What sparked The Green Man’s War?

The seventh instalment of Dan Mackmain’s adventures makes this the longest continuous sequence of novels that I’ve written. Okay, I actually reached that point with the last book, The Green Man’s Quarry but I’ve only just thought about this. The Tales of Einarinn came to a natural pause after five volumes. The subsequent books in the World of Einarinn timeline were a series of four novels, followed by two trilogies. With each of those sequences, I was determined not to rewrite a story I’d already told. Shifting focus to a different part of that fantasy world with a new cast of characters was a key part of ensuring that.

So how can I keep writing the Green Man books without repeating myself? It turns out elements embedded in these stories from the start are very helpful. I decided Dan’s life would be grounded in everyday reality. Writing epic fantasy novels showed me how a solid foundation makes the magical far more believable. With these books, that means a year or so between each story sees a year or so pass in Dan’s life. His relationships develop and his priorities change. That makes new demands on him and I can find new ways to threaten him.

These books are rooted in British folklore. This is a vast and varied resource. The more I read, the more I find to spur my imagination. I don’t necessarily find complete stories. Most local legends are single incidents, often tied a particular landscape feature or an old building. A lot of these stories are very similar, even when they’re set hundreds of miles apart. None of this is a problem. As I read these variations, I can use common threads to weave stories into the underlying mythology that’s evolving through this series. Where I find contradictions and exceptions, those can remind the reader not to take anything for granted. Where mentions of a monster are little more than fragments, I can devise something that’s both familiar and wholly new.

Then there’s the catalyst. The creative process that has emerged for these books is very different to my approach to writing an epic fantasy novel or a historical murder mystery. I plan those in detail from the start, and I tailor my research to the needs of the plot I’ve already worked out. Each Green Man book starts with me gathering assorted, apparently unrelated ideas from my folklore reading, from places I visit, from conversations with like-minded friends. I make note of news stories about rural life and concerns which will affect Dan and his friends. At that stage, I genuinely have no idea what the next book will be about.

Then I will come across something that suggests a way to tie these ideas together. Once I have that catalyst, the story starts to take shape. Its internal momentum shows me where and when to draw the next element in. Now my research is about finding the people and resources to tell me things I had no idea I would need to know. I will be well into writing the novel before I see the ending come into focus ahead. I would never have imagined I would be working this way, but the experience is as exciting as it has been unexpected.

So what was the catalyst for The Green Man’s War? When we were visiting Burford one day last winter, my husband saw a small bronze statue of three dancing hares in a jeweller’s shop window. Regular readers will understand why that caught his eye. We went in to buy it, only to discover the shop door should have been locked and the ‘Closed’ sign put up. A distracted member of staff had followed the usual routine on auto-pilot. The manager and staff were actually in the shop that morning to compile an insurance claim after being robbed the week before. A gang of men armed with hammers and knives had ambushed the keyholder outside, forced their way in, and stripped the shelves and display cases bare. The nice people in the shop were happy to sell us the little statue, once they had told us all about it.

That got me thinking. What would Dan do, faced with that situation? Why might something like that happen to him? I’d read a few myths that mentioned jewellery. Ideas started coming together…

Author: Juliet

Juliet E McKenna is a British fantasy author living in the Cotswolds, UK. Loving history, myth and other worlds since she first learned to read, she has written fifteen epic fantasy novels so far. Her debut, The Thief’s Gamble, began The Tales of Einarinn in 1999, followed by The Aldabreshin Compass sequence, The Chronicles of the Lescari Revolution, and The Hadrumal Crisis trilogy. The Green Man’s Heir was her first modern fantasy inspired by British folklore in 2018. The Green Man’s Quarry in 2023, the sixth title to follow, won the BSFA Award for Best Novel. The Green Man’s War continues this ongoing series. Her 2023 novel The Cleaving is a female-centred retelling of the story of King Arthur, while her shorter stories include forays into dark fantasy, steampunk and science fiction. She promotes SF&Fantasy by reviewing, by blogging on book trade issues, attending conventions and teaching creative writing. She has served as a judge for the James White Award, the Aeon Award, the Arthur C Clarke Award and the World Fantasy Awards. In 2015 she received the British Fantasy Society’s Karl Edward Wagner Award. As J M Alvey, she has written historical murder mysteries set in ancient Greece.

3 thoughts on “What sparked The Green Man’s War?

  1. Finished it 🙁 So long until the next one… please write faster? 🙂 Still, there’s the short story in your new short fiction collection. You have the combining of the modern mundane with ancient magic down to a fine art. One small thing is bothering me, and I have no idea why. I like that you keep your characters fed, there’s even a mention of laundry helping to keep a foothold in reality, but Dan appears to live entirely on meat and carbohydrates. Shouldn’t you introduce him to the concept of vegetables??

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.