Celebrate Lit Blog Tour - Succession by Brett Armstrong (Interview & Guest Post & Giveaway)

12/4/2020

Son of the Northern Realm’s Defender, raised among dwarfs of Ordumair, Meredoch was anticipated to succeed his father. Some whispered he would bring the longed-for peace between Ordumair and their ancient foe, Ecthelowall. All of that changes when Ordumair’s Thane is killed and Meredoch and his family are exiled. From prestige to poverty, the young boy must chart a new course.

As the years pass and the idol that was his father’s legacy tarnishes, Meredoch’s past resurfaces. An artifact of immeasurable worth to Ordumair is found. If recovered by the wrong hands, disaster would befall those Meredoch serves and cares about. Battling creatures believed only myths and racing against evil toward the prize, Meredoch must face the truth of his place in the world and claim his right of succession.

Genre: Christian Epic Fantasy
Release Date: October 6, 2020

Click here to get your copy!

Interview with Brett Armstrong

#1. What was the inspiration for this book?
When I started the Quest of Fire series, I was a senior high school and thought I was just writing a three-page fairy tale for a class assignment. By the time I had to turn in the assignment it was a twenty-seven-page long synopsis of several key plot points for The Gathering Dark. Fortunately, my teacher was understanding and encouraged me as a writer. As I grew up spiritually and as a writer, so did the story. It grew into something far more intricate and richer than I had ever expected. It grew to a tale that weaves each protagonists’ life experiences into a singular saga of pursuing the completion of a quest worth living and dying for. It’s a story that actively shows how stories encourage and shape us. Since it’s such a huge and sweeping story I’ve pulled inspiration from everything I’ve enjoyed over the years growing up. Arthur legends, The Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia, Shakespeare’s plays, movies like Star Wars, my love for history and folklore, and life experiences and stories from the lives of believers through the ages. And, of course, Scripture. Particularly verses exhorting us to stand firm in our faith, to fight the good fight, and show love and forgiveness to others that mirrors Christ’s which was undeterred even knowing it would not stop others from hating and seeking to hurt Him. Love that looked down from the cross and asked God the Father to forgive His tormentors.

#2. How long did it take to finish writing this book?
Succession was one of my quicker writes. The first draft took maybe four months and to get it ready for the publisher took around a year. The Gathering Dark was a long time in coming so it took around twelve years to get it from the idea to print. Though with it came the entire framework for the entire Quest of Fire series.

#3. What drew you to write in this particular genre?
The Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia definitely influenced me to dabble in fantasy, but I stuck with it, because there’s a tremendous amount of freedom in it. Fantasy lets you thrill and inspire and show people things they can’t see anywhere else, while also showing them things about our world that they can carry with them. You can encapsulate some really beautiful things in fantasy and that makes it hard to resist.

#4. Do you have favorite character(s) in this book?
That’s a tough one to make a call on. In Succession, I do really like Meredoch. It’s hard not to root for him, to empathize with him. Life has been hard but he still fights to hold on to his convictions about goodness and honor. That definitely gets tested and he has a lot of bitterness and anger to sort through, but he isn’t giving up on what he believes in and I admire that.
For The Gathering Dark it’s The Storyteller. Some it is because of things he does and says later in the series, but I just like the mystery he carries with him. There’s more to him than meets the eye and I’ve always liked characters who are full of surprises. Particularly what he brings to the end of the book.

#5. What do you hope your readers will take away with them when they read this book?
It’s easy to lose sight of what an incredible God we serve and to slowly reduce our estimation of Him in our day-to-day lives. It’s the nature of the world, it wears at us and our faith like the sea does the shoreline. But the sea doesn’t just take away, sometimes it brings with it something to add to the shore and I hope my stories do that. Being in the world but not of it, a fantasy story that can entertain and excite but also engage the heart and reinvigorate its memory of the splendor of the King of Kings. My hope is Quest of Fire will encourage those who follow Christ and incite wonder in their hearts that helps carry them through the deceptively simple days in life.

#6. How did you name your characters?
Early drafts played with variations on names of people I knew or characters I liked from other stories, and then I moved towards names based on meanings, sometimes carrying hints of what was to come from them as a kind of shared secret with readers who look into the names. Sound also plays a role in picking them and hints of different cultural influences. For instance, the Knight Errant Omelek compared to Meredoch in Succession. As I discover new lands and lore in the Lowlands the variation in names and the cultures that created them have become more varied.

#7. Tell us something funny, sad, embarrassing, whatever, that happened involving this book.
If it’s okay, I’d like to tell about something really cool that happened. I started on Succession in earnest while I was doing edits on The Gathering Dark with the publisher. I had already written the lyrics to a lay/lament that appeared multiple times in The Gathering Dark and at first it was more about what Anargen from that book felt about those lyrics. As I was working on Succession, I kept asking myself why did the character who

first sang the song do so when he did? Why that location and that moment? Then the answer hit me one day and suddenly it was like that moment didn’t just belong to one character but to both and there were layers to what was happening in that scene. That’s one of my favorite parts of storytelling. When you think you’ve read a scene and gotten everything and then realize there’s another dimension to a moment and how it resonates with the different characters. I geek out over that kind of thing. So much so that I gushed about it to music director at the church I attend, who happens to be a fantasy fan and songwriter. He looked at the lyrics of the song and offered to put it to music. So I now have a fully recorded version of the song from the book which acts as the official theme music for the series! Anytime I need to drop into the Lowlands and put myself in the right mindset to write in the series, all I have to do is listen to that song.

#8. Tell us a little about yourself, your family, friends.
I’m a Christian and consider that the most important and defining thing about me. I grew up going to the church I still attend in a small town in West Virginia. I majored in computer engineering and computer science and minored in creative writing, history, and mathematics. I then went on to complete grad school for creative writing. My day job is infectious disease data manager for the state of West Virginia, which is how I support my family. COVID has made work crazy these past few months, but we’re holding together. I have an incredible and supportive wife who teaches 7th grade Math and a wild and wonderful little boy who keeps us on our toes. We live just outside town and raise a garden each year. Pumpkins are probably my favorite thing that we grow. I also enjoy drawing and when I’m able watching movies (in addition to reading which is probably obvious). My wife would likely add that I remember an annoying number of quotes from movies, which I have a tendency to want to drop in a conversation when the moments present themselves.

#9. If you could change one thing in your life, past or present, what would it be?
Much as Aslan warned against it in The Chronicles of Narnia, I try not to play the “What if?” game too much. I’ve learned a lot from my mistakes, though if I had to choose, I would say better time management. I would take opportunities I had early when I was just getting started and try to keep better focused during certain periods in my life. Particularly during the long months since the pandemic started. It’s really taken a toll on my writing productivity and I think it would have been helpful to have not let so much time go by without action. My work has kept me insanely busy, but I would really liked to have carved out some time that is now gone.

#10. What one piece of advice would you like to give readers?
Just to be mindful that what you read eventually becomes part of you. I read about a study that was done a couple years ago that determined when you read stories your brain processes that information in the same way it does lived experiences. So, to some degree what you read becomes part of you at a physical level. Guard your heart, but when you do find a solid story really dig in deep and let it encourage and inspire you. It’s like GK Chesterton

said, children already know bogies exist, but through stories we can help find a St. George to defeat them. As kids and adults, stories are a really special opportunity to face and overcome the monsters of daily life.

#11 Share with us a thought, Bible verse, whatever is on your mind/heart.

More from Brett

The Lowlands are on the edge of dramatic changes. In every era, warriors for the High King must rise to keep the light burning and hold back the beasts of the darkness that most believe only myth. But those creatures of lore wait for the nightfall that will allow them to roam free and relish that complacency.

None of the protagonists in the Quest of Fire saga—Anargen, Jason, and, in Succession, Meredoch—realize how great a change is coming. Anargen is from a quiet, little town that has stood unchanged and insular for centuries. Jason has been running from a darkness in his past so long he only looks to his next step, never what’s coming ahead. Meredoch grew up with high hopes for his future, proud of his family’s legacy. In the course of the saga, each faces a moment when what they’d clung to and trusted in fails them. For Anargen it’s his quaint life, Jason self-absorption, and Meredoch his family pride. In losing those things, however, each gains something. The chance to join the ancient Quest of Fire on behalf of the High King of All Realms. There’s a passage in The Gathering Dark that sums it up nicely. “Life is filled with losses full of greater gains.”

What excites me to write and share the Quest of Fire saga is showing through sweeping epic fantasy the way these characters stand firm. Though not the only spiritual theme woven into the stories, both The Gathering Dark and Succession invite readers to journey with these characters to the brink, risking their lives, and find there the greatest gain.

Brett Armstrong

From an early age, Brett Armstrong had a love for literature and history. At age nine, he combined the two for his first time in a short story set in the last days of the Aztec Empire. After that, writing’s role in his life waxed and waned periodically, always a dream on the horizon, till he reached college. At West Virginia University, he entered the Computer Engineering program and spent two years pursuing that degree before an opportunity to take a creative writing class, for fun, came along. It was so enjoyable, he took another and in that course he discovered two things. The first was the plot for a short story called Destitutio Quod Remissio, which the other students

really seemed to love. The second, he realized he absolutely loved writing. For him, it was like the proverbial light bulb coming on. In the years since, describing that epiphany has been difficult for him, but he found the words of 1924 Olympian Eric Liddell are the most eloquent expression for it: “God made me fast. And when I run, I feel His pleasure.” God gave Brett a passion for writing, and so feels His pleasure when writing.
Brett lives in Saint Albans, West Virginia, with his beautiful wife, Shelly. In the summer the pair gardens together, and each day Brett continues writing his next novel.