Luke Courtney

Published Books
Argent Blade: Plague Carrier (Oct 21) BUY ON AMAZON = https://amzn.to/3FkCLt4
From the Ashes: Book 1 of the Phoenix Saga (Dec 20) BUY ON AMAZON = https://amzn.to/32rP87Z
Argent Blade (Sep 20) BUY ON AMAZON = https://amzn.to/3ezUSj3
Two Horn (May 20) BUY ON AMAZON = https://amzn.to/3pmLHbP

​Who are you?  Tell us a little bit about yourself...
Who am I? I’m Luke Courtney, I’m 31, living in and around London. By day, I work in a military museum on
Whitehall, telling stories about the men, horses and history of the Household Cavalry Regiment. By night, I work on
an array of dark and urban fantasy novels, namely the Argent Blade and Phoenix Saga series, with the aim of getting
them published, as well as a few other pet projects I’m slowly chipping my way through. Besides writing, my other
interests include reading, painting, running, archaeology and palaeontology (both of which have been big inspirations)
and a bit of gaming.  
 
What first inspired you to start writing?
I grew up in a house full of books; reading and writing were a huge part of my childhood, and I grew up on stories
from Greek and Celtic mythology; I loved reading tales of knights and heroes rescuing princesses from monsters and
fighting evil tyrants to save the world and making up ones of my own. That love carried on when I was in school;
creative writing exercises were always a favourite of mine. But the real impetus for me to start writing properly came
in 2010/2011: not long after I left university, one of my first jobs was working in a second-hand bookshop, and after
handling and flicking through so many works of fiction, some better than others, I started thinking surely I could write
a story of my own and get it out there, maybe get some readers as enthralled by my work as my favourite authors did
to me?
 
What made you want to work with Rowanvale and be published?
I first dabbled in self-publishing back in 2004 and it was something of a negative experience with my first book.
When I managed to complete Argent Blade, my initial efforts to go down the traditional publishing route hit
something of a brick wall, I thought I could at least give self-publishing again after an initial bad experience before,
but with my efforts to get my writing out there by the traditional method hitting a brick wall, I decided to give it
another crack. I wanted to try working with a company based in the UK this time and while doing research on my
potential options, I heard a lot of good things about Rowanvale Books, promising reviews from writers who’d worked
with them before, and the fact they did children’s books with illustrations was a big plus as I had a story idea I wanted
to run with! (I can write stories, but I can’t illustrate them to save my life!).

When you’re not writing, what are you reading?
My usual reading material is usually fantasy and science fiction; a lot of what I read tends to come from Black
Library (since I’m a big fan of Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000; favourites include the Horus Heresy series, the
Black Legion novels by Aaron Dembski-Bowden, the hilarious Ciaphas Cain books by Sandy Mitchell and the
Fabius Bile series by Josh Reynolds) but any good fantasy or sci-fi story that can hook me, I will give a fair go, from
Tolkien to Andrezj Sapkowski’s Witcher novels. I do like to branch out into different genres, such as thrillers like
Tess Gerritsen’s Rizzoli and Isles novels and Christopher Farnsworth’s The President’s Vampire series, crime novels,
even historical fiction (I got introduced to Philippa Gregory’s novels by my girlfriend and borrowed one of Phillip
Kerr’s Bernie Gunther books from my father and ended up thoroughly enjoying them!). If it sounds like a gripping
story that will keep me hooked from start to finish, I’ll happily read it!

Which work are you most proud of?
Probably my proudest work would be either Two-Horn, a children’s story I came up with on a whim one afternoon,
allowing me to tick off a great ambition of mine to write something involving dinosaurs (I’ve been a huge dinosaur
geek since the age of 5!) or Argent Blade, my completed second novel, an idea that I slowly built on over the years,
jotting down ideas while at my dayjob, coming up with characters, creatures and events in the story all inspired by the
locales of London I saw every day, until one day I had a completed novel in my hands, one I’m determined to carry
on with.
 
What’s your best advice for handling writer’s block?
Since I struggle frequently with writer’s block, my best advice is go do something else. Usually, when I hit a wall
with the writing, I find going for a bit of exercise, such as a long run or a swim, has a great effect on helping to clear
my mind; often while I’ve been out running or in the pool, the wheels in my mind will start turning again and I’ll
think of an idea or two to get the story flowing again.
 
What’s one thing you always have with you when you’re writing?
I always swear by having a pen and notepad on hand when I want to write; since I often find inspiration strikes at the
most random moments (in my case, usually when I was at my day job at the museum), I found it extremely useful to
have something you can jot down an idea for a story, a character, an event or anything like that so that you can come
back to it later and build on it when you have more time.
 
What is one book you would like to have with you if you were stuck on a desert island?
What book would I like to have on a deserted island? Either a book on how to build boats, or Robinson Crusoe by
Daniel Defoe; it might give me some ideas on what I can expect being stuck there!
 
What is the best part about being an independently published author?
Difficult to say, but I suppose, for me, the best part of being an independently published author is probably the
freedom with it, in that you don’t spend years trying to get a foot in the door with a literary agent or a publishing
company, trying to get them to give your work a second glance.
 
What’s next for you?
At the moment, my attention is devoted to promoting the upcoming release of Argent Blade: Plague Carrier, coming
up on Halloween. I’m planning to use NaNoWriMo to devote a lot of time to the next book of the Phoenix Saga
(Working title Fire Rising), as I’ve been neglecting that series, and it’s due some attention (hopefully I’ll be
publishing this with Rowanvale Books in the not too distant future!). I’m also in the process of getting some feedback
on my latest WIP, the first book of a new fantasy series, entitled The Winged Wolf Saga inspired by the Irish myth of
the Children of Lir (think Beauty and the Beast meets Game of Thrones). Next year, I’m hoping to divide between
this and wrapping up Fire Rising, so I can then put the wheels in motion for finishing the Argent Blade series with its
final book. It’s going to be a busy schedule for 2022, 2023!