In 2024, Epic Publishing will be re-releasing Cameron Scott Kirk’s novel, The Mad Monks, the second standalone novel set in his grimdark fantasy world of White Cloud. In this blog post, he talks about his world and how The Mad Monks shares ties with the newest book in the series, The Beautiful Harpies.
The Mad Monks is an upcoming release from Epic Publishing, and it details the events which happen in the fictional city of Re’Shan and, more particularly, the fate of a brotherhood of monks upon Ulfur, an equally fictional mountain which looms large over the city. If you are partial to a bit of dark fantasy with elements of gothic horror and grimdark thrown in, then this book may be for you.
The Beautiful Harpies is another of my novels just out (Dec 2023) and this book is set in the city of Dysael. Both of these novels, and indeed my debut work The Mad Trinkets, take place in the wider world of White Cloud, but each book functions as a standalone and only the most observant of readers will note the thread that connects them. For example, Julian, one of the main protagonists in The Mad Monks, happens to be a native of Dysael, though the city of Dysael plays no other role in the novel.
There is, however, one extremely important connection between the characters of both novels (and The Mad Trinkets). And that, dear reader, was the original purpose of this writing. However, I now realize to outline this connection would require rather large spoilers, so I will not do so. Instead, I will briefly describe the land of White Cloud itself.
White Cloud itself is an alternate-history New Zealand and the name White Cloud is in fact the English translation of the Māori word Aotearoa: the land of the Long White Cloud. I have long wondered what New Zealand would have looked like if people from all over the world had discovered it along with the Māori (the indigenous people of New Zealand), who did so in the thirteenth century. Many know that New Zealand’s spectacular scenery was used for the filming of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy. Imagine those incredible mountains and beautiful flora and fauna populated not by elves, orcs and hobbits but by Scandinavians and other Europeans, Polynesians, Asians, Africans, and all manner of people from the Middle East.
I have paid little or no heed to historical accuracy and geographical preciseness. For example, the southern climes of New Zealand are colder than the north, but in my version of White Cloud, the south (the setting for The Mad Monks) is a large expanse of arid desert known as The Great Southern Sands. These books are fantasy, after all. But some things have been taken directly from the New Zealand landscape. Mount Ulfur, for example, is in fact a fictional version of Mount Cook, New Zealand’s tallest mountain.
As to that other connection between The Mad Monks and The Beautiful Harpies? Without giving too much away, I will say that The Mad Monks is where the madness, death, destruction and heroism begin, and The Beautiful Harpies is where it all ends (for now). Do not be concerned with the fact that The Beautiful Harpies precedes The Mad Monks in publication date, for, as mentioned, they function mostly as standalones.
Let the madness in.
— Cameron Scott Kirk
Have you read Cameron’s other work? If so, share your thoughts in the comments!
You can order your copy of The Beautiful Harpies directly from Cybirdy or at Amazon. You can also get the first book in Cameron’s series, The Mad Trinkets, on Amazon. If you’d like to know when The Mad Monks is being re-released by Epic Publishing, follow our blog or sign up for the Epic News list.
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