by Timothy Pike

Because his interests and abilities are so diverse, it’s hard to sum up fantasy writer Sebastien de Castell in any meaningful way—or even place him in any broad categories.

“My career has always taken odd twists and turns,” he tells me, “from being a traveling musician in cover bands to project management to teaching to choreographing swordfights for the theater.”

This critically acclaimed author, whose works have been translated into at least fifteen languages, is now out with the first installment of his new swashbuckling series, Court of Shadows.

Play of Shadows, the first book in the series, is about a troupe of actors who stumble upon a secret involving a hundred-year-old murder: turns out a legendary local hero may actually be a brutal murderer and conniving traitor.

In my interview with him, Sebastien talks about how his aspirations have evolved over his career, the moment he felt he had truly broken out as an author, and the most bad-luck way to refer to one of Shakespeare’s plays.

TIM: Welcome back to Books & Buzz Magazine, Sebastien. With your latest novel, Play of Shadows, you’re embarking on a brand-new swashbuckling series. What is unique about each of the series you’ve written so far?

SEBASTIEN: With The Greatcoats, I set out to write a swashbuckling fantasy series that could sit on the shelf next to classics like The Three Musketeers or Rafael Sabatini’s wonderful Scaramouche. What sets “swashbuckling” apart as a sub-genre for me is its constant interplay between idealism and cynicism and whether seemingly antiquated notions of heroism and decency really have a place in a “modern world.” Even in Dumas’s work, the ideals of the three Musketeers are questioned as being antiquated during the era in which the story takes place. In this way, swashbuckling fiction is always interrogating the utility of its own values, which adds a dramatic edge that I adore exploring.

Spellslinger is a young adult fantasy about choosing one’s own path through the complexities of the world rather than simply identifying which box each of us fits in. The Argosi—the wandering, swaggering gambler-philosophers of the series—are always defying the notion that we must be defined by either our parentage or our society, and that the more we reach for higher values of compassion, curiosity, and even justice, the more we must be ready to walk our own path.

The Malevolent Seven, by contrast, was meant to be an irreverant, violent fantasy romp with war mages going around blowing things up and telling inappropriate jokes all the while. Oddly, as the story progressed, it became about something deeper and far more meaningful to me as someone living in our times. Lately, we’ve begun dividing ourselves—even within the narrowest of communities—as either “good people” or “bad people.” But the definition of a “good person” is becoming nothing more than “someone who’s never done anything bad.” There’s a kind of permanent condemnation that we can’t seem to escape as a society. The problem with that thinking is that such permanent condemnation is also a form of absolution: if someone’s been told they’re inherently “bad,” then why should they feel any responsibility toward their fellow human beings? The Malevolent Seven explores what happens when the fate of the world falls upon seven rather nasty, morally compromised war mages who have to decide whether they care enough to fight for the rest of us.

Whew, that was probably a longer answer than you were looking for, but you can see that, for me, the wonderful thing about writing fantasy is that it allows me to create worlds in which the themes I want to explore are manifest in every rock, tree, and magic spell.

TIM: What’s Play of Shadows about?

SEBASTIEN: Play of Shadows is a swashbuckling fantasy in which a misbegotten troupe of actors find themselves at odds with dukes, militias, and shadowy cabals after having stumbled upon a secret involving a hundred-year-old murder and whether the most notorious murderer in their duchy’s history might, in fact, have been framed by its most beloved hero.

The idea that someone had to take each and every word of my story and figure out how to rewrite it with elegance and style into a language I can’t speak myself felt like a huge honor.

TIM: Did the idea for the story come in a flash or take shape over time?

SEBASTIEN: I’m fascinated with odd cultural practices, like how in the western theater it’s considered terribly bad luck to ever refer to Shakespeare’s “Scottish play” by its actual title. Somehow that combined with our modern-day obsession with celebrities and weighting everything they say on any subject so highly to form a new idea for a cultural practice: what if theater audiences in an early modern society believed that certain actors—Veristors, I called them—were so attuned to their roles that when playing historical figures they would sometimes literally channel their spirit right there on stage? It’s the kind of thing that doesn’t even need to be true for us to believe in just enough to make us wonder if we’re witnessing the actual spirit of a historical figure delivering—or altering—lines right in front of us.

And what if one of those mangled lines turned out to reveal a secret from the past no one knew …

TIM: When did you know you wanted to write for a living?

SEBASTIEN: When I realized that every other way to make a living is vastly more difficult and involves actually having to do things people tell you to do, when they tell you. Okay, maybe that’s a bit shortsighted. Truth be told, the idea of creating stories for a living is such a common dream that I never really thought of myself as being any more or less desirous of a writing career than anyone else. But my career has always taken odd twists and turns, from being a traveling musician in cover bands to project management to teaching to choreographing swordfights for the theater.

Becoming a novelist seemed, at first, just another vocational adventure in a long line of them. Now, though, writing has proven to be such a wild and wonderful career that I can’t imagine ever giving it up.

TIM: Has your writing routine changed over the years?

SEBASTIEN: I’m one of those people who can’t stand routines. I see their value every day in the way they allow people to excel in their endeavors, but for me, I need every book to be its own journey. The process changes every time, and I can never predict what techniques will or won’t get me to the finish line. Play of Shadows, for example, was an idea I was wrestling with until I decided to try writing it as a play itself. That unlocked a rhythm that perfectly fit the story, and within literally a day I had three acts down in a screenplay format. Of course, when I began turning that into the novel, things changed and grew, and after more drafts than I usually write, I had a book that delighted me and felt both unique among the others while retaining the underlying swashbuckling spirit of the Greatcoats series.

TIM: What helped push you forward the most in your writing career?

SEBASTIEN: When you’re starting out, the constant refrain in your head is just, “I want a published novel. I must have a published novel!” But, of course, anyone can publish a novel now. So then you want a “successful” novel, which can mean different things to different people. Ultimately, though, none of these surface motivations can sustain a writing career.

What drives me now is curiosity: can I write a better novel than the best one I wrote before? Can I write a novel in a different genre? Can I write a novel that moves readers in unexpected ways? At its best, writing is a process of exploration—delving deep into whatever has attracted the writer’s interest and searching for something wonderful to bring back for everyone else to experience.

TIM: You’re a man of many talents. What are you doing these days other than writing?

SEBASTIEN: My wife’s been a lifelong dancer, but music was always my thing. Alas, my wife also seems to take undue pleasure in dancing with me, which meant that after more than two decades together, I had to finally give in and start taking this dancing thing seriously. We’ve been learning ballroom dancing together for the past year, taking classes and going dancing anywhere and everywhere possible. We were in Mexico recently, and all the bands were playing seventies and eighties mid-tempo rock music: no ballroom or Latin whatsoever. Undaunted, my wife and I literally danced the cha-cha to “You Shook Me All Night Long” by AC/DC—not once, not twice, but on three separate occasions.

I’ve had strangely good luck when going on risky adventures. Why stop now?

TIM: Was there a moment when you felt you’d truly broken out as an author?

SEBASTIEN: Ooh, that’s a difficult question to answer. The great thing about publishing is that there are so many “big moments”: the first time you get an agent, your first book deal, signing that first contract, getting your first copy-edits back from an editor, seeing the cover of your debut novel, seeing it on the shelves of the local bookstore where you so often bought the books of legendary authors and wondered if ever you’d share shelf space next to them … it goes on and on. Of course, there are the less-fun moments, too, like the first time one of your books launches poorly or when you get that first blisteringly negative review.

For me, though, I think the moment where I first felt like I’d “made it” as an author was the first time I saw one of my books translated into another language. I believe it was the German edition of Traitor’s Blade. The idea that someone had to take each and every word of my story and figure out how to rewrite it with elegance and style into a language I can’t speak myself felt like a huge (and possibly undeserved) honor. That’s when I felt like I’d made it as an author, and the fact that my books have been translated into more than fifteen languages is a constant source of wonder and pride to me.

TIM: Would you be willing to share a challenge you overcame?

SEBASTIEN: Ah, there have been so many. But let’s up the ante a little: I’ll share a challenge I’m still struggling to overcome. There’s this book I’ve been working on for ages called Our Lady of Blades. The rights have already been bought, the cover’s already designed, and even the promo copy is written. The book, on the other hand, has been stimying me for almost five years. It’s got the most intricate and interconnected narrative of anything I’ve attempted, which means that even though the story follows three different timelines, every chapter connects directly with the next. When it works, it feels amazing. When it’s not working, it feels … just okay. The problem is that sometimes when you write the draft of a novel, you have to settle for okay and know that you’ll fix it in the next draft. With this book, though, it’s as if I have to get everything exactly right on the first pass or else I can’t move forward.

Seasoned writers and editors will tell you that what I’ve just described is a writer who needs a good smack to the back of the head and told to stop being so precious and just get on with it. Alas, I’ve never been one to take such admirable yet conventional advice. This is a sword duel between me and this book, and I aim to win it on my terms.

TIM: Can you tell us a little about what lies ahead for your main character in the Court of Shadows series?

SEBASTIEN: The Court of Shadows series has an uncommon structure in that it’s not one big story chopped into four parts. Instead, each book works as a standalone and features its own cast of characters. The novels interconnect in a subtler fashion as they set up the climax of the series in which all those characters will come together. It’s a bit like the Marvel Cinematic Universe (back when those movies were good, I hope) where you’d have each film be its own complete story and then have a climactic team-up at the end.

As a reader, I hate the feeling of getting to the end of a book and realizing I’m pretty much just in the first third or quarter of what’s actually just a much longer book. I want that sense that I’ve completed a story—a journey—with those characters. That’s always how I’ve tried to write my novels, and with Court of Shadows, I want readers to be able to enjoy the books at any time, and in any order, without sacrificing their reading experience.

My editor told me that’s an incredibly difficult challenge, but then, I’ve had strangely good luck when going on risky adventures. Why stop now?

Sebastien de Castell lives in Vancouver, Canada, with his lovely wife and two belligerent cats. His acclaimed swashbuckling fantasy series, The Greatcoats, was shortlisted for both the 2014 Goodreads Choice Award for Best Fantasy, the Gemmell Morningstar Award for Best Debut, the Prix Imaginales for Best Foreign Work, and the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. His YA fantasy series, Spellslinger, was nominated for the Carnegie Medal, and is published in more than a dozen languages.

Visit Sebastien at his website, and connect with him on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.