Lucy A. McLaren

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

First up, tell us a bit about yourself, your writing and your love of video games. 

Hi there, Lucy! I’m glad to take part in your new blog series about authors influenced by video games. I’m coming to you from the beautiful city of San Antonio, Texas, where one branch of my ancestors has made the region their home since the 1750s. I’m a mother, an animal lover, film/tv buff, and a gamer. I’ve spent most of my writing life producing non-fiction articles on technical topics, and only dove into the fiction side of the pool with a novel release in the fall of 2019. When speaking of my novels, I prefer to call myself a Mythic Fiction writer. Unfortunately, I’ve yet to find a section labeled that way in any bookstore, so I use the phrases Fantasy Romance, Urban Fantasy, or Paranormal Suspense instead. I currently have eight fiction books on the market, and two more in the present production cycle.

Moving on to the thing we’re really here to talk about, I’ve been a gamer for a very long time. Being a child of the 1980s allowed me to experience the whole swath of gaming explosion. From the first consoles to the first computers, the gaming arcades, table-top RPGs, card games like Magic the Gathering, live-action role play events, choose your own adventure novels that functioned like written game, computer text gaming of the MU* variety, all the way into major PC franchises like World of Warcraft, and now with modern mobile device gaming. It has been a wild whirlwind of change to experience, and I’m definitely excited to talk more about it with you.

That’s awesome! Sounds like once you found your fiction writing legs, you really jumped in at the deep end. Having 8 books out and 2 more in the pipeline is amazing. Can you tell us a little bit about your latest release(s)?

You’ve got extensive video game experience and have really witnessed a huge evolution in gaming. What games do you find yourself particularly drawn to—and do you see any similarities in the stories you have told?

Fiction really has been a surprising home for me, especially since I’ve never considered myself a creative type. Heck, I didn’t even think of myself as a writer for the longest time, despite having published my first non-fiction book when I was twenty and spending years writing hundreds of non-fiction articles and research essays. My current books are divided among two series – one is called The Cursed Elves and the other series is the Southern Supernaturals. The Cursed Elves series is where I began and is very much in line with everything I love. So far I have six books in that series, and I am looking forward to the next release in it. My most recent release was book two in the Southern Supernaturals series, which is a minor diversion from the dark and serious tone of my other series. They take place in the same modern world, but I wanted to write something that was appropriate for any age and captured an old-fashioned “fall in love while we solve a mystery” kind of charm. I call them cozy paranormal romances.

Back to the gaming influences, if there was one video game I was particularly drawn toward, it would be World of Warcraft. That the game is jam-packed with mythological references from our history. Educationally, I have a very classical background, complete with deep study of the works of ancient Greek and Latin philosophers, as well as years of study in the Latin language. When I write my stories about mythological beings from our history, I like to keep as accurate to the origin tales as possible, and then add on to them in ways that feel appropriate for the ‘accepted’ personality of the beings. Hence, the use of the term ‘mythic fiction’ versus anything else as a preference, since accuracy is a defining feature. I’ve enjoyed how the World of Warcraft story mixes in a variety of mythologies from different parts of the world, and they do a decent enough job of keeping them relatively similar to the origin tales.

However, as much as I enjoyed playing games which involve mythic fiction, my writing is probably most influenced by the extensive experience I have with cooperative storytelling/gaming. Whether as a group player or dungeon master rolling through a Dungeons and Dragons story, or typing out individual emotes and dialogue with live online players in online text gaming… environments where players create the story on the fly have a much greater impact on my creativity. It’s great fun to play off the actions of another character, and not know exactly how they’re going to react. It really forces you to immerse yourself into the role and become the characters.

I love the sound of both of your ongoing series! It’s amazing that you never considered yourself creative and yet have two book series ongoing—your creative well certainly seems to run deep. You mentioned your love of World of Warcraft because of its utilisation of mythological references from our history, and how this plays into your personal education and passion for classical study. How much would you say those passions have woven themselves into your two series? I assume The Cursed Elves has much more of this, being your fantasy series—or perhaps I’m wrong!

And, similarly, with your cooperative storytelling and gaming (I LOVE Dungeons and Dragons as a creative outlet, by the way), do you find yourself wanting to bring in those influences when you’re making your character choices for those games?

You’re correct that The Cursed Elves series has far more mythology woven into it. In fact, I was able to embrace my love of history so much with that series that several of the books contain a ‘novella within a novel’ kind of historical story that connects to the modern one being told. The Southern Supernaturals series does take place in the same world, but the supernatural and mythological take a backseat to the romance and mystery.

As far as when I play other games, I don’t tend to bring my modern world mythos along with me. Except, perhaps, for a tendency to enjoy playing Elves. Generally speaking, I try to slip into the mythology and world building of whatever story I’m going to play in.

That’s amazing. I bet it was a lot of fun for you to be able to bring a lot of your historical interests into your fantasy world, and to be able to write little historical stories into your books. 

So you’ve already mentioned World of Warcraft being a big influence on you because of how it draws from mythology. I wonder if there are any other games which have influenced you in terms of how they create worlds, or the way the characters are written?

Oh absolutely. One of my other favorite game worlds to play in slides into the sci-fi fantasy realm, and that’s the Star Wars universe. I’ve played “Star Wars: The Old Republic” since it first launched in 2011, and it’s one of my favorite MMORPGs. I love the way the characters are developed with reaction choices you make as the player that guide a character down a series of pathways, and I adore the fact that it’s nearly entirely voice-acted and has tons of cut-scenes. It really boosts the immersion. If you’re unfamiliar with the Star Wars universe beyond the blockbuster movies, The Old Republic is a vast, force-filled period of 24,000 years and stops 1000 years before the Battle of Yavin, which most people would remember as the battle during which Luke Skywalker destroyed the Death Star. 

I really love the way George Lucas opened up his world and encouraged others to write in it. The result has been an expanded Star Wars universe of nearly four hundred books, plus thousands of more stories from comics and other places. I remember that some years back, a group used some ‘big data’ processing to discover that the world started by Lucas had exploded into over 20,000 characters spread across almost 300 planets. If I have any dream for my writing, it’s that I’ll eventually produce a fictional universe so interesting that it inspires fans to write their own stories in it. 

Oh yes, the Star Wars universe is just so incredibly immersive because of how big it’s grown. I loved Star Wars: The Old Republic too! I agree, I think video games that offer those kind of choices for you as the character really makes a big difference in drawing you into the world of the game. Has this inspired the way you write characters at all? For example, do you do anything in particular to really put your readers in your characters’ heads?

You’ve said that a dream would be to have a fictional universe that inspires fans to write their own stories within it. Do you feel that could happen with either of the series you have so far—or do you have any ideas you’re playing with that you feel could hold that potential?

It’s very important to me that my characters make reasonable choices for their personality. When I consume media, it is a serious point of frustration when characters suddenly begin acting differently in order to further the plot. So for my books, I don’t want to break my characters by ruining the personality I so painstakingly developed, nor do I want my readers to be screaming at the page or rolling their eyes. Even in playing video games with choice options, I would always envision a personality for my character and pick accordingly from the options provided.

I’m not sure that I’ve created that world yet, but it would be pleasant to discover that it could be my Cursed Elves series. I have plans to expand on the whole mythological world that The Cursed Elves came from,  and delve deep into the long ago history of their species. In Norse mythology, the Elves came from two places: Álfheimr and Svartálfaheimr (also called Alfheim and Svartalfheim). The ‘Alf’ part is where we get the world Elf from, and so ‘Alf-heim’ means ‘Elf-Home’ or ‘Land of the Elves,’ and Svartalfheim refers to an underground region shared with some Elves and Dwarves. My Cursed Elves story begins 1000 years before present day, in a fictional time when the Elves had nearly brought their species to extinction and were cursed for their actions by the Furies. The next major series storyline in my universe has been heavily requested by my readers, and will start with the Elves back in Alfheim so we can bear witness to the blossoming of their self-destructive side and understand what caused their ceaseless wars. A sort of ‘fall from grace’ tale that I’m very excited to get into, and I definitely feel it has some potential to build out my universe in ways that might encourage others to want to join me in it.

One game I definitely wish was available on other platforms is God of War. I’ve been told that the base game and Ragnarok storyline are well-loved by people interested in Norse mythos. Unfortunately, I’ve never been much of a console gaming fan – always preferring to play games on PC environments.

That makes sense. There’s definitely value to knowing your characters and their personalities and how they would behave in a given situation. Characters behaving out of line with their own values is incredibly frustrating, I agree—feels like lazy writing, really. Would you say playing as different characters on video games and being invested in their personalities has helped you in writing your own characters in a more in depth way?

It certainly sounds as though your Cursed Elves series has the potential to be incredibly expansive. If you could see readers take a part of your story and universe and expand upon it or write within it, which bit would you most like to see.

And God of War is fantastic, definitely if you’re interested in Norse mythology. I’ve got good news for you Di, you can the first one on PC! 

I think that engaging with the character building process can only help to allow us to develop a deeper understanding of what goes into a well-rounded personality that is enjoyable to interact with. No doubt we’ve all experienced times when a character has felt especially flat or highly developed and drawn our attention due to it. As far as the Cursed Elves universe goes, I haven’t really considered what I would most enjoy seeing — it’s simply something that would be nice to experience at some point down the road.

I agree. I think obtaining that kind of reader connection with our work is something a lot of writers would love to see.

Character building is evidently something you enjoy delving into. So, as a final question—who is the favourite character you’ve created from one of your worlds, and why?

Like choosing between your children, picking a favorite character is a really hard question to answer. My world is filled with characters I love and hate for so many reasons, and they have personalities that are interesting and varied. I’ve deeply enjoyed building up the main character in my Elf series, Priscilla, and I’ve adored fleshing out some of the Gods (Poseidon is a favorite there). But I suppose I’d actually go with a younger character named Raymond. He starts off arrogant and self-important before his world is tilted on its axis, and I’ve had a good time watching him adapt to his new reality and all the abilities being thrust upon him as he embraces his Elf heritage. Of course, I love so many of the characters. I might have a different answer for you if you asked tomorrow!

Thank you so much for taking the time to delve deep into the overlap of gaming and fantasy writing. I’ve enjoyed the interview, and I think you’ve found a great conversation starter to continue on with many other fantasy authors.

Thanks so much Diedra—it’s been a pleasure. Be sure to check out Diedra and her work on her author website.