Cork author: Landing fantasy book deal was ‘terrifyingly smooth’

Cork writer Gareth Hanrahan once spent a day researching the politics and economics of garlic smuggling.

It’s all in a day’s work for this writer of fantasy novels, who fell into a career of coming up with strange stories of good and evil, set in quasi-medieval times.

The Turner’s Cross-based father-of-three has just published The Sword Triumphant - the third and final instalment in the Lands Of The Firstborn trilogy, usually referred to as the Sword books.

Gareth fell into writing full-time by happy accident.

“I had always been doing a bit of writing on the side. My grand plan over 20 years ago was to get a real job in computers and to write as a hobby,” he said.

“I studied computer science at UCC. I got a job in computer programming. That lasted only two years as the company downsized.

“I was kind of bored but I decided to see how long I could keep freelance writing going.

“I was writing role-playing games, dragons and dungeons type-things. A role-playing game is done table top, sort of like computer games without the computer.

“One person is the game’s master and they decide what is going on in what particular situation. The players decide what their characters will do. It’s all pen and paper, sort of like improvised drama.

“It was very popular 40 years ago and in the last couple of years it has had a real resurgence.”

Gareth writes books for these games.

“The books are not stories; they describe locations and suggestions for things you can do in a game.”

They are background material, the scaffolding onto which gamers can build their stories. Gareth still works at this. “I make a living out of it but no-one is going to retire off it,” he said.

After writing role-playing games for ten years, Gareth felt that he should at least be trying to write conventional fiction.

“So, back in 2014, I started writing my first novel to prove to myself that I could do it, as opposed to just working on the building blocks of someone else’s story.

“I decided to write fantasy because I love the genre. I find it interesting and flexible. You can take any concept and character and you can explore any aspect of the world unbounded.

Gutter Prayer was the result - Gareth’s first novel.

“It was a sort of fantasy industrial revolution, semi-inspired by Cork and all the pharmaceutical plants,” he says.

“I turned pharmacy to alchemy and had an alchemical revolution going on in the city.

“My favourite review was from a guy who said he could tell I’m from Cork because the characters are always going up hills.”

Was it hard to get that first novel published?

“I should say ‘yes’,” replies Gareth. “But I was very lucky in that a person I worked with on the role- playing games was with an agent. He said I should try this agent as he’s always willing to take a look at new books. The agent, John Gerald, pretty much immediately went for my novel.”

Because it can be so challenging to find a publisher for one’s debut novel, Gareth says he’s always hesitant to tell his story. Within six months, he had a book deal.

“I had 15 years of writing the other books before the novel. But it was terrifyingly smooth.

“I was asked to write two sequels to Gutter Prayer and then the current trilogy.”

Gareth received an advance – “enough to make it worthwhile” – and his novel writing career was launched.

The Sword Triumphant follows The Sword Defiant and The Sword Unbound. The latest book starts 20 years after when most fantasy series end.

Decades ago, nine heroes defeated the dark lord and then had to oversee the occupation of his nightmare city as well as looking after the safekeeping of his dreadful arsenal of weapons.

While everything seemed hopeful and bright in the quest to save the world, it became tarnished.

Can Aelfric (aka Alf), once a simple farm boy, now a famous knight and custodian of the demonic sword, ‘Spellbreaker’, find his path again?

Gareth says that while all the other heroes have moved on and become influential lords or noblemen, Alf is stuck in a rut, harking back to his glory days. He wants to keep fighting monsters even though, in theory, they have all been slain and the war is over.

“But when Alf hears that the dark lord is coming back and evil is rising, his response is: ‘Fantastic. My way of life has purpose again’.”

It was thought the dark lord had been wiped out and put in a tomb, sealed with magic. Only one of the nine heroes that had killed him can open the tomb.

“So there’s a murder mystery. Who opened the tomb?

“Alf investigates the of his party, bringing the gang back together. But then he slowly realises that things have changed. His old friends have moved on. It has all become complicated.”

In the latest book, Olva, who is Alf’s sister, has a big role.

“Also in the book, Alf is raising a new generation of heroes. He teaches the village children how to fight.

“The other major character is the sword, which is a talking sword. It was the sword of the dark lord. The sword is leading Alf along and trying to establish dominance over him. That’s the thing about fantasy; you can have talking swords.”

Gareth’s wife, Edel Ryder-Hanrahan, is a secondary school teacher and an artist. Theirs is a creative household.

“It wasn’t the plan but it has evolved that way,” says Gareth.

The couple’s children are called after the names of Arthurian legends; twins Tristan and Elyan, aged 12, and a six-year-old girl, Nimue.

For Gareth, the writing life can be solitary “but it’s in-exhaustively interesting.”

Gareth Hanrahan will be g copies of The Sword Triumphant in Waterstones in Cork on May 31 from 3pm-4pm.