Frau Mauro Map, Public domain (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:FraMauroMap.jpg)
Beginning today, we’ll be interviewing some of the authors who contributed stories for Battling in All Her Finery. You can learn more about the authors and their stories as we prepare to publish this anthology!
DV: Tell us a bit about yourself!
Matt Moran: An inveterate and lifelong geek, I live in a flat full of miniatures, novels, and history books with my fiancée. I have two passports and am working on acquiring a third, and there is a map on my fridge of all the countries people think I’m from. It marks about two thirds of the world!
DV: What inspired you to write “The End of the World” for Battling in All Her Finery?
MM: Although I mostly write games and non-fiction, I try very hard to put strong female characters in my stories. George (Famous Five) and Alanna (Lion of Tortall) were as much my heroes as King Arthur and Luke Skywalker growing up, so when I saw the call for BiAHF, I couldn’t resist!
DV: The historical tidbits that you mentioned as playing a role in “The End of the World” are widely varied. What brought them together as the pieces for your story?
MM: Without wanting to spoil anything, it was a sense of defiance in the face of death, of era-defining loss, and the surprisingly predictable cycle of conquest that tied them together for me. What started as a simple mash-up of Hastings and Mons Graupius soon took in lots of other influences too.
DV: Do you consider your story fantasy or alternate history, and why?
MM: I consider “The End of the World” to be a fantasy story. Although it takes many cues from the real world, its culture, geography, and antagonists are too different to any combination of the three found in our world to be alternate history.
DV: What’s on the horizon for you?
MM: My first novel is currently in its second draft, and I am looking forward to submitting it to publishers. After a long illness, I am once again working on games for my own company, Morningstar Productions (available exclusively through the OneBookShelf web family), and a couple of commissioned projects too.
Thanks, Matt!
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