Interviewing Andrew Knighton

Helllooo!

I recently reviewed the excellent Ashes of the Ancestors by Andrew Knighton which is a compelling fanatsy tale set in a huge haunted Abbey filled with the ghosts of the grea and good. Its a novella that explores the power of the past to dominate our lives. I had a chance to ask Andrew some question s on this story and was very pleased he was able to give me some time to talk about the story.

How do you like to booktempt Ashes of the Ancestors?

In a haunted monastery at the heart of a dying empire, a lone servant struggles beneath the weight of duty and loss. Tradition is the strongest chain, but will it bind her down or lift her up?

What drew you to the idea of the abbey and its ghosts?

I’ve always been fascinated by history and tradition, but I view them with a critical eye. There’s a world of difference between learning from the past and being beholden to it, and we too easily slip from one to the other, letting traditions limit us instead of inspiring us. I decided that it was finally time to vent this particular obsession, and one of the great things about fantasy is that you can use it to make abstract ideas more concrete. So I went looking in my notes for a concept that would embody this theme, found the phrase “haunted monastery”, and realised that it was perfect. Religious houses are always full of ritual and tradition, and ghosts are, by their very nature, a supernatural connection between the past and the present. It was a recipe for tradition right there on the page.

From that starting point, things fell into place really quickly. I used my cast of ghosts to represent different attitudes toward the past and tradition, ranging from veneration to regret to a longing to forget. Magdalisa, the story’s protagonist, is pulled between those different poles, and her path represents the struggle we all face in defining our own relationship with history and tradition.

This world is huge full of history and its own current issues. How did you find condensing all of this into novella form?

There was a real tension to writing this one. Because of the theme of the story, it was important to create the impression of a vast empire with a huge history, but because of the length of the story, I didn’t have space to present all of that. Like an impressionist painter using a few brief strokes to conjure the shape of a face, I had to create the illusion of vastness in a few words. Most of that is done through small details, brief references to names, places, and events, just enough information to let readers fill in the details for themselves. I took a leaf from the book of Max Gladstone, who is an absolute master of this. His Craft Sequence is full of passing references to people, places, and events that let you imagine a vast and complex world without getting bogged down in explanations.

There are a couple of scenes in Ashes of the Ancestors that go deeper, and so are important in presenting the wider world: one where supplicants come to the Eternal Abbey for guidance, and one where Magdalisa returns to her home community for an annual festival. Those let me show small parts of the world in more depth, which makes the other details more convincing. Seeing the life of one town helps readers believe that there’s a whole empire as vivid and real as that community.

Did you always know where the tale would end?

Absolutely. I have strong opinions on how people treat tradition and the past, and while I wanted to treat other perspectives with respect, this is my story, and it was always going to end my way. The big, dramatic parts of the ending were baked into the very concept.

That said, there was one detail that caught me by surprise, a little part of how the characters feel that’s hinted at in the very final moments, and that I hadn’t planned for. It emerged from the dynamics of what I’d written, and it tied nicely into the story’s central message, which is one of hope for the future.

What else can we forward to from you in the future and where can we find out more?

I’ve got short stories coming up in On Spec and 4 Star Stories, one a fantasy about resisting dictatorship and the other a Mayan-flavoured steampunk piece about art, industry, and finding meaning. I’ve also got several historical action adventure comics coming soon from Commando, ranging from a trumpeter in the Tunisian desert to battling biplanes in the skies above Belgium. I’m trying to find an agent for a novel that subverts the chosen one trope, revising a novella about landscape and loss, and writing a novel about art as magic. Most of those stories have ended up becoming somewhat political, whether I meant them to or not—apparently this what I do now, fantasy that’s pointing squarely at the modern world.

If anyone wants to see more of my writing, the best place to look is my website, andrewknighton.com . I post a flash story there once a month, and blog posts when I’m in the mood, including some commentary on Ashes of the Ancestors. I have a mailing list for news about new releases, and to get those flash stories straight to your inbox. I’m also on Mastodon as @gibbondemon@wandering.shop and on Twitter as @gibbondemon, where I talk about books, writing, freelance work, and my cat.

If there was one book, not your own that you wish you could get everyone else to read what would it be and why?

Miasma by Jess Hyslop, one of the other Luna Press novellas. It’s about a family struggling to survive in a toxic swamp that can turn people into monsters, while magic, the past, and a harsh society press in on them. The setting is intriguing and distinctive, the characters compelling. My partner doesn’t usually read fantasy, but when she heard about that book it went straight onto her to-read pile. It’s really great.