AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Michael S. Jackson Talks Ringlander The Path and the Way

Hello and welcome to this Track of Words Author Interview, where today I’m welcoming Michael S. Jackson to the site to talk about his debut novel Ringlander: The Path and the Way. The first book in a new female-led fantasy series, it’s available to order in various formats right now (including a lovely ‘Author Edition’ hardback – more details at the end of the article), and I’m delighted to have this interview as part of the Ringlander blog tour! Make sure you check out the other interviews and reviews on the tour (I’ll include details of these at the end) but before you do that, here’s Michael with the lowdown on what to expect from the Ringlander series and this novel in particular, including a beautiful map he’s created for this world – I do love a good map!

Track of Words: To start off, how would you describe the Ringlander series as a whole?

Michael S. Jackson: The Ringlander series is an epic fantasy (high fantasy) series with at least two books planned out so far. The first is The Path and the Way while the second is partially written but fully outlined (and has a title).

Without giving too much away…humans are not at the top of the food chain in Rengas. The Bohr, who stand above them, are tribal, animalistic, and very much larger than humans. Not all Bohr are intelligent, but enough are to keep the humans in line, and their reach extends beyond the border of their homeland Kemen into Nord and beyond. Led by the elusive Bohr King, the Bohr will often use the Banèmen (assassins who can wield magic) to maintain control over the human populace.

The humans in the city are largely cowed by the brutal Bohr, but in the outer lying areas began a rebellion, born from the ashes of ruined towns too small to conquer. The Tsiorc rapidly grew in strength while the Bohr ignored them, being joined by a harder Sulitarian force and their famous tactician, Captain Laeb. The rebels have become a real threat to the Bohr’s occupancy, and only the Bohr-human ambassador Kael Rathe can stop them. However, the wars of the Forbringrs above the skies care not for the misgivings of the beings below, and their battles tear the worlds apart.

ToW: With that in mind, could you give us an overview of what The Path and the Way is about?

MSJ: Certainly. The Path and the Way is a coming-of-age epic fantasy with high stakes (really high stakes) and memorable characters. It follows Kyira, a Nordun Pathwatcher, who returns from a fight on the ice to find her father and brother missing. As she searches frantically to reunite her family she is drawn into a war between the humans and the Bohr, leaving the cold familiar lines of her frozen home to venture the narrow, winding streets of Tyr, where games are played and battles fought. She’s pulled out of her familiar life and dropped into a quest, where she discovers as much about herself as does about her world.

ToW: Without spoiling anything, who are the main characters and what do we need to know about them?

MSJ: Kyira is without a doubt the main POV character. She’s strong, practical and fearless, and her character arc colours everything the reader experiences — she was so easy to write. Chapter 1 actually used to be chapter 3 and it was one of the first pieces I wrote of the The Path and the Way. I felt that the chapter was such an iconic introduction to Kyira and the book that it had to be the first thing someone read.

Fia came next. She’s Kumpani, which is a companion of sorts (like Inara in Firefly). The Kumpani are revered by Tyr’s populace, held up as the highest society has to offer. Fia is much harder than she looks, and knows herself very well. She’s beautiful, and her southern Kemen blood ultimately means she stands out in Tyr. Coming from freedom fighter parents, Fia inevitably joined the Tsiorc rebels and works as a spy in Tyr gathering information, namely from Rathe.

Hasaan is Kyira’s brother, who has knowingly joined the enemy against their father’s wishes, and who Kyira is searching for. He’s as headstrong as any other Sami and wants to find his place amongst an army.

Rathe is a Bohr-Human hybrid, and is an ambassador tasked with keeping the peace between the more numerous, but ultimately much weaker humans of Tyr. A refined gentleman, his sensibilities are very human, and he has much ambition, but his position and human-tainted blood always mark him as lower than the rest of the Bohr.

Jagar is one of the Banemen. A slayer. An assassin. He’s not much to look at, and often takes the faces of those he has killed so he can blend into the crowd and observe. I loved writing Jagar, although it worries me a little about where his sadistic nature comes from!

Laeb is the foreign captain hailing from across the vast Middle Sea, who keeps besting the Bohr against all the odds. There is a short story that I’m currently editing based on the events shortly before The Path and the Way where we see a battle play out between the Tsiorc rebels and the Bohr, and Laeb features heavily in that. It will also give a little background on the Tsiorc and Fia too. It’s in the last few edits now, then I’ll be distributing it to my mailing list.

ToW: Could you talk a bit about the world of Rengas, and what inspired the setting?

MSJ: Very early on I did some research into how a Pangaea (which was the supercontinent that split up and created the land masses on Earth) was once ring-shaped with a vast ocean in its centre. I got to thinking about how trade might work if the very land inhibited reaching the outer part of that ring — the distances being so far apart — and how economies would grow under such conditions. The key to it all was the idea that a channel between two massive countries would be very helpful to those who could use it to travel from the outer to the inner part of the ring.

So, I used that channel (known as the Way in The Path and the Way) and built the rest of Rengas around it, with Tyr being the city that sits upon the Way and gains the most from the trade that travels down it. Tyr was an ideal place and mix of cultures to host a story in, and at that point the city was just a handful of notes and images. Colouring the descriptions of the world after I’d figured out the lay of the land was super easy, as I already knew I wanted to mix the Scandinavian-inspired Nord with the more eastern-inspired south of Kemen.

Michael has created a beautiful map of Rengas – click on the image above to see a full size version

ToW: It sounds like this is very much an epic fantasy sort of story – what is it that appeals to you about writing this sort of rich, expansive fantasy?

MSJ: Creating worlds is about as much fun as you can have while writing, there’s so much to offer and consider. I also really like the idea of taking familiar concepts and dropping them into a fantasy setting, like transport, or trade, or religion, and just molding them into new things. So much of our current world’s mechanics hinge on events that happened many moons ago, like world wars for example. If the outcome was different, our society would be different. Just changing one or two details can have massive downstream impacts, so as a writer let’s play with those details and try and extrapolate outcomes.

But to answer the question, for me, escapism – just stepping away from the world and experiencing something so different is what it’s all about. Games can achieve the same ends of course, but there’s just something so clean and simple and engaging about reading. It nourishes the mind and is just so personal an experience. The word epic, though, always confused me a little. How does one define epicness anyway? Is it a scale thing? A sociological thing? Gods? Dragons? I have no idea!

ToW: What would you say are the main themes of the book that readers can expect to see?

MSJ: One of the issues I bumped into while writing was trying to include too many ideas in the book. In earlier drafts I had let that pot stew for a little too long. Thankfully I had a very gifted editor, and she was ruthless with her advice on what I should cut and where. I did it though, cutting 200k words down to 118k (it later filled back up to a very healthy 130k in the final drafts). In doing that I was able to really focus in on the story, keeping the pace quick and engaging whilst cherry picking those elements I loved. One of my favourite themes that survived the cutting-room floor was the idea that regardless of how the petty machinations of the beings below pan out, ultimately the rule of the Gods, the heavens and the cosmos will always come out on top. Until later in the series anyway. 😉

ToW: It looks as though you’ve got quite a female-heavy cast of characters – was that a deliberate choice, or just how it ended up? Did you find any particular challenges or opportunities as a result?

MSJ: In all honesty it just started like that because I really liked the idea of writing a female character. Why? I’m not a female. It’s a very similar reason why I wanted a daughter when my wife and I became pregnant. I know male — I am one, for a start, which helps of course, but I grew up with a brother and I think I know the male mindset enough to write one confidently. But writing from a female perspective is very different and something I had always wanted to try, because looking through those eyes is something I am unable to do. So, I began writing Kyira, and being that she was of Sami descent, she was pragmatic and stoic. Fia, on the other hand, is more feminine but equally as confident, perhaps more so, but she’s still filled with the same inadequacies that mark us all.

One thing I was absolutely sure I wanted to exclude was any sign of sexism at all — in this universe women and men are completely equal. That in of itself was a chance for me to examine how our society treats those who are not male and even up the scales a little. Or a lot as it often happens to be. Naturally, that led me to same-sex relationships (of which there are two in The Path and the Way) which I also treated with zero prejudice. My plan is to explore a little deeper in book 2, as two of the main characters are in a loving relationship and both female.

I did a Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) earlier in 2021 and one of the comments that came through was asking whether I did any sensitivity reading for these female characters in book 1. I didn’t, because it just never occurred to me, but I will absolutely be doing so for book 2 and beyond. As a person I’m quite empathetic and I observe as all writers do, and I think I’ve struck a good balance on the female POVs within The Path and the Way. Still, I’ll leave it up to the reader to decide how successful I’ve been.

ToW: Where did you look for inspiration while writing this – whether in terms of other fantasy authors/series, or outside of the genre entirely?

MSJ: I love fantasy so, so much. It’s a wonderful genre because it’s just so rich. My shelf is full of fantasy authors, and I can’t help feeling I wear my influences on my sleeve. Perhaps the two biggest influences were Robert Jordan and Joe Abercrombie. Robert Jordan for the sheer sweeping scale of what fantasy can be; the travelogue, epic questing and the detailed characters. Abercrombie for the attitude, and the balls to write a badass character who swears, kills and tortures (Glokta anyone?) and doing it with such style.

Like Abercrombie I also like to get straight into the action, revealing the details along the way rather than info dumping like RJ did. But style and inspiration are funny beasts, I’ve still got a long, long way to go, and I imagine the ways I choose will change as I grow. One thing I’m quite sure of, is that I’ll be writing until I’m old and grey, so there’s plenty of time to learn more from other greats. Incidentally, I’m reading my first Mark Lawrence book, Prince of Thorns, at the moment and it is incredible; first person grimdark. I’d highly recommend it.

ToW: What do you hope readers will get out of this by the time they’ve finished it?

MSJ: I hope when they put the book down after that last sentence that they kind of pause for a second and just stare off into the middle-distance.

ToW: What can you tell us about where the series will go next?

MSJ: There will be a return of some of the characters that survived book 1, as well as some new ones. The already high stakes get higher. Basically, shit gets real.

ToW: Finally, if you could live in any part of Rengas where would you choose and why?

MSJ: One of the things I tried was applying my design skills to the world, so I created a map of Rengas [see earlier in the interview], building it in layers in Adobe Illustrator. Maps play an extremely important role of the Ringlander story: they are part of Kyira’s heritage, they drive the plot for Fia and they link the Sulitarians to the Ringlanders (Ringlanders being those who hail from Nord or Kemen — mainlanders, essentially) so it had to be good. I had an absolute whale of a time designing this world but I think Nord is where my heart is. It’s so like Scotland, all hills and mountains. Wild and simple, like Kyira.

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Michael S. Jackson became a writer to explore worlds, words and people. Throw in a love of all things science and the Ringlander universe was the inevitable outcome.

When not writing, or thinking about writing, Michael spends time with his family, plays drums, designs, codes and fights off the little voice that beckons him constantly to sit down and do nothing.

Check out Michael’s website for more information.

Follow Michael on social media @mikestepjack for Twitter, Reddit, Facebook and Instagram.

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Thanks so much to Michael for inviting me onto the blog tour, and for chatting to me for this interview. Hopefully this has given you an incentive to check out Ringlander: The Path and the Way, but do also make sure you take a look at all of the other stops on the blog tour!

Ringlander: The Path and the Way is available to order right now – here are some links for where you can find it:

Order Ringlander: The Path and the Way from the store on Michael’s website, including a variety of ‘Author Edition’ packs which all feature a lovely hardback version of the book and loads of additional extras.

Order Ringlander: The Path and the Way from Amazon*

If you enjoyed this interview and would like to support Track of Words, you can leave a tip on my Ko-Fi page.

*If you buy anything using one this link, I will receive a small affiliate commission – see here for more details.