Of Hunters and Magi follows a battle-worn soldier and a fallen god as they hunt a lost artifact across a wounded world, forcing both to confront who they are when faith, duty, and identity begin to crumble. What first sparked the idea of pairing a disciplined soldier with a god who has lost his divinity?

Defurge’s inclusion was always a given from the very beginning of the story. He is based on a Dungeons and Dragons character I once played, someone whose powers, abilities, and personality weren’t inherently their own but were conferred upon them by a cursed artifact. The original D&D character was not as playful or manipulative as the former god of destruction and madness turned out to be, and that evolution was organic to the story. Many character-building moments needed tension, and he brought it through his manipulation of others for his own amusement. 

How did you approach writing gods as flawed, tired beings rather than distant or omnipotent figures?

I’ve always enjoyed the myths of the Greek and Norse deities who were flawed. I also enjoy characters who grapple with immortality, such as the vampire Lestat, Wolverine, and Deadpool. Those characters all have something we think we would want: immortality, but each of their stories discusses the significant downside of the affliction. When I was writing my deities, I brought that mentality into their being. At some point, the interactions would cease to be novel, and everything would become mundane, especially if there was never any danger in their life. 

Bronwyn’s inner doubts play a big role in the story. How much of her emotional arc was planned versus discovered while writing?

About fifty percent. I knew before I started that I wanted her character to come from a hard, militaristic life, where she had to struggle for acceptance and to show how she isolated herself as a buffer against it. I wanted her to join a group that accepted her leadership and skills without question, and to show how her character changed when she no longer had to struggle every day for the validation she was seeking. As I wrote and spent time with all the characters, they became more real, and I think that is when Bronwyn’s doubts began to surface. I always wanted her to reevaluate the beliefs she was raised with, but I didn’t expect how that would lead her to question everything around her. 

The world feels shaped by long-past choices. How did you decide what history to reveal and what to leave buried?

I’m a big believer in the iceberg theory of world-building, 90% of it is invisible and serves to support the visible 10%. I decided to give the reader as little information as possible to get them from point A to point B to maintain pacing, unless of course, the bit of history was interesting or added flavor to the world. It was a balancing act, and information was added, cut, re-added, re-cut, and moved around a lot throughout the many revisions. 

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