Lucy A. McLaren

It’s been a while since I did a post discussing my writing inspirations and plans. I wrote this out for an author interview that fell through–why waste it? Here’s some more about me, for anyone intrigued to know.

Intro

I’m Lucy A. McLaren, a dark fantasy author and professional counsellor. When I’m not writing or counselling, I’m a mum and can be found trying to wrangle a small human into obedience (haha, just kidding, that’s not possible). I am a lifelong nerd and have many tattoos linked to my favourite things, including Legend of Zelda, Lord of the Rings, Gladiator, and His Dark Materials. 

I’m also an avid video gamer and have been since childhood. I grew up playing games like Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask, Final Fantasy (X is the best, I’ll die on that hill), andThe Sims. I continue to love fantasy and action/adventure games like God of War, Horizon: Zero Dawn, and Red Dead Redemption 2 (my favourite). It’s harder fitting in gaming alongside parenting/writing/working these days, but I still do it where I can! If I’m not doing any of the above, I’ll be reading. I love fantasy books, of course, though have lately been drawn to darker, gothic stories (and that has naturally bled into my writing, too). 

My Books

My latest book is a gothic horror fantasy called Echoes of the EtherStone from Owl Talyn Press. This story was inspired by Jack the Ripper and came about after I’d read The Five by Hallie Rubenhold, a book exploring the traumatic and tragic lives of the victims of the infamous killer. The story follows two young women—El, a commoner, and Beth, a noble—who join forces to try and uncover the identity of the murderer… which becomes all the more complicated when evidence begins to point towards Beth’s own brother. This story is dark and gothic (obviously) and explores religious and patriarchal oppression, childhood trauma, grief and addiction, as well as the more hopeful elements of found family and fighting aforementioned oppression. 

In addition to focusing on promoting Echoes of the EtherStone, I’m working on another gothic horror fantasy story loosely inspired by a long-time obsession of mine, Phantom of the Opera (though it’s changed a lot since that initial idea and is less obviously Phantom related now). The book again focuses on the stories of two women whose lives intertwine—though they are separated by 75 years—and ultimately this link leads to the destruction of an oppressive regime. (That’s a definite common theme in all my stories ha).

Inspiration

I’ve always wanted to be a writer and remember writing when I was a child and into my teenage years. Books like Tamora Pierce’s Song of the Lioness Quartet, The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Sword of Shadow Series by J.V. Jones, and His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman were big inspirations to me in wanting to start creating my own worlds.

I’m also very much inspired by Robin Hobb, who is my favourite writer. I love the depth and detail of her worlds, and the slow-burn way she tells her stories. Because you’re in it for the long haul with Hobb’s books! There is so much lore and history to discover, and the books interconnect in such brilliant ways.

With all this in mind, there was never any question about the genre when I set out on my writing journey; it was always going to be fantasy. That’s my first love. I took a break from writing because of low self-esteem for a long time during my teenage years and well into my twenties, but when I began studying to be a counsellor I realised I wanted to reconnect with that part of myself—and started working on what would becoming my debut novel, Awakening (The Commune’s Curse: Book 1) (soon to be re-released as The Cruel God’s Awakening). 

I had a lot more time to write before I became a mum, and in the years since I had my son it’s been up and down in terms of how productive I’ve been. What keeps me motivated is the inherent need I feel to write. It really astonishes me how I went so many years without doing something that now feels as natural to me as breathing. Some days I’ll write 2,000 words, some days I’ll write 50—and some days nothing at all. The more I’ve written, the more valuable I realise taking breaks is. Take it from me, burnout is no fun! But I’ll never stop writing altogether, that much I know for sure. 

Indie vs Traditional Publishing

I’ve had a bit of a rollercoaster journey on my route to publishing. My debut book, Awakening, was queried with agents and publishers, rejected many, many times, revised a few times, and finally picked up my a small press in 2020. Which was amazing news and I was thrilled. Fast forward 5 years and, unfortunately, things didn’t pan out with that publisher. As Awakening was the first book in my dark fantasy series (The Commune’s Curse), I ended up self-publishing the second book (The Mad Man’s Hope) and will do the same for the third as and when that’s ready. And, as mentioned above, I’m re-releasing the first book under the new title, The Cruel God’s Awakening.

Likewise, Echoes of the EtherStone was queried with agents and publishers. I had a lot more interest in this book, with my first full agent requests. That was exciting and felt like a real milestone. But those requests ultimately led to a lot of waiting and no offers. I did receive an offer from my current publisher, Owl Talyn Press and… here we are! 

So as you can probably guess, I’m not opposed to either route when it comes to publishing. I believe both have their pros and cons. And I’ll never judge a writer for going down the route that feels the best for them and their book(s). I will continue to query books as I would love to have an agent, but I also know the self-publishing route will always be an option.

Challenges

In terms of challenges I’ve experienced as a writer, the experience I had with my first publisher wasn’t ideal and left me totally gutted and doubting myself/my writing. But I have very supportive writer friends who helped me through that, and encouraged me/gave me advice for the self-publishing journey I then took.

And, of course, rejection as a writer is an ongoing challenge—whether that be during the querying journey, or from low starred reviews, or from being dropped by a publisher as I was. Things don’t always work out as we would like. I’ve taken my experience with the publisher as a learning curve, and in terms of rejections/reviews, I’ve come to accept and feel comfortable with the fact that my writing isn’t (and never will be) for everyone.

Advice for others

I’d certainly encourage anyone who’s setting out on their writing journey to utilise social media (which is something of a necessary evil when it comes to book marketing and audience building) to meet other authors in the community. I run a YouTube channel called Introverted Indies with my friend Lydia Baker (a wonderful author herself), and we’ve interviewed many authors as part of that. So many have spoken about the value of a supportive community and of making friends with fellow writers, who you can talk to during the highs and lows of your journey. Invaluable advice!

Another piece of advice I’ve fully taken onboard is: just write, get the draft out, edit later. Don’t worry about it being horrible—that can be fixed! But you can’t fix a blank page.

Last thoughts

Ultimately being a writer is a wonderful journey. It can be so hard at times, you can wonder why you’re putting yourself through the stress and anxiety. You can burn out and feel utterly drained and like you’ll never write again. I’ve been there! But if you truly love telling your stories, love creating worlds and people and their backstories and relationships… you’ll know there’s nothing else you could possibly do but write. And that’s how I feel completely. 

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