Lucy A. McLaren

Hello David! Thank you for joining me today for a chat about our shared love of writing, gaming and storytelling.

First up, tell me a bit about yourself—as both a gamer and a writer.

I’d say I’ve been a writer almost from the moment I was taught how to print and read. I’ve always loved crafting stories… short stories until my early teens, when I began my first embryonic tries at writing novels. I almost hesitate to say this, but the full story of my writing origins has been detailed over three (very entertaining, he said modestly) blog posts, which I heartily recommend to you: October 1, 8, and 15, 2018 at drranshaw.com blog tab. Tell ’em Dave sent you. (And I really do urge you to have a gander at them.)

My gaming history goes back to elaborate wargames (with actual maps, cardboard counters, and voluminous rules books) which I used to play as a teenager. They were published by an outfit called Simulations Publications, Inc. (SPI). My electronic gaming history goes back to a used Sega Genesis console we purchased for our kids (to my wife’s eventual lifelong regret) in the late ’90s. They played Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic and Knuckles on it, and watching them, I thought it looked like fun. (To this day, I still recall some of the annoying soundtracks from the games.) So I joined in. Later, my oldest son got a first-generation Xbox, and I was introduced to Halo, which I thought was quite incredible. That initiated a permanent interest in console games, and I got my own Xbox, then Xbox 360, then Xbox 1. My oldest daughter suggested the PlayStation 4, which I bought, and then a PS5, which is where we are today.

Despite my early interest in first-person shooter games like Halo, my tastes evolved and nowadays I prefer single player role playing games with great plots and lots of side storylines. Open world games like Subnautica and Fallout 4 also intrigue me. I prefer playing games with strong female protagonists. For example, Detroit Become Human and Beyond: Two Souls were great. I’d say my top five favourite franchises would be the original couple of Life is Strange games, the Lara Croft Tomb Raider reboot trilogy, the Mass Effect Trilogy playing a female Commander Shepard, the Plague Tale duology, and in the number 1 slot, the Horizon Zero Dawn/Forbidden West games. 

That’s so cool—do you still have any examples of stories you wrote when you were younger? That’s one thing I regret getting rid of, teenage-Lucy writing attempts. They were terrible, but it would be nice to be able to read them now! (Also, I can highly recommend David’s blog, not only to learn more about his writing origins but also to check out his regular blog posts which explore all things literary).

Ha! Do I still have examples of my early writing? I sure do, going all the way back to elementary school. In junior high, I began my first attempts at a novel, and still have those embryonic efforts, too. The novel attempts are amusing and embarrassing to me today, but only because my craft has advanced light-years from those embryonic efforts. They tended to features girls I had crushes on…

It’s nice that you have those to look back on—as embarrassing or cringeworthy as they may seem now!

So, although you were tabletop gaming when you started writing, it seems fair to say that your love of writing and reading pre-dated your love of video gaming, which came when you watched your kids playing their Sega Genesis (I bet your wife does regret that, ha!). Your favourite franchises are full of games with great writing and characters, huge worlds and diverse casts. Would you say your growing passion for such games was driven by your love of writing (and reading)? Do you see similarities between the games you love and the stories you read and write?

Sure, my love of reading and writing loooonnng predates my love of video games…. I grew up in the Dark Ages before (gasp!) there were any video games or personal computers or cell phones or internet (yes, Virginia, there was such a time, and no, we didn’t just sit around staring vacantly at each other, wondering what to do with ourselves). I’m not sure there’s much of a connection between love of reading/writing and love of video games. They’re different methods of creative expression… although a number of people have commented that my first novel would make a great transition over to the visual medium of film. I would say the games I play have had an influence on my most recent novel, which features a strong female protagonist. She’s a feisty 19-year-old who refuses to take any crap from the patriarchal/misogynistic society she lives in, which I realise is an interesting perspective for a male Caucasian boomer to write from. But I’ve long believed that ‘write what you know’ is ridiculous — there’d be absolutely no speculative fiction at all, either science fiction or fantasy, if we lived by that adage.

Looking at it in that way then, it’s not so much that video games had an influence on making you want to write (because, of course, they weren’t a thing when you were first writing)—but you’ve grown to love them as a different storytelling medium which you enjoy diving into, much as you do books.

Tell me more about your current project though. You’ve mentioned your love of video games with strong female protagonists—there’s a clear inspiration, it seems, for the book you’re writing now. Can you share anything more about your character (who, by the way, I love the sound of)? Did you have any specific video game characters in mind when you wrote her? 

I blame it all on my oldest daughter! She was the one who introduced me to the Mass Effect trilogy, and recommended I play the Commander Shepard protagonist as the female commander (affectionately known as ‘femshep’ by fans) — in the games, you’re given the option of playing Shepard as either male or female, and my daughter felt the female Shepard voice acting was vastly superior to the male Shepard voice acting. So I did. And was fascinated at the character’s mix of kick-ass strength and forlorn vulnerability. That was the start of the inspiration for my current female protagonist. Later, along came Horizon Zero Dawn/Horizon Forbidden West and the protagonist of Aloy, and I’ve got to say, I just love everything about Aloy, including her sass and snark (and, of course, her strength and vulnerability, too). Aloy is just about my all-time favourite female video game protagonist. More recently, Amicia from Plague Tale and Plague Tale: Requiem has also caught my attention for those same qualities.

I’d say elements of Shepard, Aloy and Amicia all inspired Areellan, my current protagonist. Areellan is 19, and has felt the full force of ‘the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,’ as Will phrased it. She was abandoned by her parents as a baby, raised in relative poverty by uncaring relatives who only wanted her for the monthly stipend her presence brought in. So, naturally, at her core, she feels fairly angry and betrayed. Rather than letting it all crush her, however, it’s given her an inner strength, resilience, initiative, and refusal to take the paternalistic/misogynistic crap her society (and ours!) routinely dishes out to women and girls, and courage to stand up for herself and those around her, a courage I can only admire and wish I had. This is, really, reflected in the way she barged into my subconscious a couple of years ago and really didn’t give me a great deal of choice about telling her story. She interrupted another project — the sequel to my first novel — and literally made me put it on hold while I told her tale. Funnily enough, Areellan’s tale takes place in the same world as my first novel and its sequel, but there doesn’t appear to be much crossover at all. I’m not sure whether Areellan’s story takes place before or after Gryphon’s Heir, or in an alternate version of that world — so far, she hasn’t bothered to tell me, either directly or indirectly. 

Now I really need to read your next book; having read Gryphon’s Heir (which I enjoyed immensely), I’m interested to see the world from a completely different perspective—and one who is inspired by Aloy is always going to be good in my eyes, as I love her too! She’s the right balance of sass and vulnerability. Oh, and being kick-ass with a bow and arrow helps, too. I’ve never played Mass Effect as it’s more sci-fi than I’m really into, BUT the Plague Tale games have been on my radar for a while.

So, we can see where the inspiration for Areellan came from quite clearly. What inspired your choice of her fighting against a patriarchal society? There has been a rise in “feminism” within video games, with some people taking offence to this, as though video games should only ever be for a very specific subset of gamers and therefore should only present what they want to see). Such issues are beginning to be explored more openly, with games such as Last of Us 2 and even Horizon: Forbidden West coming under scrutiny from that aforementioned subset. Did this play a role for you in sculpting Areellan and her story? Or do you think it was inspired by other aspects of your life?

That’s a little hard to answer without seeming trite or ‘woke,’ and I’ve had to ruminate on it for a bit. I’m also well aware that living and writing from a position as a male Caucasian boomer has involved a lot of privilege which, for a great deal of my life, I was embarrassingly unaware of. To be fair, I spent my entire career in a fairly egalitarian system — I was a secondary school teacher for 35 years, a position where I had a great many female colleagues who were just that… colleagues, whose gender I never even gave a second thought to — and who, by the way, got paid exactly the same as me. I worked for a number of female principals, and never had any problem with the idea of working for women — for me, the sole criterion of importance to evaluating a boss (or co-worker, for that matter) is their competence. I’ve worked with some great people, and with hell’s own herd of turkeys. But gender has never entered into the equation.

I suppose what it really boils down to is a gradually dawning realization over the years — and I think this has been largely independent of my interest in video games — of the appalling, immense damage that’s been done to the male/female dynamic over… well, over pretty much all of human history, really… by this nonsensical, irrational imbalance in power in the relationship between men and women. The casual (or deliberate) misogyny, the patronising attitudes, the patriarchal societal structure… none of it should exist. Period. That it does is a sad commentary on us as a species. And the gaming culture has been, historically, at least, too often a disturbing reservoir of misogyny, so I’m really pleased to see more and more games dealing with kick-ass female protagonists who insist on taking their rightful place in society: alongside men, as equals. I’ll admit that seeing Aloy, Amicia, Shepard and other strong female characters has reinforced the sculpting of Areellan in that mold. I suppose my take on the whole thing can be summarised in a comment made by Lowri, a strong female character in my novel Gryphon’s Heir, when she says, “Women can be equal with men and yet still delight in being women, distinct from men. And men can appreciate that.” I look at the world around me and shake my head in disbelief, wanting to say to many men, “Come on guys, why is this even still an issue at all in the 21st century?”

I wholeheartedly agree with you, David, and I don’t think any of what you said comes across as trite or woke. It comes across as someone who has reflected on themselves and their life and who understands the issues in society—even now. I love that concluding question too. I feel that’s a great place to wrap up; in recognising the female video game characters who are breaking the mould of previous misogynistic or problematic portrayals in games, and in seeing how much of an impact those have had on your new novel.

Thank you very much for your time, your personal stories and your honest reflections. For anyone who wants to stay in touch with you, check out Gryphon’s Heir and keep up to date on the release of your second book—where can they do so?

My website at drranshaw.com is probably the best place. I maintain a blog there where I talk about all things writing, as well as any other topic that needs some cranky The pontificating, and any news I have to share. I’m also @drranshaw on Twitter (still).

Areellan’s Tale (a working title I still haven’t been able to replace) is in beta reading right now, and I’m pleased with how it’s shaping up. I’m not sure how much longer the original Gryphon’s Heir will be available, as in Areellan’s wake, I’ve done a thorough edit of Gryphon’s Heir, trimming off 11,000 words and contemplating adding some new content. But at the moment, it remains available on Amazon.

Thanks for a delightful conversation. Ain’t a writer out there (well, hardly any, at any rate) who doesn’t like talking about their work.

Thanks, David! It’s been a pleasure.