Today it gives the Speculative Fiction Showcase great pleasure to interview Tim Facciola, whose first novel A Vengeful Realm (Book 1): The Scales of Balance has its debut on October 24th.
A Vengeful Realm Book 1, The Scales of Balance, deals with
Zephyrus, who finds himself an enslaved gladiator with no memory of his
previous life, apart from a prophecy and a cryptic letter from the king. What can you tell us about Zephyrus
and the world in which he lives?
To understand Zephyrus, first you need to understand the world that shaped him. New Rheynia is rapidly changing. The Rheynians who fled their home (Rheynia) before the impending Disasters believed they were being punished by the Gods for their belief in the wrong deity. They were given this new life, new land, and a fresh start across the sea. But this new land for them was someone else’s before. Their emigration to what they called New Rheynia was known as Perillian to its inhabitants. The native populace had their own culture, customs, and Gods they worshipped, yet they accepted the migrating Rheynians with open arms. But with acceptance came assimilation, and with assimilation came the fear of what would happen if the Rheynian people again incurred the wrath of their jealous Gods. Fear led to war. War led to blood. Blood bought peace. But what peace built in such a fashion can hope to stand?
Now enter Zephyrus. A man with no memories of who he is or where to place his allegiance. Absent the biases of upbringing, familial attachment, or the pressures of social conformity, Zephyrus has only his principles and intuition to rely on as he attempts to make sense of this conflict he finds himself in the middle of. Is he an emissary of peace sent to serve the king? Or is he a Prophet of the Return meant to free the enslaved?
Talking about the setting, you mention “the Roman Empire’s Hellenistic culture set during Europe’s Middle Ages”. Please can you unpack this for us?
I wanted to explore a world in which a Roman-inspired culture remained the dominant power entering into the Middle Ages. Mixing the Hellenistic aesthetic and customs with the setup of feudal Europe allowed for a fresh mix of things we’ve seen in the genre before, but never really together. Having a world that was on the precipice of evolution (from gladiators to tourney knights and an enslaved populace to indentured servants) but with parties still firmly rooted in preserving the past, the world itself created a conflict that didn’t require characters. Time periods of rapid change are enough to stir conflict before people even get involved.
Why did you choose the Middle Ages as the main setting, and why does that era continue to enthral writers and readers?
Why did I choose the Middle Ages? Because I’m selfish. I loved learning about it. I loved studying it as a kid. To build a world requires a decent amount of research, even when it is fully speculative, so to have a foundation to build off of—something familiar for readers to be able to connect to and identify with quickly—is very helpful. Nowadays, as an author, you can’t afford to spend valuable page space explaining every detail of your world; having a foundation as a placeholder allows the reader to utilize what they know and understand about the Middle Ages so they can focus on the new elements of the story world without getting bogged down by every detail. Also, who doesn’t love swordplay?
Tell us how The
Scales of Balance developed. Is it right that you wrote the complete
trilogy first?
Yes! The full trilogy is complete; it was important for me to begin with the end in mind. I wanted to write the last book, then go back t0 plant or nurture the seeds in book one that I didn’t have the foresight to do as well as I could have. If I had published The Scales of Balance right away, it would have been quite different. As a consumer of story in many different mediums, it’s always important for me to feel like every detail matters. I love when a creator can make me feel like no line is a “throw-away,” no detail is superfluous. It builds a trust between the creator and the consumer. I wanted to create and foster a trust in my readers that if I say something, it’s important. It’ll come back. It’ll be incorporated in a meaningful way.
You have some fantastic art on your website, images of a map and a comic book spread, as well as the cover art for The Scales of Balance and The Breaker of Chains. Did you create these images and what can you tell us about them?
I love seeing the fan art for my favorite stories. There are so many talented artists for Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere and Pierce Brown’s Red Rising. It was a dream of mine for someone to one day get excited about taking their interpretation of my characters and turning it into art. But when you spend ten years working on your books and haven’t released anything, no one’s going to make any artwork. The commissions you’re referring to were gifts my wife procured for me over the course of this decade-long journey. I have even more artwork to add! My cover artist, Freya, at Lunaris Falcon Studio, has been hard at work, hopefully giving my future fans a headstart on artwork!
The blurb says that “fans of Brandon Sanderson, Joe Abercrombie, and Django Wexler will be enthralled by this dark and tenacious story of freedom, revelation, and hope.” What does that mean to you?
Firstly, these are some of my favorite authors—creative minds who have awed and inspired me, or changed the way in which I appreciate the power of the pen. To be mentioned in the same breath is not something taken lightly. But what I really love is that last bit, “... this dark and tenacious story of freedom, revelation, and hope.” To me, that means that I succeeded with what I set out to do. I wanted to take my readers on a journey through the very real darkness of the human experience and show them the light of hope at the end. This blurb gives me the catharsis and validation of being seen and understood.
You mention how important it was to include women characters who were strong as well as feminine, and to avoid writing toxic relationships. Who or what prompted you to follow this approach, and how has it informed A Vengeful Realm?
My wife and I love to hike. Climbing mountains and descending canyons, we’d often talk about our favorite stories and characters, what we liked or didn’t like about a particular book we read or show we watched, etc. What seemed to come up a lot was the lack of truly feminine characters in the mainstream fantasy genre. We talked about how the only female Avenger in the MCU was (spoiler alert) killed off in an unsatisfying way. Or the only new movies (at the time) centered around female characters either painted the heroine as a ditz who needed a man to lead her around (Wonder Woman) or a woman who relied more on her masculine energy than her feminine (Captain Marvel). When writing A Vengeful Realm, I wanted to write characters that my wife would enjoy reading. Women who were flawed and complex, who embodied strength in both the masculine and feminine sense. Women who didn’t fall for the emotionally abusive dark-haired love interest just because it’s a popular trope. Women who weren’t strong because they’d been abused in the past, but because they were just strong. The result became a cast of female characters who varied on the spectrum of how they demonstrated their strength, and a cast of male characters who actually respected women despite their own flaws and failings. I know there are other readers out there, like my wife, who don’t love how they’ve been represented as a woman. I hope A Vengeful Realm and my subsequent works can set a better example for relationships and female representation by male authors.
You also mention the importance of a progressive approach to issues such as human rights, systemic racism, classism, and nationalism. Why is it crucial for you to deal with these?
Have you ever
tried speaking to someone about these issues head-on? Directly? Oftentimes, the
answer is no. It’s the third-rail of dinner conversations. It’s definitely a
no-no in social settings where you don’t already know the audience you’re
speaking to. But that’s the problem; too often we content ourselves with being
surrounded by those who agree with us—the echo chamber where learning and
growth go to die in lieu of the comfort of being affirmed by peers. But how
often have those conversations changed anyone’s mind?
I believe we were created to be creative and with that purpose comes power. And with that power comes responsibility. With that said, our entertainment can be much more than just that, and I think the medium of speculative fiction might present the best opportunity to allow people to learn, grow, and explore the human condition. Because it is worth exploring!
You are a personal trainer and have incorporated different kinds of physical movement and fighting skills into your research. How did this affect the realism of your fight scenes and how much fun did you have?
Why should the things we love remain separated? Finding a way to blend fantasy with fitness benefited both aspects of my life. I found a new way to exercise that stimulated me and a way to invigorate the combat scenes of my writing with some basic understandings in the physiological and mechanical responses to swordplay. A lot of the feedback thus far has highlighted the immersion of the fight scenes, and that’s something I take a lot of pride in. I hope to continue developing both skill-sets, because they are too much fun!
What can you tell us about the other characters, such as Nallia, Threyna, Fenyx, Laeden, Iylea, and
Danella?
How much time do you have? If you can imagine, writing from so many points of view and making them feel unique, insightful, and purposeful required a lot of exploration. I have character dossiers for each one in a spreadsheet 150 cells deep. But it was important for me to know each one of them in order to showcase their individuality. But for the sake of introductions, I’ll be brief:
●
Nallia is the privileged daughter of a successful lanista (owner of a
gladiator school) who, despite her best intentions, realizes she’s part of the
problem with New Rheynian society after meeting Zephyrus.
●
Threyna, the victim of a magical curse, is on a harrowing quest to arm
herself to fight an undying “Skeleton King” attempting to gather the souls of
the world to his One True God. Even if she has to betray good people like
Zephyrus to do so.
●
Fenyx is one of Zephyrus’s fellow gladiators in Nallia’s ludus
(gladiator school), but while Zephyrus dreams of life beyond the walls of the
arena, Fenyx concerns himself only with making the best of what he has the
chance for: glory.
●
Laeden, the outcast Prince of New Rheynia, is the only one who seems
concerned with the Revivalists, an ideological social group turned theological
terrorists. He allies with Zephyrus to stop the assassination of his father,
the king, and uproot the zealots before they start another war.
●
Danella is the Queen of New Rheynia, step-mother to Laeden, and leader
of the Revivalists. She loves her husband, but she will not let her people’s
short memories usher in a new wave of the Gods’ disasters.
●
Iylea—handmaid to Danella, secret lover to Laeden, and a seer who will
be executed if her abilities are discovered—finds herself trapped between her
truths. If she uses her abilities to help Laeden stop Danella, she’ll expose
herself as a seer. But if she does nothing, Laeden will fall victim to
Danella’s machinations.
How many points of view do you use to narrate the story and why is this important to you?
There are seven primary points of view throughout the series; each represents a different perspective in the many-sided struggle for peace in New Rheynia. The interplay between the characters—the things they disagreed on, and even the things they shared—was something that I wanted to explore. Thematically, I wanted to present ideas from so many different perspectives that it didn’t give the reader an answer, but rather encouraged them to ask themselves new questions.
You mention the significance of human connection in A Vengeful Realm and link it to your own family estrangement and reconnection. What can you tell us about this and what it means to you?
Connection is a
core need for all people, but it can be so easily interrupted or even severed.
Oftentimes, I think it’s easier to make things black and white. “We’re too
different,” “We’ll never see eye to eye,” etc. But it’s often the little
misunderstandings left to fester, left to escalate, that divide us. I wanted to
have divisions within divisions. Layers and nuances that made people who should
think or feel the same about a certain thing believe the opposite, and I wanted
that to be believable for the reader. I wanted the reader to struggle with who
they were rooting for depending on whose perspective they were seeing the world
from. I wanted to make the path for characters to truly understand each other
be so close from an outside perspective, but so far from each character’s
internal thoughts. People are complex, but misunderstandings are really quite
simple. From there, if left unchecked, things can go dark pretty quickly. But
there is hope at the end. I promise!
What can your readers look forward to in the second volume of the series, The Breaker of Chains?
The second
installment picks up right where the first left off. It’s a bit longer, but the
stakes rise, and every character’s role in the big picture starts to become
more and more clear as their stories entwine. As the title implies, there is
quite a bit of chain breaking going on, but not just in the literal sense. The
spoiler free version: Zephyrus takes steps toward becoming who he’s supposed to
be by learning from his remembered past; Laeden finds himself in the same
predicament he once thought his father had created for himself and now must
wrestle between his own sense of love and duty; Danella doubles down on
finishing the war her father started, but struggles with the cracks in the
foundation and what they mean for the future of her kingdom; Nallia, having
been removed from her life on the pulvinus, receives a taste of what it’s like
on the sands of the arena; Fenyx suffers in the aftermath of Zephyrus’s past
actions while Threyna deals with the consequences of her own mistakes; and
Iylea perhaps plays the biggest role of all.
What do you mean when you say that doubt plays a role in healthy faith journeys, and how has your own affected your characters’ worldviews?
They’re oxymoronic, right? I think blind faith absent discernment borders on dogma. Dogma is dangerous. Questions can arise from obstinance, sure, but more often I find they originate in curiosity, scepticism, and doubt. But questions of doubt are not dangerous to faith. If anything, they are born of critical thinking, deep engagement, and a desire to connect on a higher level. Questioning the institutions of power requires a degree of vulnerability. Without vulnerability, you can’t have intimacy. And the beautiful part of healthy faith is that it is both deeply intimate and richly personal. When that scepticism is respected and given the space to be addressed, the resultant faith, having been tempered by doubt and discernment, has greater strength.
With the trilogy finished and awaiting publication, what are you working on now? Will there be a sequel?
I am currently working on a prequel project that follows Threyna’s escape from Rheynia and the Skeleton King. From there I have another prequel project that would take place in the same world several hundred years before on a different continent that would have a couple carryover characters. That one will feel like a whole new world with some familiar magic, character references, and Gods. I planted a couple seeds throughout A Vengeful Realm that readers, should they decide to stay in this world, can pick up on. But these books are designed to be read as either stand-alones or companion novels that could be read in any order with the A Vengeful Realm trilogy.
In regards to will there be a sequel… that depends. I previously mentioned Brandon Sanderson and Pierce Brown. Both have finished trilogies that were brought back for a second era. Mistborn has a largely new cast of characters, while Red Rising employs many of the same characters from the original trilogy. Both have done so extremely well. If I do decide to have an era 2 in the A Vengeful Realm universe, I have given myself a few entry points in the original trilogy to serve as a launch pad. But the only way I will bring it back is if I know I can write an ending that surpasses that of the original trilogy. It’s something I will play with. I may even try to write. But just like the original trilogy, I likely wouldn’t release it until I’d completed the entirety of the arc. So the best I can say for now is, we’ll see!
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About Tim Facciola:
More than writing, reading, gaming, playing music, hiking, and paddle-boarding, Tim loves story. If he’s not working on his own story, he’s helping others develop theirs as an author coach. To inquire about Author Coaching services, visit firsttorchbooks.mykajabi.com.
Living in Arizona with his wife, Colleen, Tim continues writing epic fantasy novels while exploring different storytelling mediums so he can inspire others to hope. To live. And to believe. Find out more about him on his website.
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