It’s interview time and Mark Cushen is here!
Mark is the author of the upper middle grade Garlan Greatheart books and I have to say, has some great interview answers for you. Check out our interview below:
Hi Mark and welcome to Spells & Spaceships, it’s a pleasure to have you.
Hi Alex, thanks for having me. I’ve been really looking forward to this 🙂
I’ve noticed more adults taking a break from the big, gritty fantasy series and reading a cozy fantasy or a middle grade fantasy. As an author of upper middle-grade fantasy, have you noticed this and what do you think it is that appeals to adults about reading middle grade every so often?
I have definitely noticed the increased interest in younger and/or lighter fantasy from adults, yeah. It would be hard not to – cozy fantasy in particular has sky-rocketed recently, which is awesome.
Where it comes from exactly is hard to pinpoint, because everyone’s tastes are different, but I don’t think we can rule out the idea that tastes can be cyclical and everything has its day in the sun, and gritty fantasy has been so big for so long now that maybe people just want to try something a bit different. To cleanse the pallet, you know? The truth is that cozy fantasy and middle-grade fantasy are just so much more digestible than the big gritty chonkers that have dominated the genre for so long, and I think it can be refreshing to dial things down every once in a while.
Most of us read fantasy as a form of escapism. I don’t want to generalise, of course, because everyone has their own reasons for reading what they read, but for the most part I think it’s fair to say that it’s nice to just shut out the noise of the real world and focus on something other than your real life worries. What better way is there to forget your adult concerns than by tricking your mind into thinking you’re a kid again? Middle-grade fancy especially has a knack for that.
We must also remember that the stakes in lighter fantasy stories are usually much lower than the ones in gritty, older fantasy, and the simpler-to-read writing styles that they tend to be written in are just much easier on the attention span. I think both of these can make for a more enjoyable, and less taxing reading experience. We never want reading to feel like a chore, after all.
But that’s just my two-cents! Maybe some people will agree, maybe they won’t. There are enough variations of fantasy to please everyone, and there will be something out there to fit most tastes and preferences, and I’m sure the one thing we can all agree on, is that that is what makes fantasy in general so good.
Can you tell us a little bit about your Garlan Greatheart trilogy please? What can readers expect?
The Garlan Greatheart trilogy is an upper middle-grade series which follows the trials and tribulations of a young boy called Garlan. It’s a fun, fantasy-filled adventure series, with a bunch of loveable characters, lots of action, and a great deal of heart. It’s my love-letter to The Hobbit, and The Chronicles of Narnia, and Redwall, and The Once and Future King, those books which inspired it; and also to all the fantasy movies that I grew up watching, which were jam-packed with magic and monsters of their own.
When we first meet him in book 1, Little White Hands, Garlan has dreams of one day becoming a knight, which, to a simple kitchen boy like him, is a seemingly impossible aspiration. But then fate has its way and thrusts him into an adventure that tests whether he has what it takes to become that thing which he desires to be so much. We then follow our young hero as he ventures into dark swamps and crosses stormy seas, battles a host of nightmarish creatures that he had only ever read about in books, and meets a bunch of weird and whimsical characters who will aid him on his quest to save the world.
Book 2, Faeland’s Champion, picks up a couple of years later. Garlan is older now, though not necessarily wiser, because his prior achievements have also brought with them a sense of entitlement and a great deal of hubris. Where Little White Hands was a coming-of-age tale about Garlan finding the courage to rise above his station, Faeland’s Champion is about him coming back down from the lofty heights he achieved, and learning what it is like to be humbled. There are darker themes at play in book 2, of loss and forgiveness and responsibility, but these more mature ideas mirror Garlan’s own journey of growth and maturation that he experiences throughout the story.
As for book 3, well, I can’t say too much about that yet. But there will be even more lessons to be learned, losses to be felt, and more than a few full-circle moments which I hope readers will find to be a satisfying conclusion to the trilogy 🙂
I’ve read many fantasy books over the years but rarely do I ever feel the magic of books I enjoyed as a kid (The Hobbit, Beyond the Deepwoods and The Wishing Chair for example). Is it this sort of magical wonder you’re hoping to recapture with your books?
I’m so glad you listed The Hobbit, because it is my favourite book, still to this day, and was my main point of inspiration. The magical wonder it produced in me is precisely what I’m aiming for with my series.
Children’s literature (which The Hobbit, and those books I mentioned previously, are all examples of) is just so important. It tends to be where the love for reading first blossoms, and I honestly believe that it is the whimsical ideas in them above all else that leaves such a lasting impression, and has readers coming back to them over and over again. It’s why, when asked to recommend a “gateway” book for someone just getting into fantasy, most readers will suggest some of those aforementioned books, or similar examples.
Such books are able to create a sense of wonder and whimsy that older, grittier books can’t. They make an impact, especially when consumed at an age when our imaginations are most impressionable, and they really can have a massive influence on the trajectory of someone’s life.
I know that if it weren’t for the stories that captivated me as a child, I probably wouldn’t have written my books. So if my stories can ignite even a fraction of that same magic and joy that they ignited in me, then I will consider them very successful indeed.
What do you think are the special ingredients to creating this whimsical, magical sort of vibe that really sticks with people and transports their imaginations?
There has to be a well-balanced blend of enjoyable characters and interesting worldbuilding. The characters need to have something to them that makes them stand out. For creating a sense of whimsy, this usually – but not always – means the quirkier the better. With that said, they also need to feel believable, which I know is an odd thing to say about a story with fantastical elements. But it’s true: no matter how weird and whimsical they are, the characters need to feel like they would actually fit in the world they inhabit, and there does need to be some sort of method to the madness, otherwise it just feels like a bunch of random concepts thrown together without any rhyme or reason.
The ideas don’t even need to serve the story (for worldbuilding purposes, it’s often better when they don’t) but they do need to fit in the world. Otherwise you don’t have whimsy, you have chaos.
To be less technical about it, it helps to have magic. I need to meet some fantastical creatures. Let me stumble across talking trees, talk with the personifications of the elements, witness waterfalls that flow in reverse. Have a witch live in a house which walks around on chicken legs, or a vampire who is afraid of the dark. Go nuts with it. Just make sure that, in the world you have created, it’s believable.
Now I have to mention the book covers for books 1 and 2 in this trilogy so far (Little White Hands and Faeland’s Champion) – I absolutely love the artwork! Jeremy Adams did an amazing job! Have you set in motion the cover art process for book 3? How involved are you?
Jeremy did a fantastic job on the art, and combined with the layout and typography by Tilly Moss, I honestly couldn’t be happier with the covers of the first two books. I’m so happy with them, they capture the exact vibe of the stories and their characters and world so perfectly.
For book 3, the cover art process is not merely in motion, it is finished! I actually got the art done a while ago because I’ve known what I wanted it to be since before book 2 was even published, and so I didn’t see much point in waiting because I knew it wouldn’t change. I also know how in-demand Jeremy is as an artist, so I thought it best to get it done before his schedule filled up.
The full cover isn’t finished yet, just the art, but I may do a cover art reveal later in the year as I get closer to finishing the book.
Would you rather your books sell 10,000 copies that don’t get talked about or 200 copies that all 200 people adore?
Oh, 200 copies of 200 adoring readers, for sure.
Of course it would be nice to sell 10,000 copies from a financial perspective, but I think there are easier and much less stressful ways to make money than selling 10,000 books!
Ultimately it comes down to which of the two choices I find to be the most fulfilling to me, and since I live a relatively simple life and am not really driven by money at all, selling 10,000 copies would be mostly meaningless if those 10,000 copies weren’t actually being read or enjoyed by the people who bought them. That’s just statistics.
But to have a small number of devoted readers, who actually took the time to read and enjoy my work, and maybe even created a whole discourse and fanbase around it? Jackpot. That’s not statistics. That’s meaning.
To know that a story I had created actually had an impact on someone in some way, is the most fulfilling thing to me as a writer that I can think of.
What is the last book you read that you just couldn’t put down?
I think it was The Black Cauldron, by Lloyd Alexander. It was a re-read, because I’ve been in such a horrible reading slump for a very long time and I just do not have the desire to read anything new at the moment, so I’ve just been going back through tried-and-true comfort reads. The Prydain Chronicles is my favourite series, and The Black Cauldron is my favourite of the five. They’re really easy-going and digestible books, so they don’t take much commitment, and they’re just a delight to read.
But if we’re talking about first-time reads, then the last new book I remember reading that blew me away was The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro. It’s not your typical fantasy book, and it’s pretty slow moving, but the writing is absolutely stunning. It also, tangentially I guess, counts as Arthuriana, which will always pique my interest. I absolutely devoured it.
Finally, what’s next for you? Do you have any future writing plans?
Next on the agenda is the third and final book of the Garlan Greatheart trilogy. It’s coming along nicely, though slower than initially intended. Since it’s the last in the series I really want to make sure that I tie everything up in a way that I am completely satisfied with, so I’m taking my time with it. The plan was always to release it in May of 2025, exactly two years after book 2, which was itself exactly two years after book 1, but with the way it’s going right now it’s more likely that it’ll be the end of the year.
After that? I do have several stories in the pipeline, but I try not to think too far beyond the project I’m currently working on, because it’s very easy for me to get distracted by the new shiny idea which will ultimately result in everything taking longer to finish. But I will say that I have 2 standalones waiting, a collection of short fairytales, and another series, which I have not yet decided will be 2 books or 3. Time will tell 🙂
Thanks for joining me today, Mark! Best wishes for the future.
Thanks again for having me Alex, this was a lot of fun 🙂
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