The Conclave is a fantasy novel in the world of Arvelas and begins with a worry amidst the protectors of the realm who have recently chased away a threat to their city. What was the inspiration for the setup to your story?

Arvelas is a place I’ve been traveling to since my early teenage years. I created this world after a good friend introduced me to the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons role-playing game, where you have one host presenting the adventure and several players acting out the characters.

We initially played using adventure sets, which provided all the information about the characters and events of the game, as well as the locations where everything took place, often with maps. I quickly decided to create my own world, called it Arvelas and started hosting gaming sessions. With a world of my own, I was suddenly not limited to the content that was provided. I could create an infinite number of original adventures.

Over the years, Arvelas changed based on my preferences as well as those of the players. I continuously updated the rules, and added new villages and cities, mysterious and magical places, or new characters, all based on our favorite books, movies, or video games. These changes molded Arvelas into the universe it is today.

I believe it is one of the players who suggested I write stories to expand on the game. After all, as the host of most of our games over the years, I was doing exactly that: creating stories. Because I know the world so well and because I love it so much, it was an easy transition.

The first story I published was a short story titled ‘Zanathu‘. It is available for free download on my website. ‘The Conclave’ came next.

Your characters are intriguing and well developed. What were some driving ideals behind your character’s development?

One of the biggest challenges I encountered while writing ‘The Conclave’ was its large cast of characters. The story is fairly short and I was worried that readers wouldn’t be able to tell them apart. For that reason, I spent a significant amount of time debating which characters to include and how best to introduce them.

In the end, I decided to keep most of the initial characters, because the story required it. The idea of bringing them to the secret meeting one by one was inspired by the first part of the book ‘Hyperion’ by Dan Simmons. Simmons’s introduction is much more lengthy and he only has three characters, but I enjoyed meeting his protagonists one at a time and thought it could work for ‘The Conclave’.

It’s interesting to note that two of the main characters, Onthar and Argon, were in essence created by players during a campaign we played more than twenty years ago. It was important to me to stay true to their depiction of both characters and to respect the relationships they had built during the gaming sessions.

What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?

I didn’t set out with a theme in mind, but due to the format of the book—many characters sparing back and forth—relationships quickly came to the forefront. The book explores a wide variety of friendships, companionship, and rivalries, touching on the themes of loyalty, honesty, and trust, as well as the significance of love and forgiveness. Come to think of it, relationships and their intricacies are explored in my other books as well.

What is the next book that you are working on and when will it be available?

I’m currently finalizing the first installment in a massive epic fantasy series called The Lost Tyronian Archives. The first book is titled ‘The Stranger of Ul Darak’, and it’ll be available later this fall. The novella ‘The Burden of the Protector,’ which I published in 2016, is a prequel to the series.

I’m also in the preliminary phases of a project where readers will be able to directly participate and influence the development of a dark fantasy series. My goal is to involve them in early versions of each story, gather their feedback and adapt the final version based on the comments I collect. I call this initiative the Baneseeker Project (the series is titled ‘The Baneseeker Chronicles’) and I’m planning on kicking it off early in 2023.

Finally, I just completed a short story for an upcoming anthology around the theme of Winter. The story takes place in Arvelas and tells us about Zebu, one of its most powerful and renowned wizards. The anthology is titled ‘Winter Paths’ and will be available in the Fall.

The details of each of my stories or projects can be found on my website www.SCEston.com.

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