Author Spotlight – Interview with Isaiah Burt
Isaiah Burt is a dark fantasy author who focuses mostly on the demonic and occult. He lives with his wife in Washington, USA amidst a small library comprised of D&D books, fantasy novels, and religious/philosophical texts; a panoply of Warhammer miniatures; and sizable collection of Magic: The Gathering cards.
Q1 – What is the name of your latest project? Tell us more about why you embarked on this project. If a writer, share your synopsis.
The project that I am pushing right now is Legacy of Flames. I embarked upon the project because I saw the Sundara: Dawn of a New Age fantasy setting that my friend Neal Litherland has been working on for the past few years, really enjoyed what I found in his Pathfinder supplements, and felt that there was a lot of great story potential. So, I pitched the idea to him, and he sent me to his publisher who agreed to take on the project. Here’s the synopsis:
A pariah brought out of hiding. A power as old as the world itself.
Gnav lives alone, and he likes it that way. He hunts; he eats; he sleeps. But when, when a messenger from the nearby city of Ironfire comes looking for him, the Cinderscale is offered a hunt that he simply cannot refuse:
A dragon hunt.
And the dragon is no ordinary dragon. It draws its sorcery from a primordial fire spirit threatening to raze Ironfire itself in an inferno the likes of which Sundara has never seen before.
Will Gnav defeat the dragon, or will his whole world turn to ashes around him? Buy your copy of Legacy of Flames today and find out!
Q2 – What inspired you when you encountered struggles along the way?
I want to start by saying that throughout the writing process for Legacy of Flames, I recall a permeating feeling of impostor syndrome, especially because I was furiously penning the first draft in the heart of my day job’s busy season. However, I was so excited to effectively have been commissioned for my writing that I just kept going. Also, my friend Neal had already put out so much great work and was there for me if I ever had any questions. With so much worldbuilding to draw upon and a patient, friendly mentor, I knew I couldn’t fail.
Q3 – Have you ever traveled as research for your work/project/story?
Not specifically, no, but the trip I took to China as a teenager still impacts the imagery I use in my work. It was exhilarating to both stand atop the Great Wall and see the terra cotta soldiers, as well as getting a taste of day-to-day life in an entirely different culture. My only regret about the trip is that I wish I had journaled more during it.
Q4 – How has your lived experience influenced your work/project/story?
A dysfunctional household was a challenge I had to endure during my early life and eventually overcome, and it is partially because of that that I ended up being a loner until my teenage years when I met many of my best friends at the gaming store that I still frequent. They were the first ones to really understand what I was going through and lend me a hand up while consistently testing my critical thinking skills through the wargames we played. One misread or mispoken word could spell (pun intended!) victory or defeat, which mirrored my home life in a much safer way. As such, the gaming store became a sort of Valhalla for me.
This is reflected in my writing firstly by having nurtured my endless love of the fantasy genre. Secondly, I tend to write main characters who are initially alone in their struggle against an overbearing master (or trying to avoid subjugation) but are able to triumph through a combination of sheer willpower and help from the right people. Thirdly, I use the imagery associated with Hell because that was what my home was a lot of the time while growing up, and reading about the greater fiends in the D&D monster manuals truly inspired me on a visceral level because if they could thrive in such an environment, so could I. Finally, like many authors who write dark fiction, I don’t play nice with my characters, especially my protagonists. They get cut; they get burned; they get killed. This aspect, especially, was a source of catharsis during my adolescence.
Q5 – What do you want readers to take away from your work/project/story?
I would say that the most consistent moral in my works is that strength through adversity leads to victory. There are few tropes in writing that I loathe, but deus ex machina is one of them. When writing, I am hyperconscious of making sure that my characters succeed on their own merits (or with the aid of their allies), not because they have to for the plot to move forward. The other most consistent moral is that standing alone isn’t a bad thing as long as you’re willing to fight for what you’re standing for.
Q6 – Do you believe books can inspire social change? How?
Absolutely I do. When I was reading The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk, M.D., I learned that one of the reasons why talk therapy can be transformative is because the act of speaking can physically change neural pathways. When we receive new ideas, our brains must physically change, no matter how minute the change is, to accommodate it. One of the advantages fiction has is the ability to flavor those ideas, making them easier or harder to accept based on one’s mental palate.
This is particularly worth noting because of what Dr. Jonathan Haidt writes in The Righteous Mind about how you don’t go about changing people by appealing to their rational self but rather to the subconscious that is the bedrock of their minds. This bedrock is more linked to one’s sense of aesthetics and ideas of how things ought to be rather than how things are. In turn, fiction is such a compelling vehicle because it can postulate these things from the get-go and then extrapolate into the author’s message. No wonder the government has banned books!
Q7 – Anton Chekhov said, “The world is, of course, nothing but our conception of it.” What is your opinion of this statement? How does it coincide or conflict with your perspective of the world?
Overall, the statement rings true for me. It might seem paradoxical that one thing I value most is the ability to see people and situations as they really are. It is through this that the best courses of action can be determined. However, concessions must be made to practicality on the basis that objective reality is ultimately created from multiple subjective realities interacting with each other. What even the most unclouded human mind and eyes see is then but one version of all of this filtered through their senses. It is for this reason that what is true and what is right can be verydifferent things.
Q8 – What personal experience had the greatest influence on your worldview?
Reading The Satanic Bible by Anton Szandor LaVey when I was sixteen. The great thing about The Satanic Bible is one that I feel is a necessity for any piece of literature to be called great: everyone reading it reads the exact same words but ends the experience energized by (sometimes completely) different ideas. For me, The Satanic Bible and, by extension, the Satanic religion, provided processes to channel the sense of aesthetics and drive for excellence that I had already cultivated into real world results, as well as a sense of agency that had been sorely lacking in my life. I freely admit that I am far from the most successful person on this planet, but Satanism has helped me construct a life where I am proud of what I can do and where I am loved and valued.
Now, a disclaimer: I am a member of the Church of Satan but have no authority to speak in any official capacity for the Church of Satan. The views expressed above, and the rest of this interview, are mine and mine alone and should in no way be viewed as the views held collectively by the Church of Satan. If you’re interested in learning more, go to www.churchofsatan.com.
Q9 – What perspectives or beliefs have you challenged in your work/project/story?
In a general sense, I challenge the notion that something (whatever my hero is trying to accomplish) can’t be done, as well as the idea that those in power should stay in power. I wouldn’t say that Legacy of Flames challenges anything more specific than that as I wrote it primarily with the goal of marrying my aesthetic senses to a fantasy setting that explicitly lacks Hell and demons. However, in my novelettes for the PostScript science fiction setting, particularly Clash of Fervors, I challenge the concept of spiritual truth and its use as a guidepost for life.
Q10 – How do you see the relationship between writing and culture? How about the boundaries between fiction and reality?
Writing is absolutely essential for culture; it’s one of the hallmarks of a sophisticated society. Look at our day-to-day lives. So much of what we do involves writing in some form or fashion, from the essays people write for school right down to the minuscule lines that comprise our instant messages.
In Paradise Lost, John Milton writes, “The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a Heav’n of Hell, a Hell of Heav’n,” and that quote more or less describes my thoughts on the boundaries between fiction and reality. Reality can certainly be what we would term bad, but a lot of it is what you make of it, and much the same can be said of fiction, too: you get out of it what you make of it. I would say that the main boundary between reality and fiction is time. Reality is here and now; fiction has the potential to transpire in the future.
Look at how so many ideas from Star Trek have become reality and continue to do so; look at how so many people rail that works such as 1984 and Brave New World were not meant to be instruction manuals. Even in the context of magic and wizards, we can look at the ever-growing achievements in technological fields through the lens of Arthur C. Clarke’s quote, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” That being said, just because something can go from fiction to reality does not mean that it will; that’s up to you.
Q11 – To what extent can fiction affect or improve the developments in science and technology in human life? What about religion and politics?
Call me blasphemous, but I view the overwhelming majority of religious texts as over-glorified fiction, and since those texts have been used for millennia as means to govern and oppress human civilizations, the impact of fiction on religion and politics is made undoubtedly clear. In The Satanic Bible, Anton LaVey writes, “If man needs such a god and recognizes that god, then he is worshipping an entity that a human being invented. Therefore, he is worshipping by proxy the man that invented god. Is it not more sensible to worship a god that he, himself, has created in accordance with his own emotional needs—one that best represents the very carnal and physical being that has the ideapower to invent a god in the first place?”
As such, I believe that the best impact fiction can have for religion is to teach people how to make their own personalized gods, and once this is done (assuming that it is done), secularism and pluralism of viewpoints will be the clear path forward for the betterment of humanity. As for how fiction can affect, and potentially improve, science and technology, refer to my answer to question 10.
Q12 – Eckhart Tolle said, “Awareness is the greatest agent for change.” In your opinion, what is the next step and how can writers affect this?
At the risk of being a quibbler, I’d like to respectfully disagree with the above quote. Awareness is not the greatest agent for change; awareness is the emotionally fueled knowing that change must occur. Action is, and always will be, the greatest agent for change. Writers can catalyze action by providing compelling visions of what the future will look like once the action is done, i.e., an instruction manual.
Q14 – Intolerance and divisiveness are prevalent across the globe. Our voice may not be loud enough to right every wrong, but it is enough to make a difference one person at a time. Small acts move mountains. What one thing would you ask your audience to do to help inspire social change?
Do not judge people by the groups to which they belong. Judge them as individuals and by their actions, specifically their actions toward you.
Q15 – Pick 1-3 social issues that are most important to you. Explain why you picked these and how we can help raise awareness/impact change.
1. Domestic violence. This is important to me because I lived through it. One thing that I think would help catalyze change to solve the issue is easier access to mental health counseling at all levels of society, as well as investigation of the parents if a child makes a claim. “If you have nothing to hide, then you have nothing to fear,” and “Responsibility to the responsible” apply here.
2. Rape. Members of the family I married into went through it and are scarred for life as a result. Better education on knowing the emotions of oneself and others, and acting responsibly in expressing and responding to them, and better sexual education are things I think would help here.
Q16 – Maya Angelou said, “I did then what I knew how to do, but now that I know better, I do better.” We have all made choices that we regret. We are all flawed humans. Together, we are experiencing this human story unfolding. Share a transformative experience where you learned from a mistake. How do you actively choose to make better choices?
I want to start my answer to this question by saying that I am forever grateful to Ahnna, who was my manager at my first job. I was addicted to alcohol before I was twenty-one due to being allowed to peruse the cupboards where it was kept at my leisure, combined with the fact that it was brought out often besides.
One night, when my older brother was home from college for a few days, we all drank, and I drank a lot knowing that I had to be up at 3 a.m. the next morning for work. I made the mistake of thinking that I would sleep it off, but I was still drunk when I woke up to shower. I texted and called Ahnna, but she wasn’t awake, which was to be expected. Then, I fell asleep, and our department was not open until 9 a.m., with me not going to work that day. I went down to the store, apologized to Ahnna, explained the circumstances, and asked her forgiveness.
She empathetically understood that I was a nineteen-year-old at his first job who did something really stupid but was at least able to own up to it. The change I made immediately was not drinking on nights when I had to go to work the next day. I didn’t always follow this rule, but nothing like what I just described ever happened again. Now, with the help of my wife, I hardly drink at all. I also want to note that I went on to become Ahnna’s favorite employee, and that she would alter the schedule so I could play games with my friends on account of my work ethic. Thank you, Ahnna.
Q17 – Challenge readers and listeners with action steps to increase engagement with identifying hashtag and @mention.
@IsaiahBurt-Author
#diabolicalascension
Connect with Isaiah Burt
An author is only as good as their audience. Support this amazing writer by connecting with them and checking out their books.
Social Media Links
Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/IsaiahBurtAuthor
Personal Blog- https://talesofvalorandwoe.wixsite.com/zeragabaalkhal
Links To Purchase Books
Legacy of Flames Purchase Link- https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/421383/Legacy-of-Flames
Other Published Works- https://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse.php?author=Isaiah%20Burt
If you want to hear my guests’ stories in their own words, check out our video interviews on my Story Unfolding YouTube channel. Be sure to go subscribe to hear about Isaiah and other authors, creators, and entrepreneurs who are making a difference.
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