full of battles and intrigue, trippy necromancy and respectful beheading, snarky humour and twisty twists, but at its core it is also a story about how messy it is to be human. Sometimes there is no right decision, sometimes we can make the very mistakes we swore we wouldn’t, sometimes the things we want trump what we need or even what we know to be right, and sometimes we will fight for those we love no matter who else might suffer for it, because when everything else feels lost, love is all that’s left.
What inspired you to write dark fantasy books in general and We Ride the Storm in particular?
I never sat down and decided I would write dark fantasy books, but I think it was a bit of an inevitability between my geeky, SFF-filled childhood, my lifelong desire to be an author, and my liking for exploring the deep complexities of human relationships and emotions. I’ve always been fascinated by the juxtaposition of elements, beautiful surroundings for awful events, intensely loyal relationships with heavy baggage, stressful moments with humour. And stabbing. I like stabbing in books. So I think I was stuck with dark fantasy. As for We Ride the Storm, as it’s a continuation of a generational story I started back in my novella, In Shadows We Fall (you don’t have to read it first, I deliberately wrote these so you could join the story anywhere) I already had a strong basis on which to build. I’d wanted to continue with the story because at the end of The Vengeance Trilogy, although everything wraps up where the story is concerned, some of the characters have to make difficult decisions and suffer heavy losses, and I wanted to see what effect it would have on not only them but the whole empire. Because when people in power hold grudges and fight over that power, it can change the course of history.
What has the journey from being a self-published author to a traditionally published one been like for you?
All sorts of wild. And unexpected! I deliberately chose to self-publish because I like to learn how to do things for myself and have never been… all that good at having a boss or being patient? I was just planning on going on with that when I got an email from my acquiring editor, Nivia Evans, at Orbit US saying she was interested in my books so… I replied? It all sort of just went from there. They were interested, I got myself an agent, I had to pull the release of the second book in The Reborn Empire series to keep it on the table, an offer came AND THEN I HAD TO KEEP IT A SECRET FOR… NINE MONTHS.
It’s very different, having deadlines set by other people and specific rounds of edits, and after having gone into self-publishing in part because I like to do everything for myself, I’ve been surprised by how much I love it. It is amazing having a team of people to work with and being able to focus a bit more on just writing the books without as much behind the scenes administrative work.
Miko, Rah and Cassandra are the three POV characters in We Ride the Storm. Did you have trouble juggling three voices so completely different from one another?
Surprisingly not? It might be because it wasn’t my first outing with three first-person POV characters. I did the same thing in The Vengeance Trilogy and found that having three very different people, with different goals and from different backgrounds, different ways of speaking and senses of humour, is the best way to differentiate and juggle them without mixing them up. There is a bit of a sense of putting on a mask each time you sit at the keyboard, knowing who you’re working with and picking up where you left them. Of course I went and made it harder for myself and added a fourth POV in We Lie With Death, the second book of The Reborn Empire.
Which POV was the most difficult for you to write and why?
Miko. It’s always Miko. She is a difficult balance of a character. She is young, but hasn’t been allowed to have a childhood, always living in the shadow of her mother and Emperor Kin, in an unfriendly court with fear of assassination around every corner and people always watching. She is fierce and determined, yet almost totally lacking in experience. She wants to do right, but has a lot of ambition and a core of rage that drives her. And all of that is… a lot.
What research did you do in preparation for writing the Reborn Empire series
Very little! Because this book is a continuation of a world I’ve been writing since I first started, so I’ve just slowly built up the details over time. Also, because I don’t plan before I write, I don’t know what I’m going to need until I’m in the middle of it and then I either make a note and come back to it, or research on the run depending on what it is.
Is there a scene in the book that you enjoyed writing the most? Which part was the hardest to write?
Non-spoilery scene I enjoyed writing the most… Cassandra has a voice in her head and there is a way too fun section where she loses control of most of her body to the other consciousness with… amusing results.
Hardest is like, every single one of the OH SO MANY action scenes. I am not one of those people who can just adrenaline rush through them with heart-pounding excitement. I… drag my feet slowly and painstakingly construct these things line by line and go over them so many times to make sure the pacing and word choice and everything is as tight and strong as I can make them. I have such a tendency to lose interest and skim action scenes in books when reading and it’s left me very aware how easy it is to lose readers in them. (The only thing worse to lose a reader in is a sex scene but I don’t write nearly as many of those)
If you could spend a day with any one of your characters, who would it be?
Rah. Rah and Gideon together if I could have two, but otherwise just Rah, because he is just such a sweetheart? He is the most respectful human, with an enormous heart and sly sense of humour, and I think we could have a great time. We could like… go horse riding. Or he could teach me how to sever heads with a knife to release the souls of the dead. That’d be fun.
What’s your writing process like?
A little all over the place honestly. I don’t plan much, so my first drafts are incomplete. Not quite draft zero style but often missing whole scenes and having plenty of things that don’t make sense yet. Part of my writing process these days is going on evening walks to think through how the next scene/chapter is going to go, or to work through plot problems. By the time I’m nearly at the end, I know what I need to change and I go back through from the beginning to tighten and fix and… grumpily write the stuff I left out.
And finally, do you have any book recommendations for readers who want to explore the dark fantasy genre further?
Everyone has very different idea of what dark fantasy is, which makes recommendations in this area quite varied. I would recommend The Godblind Trilogy by Anna Stephens, The Poppy War by R. F. Kuang, Rage of Dragons by Evan Winter, and Black Wolves by Kate Elliott.
