Fantasy Writer Justin Rose: Author’s Full-Cast Audio Drama
Cover art for The Fall of Ingway, a Full Cast Audio Drama written and directed by Justin Rose
In the chaos of my inaugural year as an author, I’ve had the privilege of meeting some amazing writers. Justin Rose, author of the fantasy series Tales of Rehavan, stands out in this incredible crowd as well-read, sharp, and a lover of (and talented writer of) lyrical prose.
As an independent author, he writes high fantasy from an abundant love for the genre and a commitment to quality storytelling. It’s a refreshing distinction in a season of fantasy publishing that can feel bloated with copy-paste “blockbusters” marketed purely on tropes.
I’ve used Justin as a pilot for an interview structure I worried might tent toward overly cerebral. But he’s set a high bar with his thoughtful and engaging responses below.
November 1, 2024 will mark the official start of Justin’s Kickstarter for an audio drama set in the fictional world of Rehavan. Boasting an 18-member cast, The Fall of Ingway promises to bring to vivid life the mythology of Justin’s fantasy epic.
Below is a Q & A style interview where Justin shares about his work and the heart behind his stories.
Introduce yourself and your work:
I'm a writer from northern Wisconsin. Mostly, I focus on high fantasy, though outside of my published ouvre (isn't that just a delightfully pretentious word!), I've got a fair pile of works in other genres saved on old USB drives. I grew up reading the classics, devouring whatever I found. Wilde. Dostoevsky. Yeats. Bradbury. Shakespeare. Fitzgerald. These were my closest friends. I spent countless hours of my childhood in and out of our local library and every bookstore in our town and the next town over.
Stories taught me how to think, how to feel, and how to live. And for as long as I can remember, I never imagined a life for myself that did not include writing. So, that's what I do. It's my way of giving a little back.
My published works include four novels in the Tales of Rehavan series and an upcoming Audio Drama set in the same world.
Tell us about your upcoming work:
This project is an audio drama called The Fall of Ingway. With 18 voice actors, an hour of original music, and full professional sound design, it is by far my most ambitious project. If Tales of Rehavan are the history of my world, then The Fall of Ingway is one of its myths.
Set when gods and flesh walked together, before any oaths or prisons had been crafted to keep them separate, the story follows Ingway, the soft-spoken, kindly, and utterly terrifying god of death. He has grown weary in his role, tiring of endings and loss, of a life lived among ending lives. His relationship with the Goddess of Mercy draws him toward impulses that conflict with his purpose.
Slowly, his steps grow drunken.
Watch the Kickstarter Trailer:
Who is this story for?
Anyone who loves high fantasy for its themes, who loves classic literature for its language, or who loves mythology for its symbolism will find something to love in The Fall of Ingway. It’s not a very easily defined demographic. But those are my people. Them's the folks I write for.
What was your original inspiration for this story?
I've always been a little afraid of death. I'm fairly certain I'm not alone in that. But Death is natural. It's a part of the journey we call life. And I wanted to represent the God of Death in my world as an ordering power, a kind of functionary or administrator, to show the impropriety of dreading him.
I had also long toyed with the idea in my world of all my gods (who are based on either elements of character like Mercy and Cruelty or else on forces of nature like Luck and Fate) corrupting each other over time, altering one another to become more complex than the templates they were made from.
I specifically wanted to show how a virtue, when misapplied, could corrupt just like a vice. So, I decided to write about Mercy changing the God of Death.
Tell us about the main character(s).
There are essentially two main storylines that run parallel in The Fall of Ingway, a story of human people struggling to survive a war and a story of gods playing that war as men play chess.
Ingway is the main character in the godly story and in the overall narrative. But in the realm of fleshly lives, there is a love story unfolding between the daughter of a king and a Captain of Guard in her father's service. And these two characters take central roles in that second narrative.
What do you want readers to walk away with after finishing your book(s)?
For The Fall of Ingway, I want them to walk away with Hope.
When I was in college, one of my writing teachers wrote as feedback on a collection of my work, "Your prose is so beautiful, but very often when I read your work, I feel like I'm stumbling about in a dark room looking for a light switch. And you rarely give me one."
That feedback made sense for my work at the time. College was not a period when I felt like I had many light switches to offer. But there is a light switch in The Fall of Ingway. There is mercy. There is beauty. And even though it is a story of deaths and endings, there is hope.
For the rest of my books, I hope people walk away with empathy. With Mercy. The Goddess of Mercy plays a powerful role in my work. And even when the Goddess is absent, mercy is not. I want people to recognize that justice is a virtue. Strength is a virtue. But the restraint of mercy is higher than both.
What first motivated you to start writing with the intent to share your work?
I read a short story called "The Exiles" by Ray Bradbury, an absurdist parable where all the spirits of authors throughout the ages exist elsewhere from Earth for as long as their works endure and as long as people remember them.
It is a tale of the slow march of science extinguishing fancy, of the sterilization of whimsy, of the loss of innocent joy.
And when it ends, with the extinction of Edgar Allen Poe and all his creations and of Charles Dickens and his ghosts and the evaporation of L. Frank Baum's Emerald City, the world is left poorer and smaller and less, even though man's feet now walk on Mars.
I love that story. I love the idea of immortality achieved by writing, a little scrap of self left imprinted on the world. And I love the idea of adding to the ghouls and fairies of wonder and fantasy.
What books or stories were most influential to you growing up?
Wuthering Heights held a powerful sway over me in high school (I was a moody child, lol). The Count of Monte Cristo was a favorite for some time earlier on as a child, though now I've sadly lost the ability to love its grand story because I'm less enamored of its prose. And, though I actually did not discover it till I was twenty or so, After the Fall by Arthur Miller was very influential.
What stories (books, movies, etc.) inspire you during your writing process?
The Picture of Dorian Gray, Dandelion Wine, and The Great Gatsby are the three books that have captured my soul on a whole other level from the rest of literature. They have perfect prose. Flawless. Utterly without fault. These are where I have always felt most inspired to write, because they show me what words can do.
From your perspective, how do world building, plot, and character development compare in terms of importance in your writing?
Character is king. If you have excellent characters, that alone can make any story enjoyable and beautiful. Look at Hamlet: Decent world building, very weak and simple plot, but such incredible characters and prose that the work stands as one of the best plays ever written.
I cannot think of any example of a book that had shoddy characters but was saved by worldbuilding or plot. But I can think of many that lacked in those areas but was saved by excellent characters.
I would prioritize it as:
Characters
Prose
World Building
Plot
What themes do you try to explore in your writing?
Mostly themes related to how we spend our time. I use immortal characters in three of my four books. In fact, the family that is central to the series is a family of immortals. And the opportunities that presents to examine the toll of wasted time, the guilts of missed opportunity, and the hunger to justify existence are manifold.
What genre of writing do you love to read that you would never attempt to write?
Contemporary Literary Fiction. Most modern authors I truly love are not so much fantasy authors as contemporary fiction writers. Leif Enger, Mitch Albom, and Khaled Hosseini. Now, both Albom and Enger do employ fantasy elements in their writing, but I don't think that the fantasy is what defines their genre nearly so much as the contemporary and literary qualities.
I adore the way that authors like Enger can make the mundane sing, can use choice of words and turns of phrase to elevate literally anything to beauty.
I also adore the way that Hosseini can illuminate tragedy and brutality and sorrow to make it so tangible.
I hesitate to write in this genre mostly because I struggle with scene transitions and filling the idle moments of narrative in a modern setting. It is a weakness in my abilities that prevents me from producing worthwhile work in that genre. But perhaps someday. We're all always growing.
What technical aspect of writing has been the most challenging for you?
I have always been good at grammar, and I believe my character development came pretty naturally. Dialogue has always taken a bit more work. Like many authors, I have spent so much of my younger years reading and reading older works that my own speech leans toward being stilted. And the dialogue I write naturally comes out somewhat flowery. So, toning that down to more natural and believable and individualized cadences has always taken me time.
In what ways have you grown most as a writer over your author career?
I like to think I've grown kinder. Isn't learning to see others the whole point of narrative? And if crafting narrative doesn't teach me that, I'm doing something very wrong.
More about Justin Rose and his books:
Visit Justin’s website and social channels here.
Follow Justin’s Kickstarter here.
Sign up for Justin’s newsletter here and get a free ebook of Fairy Harvest, a Rehavan novella.