The Bitter Crown (The Eidyn Saga # 2) - Interview with Justin Lee Anderson

The Bitter Crown is set to enter the world on 5th December. It’s the second instalment in Justin Lee Anderson’s, The Eidyn Saga, and is the follow up to his SPFBO 6 winning novel The Lost War. Ahead of this momentous event, I have the distinct pleasure of sitting down with Justin and subjecting him to a little gentle interrogation….

You have lived in a few countries including your native Scotland, has that had any influence on your writing?

Probably! Every now and again my wife will say something like “This character sounds American, is she supposed to be American?” because I have a habit of confusing American and British speech patterns and phrases, despite the fact I haven’t lived in the US for 35 years! It also definitely affected how I saw Edinburgh growing up, because I moved away when I was 3, so Edinburgh was always somewhere we came to visit when I was a kid, and it was like going back in time to a place with buildings older than the country I was living in! I’ve always been drawn back to Edinburgh whenever I’ve moved away for any length of time, and I think that’s because there’s something magical about it. I love it. I think it’s given me a different perspective on the world too. Which, of course, is going to come through in my writing.

Scotland has a long and rich history of myths and storytelling. Has that had any impact on you as an author?

Absolutely. A lot of the mythology of Edinburgh inspired elements of The Eidyn Saga. When I used to write a tourist guide to Edinburgh for a few years, I did a lot of research into the city’s dark and grisly tales of ghosts and murder, and you kind of can’t help but be inspired by a city that has built a huge monument to one of Scotland’s most famous authors, Sir Walter Scott, right in the centre of town. It’s a very literary, culturally diverse city and you can sort of bask in that slightly rarefied air and feel inspired.

How do you go about establishing connections with your readers? Any tips for the aspiring or new authors?

Honestly, it can be tough. And it takes time, it won’t happen quickly. Get on social media and talk to people. Twitter is mostly where I hang out since Facebook made it difficult (expensive!) to engage with followers. But also Instagram and, these days, Bluesky and Threads too. Twitter is still where the engagement is at the moment. So I’d say go there and get involved in conversations with interesting people. DO NOT go and use it as a town square to get on a soap box and holler about your book. If that’s all you use it for, you’ll be ignored. Set up your profile to show who you are and what you do. By all means, mention your writing now and again, but first build up relationships and be a real human being that people can relate to. And be responsive when people speak to you, too. Be yourself. Unless you’re a dick. Then be someone else.

The Lost War won SPFBO 6 beating 299 other books in the process, what was your experience of the competition, and would you recommend entering for any authors considering it?

It was a mad, brilliant ride. I had the rags to riches experience with SPFBO because I entered Carpet Diem in SPFBO 4 and was one of the first books cut! I’d sort of had hopes that it might go somewhere in that, and they were quickly beat out of me. So when I entered Lost War in SPFBO6 it was very much a “what the hell, can’t be worse” kind of thing. And it was a very different book. So much so that I was genuinely worried if I could write it, because writing a silly urban fantasy comedy with dick jokes is not the same as writing a dark epic fantasy mystery. Becoming a finalist was an absolute treat and I remember just absolutely buzzing when I learned about it. And then six months of tenterhooks, waiting for all the scores to come in! When I was announced as the winner it was almost surreal, because it had been such a long time coming. One of the best bits was definitely the people I got to know thorough the competition, particularly the other finalists, but everyone else, all the bloggers and the whole community. And Mark, of course. He’s all right. I tend to buy him a pint whenever I see him, what with him having kinda changed my life and all.

I would absolutely recommend it to any self-pub fantasy author with a bit of advice: make sure your book is absolutely the best it can be before you enter it and don’t rush it to meet a deadline for one year. Don’t waste your one chance at getting a huge amount of exposure and building a community because you couldn’t wait a year. Take your time and do it right.

Has your approach to writing changed after you went from being self-published to signing with Orbit?

I don’t know if my approach has changed – maybe it’s still evolving? The thing that changes with going self-pub to trad is that there’s suddenly a lot of waiting and then everything happens at once. So it was like 18 months for The Lost War to be republished, but by then I was working on promo for launching that, doing edits on The Bitter Crown and ostensibly writing book 3 all at the same time! (Except I was really ill for the first half of the year, so the writing book 3 bit was what went by the wayside for a bit.) In self-pub you write a book, you edit a book, you publish a book and then you write the next book. It just doesn’t work that way in trad, because of the whole industry behind you. So while you’ve got this huge support network, it works to the timescale it works to and you just have to do the work when it needs doing!

So, lets imagine that Hollywood comes calling and wants to make a movie of The Lost War / The Bitter Crown, who are casting?

Well, there are two answers to that question, because it depends. On the one hand, I’d love it to be a proper Scottish production with a Scottish cast, and in that case I think I’d like to go through a casting process and find talented actors who aren’t necessarily all that well known, sort of similar to what Game of Thrones did. Richard Madden is about the right age to play Aranok, though, I can’t help but mention.

On the other hand, I did a sort of Hollywood dream cast along with some readers on Facebook and we came up with some great ideas, including Joel Kinnaman (Aranok), Morena Baccarin (Allandria), and Idris Elba (Meristan). The rest that we picked, their ideal actor is probably past the age to play them now. But Esme Creed-Miles was amazing in Hanna – she’s a decent shout for Samily. For the others, I’m open to suggestions!

When it came to writing The Bitter Crown, did you feel any particular pressures with it being a sequel? Especially since The Lost War such a popular and well received first book.

Yes! Because you can’t just do the same thing again when you did what I did at the end of The Lost War! That’s a story you can pull off once, and then the trick is what do you do next? But I wrote The Lost War as a political and cultural metaphor, so what comes next, for me, is what I see happening in the world in response to the issues raised in book one. The Bitter Crown is much more character focused than Lost War, I think, and gets into what people do when faced with such a mountain to climb. I hadn’t realised just how much pressure I was actually feeling about it coming out, though, until an early trade review came out and was really positive – that was a huge relief. I think I metaphorically let out a breath I didn’t know I was holding!

Are there any characters in The Bitter Crown that were your favourite to write?

I really enjoyed writing Shayella’s story, but I think what was most interesting from a character perspective was writing Aranok’s arc in relation to Shayella’s story. He goes through a lot in this book and there is a real emotional rollercoaster for him, so I think I probably enjoyed writing him the most. But Nirea was also fun. She’s dealing with something of a quandary about who she is and who she wants to be, and we follow her as she makes choices and calculations in a way that she didn’t have to in Lost War. That was also interesting. A lot of this book is about moral complexity, and how all of the characters adjust to the shades of grey.

The Bitter Crown will be emerging into the world on 5^th December, whilst we are all tucking the next instalment of The Eidyn Saga, what’s next for you?

I’m knee deep in Book 3! Trying to finish the first draft by the end of the year, then hopefully have a little break before I get into book 4, interspersed with edits on book 3!

Lastly, Aliens finally reveal themselves to us and your work is presented to them as example of what humanity has to offer, what do you hope they will take away from this intergalactic exchange?

Someone recently said that one of the things they like about my writing is that I seem to understand people. I like that idea. I try to represent the full spectrum of people’s personalities, and delve into why they do the things they do. People are complex and ridiculous and selfish and scared and horny and everything else, and I hope maybe they would take away something of the multitudes we all contain. Plus be entertained for a few days. And maybe spare me when the executions start?

Bonus Question : Tell us something about yourself that not many people know?

I have double-jointed thumbs that I used to be able to do some mildly disturbing things with, but age has made that too painful now so I tend to avoid it these days! My right one was always loose, but the left one only became as flexible when I had it smacked in a pillow fight as a kid and it popped backwards then back into place.

Author Bio:

Justin Lee Anderson was a professional writer and editor for over 15 years before his debut novel, Carpet Diem, was first published in 2015 and went on to win the 2018 Audie award for Humour. His second novel, The Lost War, was first published in 2019, won the 2020 SPFBO award, and was republished by Orbit Books in 2023 as part for a four-book deal for The Eidyn Saga.

Justin lives just outside his hometown of Edinburgh with his family.

Book Links:

Carpet Diem

mybook.to/carpetdiem

The Lost War

US: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/justin-lee-anderson/the-lost-war/9780316454070/?lens=orbit

UK: https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/justin-lee-anderson/the-lost-war/9780356519531/

The Bitter Crown

US: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/justin-lee-anderson/the-bitter-crown/9780316454308/?lens=orbit

UK: https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/justin-lee-anderson/the-bitter-crown/9780356519562/

Social Media Links:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/justinleeandersonauthor