BooksChatter: ℚ♫ A Chronicle of Chaos: The Light and Shadow Chronicles [1]

Today we have the pleasure of meeting up with author D.M. Cain to talk about A Chronicle of Chaos (17 March 2016, Booktrope Editions, 310 pages), a Fantasy, book one of The Light and Shadow Chronicles series.

“The new book in DM Cain’s epic Light and Shadow fantasy series certainly plunges us in at the deep end. The heart of this book—its true essence—is prejudice and love, persistence, and stubbornness.” Stewart Bint, author of In Shadows Waiting and Timeshaft.

Author Q&A | Synopsis | Trailer | Teaser | About the Author | Tour Stops

A very warm welcome to D.M. Cain; thank you for joining us on BooksChatter!

As we love music, D.M. Cain has shared with us her music playlist for A Chronicle of Chaos - enjoy!

What was the inspiration for A Chronicle of Chaos?

"I’ve always loved fantastical worlds and mythical creatures, magical powers etc so my heart has always been tied to the fantasy genre. Many of my favourite books, films, TV shows etc. feature people of great power, prophecies of greatness, towering castles and palaces and often ordinary people dragged into missions of danger and great importance. All of these things have been pulled into my newest book, ‘A Chronicle of Chaos’, which is the first in my epic fantasy series – The Light and Shadow Chronicles.

One of the biggest influences is the Final Fantasy RPG games, which gave me a love of banding together people of various abilities to fight overwhelming evil. I’ve also taken a lot of inspiration from Terry Brooks’s The Word and the Void trilogy (especially his depiction of demons!)"

How much of yourself is reflected in this book, and how?

"This book is firmly rooted in myself – not just in my interested and passions, but also in my childhood.

Growing up, my best friend and I used to play games set in the world this book is written about. I was the matriarch of the family – Callista Nienna (now one of my main characters), and my friend was a similar character and we played out scenes and stories from the storyline, which spanned hundreds of years. So, the plots within the world of Alcherys are all tied in to events in my own life, or things that affected me growing up."

I do like the fact that you added maps at the beginning of the book.

The first thing that draws me to a book is its cover. Can you tell us about your cover for A Chronicle of Chaos - why you chose that concept and who the artist is.

"A huge amount of time and attention went into the cover for this book. As the novel is about a wide range of different armies/clans battling for dominance over the planet, each of them has their own symbol which they sport upon their armour, banners, weapons etc. My amazing designer, Irina French took all of these symbols (of which she designed numerous and I designed others) and combined them on an ancient shield (which will appear in the series later as quite a crucial object).

Every book in the series will have the same shield upon the front. The difference for each book will be the symbols that are lit up. A Chronicle of Chaos’s shield has the ‘Demons’ and ‘Nightfall’ segments lit up, as they are the prominent forces in this story. The background for each book also differs."

And you can find out more about each clan on D.M.'s website.
Why should we read A Chronicle of Chaos and The Light and Shadow Chronicles? What sets it apart from the rest?

"This is a fantasy series, like many others, but what makes this series unique is that the books do not need to be read in any particular order.

Each story is focused upon an individual character or faction, and tells their part in the upcoming apocalyptic war. It doesn’t matter in which order they are read, as they will all lead to the same conclusion (which will be the final book – which is the only one that needs to be read at the end!)."

Can you tell us something quirky about A Chronicle of Chaos, its story and characters?

"One of the main characters – Chaos Lennox’s father is named Raven Lennox. This Raven is essentially the same character as my protagonist from ‘The Phoenix Project’ – Raven Kennedy.

Though the worlds are not in any way linked, I loved the character so much that I used him in both books (and even had a tattoo of a Raven!). Think of Raven Lennox as a parallel universe version of Raven Kennedy."

Who would you recommend A Chronicle of Chaos to and what should readers be aware of (any warnings or disclaimers)?

"I would recommend this book to fans of the epic fantasy genre – those that are interested in large scale battles, wars between angels and demons etc.

But it is also for alternative romance fans, because at the heart of all the war and death, is a touching love story between a demon and a human. Please be aware that this love story is between two men (which seems to give some readers cause for concern, though I’m not sure why!)"

If you could / wished to turn A Chronicle of Chaos and the The Light and Shadow Chronicles series into a movie, who would be your dream team?

"Director – Darren Aronofsky (because I absolutely love the bleak darkness and depth he manages to get into every film!)

Location – I would really like the film to be set in Snowdonia because I love the sweeping valleys and mountains (and I have very fond memories of holidaying there as a child!)

Actors – I have given this much thought! For my main characters I would like Lucas Till as Anathema, Katheryn Winnick as Callista (because she is kick-ass in Vikings!), Bob Morley (Bellamy from The 100) as Chaos, and Santiago Cabrera as Raven."

What do you like to write and read about? Do you stick to a particular genre or do you like to explore different ones?

"I have written in a few different genres, but they do all seem to be closely linked! My short story ‘The End’ was an apocalyptic thriller and ‘The Phoenix Project’ is a psychological dystopian.

I do tend to stick to fantasy and sci-fi, although I’d quite like to try my hand at horror one day! I could never see myself writing straightforward romance or contemporary fiction, as for me writing is a cathartic way to escape the stresses of this world and disappear into a fantasy setting of my own creation!"

What is your writing process?

"I tend to write late at night at my kitchen table with instrumental music playing in my headphones to blot out all distractions.

Once I get into ‘the zone’ I write into the early hours of the morning! I also love to go out to a quiet pub or cafe and write, although if I do that, I always hand write. I have maybe 20 or so notebooks filled with handwritten chapters of my books."

What is in store next?

"The next in my Light and Shadow Chronicles is coming later this year. It has just gone into the extensive editing process and will take around 6 months to edit and revise, then will be released a few months later. This book is focused around a 10-year-old boy named Soren in the Children of Light.

I am also currently writing a new novel, which will be the first from the point of view of the ‘enemies’ the Brotherhood of Shadow."

And as a final quirky thing, to get to know you a little bit better... do you have a pet or something that is special to you that you could share with us?

"I don’t have a pet – but I have a noisy, messy little son who follows me around. He’s already showing an interest in reading and writing so hopefully we’ll be co-authoring one day!"