20 Questions - The Splendor of Fire
01.
What does The Splendor of Fire explore?
This novel was an exploration about grief and suffering, and the question: where is God in the midst of it? I also wanted to explore why suffering happens, and for what purpose. First, are we handed suffering by God? If we are, then is it to punish us? If not for punishment, does suffering have inherent purpose?
02.
Where are we after book one, The Radiance of the Moon?
Hector and Cara have escaped the Wolf’s lair at Lochindorb, and Léo has given his life for theirs. Or has he? This book picks up in the forgotten pit prison of Lochindorb, where one man is having his reckoning with God.
03.
What can you tell us about the MacKinnon family and their role in this story?
Léo has two half-brothers (Niall and Fingon) and a half-sister (Elspeth). Elspeth is dead. The consequences of her death will be meted in chapter one.
The second third of the book will deal with Niall and Léo’s relationship.
The last third of the book will foreshadow the growing storm between Fingon and Léo.
To add, Léo has a “stepmother” in Malvina. Malvina has survived being quite wronged by her husband and is justified in some or all of her feelings toward Léo. Of all the siblings, and his stepmother, I believe I would be most frightened of Malvina (in this novel).
Léo will have to come to terms with his relationships with all of his family members in order to succeed in the mission God gives him.
04.
What is the significance of fire in this novel?
Fire has so many different purposes, but again and again in scripture, God uses it to prove, refine and purify. It is used as an illustration to demonstrate one’s own commitment and passion, but also to mete out justice.
05.
We’ve seen Léo’s character evolve in book one from enemy of Hector to friend. How does he continue to develop in this book?
At the beginning of Radiance, everything feels raw to Léo. He, at one time, considered Hector to be his brother, but Hector’s flight from France rips open a wound (Leo’s abandonment by his brothers at age seventeen).
Hector is well aware of Léo’s past, but as a lost and addicted man, he cannot see beyond his next drink so he makes a selfish choice to flee. When Léo comes to Mull, Hector desperately wants to prove he’s a different man—but Hector falls short again and again. At the same time, he is honoring the mission God gives him—even though it causes a deepening of their rift.
Léo has a spiritual gift of discernment, and although he is initially disgusted, something causes him to come back to Mull. In protecting Cara, Léo realizes that Hector is actually acting unselfishly. He recognizes that the old Hector and the new Hector are the same man, and Hector needs both his struggles and the Spirit to be who God made him to be. That is why he ultimately forgives Hector, protects him, and restores him with the words, “that’s what brothers do.”
As Hector had to go on his own journey in book one to reconcile his past and his future, Léo knows immediately at the start of Splendor that the time has come to remember all the things he is trying to forget. Unlike Hector, however, Léo is not at a place of being completely empty or surrendered.
The beginning third of the book tackles Léo’s surrender to God when he doesn’t want to let go.
06.
Léo’s family history plays a major role in his character arc. How does this continue to affect Léo’s situation/future?
As close as Hector and Lachlan were in book one, the MacKinnon siblings are as far apart as can possibly be. Their dynamic is down to the sins of their father— Colm MacKinnon. Thirty-two years prior, Colm met a young French courtier at the Scottish court in Edinburgh—Blanche d’Audrehem. Taken with her beauty and kindness (so different than the woman he is married to) he purchases her from her uncle Arnoul d’Audrehem and brings her back to his home as his consort (mistress/leman).
Blanche and Léo’s story of survival, and their existence in the home of Colm’s wife and legitimate family, sows the seeds of The Splendor of Fire.
07.
How does Léo continue to cope with the loss of his wife in Splendor?
Théa represents peace to Léo. She enters his life in a similar way to Cara entering Hector’s. Her family and her morals have given Léo a taste of what life should be like, a promise of what should be, and yet, in the happiest moment of their lives, she passes away.
Of all the things Léo cannot reconcile, this is the most unyielding evidence to him that God has forgotten and abandoned him.
He begins the story thinking of Théa, and of Cara, and wishing that things had worked out differently. In his mind, he wants another woman exactly like Théa.
God, however, may have other ideas. Léo may not need the soothing comfort of a peaceful stream, but instead the ardent fire of challenge.
08.
What does Léo love about his home in the Scottish Isles? What does he hate?
If Léo was honest with himself, he loves Skye more than any other place on earth because it reminds him of his mother. All his memories of her are held within a garret room in the forgotten corner of a castle. Although it is a painful place, Léo is also strangely comforted by it.
However— he hates the constant reminder of being on the outside while on Skye, and he hates the brutality of the Isles in comparison with the refinement of France. In France, he knows his place and his role. On Skye, he knows his place and role—but he is not tempted in any way to claim it because of what he has experienced there.
09.
What can you tell us about Moira Allen?
Moira was a complete joy to write, and much closer to my own inner thoughts and personality than sweet and quiet Cara. Moira is a mystery to everyone, including herself. She knows that she was rescued from the sea but is unable to remember anything about herself except her true name and her rough age. She doesn’t know where she came from, or what she was made for. Her ordeal at sea robbed her not only of her family, but her ability to speak.
To cope with her lack of voice and her rejection by others, she has withdrawn from the world—spending her time in treetops sketching and observing everything around her. Raised by a loving couple that encouraged her talents, she has learned to communicate limited thoughts using signs, sketches, and gestures.
When a new prisoner is placed under her father’s care, Moira uses her abilities to save his life and then to learn more about him, and eventually, to try and free him.
Because she was not raised with everyone else in society, she lacks fear about what most others would have anxiety about. Because she has been her own companion, she is confident in her decisions—maybe to a fault. The culmination of her strengths, and ultimately her weaknesses, will make her uniquely positioned in order for God to work.
10.
What do Léo and Moira find in each other? Why are they drawn together?
Moira recognizes that Léo is different than his brothers right away. There is a tenderness in him, and he doesn’t overlook her (though he is pretty judgmental by virtue of genetics, I think). She is totally infuriated by him at times. Léo is not an easy character to get along with, but there is something in her heart that is telling her not to forget him—and virtually from the moment they meet, she cannot forget.
In Moira, Léo is totally challenged. She is unafraid of him and unaffected by the shallow things he’s used in the past to charm women. She enjoys a good argument, and she enjoys being right—two things Léo also loves. Whatever Cara and Théa were—Moira is the opposite. Yet he also begins to unravel things about her that Moira does not even see in herself, qualities that make her valuable and hard to ignore.
They’re drawn together like flame and pitch, meaning when they connect they cannot help but ignite.
11.
Without spoilers, can you tell us what challenges Léo and Moira will face in this book?
Léo and Moira will be challenged by each other, Secondary to that, they have a mission to complete for the Shield. They both have very different ideas as to how to complete that mission. :) The MacKinnons and the Wolf are still out there, and they need dealing with—but the Shield is at an extreme disadvantage to begin with. They are outmanned and outmaneuvered in the beginning of this book.
Hopefully that gives you an idea of how this will unfold without any spoilers.
12.
Are Hector and Cara in this book?
Yes, they are both in the book. Hector more so than Cara, but you will get an update on Hector, Cara, Margaret, Eamon… and then where they’re headed next towards the last third of the book.
13.
What is Hector’s aim going into the second book in this series?
Hector has just delivered a black eye to the Wolf and humiliated him in his own keep. The Wolf is more determined than ever to find a foothold in the Isles, and equally so, the Beithir (Hector) is ready to meet his challenge and beat him at his own game. But first, Hector’s priority is to save his friend.
This book is the setup for the continuing fight against the Wolf, and the secondary villain for the rest of the series… you may figure out who the second baddie is by the end of Splendor…
14.
Can readers expect any unexpected alliances in this book?
There is one in particular, but I can’t reveal too much without giving the plot away. However, I will say it features Iain MacLeod, our drunken impressionist from Radiance. He is always so much fun to create. In my mind, he’s the David Tennant of the series.
15.
What is Hector’s team up to in this book?
Hector, Iain, David, Calum, Murdoch, Angus, and Moira (the Shield) are all working together to figure out how to get Léo out of prison. At the same time, they are all working to keep tabs on the Wolf and slow his advance upon the Isles, so that Léo isn’t permanently imprisoned under a new king and regime.
16.
How did you write this book?
I wrote the first draft in about 30 days back in the early summer of 2023, I knew exactly the story I wanted to tell with Léo and where I needed to go. I began my first chapters sitting on the shores of Beaufort, SC, staring out at a lonely and desolate sea and not eager to write about being stranded in a prison—but knowing that’s the story I needed to tell.
After draft one was completed, it was heavily revised, just as book 1 was. I find I’m a better editor and reviser than initial drafter. I enjoy both, but really love to edit. Each book I probably did about 16-20 drafts a piece—reading and correcting the entire manuscript content from beginning to end.
Unlike book 1, this is a story told in three parts. Keep that in mind, what you think this book might be will change radically by part two. :)
17.
What inspired this book?
As book 1 was very loosely based on the book of Ruth, this book is very (very) loosely based on the story of Joseph. For both novels, I would not say they are a retelling because they take some major liberties and divergences with the material. In book 1 I had read through the book of Ruth and noticed that although Ruth was married to her first husband for ten years, she had never produced offspring (at least that is mentioned—so no heir, which is grounds for divorce under the law). That got my brain moving about how you could tell this story through the eyes of Boaz (as he has no heirs or offspring either), because Ruth would probably not have been an ideal choice of wife (notice that the closer kin rejects Ruth and her situation to protect himself) so it would have been a faith pick for Boaz.
For Joseph, I noticed that God revealed all kinds of things to him about where he was headed—but never his brothers’ cruelty, nor that he would spend two years in prison. I thought about Joseph and how he must have felt sitting in prison, wondering why instead of seeing his dream of ruling over his brothers come to fruition, quite the opposite had happened. I thought that could make for a very interesting story, and so I wove the foundation for that into book 1 as well.
18.
How much of your own experiences feature in this novel?
In comparing Radiance and Splendor, Radiance is far closer to my own personal experiences in life. However, there are aspects of both Léo and Moira’s stories that are drawn from things I’ve been through. The fact that this book was not as personal as book one gave me a lot more creative freedom to have fun with it and take some risks. Hopefully they pay off.
19.
The titles of your books are intriguing. Can you shed more light on how you came up with them?
The titles come from a portion of Saint Patrick’s Breastplate, an old Irish prayer of invocation calling upon God’s strength and protection. Midway through the prayer, St. Patrick calls upon the evidence of God’s power in the natural world, and the titles are directly drawn from this. I did change the order of the things Patrick calls to mind in order to fit the arc of the entire series from darkness to light.
There is something about ancient houses of worship and ancient prayers that give me a feeling of fortitude and I wanted to reflect that in my series, because God is unchanging. He is the same now as He was then.
20.
What’s next for the Shield?
We’re headed to the tribal island of Jura, and will learn more about Hector’s cousin Calum. As a gift to my readers, I’ve revealed the titles for the entire series in the beginning of this book. Each story will feature a different member of the Shield, and how God is working in them and through them to forge a new future for the Kingdom of the Isles and his mission for the advancement of His story.
As I am about to give birth to my daughter, my once-firm dates for release are now pretty fluid, but I have done my best to give you an idea as to when each book will be ready for publication. My goal is now 2 per year. If I can get a handle on life, I’d love to do a novella per year as well.
