NY Times and USA today best selling author Stacey McEwan joins Devin and Pete to kick off Fantasy Romance Month on Realm Runners, and it's a full hour of craft, chaos, and chicken-flavored chips. Stacey is the bestselling author of A Forbidden Alchemy (Peaky Blinders with magic) part of The Artisan series, published by Saga Press. She breaks down how the book came together from a genuinely unhinged first draft (dark academia war fiction steampunk romantasy was a real pitch), why she almost miscommunication-trapped herself into a corner, what it's actually like to get editor notes back when your entire brain is on the page, and where book three stands right now.

A Forsaken Prophecy releases July 14 (AU/UK) and July 21 (US). Tour dates coming soon.

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Connect with Stacey

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Follow Devin: https://instagram.com/bromantasy

Chapters:

0:00 — Intro and Fantasy Romance Month

1:30 — How Devin ended up with a signed copy of Ledge

4:00 — Why Patrick works for readers regardless of gender

7:30 — What makes romance land vs. what makes it die

10:00 — Writing Nina's silence without it being a miscommunication cop-out

13:30 — How the book actually came together: dark academia + war docs + nan's bodice rippers

16:30 — The school arc that became its own book and then got cut

18:45 — The editor notes reel: what it looks like on the outside vs. what it feels like on the inside

21:15 — Coles vs. Woolies

23:00 — Chicken-flavored chips and the cultural divide

26:45 — Balancing writing, mothering, and touring (and the bargain she made with herself)

31:20 — How teaching shaped her storytelling instincts

35:00 — Student plot twists, reader DMs, and Raven Kennedy's lawyers

37:00 — A Forsaken Prophecy updates and why book two was an absolute pain to write

39:15 — AFV: the book three title tease

41:00 — The Kindle highlights that surprised her

43:15 — Readers obsessing over an air charmer that isn't coming

45:30 — The gaslight fantasy world and how ANZAC tunnelers inspired the magic system

49:30 — Writing real sibling dynamics (Patrick's brothers and the banter)

52:00 — Tour dates, wrap-up, and the Stacia Stark teaser for next week

Thomas Clark Schecter joins Realm Runners to talk about The Shieldbreaker Saga, his epic dark fantasy series following 19-year-old Kareva as he leads the last of the Hodrir against the seemingly unstoppable Pohyor. Described by readers as the fantasy equivalent of 300, with the heart of Bernard Cornwell and the brutality of Abercrombie, The Shieldbreaker: Book One – The Last of the Etela is a lean, visceral, and emotionally devastating debut that proves you don't need 800 pages to build a world worth dying in.

Tom breaks down how his background as an educator and history enthusiast shaped the tribal cultures, naming conventions, and military tactics in the book, why he opened with an epilogue that tells you the ending from page one (and why that was the right call), how his multi-POV battle sequences were designed to make readers feel the tide of war shift in real time, and where the Shieldbreaker Saga goes from here.

📖 The Shieldbreaker, Book One: The Last of the Etela → https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/236990876

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Connect with Thomas Schecter → https://ShieldbreakerSaga.com

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Follow Pete: / @pete_reviews_books_good Follow Devin: / @bromantasy

00:00 Introduction and Guest Introduction

02:28 Book Cover Design and Aesthetic Choices

05:24 The Writing Process and Series Development

08:21 Influences and Inspirations for the Story

11:07 Narrative Structure and Epilogue Discussion

13:55 Character Development and Motivations

16:42 Historical Context and Research

19:23 Writing Style and POV Techniques

22:14 Final Thoughts and Future Works

31:40 Building Epic Battles and Character Depth

33:36 The Emotional Impact of Character Connections

35:44 Character-Driven Worldbuilding in Fantasy

38:20 The Challenge of Expanding a Fantasy Universe

40:25 Creating Rhythm and Pacing in Storytelling

44:49 Themes of Identity in Times of Crisis

47:11 Escapism vs. Realism in Fantasy Literature

50:26 The Future of the Shield Breaker Saga

C. William Phillips (https://www.instagram.com/words_with_will) spent 14 years writing his debut, a crime thriller that reads like Breaking Bad and The Sopranos writers got into a fistfight in a parking lot and bleed all over the pages. Then he pivoted to epic fantasy and somehow made that look easy too.

In this episode, Will breaks down the wild journey from What Blood Remembers to The Ash Remains, including how unemployment finally forced him to finish a book he'd been carrying since he was 18, why he's a proud pantser which led to adding his best character (Sen) completely by accident, and how he built a dragon bond system that actually costs something.

We also get into: why Will writes unapologetically even when beta readers tell him he'll lose people, what the Malazan book club and The Crippled Pod(https://open.spotify.com/show/1UDpA2dZNhRY0ay3Md4XVY) did to his TBR, and why epic fantasy always felt like home even when he was writing neo-Western crime fiction.

Pre-order The Ash Remains (ebook $5 before release): https://amzn.to/43aZTHK *

Find Will on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/words_with_will

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Connect with Realm Runners

Follow Pete: https://instagram.com/pete_reviews_books_good

Follow Devin: https://instagram.com/bromantasy

Subscribe on YouTube: https://youtube.com/‪@realm_runners‬

0:00 - Introduction

3:18 - Writing What Blood Remembers for 14 Years

6:50 - Why Unemployment Finished the Book

10:05 - Sprayed Edges & Indie Publishing with Mayor Golden Bookshelf

12:30 - Pivoting to Epic Fantasy with The Ash Remains

15:30 - Character Work Across Both Books

16:20 - Pantser vs. Plotter (He Pantsed Sen Entirely)

19:30 - Does He Know How the Series Ends?

21:00 - Book Length & Chapter Structure

27:20 - Chapter Formatting & the Malazan Influence

30:50 - What Makes These Dragons Different

34:10 - The Dragon Bond Training Room (No Spoilers)

36:40 - Working on Book Two

39:00 - Future Projects: Space Opera, Short Stories & a What Blood Remembers Novella

41:10 - The Malazan Book Club Podcast Origin Story

46:00 - What Malazan Did to His TBR

50:00 - Writing Unapologetically (Even When Beta Readers Push Back)

55:00 - Action Scenes & Accessibility in Epic Fantasy

1:08:00 - Sen's Book Two Scoop

1:11:30 - Closing & Where to Find Will

#realmrunners #bookpodcast #epicfantasy #indieauthor #fantasyauthors #dragonriders #writingcommunity

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