Interviewing RJ Barker

Helloooo!

I recently reviewed the great Warlords of Wyrdwood by RJ Barker the second volume of the Forsaken trilogy. It was a pleasure to invite RJ back to the blog to talk about this really unusual series and fascinating world.

Hello Womble!

How do you like to booktempt people into reading Warlords of Wyrdwood?

Oh gosh, sort of Robin Hood meets HP Lovecraft maybe? Or big concept fantasy world?  I’m not really sure, I think it might appeal to people who enjoyed things like Malazan, or Thomas Covenant which slowly reveal their secrets to you, but don’t hold your hand. At all.

What drew you towards the idea of the Wyrdwood? Why are forests a key location in much of fantasy?

I just like trees, and woods. I grow Bonsai at home, as I don’thave space to grow proper trees. And I think there’s something very primal about forests, there’s real change of feeling when you get in among trees that I don’t really get anywhere else. Also, it’s sort of the last of my ‘landscape’ trilogies. The Wounded Kingdom was moors, the Tide Child books the sea and Forests felt like the final big landscape to approach.

In Gods of the Wyrdwood we focused on Cahan the grumpy reluctant hero but here you’re moving across a lot of perspectives. How much of a challenge was it juggling all these storylines and perspectives?

It’s easier if anything to be honest with you. When you stick to one point of view you’re very limited in what you can show, and there is a lot to show in Wyrdwood. So jumping out and showing different people in different places lets me colour outside the lines, and then you get to play and cross these characters over to create drama. Also, from a writing point of view, when you’re writing a long book it’s nice to have a change. And I think when you realise how the magic works in Wyrdwood, it could never be a story about one person, it has to be a story about different people coming together, as that’s one of the big themes.

Which character was your favourite to write?

Udinny is probably the most fun to write, just because her voice is the most amusing and because she is experiencing something totally alien that she really has no frame of reference for. So trying to find ways that will clue in the reader to what’s happening without her stepping outside what she could know through her own experiences was fun, and challenging. And Sorha was fun too, because she probably has the most interesting and unexpected arc.

We start to explore the wider world of Crua from top to bottom in this world. Was this always something you expected to do in this story?

Yes. I don’t really have a plan for how we might get to a place but I had a very good general idea about this world and how it worked by the time I started. Though I absolutely failed in my original objective of writing a fast paced and simple fantasy based on Robin Hood. I fell quite in love with Crua and the experience of living there, and I really enjoyed the fact there are two distinct ecosystems going on but never saying that because, along with many other things, the people in the book have no way of understanding their world in a way the reader will come to.   

What three words can you use to describe the last book of the trilogy?

Surprising. Exciting. Uplifting.  

In your series to date there is often a theme of a land out of balance often linked to or caused by the people living it? What is the pull of this scenario for you?

I think it’s hard not to be fascinated with these themes given the way we are currently treating the world. It seems ridiculous that even at a level of world governments we are focused on petty ideas of who lives where when we should be concentrating at how to look after the planet itself. I can get quite cross about this.

What else can we look forward from you in the future and in this weird world of social media where can we find out more?

I’m on Bluesky as RJ Barker. As to what is coming? Well, things are coming, but I can’t tell what you just yet. It’s quite different to my other stuff, but also very much me. That doesn’t help at all, does it?

What great books have you read recently?

I just finished an excellent book about Roman history by Emma Southon called A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum which was superb. Informative and funny and now I am reading her book about Aggripina.