AMoRaR Interview: Joel C. Flanagan-Granneman

A Month of Rain and Reads Interviews5 months ago8 min read

Welcome to A Month of Rain and Reads, a celebration of self-published and indie SFF throughout the entire month of November. To find out how you can take part and view the whole list of content, visit our introduction post.

Today, we have an interview with Joel C. Flanagan-Granneman, author of the Servants of the Moon and Sun series.

Describe yourself like you would a character in one of your books.

He was tall, but not really tall, and wore his thinning grey hair pulled back in a messy braid.

Our theme for November is A Month of Rain & Reads. Do you subscribe to the idea of curling up with a good book while the rain pours down outside? What book would you read? Would you bring tea and a blanket? What would make the moment perfect?

Rainy days are good days! I would definitely want a cozy blanket, because even in the southern USA, November is cold. I wouldn’t need tea, just some water by my side. I’d reread the Cycle of Fire trilogy by my idol Janny Wurts. Those books are great for stormy days! With my wife reading at my side, in her own chair, and our cat cuddled up nearby, everything would be perfect.

What else do you want our readers to know about you?

I wrote all through high school and college, but stopped after graduation because life just got in the way. I came back to writing in September of 2019 with an idea that became the Servants of the Moon and Sun series. It reinvigorated my life by allowing me to release years of pent up creativity. I have 5 books published so far, and there are many more yet to come.

Why did you decide to self-publish, and what has been your biggest success so far?

My wife is my editor, and she and I never really considered anything but being indie. My story is so out of the mainstream, with ideas and concepts taken from so many inspirations, that we knew I’d never find a traditional publisher who would be willing to take a risk on my stories. And if they did, I would lose so much control that the books would no longer be mine. And I didn’t want to wait two years to publish. I want to put my books out on my own schedule, not someone else’s.

What is your favourite thing about being an indie author?

Being able to tell my stories the way I want to tell them, with no outside interference.

Tell us a little about your series Servants of the Moon and Sun. What can readers expect from it? Who are the main characters and what are the tropes?

Overall, my series is an epic fantasy retelling of Sleeping Beauty: What if Maleficent was Aurora’s mother, and what if she wasn’t really evil? Unlike other epic fantasy works, though, I focus on characters and dialogue to move the plot forward, not long pages of descriptions and epic battle scenes. (There are some of those in the later books, but that’s not my focus.) And my wife insists on making all the character and place names pronounceable!

Talia is the main character of the first two books. She’s the Heir to the Fairy Realm and falls in love with the Heir to the Human Realm, Bastile. The Fairies and the Humans have been at war for generations, and that puts her in conflict with not only the many Humans who don’t want peace, but also parts of her own extended family who also prefer war. Talia and Bastile’s child becomes the focal point of all the action – both directly and indirectly – of all the books.

I like to focus on found families, the healing power of love and passion, recovery from trauma, and the inherent conflict between matriarchal cultures (those of the Fairies and the Exile Forest) and the patriarchal culture of the Humans.

What themes are important to you, and how are they reflected in your writing?

Right now I’m really focused on stories of resistance. The Exile Forest, where my two most recent books are set, is a place of refuge for women and their half-Fairy (Elenite) children who have been chased out of their original homes. The people of the Forest have built a community for all, where no one has to be what was expected of them in their former lives. The Thorn Brothers and Thorn Maidens fight hard to protect the people of the Forest and bring new people into the community, often rescuing them from abuse and persecution at the hands of their husbands or fathers.

What are you working on next? Can you tease us?

I released my fifth book in September. It focuses on the Exile Forest and, along with the fourth book, starts the Exile Forest arc of the series. The next book, coming out next year, will be the story of Rose, the Queen of the Human Realm and Bastile’s wife. She’s on a quest to find her stolen child, Aurora. The book tracks her growth from a naive young woman of privilege to something more, as she becomes a leader in the Elenite civil rights movement.

And a few quick questions. What’s your favourite…

…book, in recent times?

I’ve been rereading the Cycle of Fire, and it’s still great. It’s a coming of age story, and it was just what teenage me needed. And it’s still what 50-something me needs!

…game, in recent times?

Not really a gamer, except for those addictive mobile games!

…writing advice?

You can’t edit or publish an unfinished story, so finish it. It may still need a lot of work once you’re done, but at least you’ll have completed something.

…advice for someone who wants to publish their own book?

Find a great editor who will work with your style of writing. I won the lottery, because I’m married to mine, but having someone who will respect both your story and your process while working diligently to improve your work is the best thing in the world.

…source of inspiration?

They’re all over the place! Most recently, I wrote a short story where all the characters have names from Arthurian legends. It was kind of freeing, because when I needed a name (and a word of warning: even in a short story, I have lots of characters!), I just pulled up an Arthurian website and picked one that felt right.

Music drives me, and will jumpstart my muse a lot of times when I’m blocked. I listen to a lot of bluegrass.

…way to clear your mind when everything gets a bit much?

Again, music. I put on one of my favorite albums (either Fly Through the Country or Barren County by Newgrass Revival) and just get lost in the familiar sounds.

Angel Girl Flanagan-Granneman, co-author (uncredited).

Do you have any last words? Any shoutouts to authors who have supported you or whose books have inspired you?

There are so many people I’ve met on social media who have inspired me, driven me forward, and helped me that I can’t pick out just one. I dedicated my most recent book to them all (you know who you are!).

Joel C. Flanagan-Granneman

Joel C. Flanagan-Grannemann is an award-winning fantasy author born and raised in rural western Pennsylvania. He wrote all through his adolescence and into young adulthood, serving as co-editor of the annual literary magazine his senior year at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford, from which he earned a B.A. in writing. After a break of nearly 25 years, he resumed writing in September 2019 and began publishing his Servants of the Moon and Sun high fantasy series a year later.

He is passionate about supporting other writers at all stages of their journeys and in all genres and can be found on Twitter and BlueSky as @ServantsAnd (where you will find him frequently posting cute pictures of raccoons) and on the web at www.ServantsoftheMoonandSun.com.

He and his wife and editor, Jay-Jay Flanagan-Grannemann, live with a boisterous clowder of cats in Columbia, SC. His day job is in the operations department at a major national retail chain, where he has worked for more than 25 years.