Welcome to the second installment of Mages Behind the Pages, where I hijack a little time with some of the best world-builders in independent dark fantasy. This time around we’ll hear from M.L. Spencer, author of The Rhenwars Saga. This is an amazing story with deep characters and exquisite world-building. If you like morally ambiguous dark fantasy, you won’t go wrong here.

If you haven’t read her work yet, I will be giving away a free Kindle edition of Darkmage, book one in the series, to the first person who comments on this blog post— not my FB or Twitter feeds.

Okay, let’s get to the interview!

Shawn: I think you’ve been around long enough (and published enough amazing books) that most of us already know who you are, but for those who don’t, tell us a little about yourself and The Rhenwars Saga.

M.L: Hi! Well, I’m ML Spencer, a fantasy writer from Southern California. I am also a biology teacher, and  I have a degree in psychology. I love writing provocative novels with morally gray heroes and villains, and The Rhenwars Saga is a good example of this. It’s about—as the title implies—a war. But both sides are equally right/wrong, and even the concepts of good and evil are not as clear-cut as they would be in most fantasy novels.

Shawn: When you set out to write the series, did you have any specific emotional or social themes you wanted to explore?

M.L: I wanted to show how, in practically every conflict, each side believes they are morally justified and feel their cause is righteous. Usually, neither side is in the right. But most people operate from a single perspective and don’t try very hard (or care) to understand other perspectives, especially those that do not fit their own narrative or world-view. Even “good” and “evil” are merely cultural concepts. What is evil to some might be seen as justified by others and vice-versa.

Shawn: Which came first for you with this series: characters, story, or world?

M.L: The concept. I wanted to take a man, tear him down, and have him embrace beliefs/causes that were opposite his original loyalties, while trying to keep the reader on his side—in effect, allow the reader to see and understand both perspectives.

Shawn: Do you feel the Rhenwars story is more character driven or more driven by the history and circumstances of the world it’s set within?

M.L: Rhenwars is definitely more character-driven. My characters are the vehicles through which I convey the themes. The history and circumstances drive the plot, but things such as world building are kept in the background and are never a focus of the story.

Shawn: Did you spend much time outlining your world’s background before you started writing, or did you dive right into the story and build as you went?

M.L: I always have a pretty good idea of what I need in my world to get the job done before I put pen to paper. So I have to lay out the broad strokes of religion, history, nations, geography, etc. But I definitely build as I go. For example, I knew that the Black Lands would be dark and arid, going into the story. But I ironed out the specifics of how such a place could support human life when I finally got there in Book 2.

Shawn: Are there any major leftover bits of world-building you were hoping to (but didn’t get the chance to) reveal during The Rhenwars Saga, and will we see them turn up in this new series?

M.L: Oh yes! I was a little unhappy that my map ended up feeling a bit small in The Rhenwars Saga. This was an artifact of the plot and was unavoidable. Rhenwars is a very circular story by design, so many points of interest are revisited as the story returns to previous destinations instead of revealing new areas to explore. The world in my head was a lot bigger than that, but I never had a chance to show it. Some places, such as the continent of Aeridor, is mentioned but never visited. So now we get to see some of these places in the new series—and I’m excited!

Shawn: Is there anything else you can reveal about the new series?

M.L: Hmm…well there’s more places to visit, that’s for sure! The new series takes place about 20 years after the events of the original series. Some of the original characters carry on to the next series, while some of them don’t. All of the ones who do take a back seat to the new cast. One of the new main characters is actually Kyel Archer’s son, Gil. There are two main story arcs. The first arc follows Gil as he attempts to repair some of the fallout from the war with Malikar, while at the same time protecting the Rhen from a new enemy. The second story arc follows a young mage named Rylan who has a rather mysterious past. Rylan ends up on the other side of the world, where he confronts the same threat Gil is facing back home. There’s a lot of the same themes carried over from the first series—what would a Rhenwars novel be without a cast of morally gray characters being constantly forced to decide between the lesser of two evils?

Shawn: Are we getting another novel/series set within the world of The Rhenwars Saga? Or are we getting a brand new setting?

M.L: We are getting a new series set in the same world, only with (mostly) new characters. The story will feature the next generation who must protect the Rhen from a new foe from across the ocean. I’ll be going to two new continents, where we will meet new societies and cultures, so I’m worldbuilding those as we speak.

Shawn: What, if anything, do you find to be the most challenging part of world-building?

M.L: Probably making my magical plot devices do what they need to do to serve the story. An excellent example of this was the Well of Tears in The Rhenwars Saga, which was basically a gateway to hell. But it was an extremely complicated gateway that was based on a wormhole and had to operate with the same principles as a theoretical wormhole, and yet still function to fulfill its purpose in the story, which was hard to wrangle, especially at the end. That took months of agony to pull that one together.

Shawn: Do you have a favorite aspect of world-building, such as religion, magic, history, sociology, or what have you?

M.L: I love building cultures. I have had so much fun studying real societies to use as models for my fictional cultures. For the people of Malikar, I spent months researching a single time period of the Ottoman Empire. For my new story, I’ve been researching quite a bit about the African empires and feudal Japan. I have also put a lot of effort into studying warfare and its history. I really enjoy learning!

Shawn: What method do you prefer readers use to contact/follow you? (Facebook, Twitter, blog, Goodreads, that sort of thing)

M.L: I think I have the best luck with Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/MLSpencerFiction), as its easiest to see the messages. Readers can also contact me directly from my website:  ml@mlspencerfiction.com.

That concludes my time with M.L. Spencer! I was not at all disappointed in what I learned from her answers, and I’m left excited to see what’s to come for the Rhen and the larger world it’s set within.

Cheers, M.L! Thank you very much for taking the time to do this interview, and here’s to your continued success!