Andy Peloquin

I write dark epic fantasy. It tends toward the action-packed, fast-paced, and often bloody, but there's also a great deal of introspection and character evolution. I dive deep into the minds of the characters I write because I want to live the story through their eyes and experience it the way they do. Typically, that ends up being highly visceral and graphic, but with a whole lot of heart and emotion.

I was born in Japan, where I lived until I was 14, then moved to Mexico to live for the next 16 years of my life. It definitely gave me a more “global” outlook for my writing, and developed a love of exploring (and creating) different cultures, customs, languages, and cuisines.

But one very interesting effect of this upbringing was that it gave me a very different sense of “home”. Moving around so much, never really staying in one place for more than a few years, “home” became about the people I love and not a place. In every single series I’ve written to date, the characters have no real connection to a place or people by birth, but forge their own through hardship, trial, and adversity. I suppose that mirrors my eternal search for somewhere I feel comfortable and at peace, and the people who are so crucial for creating that environment where I can be at home.

Avid. I read anything I could get my hands on—I particularly loved the Mythology section of the Encyclopedia Britannica and The Chronicles of Narnia. It really got dialed up when, around the age of 12, I broke my arm just before school let out for the summer. While all my friends were swimming, at the beach, or off to water parks, I was forced to stay dry. Countless hours were spent sitting by the pool or on our empty basketball court buried in a book to distract myself from all the fun I was missing out on.

I wish I had Terry Pratchett’s sense of humor, Scott Lynch’s prose, and Joe Abercrombie’s skill with ridiculously vivid and engaging characters.

That’s pretty much an impossible question to answer, but I’m going to take a stab at it. In no particular order, it (currently) is: Pierce Brown, Scott Lynch, Glen Cook, David Gemmell, and Sebastian de Castell.

The book I’ve most gifted is Reign and Ruin (Mages of the Wheel #1) by J.D. Evans. Coming in a close second is The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch.

The Hunter of Voramis, by a wide margin. It happened entirely by accident, but his story ended up mirroring so much of my life. His feelings of being an outsider, of being lonely among a society that had no place for him and saw him as an aberration. His struggles with being a step-parent/caregiver to a young boy when he was the absolute worst choice for the role. His journey to finding himself through the challenges he faces along is journey. I leaned into that even more intentionally for the second Darkblade story arc and beyond, using experiences from my life raising young adult children to shape his narrative and explore the critical relationships in his life.

That’s like asking a parent who their favorite child is. We all have them but it’s not something you say aloud!

There are so many books I’ve loved writing that I can’t pick just one. That being said, I think the sniper vs. sniper combat in Ghost Nemesis (Cerberus #6) and the African-inspired culture in Awakener (Darkblade #6) have been some of the most creatively enjoyable writing I’ve done.

I’ve got a standing desk, a great big curved monitor (bad eyesight = big font), and the most comfortable chair I could find in local furniture stores. Behind me is a wall-to-wall bookshelf filled with my books and all those I’ve loved. In front of me is my reading couch, a low side table where I’ve set up the hand- crafted board game a fan made for me from the game I wrote into Darkblade, and more books. A window to my left lets in enough sunlight that I don’t feel like I’m locked away in some dingy dungeon, and a closet to my right has even more books!

Give me a comfortable armchair or couch, a low table where I can perch a cup of coffee and a snack, and a pair of noise-canceling headphones, and I am in absolute heaven.