I was lucky to get an interview with Taylor Hartley, the author of A Gallery for the Barbarian, and a semifinalist in this year’s #SPFBO9.

Please, tell us a bit about yourself…
Hi, Rune!

Hi Taylor, so glad to have you here, and congratulations on becoming a semifinalist!

Hi, everybody! I’m Taylor Hartley, a Canadian fantasy author. I also have an academic background in literature, writing studies, genre theory and queer theory. I’m an enormous book geek, gamer, nerd culture enthusiast, and those who know me from social media will also surely know I’m big into Warhammer lore—although I think my own writing differs from it quite a bit!

Yay! A fellow Warhammer enthusiast!

Why should I buy your SPFBO9 entry?
My SPFBO 9 entry, A Gallery for the Barbarian, is perfect for those who want to be challenged by a more abstract fantasy piece while still enjoying a homecoming to tried-and-true tropes of vintage sword & sorcery (think Elric, Conan, Kull…). With it, I wanted to update what I find outdated about pulp fantasy and apply a fresh coat of fairy-tale queerness upon the foundations of the genre. You’ll meet Violetto, an undead painter and the novel’s unreliable narrator, and his muse/bestie Brask of Bannavaria, a brutish fellow whose main interests are money, food, and the acquisition of money and food. The novel follows their adventures in episodes that echo the iconic duos of vintage fantasy—while establishing an over-arching plot in the margins for readers who are extra observant! People who love character-driven fantasy, Renaissance settings, and a major emphasis on lyrical prose will love it.

What got you into writing? And how long have you been doing it?
I’ve been writing fiction ever since my family got their first PC. I’ve always been a bookworm, and I think like a lot of bookworms of nerdier inclination, this lent itself to a lot of flailing fanfiction and incomplete short stories and novels. As an adult I became serious about academic education and forms of writing, and after many years of writing poetry and short stories, A Gallery for the Barbarian seemed like a natural fusion of my different knowledge bases.

Have you participated in the SPFBO before and where did you hear about the competition?
Barbarian is my debut novel and first SPFBO entry. I first heard about the competition on Reddit many moons ago…

Why did you choose to write fantasy?
As someone submersed in fantasy media from childhood, the genre feels natural as breathing to me. It is the genre in which wonder is the order of any given moment, and I want to write moments that inspire wonder. Fantasy is such a freeing genre—paltry reality never gets in the way of much in it!

Which other author has had the biggest influence on your writing?
Gene Wolfe’s Book of the New Sun may be a large influence. I don’t think I can pretend to its scope—nor is my book so violent or beautifully cruel—but if some of its glittering alterity, strangeness, or unreliability of narration have rubbed off on me, I think I’ve done a pretty good job of things.

If you were to win the SPFBO, what impact do you think this would have on your writing career?
Wow! Well I imagine winning would be pretty amazing for exposure of my little book. The Violetto Papers series will continue regardless of the result—Violetto has a lot more to tell, I think—but it would be enormously gratifying to receive such acclaim and attention, and no doubt would bring in quite a few new readers!

What challenges did you face during the writing or publishing process, and how did you overcome them?
Imposter syndrome is a terrible thing, isn’t it? I thought launching my book would feel like I had reached some sort of goal or accomplishment, but I experienced a tremendous amount of creative and professional postpartum, so to speak, afterwards, which was very hard to overcome. I’m the kind of writer who doesn’t write to market—I write to my heart and soul. And it's scary putting a piece of your heart and soul out there for review. I don’t think it will ever stop feeling scary, but the fact that I’ve already reached a number of readers who are enjoying and responding to the novel’s strange little world of magic and mirrors is extremely therapeutic.

And now it's time to yank out your Palantir! Let’s talk about the future. What new projects are you working on?
I’m currently at work on book 2 of The Violetto Papers, and its main narrative will likely conclude with book 3. After that, I’d love to try my hand at a cozy fantasy standalone or series.

Do you have any dreams you’d like to share?
It'll be a dream come true if A Gallery for the Barbarian can reach more and more readers who appreciate something different in their fantasy novels. Doing writing work on a video game project is also a dream of mine, and something I’ve only ever puttered around with before.

Anything else you would like to say before we close?
Thank you very much for this interview and this opportunity—and a big thank you to those who read it!

I love the cover of your book and thank you for some interesting answers! I wish you the very best in the SPFBO. I hope a lot of readers discover your writing. Thanks for doing the interview.