A conversation with MD Lachlan

In the wake of Viking Week I managed to catch up with MD Lachlan, author of Wolfsangel and Fenrir, and dragged him away from his current work in progress for a quick chat.

MFB: Hi Mark, and welcome to MFB. So what came to you first – the lore or the story?

MDL: Not sure. I was always interested in Viking mythology from an early age and completely immersed in fantasy through Dungeons and Dragons. I guess it must have been the lore, as I only thought of the story as I was going along.

MFB: You have a series in mind when you started writing Wolfsangel? If not, when did the switch happen, and what was the catalyst?

MDL: Wolfsangel was originally conceived as a stand alone novel, set in WWII and flashing back to the Viking era. Publishers loved the novel but couldn't see how to market it. Simon Spanton at Gollancz suggested turning it into a series. I found this daunting at first but, when I started writing, the story sort of wrote itself.

MFB: Did the story change much from your original idea as you wrote it? Are you a planner or seat-of-the-pants writer?

MDL: Seat of pants by choice but, more and more, a planner by necessity. I'm writing two novels at the moment, one under the MD Lachlan pen name and one under a new pen name - Mark Alder. This means I can't afford blind alleys and false starts. The plan at least points the direction you're going in. The novel still has to evolve organically, though, and I do depart from plans in the writing. But the plan means there's at least a path to come back to. What you can't do in a plan - or at least I can't - is surprise yourself. That moment when you realise something about one of your characters or the real reason X did Y is one of the most rewarding things about writing and, for me, it evolves spontaneously.


MFB: I thought you captured the action sequences very well, and in a way that suggested more than just paper and ink research. Am I right?

MDL: I've done various sorts of martial arts since I was a kid and I've also been a fencer for about 10 years. I think this is why I put a lot of nerves into my fight sequences. I've noticed that the standard of fencing on a club night is much higher than in a competition - at least at my level. People freeze up, they feel self conscious, movement becomes less free. Also, particularly when I did Thai Boxing or Judo, the feeling of going into a competition or full contact grading is one of extreme nerves. And, to a point, when you come together with two lengths of sharp steel, anyone can beat anyone. I've seen the British number one at Epee hit by a relative beginner. OK, 999 times out of 1000, the British number one gets the hit. Once he doesn't. In real sword fighting that could be the day he dies!

MFB: Fenrir has a wonderfully dark and savage feel to it, and an appreciable bodycount. Were there any ideas you had that your publishers thought were too dark, or did you have free reign to go as far as you wanted to?

MDL: No one's ever tried to rein things in. The early middle ages were a savage time. The story reflects that! I do sometimes wonder if I lose some fantasy fans with the darkness of the series but, for every one you lose, I guess you attract one. I've been surprised people call it gory. I really do think I hold back on the gore. That said, it's a werewolf story. I wanted to make it truly scary and disturbing.

MFB: How would you describe Fenrir to someone who’s not familiar with either Norse lore or Wolfsangel?

MDL: A medieval 24 with a bottom-kicking werewolf. A story that begins at the VIking siege of Paris in 885. It's a historical, mythic fantasy where incarnations of Norse gods battle it out on earth, some to survive, some to fulfil a terrible bargain with fate. It also deals with the collision of Christianity and Paganism. It features some very scary gods and the toughest character I've ever written - the crippled monk Jehan.

MFB: Do you write in silence and/or isolation, or to music? If the latter, what sort?

MDL: I can't write or read to music. However, tunes do arise in my head while I'm writing - it's normally a sign things are going well. For Wolfsangel it was Psychic TV's The Full Pack. Fenrir was directly inspired by Kate Bush's Hounds of Love. I wanted that propulsive beat in my story.


MFB: What’s the coolest thing you discovered while doing your research?

MDL: Things that I find cool aren't found cool by everyone! That Vikings had turf saddles? That at a monastery in the Swiss alps they had sung one song for 350 years! I think that the VIkings besieged Paris was fairly cool!

MFB: What can we look forward to in the next instalment, and when is it likely to be out?

MDL: The next one is called Lord of Slaughter and it's out in 2012 - around June. It's set in Constantinople and concerns the beginnings of the Byzantine Emperor's Viking guard - the Varangian guard. The repeating myth cycle of the first two books ends here! It also features my first fairly straightforwardly evil character. A sample line from the beginning: 'Under a dead moon, on a field of the dead, a wolf moved unseen beneath the rain's great shadow'. That's pretty much the tone of it!

MFB: I like it! I think we've kept you long enough - back to work!

Fenrir by MD Lachlan

The Vikings are laying siege to Paris. As the houses on the banks of the Seine burn a debate rages in the Cathedral on the walled island of the city proper. The situation is hopeless. The Vikings want the Count’s sister, in return they will spare the rest of the city.

Can the Count really have ambitions to be Emperor of the Franks if he doesn’t do everything he can to save his people? Can he call himself a man if he doesn’t do everything he can to save his sister? His conscience demands one thing, the demands of state another. The Count and the church are relying on the living saint, the blind and crippled Jehan of St Germain, to enlist the aid of God and resolve the situation for them.

But the Vikings have their own gods. And outside their camp a terrifying brother and sister, priests of Odin, have their own agenda. An agenda of darkness and madness. And in the shadows a wolfman lurks.

I picked up Fenrir with a self inflicted disadvantage, namely that I hadn't read Wolfsangel, which this follows on from. Liz read & reviewed Wolfsangel back in May last year and I remember her raving about it. So from that perspective I was quite keen to see what all the fuss was about, but at the same time I wanted to see how Fenrir fared as a standalone given that it wasn't a 'direct' follow on. Fenrir is set decades after the events of Wolfsangel, and Odin, Loki and the wolf known as Fenrir are about re-fight their battle of wits and wills through the lives of three mortals.

The story opens with Paris under siege by an army of Northmen under the banner of Sigfrid, who's seeking a young woman named by his Odin- priests, a woman who holds the key to the prophesied return of Odin to the world. A pragmatist, he's only interested in the prophecy for what kind of power it can earn him, unlike the priests who know the truth behind it. But neither he nor the priest realise that their prize is under their noses, captured along with the living saint venerated by the Franks. The saint is given to the Odin priests, and something dark is awoken amidst the blood and fear of the ancient and terrifying rites they perform.

The answer to my question is yes, you can read it as a standalone, but it does slow things down, particularly in the first third as you try and get the cast of characters straight in your head. There are references which only someone's who's read Wolfsangel will pick up on, but you can soldier on through it. There's a lot going on, and the point of view switches back and forth between various characters,which really forces you to concentrate on what you're reading.

Lachlan teases the information out as each character's story is told, and weaves these threads into a complex knot that he slowly tightens as the wolf closes in on its prey. The characterisation is good, which is has to be given the cast of characters whose heads we get to look inside, and the action sequences are impressive, eloquently capturing the fear and chaos of combat. Despite it being a story heavily involved with ancient prophesies, gods and werewolves, it all takes place across real locations and maintains a very real, fantasy- free feel to it, a juxtaposition that I feel contributes a lot to the overall atmosphere and feel of the book.

Fenrir is a dark and complex story to get into, but it rewards those who persist with a rich tale seething with myth, deception and ready violence.

Gollancz Party

Dear readers and fellow bloggers from the sphere, Mark and I got to attend the very swanky Gollancz party this year. We were joined by Ana from The Booksmugglers and Gav from Nextread. Needless to say there was a lot of squealing and "ohmygodwhatamIgoingtowear" before the time because you know, the nearer we got to the date of the party, realisation dawned: a truckload of authors are going to be there whom we are all slavish fans of. (And we all had to look purty). Then we realised they will be joined by editors, reviewers, publicity people, journalists, other publishers and their media teams. It was going to be HUGE.

And it was - there were hundreds of people. The venue was the Oktober Galleries in Bloomsbury which were a series of rooms and a lovely outdoors garden. We mingled our way around and to be honest, the amount of people I recognised by name alone was staggering. The worst part was being unable to talk to all of them.

A definite highlight for me was catching up with James Lovegrove whose novel, Age of Ra, taught me not to turn my nose up at military sci fi! I owe James a long email and he in turn owes us a blogpost (hurrah!).

Further along we got to meet up with the luscious Alex Bell who seems set on outshining everyone because not only is she tall, very pretty and sexy, she has the dress-sense of fashionista. Check out this amazing shirt! Isn't it gorgeous? And angel wings, as we all know are very topical right now.

We got to hang around with one of my favourite people of all time - Saxon Bullock - who looked extremely suave in a velvet jacket and goatee. Saxon has this infectious air and a personality that hinges on the hysterical that has everyone falling around laughing. I think I may need eyecream for all the laughing wrinkles I got on Thursday night.

It would be bad of me not to mention the talented Ms. Suzanne McLeod who looked rock 'n roll. We didn't get a chance to chat loads, but I got to whisper some confidences to her very briefly before she shot off home. When we saw the tiny group of authors arrive I also spotted this tall chap in a purple shirt who looked a bit out, a little bit like Leonardo Di Caprio if Leonardo was actually six foot tall and had broad shoulders. I asked Alex who he was and it turns out he's a new author signed by Gollancz, called Sam Sykes. I've failed to find a website for Sykes. We did however corner him at the party - yes, me, Mark, Ana and Gav - to have him tell us about his upcoming book and people, all I can say is...2010 is going to be an awesome year.

Ana and I are particularly excited about the upcoming books from Gollancz - we are going to see authors like Nailini Singh and Caitlin Kittredge come to the UK as part of their urban fantasy / paranormal romance lines they are establishing. This, needless to say, had us fanning ourselves in utter joy.

We got to spend some time with the girls from Orbit: Sam, Rose, Coreen and Ana - who, all by the way, can take Paris by storm with their fashion sense! We were enticed about Blue Blood by Melissa de la Cruz and I for one cannot WAIT to read this series. Rose and I also discovered a shared passion for Kelley Armstrong, Dean from Supernatural and a variety of other things I'm not allowed to mention on here because it could be held against us in a court of law.

I got to chat to John Berlyne who runs the Zeno Agency - I also review for John over at http://www.sfrevu.com/ where he is the UK editor. They've had some amazing authors sign with them lately and sold books most recently to both Gollancz and Angry Robot. *sparkly eyes* More pretty books to read!

I also - yay! - got to chat with another legendary John - John Jarrold of the John Jarrold Literary Agency. It was brief only but after chatting to John on and off for about 2 years now, it was fantastic to actually get to meet him in person.

Ana and Gav met the amazing Robert Holdstock for the first time. A nicer, kinder and gentlemanly man is hard to find. I still do fan-girl squealing about him though - my autograph I got from him at the Gemmell Award is still a favourite treasure.

We got to meet some of the girls over at Voyager too - we've all been twittering incessantly for ages now so it was good to be able to put faces to Twitter names. Also a shoutout to the tallest guy at the party, 6ft 6inches Niall Harrison who is not only a cool guy but also a new friend.

Mark managed to get hold of Joe Abercrombie for part of the evening at the after party and coerced him into posing for a picture or two. I think Mark and Joe are a very dangerous combination and I'm a bit relieved that they managed to break away from one another. I had visions of some kind of creative collaboration in which more bloodshed and zombies would abound than you could shake your boomstick at.

My one regret of the evening is not being able to talk to MD Lachlan, a new author signed by Gollancz. His book is called Wolfsangel and we've met up and chatted on Twitter a few times. I really wanted to congratulate him in person but sadly, not this time around.

There is loads more to say about the party but to be honest, I'm still recovering. It was an amazing evening and we all had a tremendous time. Thank you to Jon and everyone at Gollancz for inviting us around. We all had a fantastic time!