Grim

Posted by Athena Scalzi

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/08/26/the-big-idea-deva-fagan/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=57000

One wrong turn doesn’t mean you’re going the wrong way entirely, and in author Deva Fagan’s case, her wrong turns ended up steering her exactly where she needed to be. Follow along in the Big Idea for her newest novel, House of Dusk, as she takes you through the winding path that led to its creation.

DEVA FAGAN:

I’ve had a thing for labyrinths ever since I first saw and fell in love with Jim Henson’s movie Labyrinth (and not just because of the possibility that I might find David Bowie prancing around one of them). 

Part of what I loved was the word itself. We often use labyrinth and maze interchangeably, but they can also have very different meanings. Mazes are composed of false turns meant to confuse, to lead you astray, to entrap you. Labyrinths are slow spirals leading you ever towards the center, often used as a meditative tool for self-reflection.

In other words, you lose yourself in a maze, but you find yourself in a labyrinth.

And that’s where my Big Idea came from: a vision of an underworld where the spirits of the dead must navigate a seemingly endless labyrinth where they face all the emotional baggage that they brought with them from life. If they can leave those hates and sorrows and regrets behind, they find the center and are set free. If not, they risk wandering forever or being devoured by soul-devouring demons.

I knew it would be the key ingredient in a bigger story, an epic fantasy with a rich, complicated world and flawed but loveable characters. I just needed to find the book it belonged in.

Today, over twenty years later, that book, House of Dusk, is finally out in the world.

Why did it take twenty years? Apparently I had to walk a creative labyrinth myself, in order to find the center of this story; to give up the baggage of bad ideas and refine the good. Though honestly it felt more like a maze, most of the time. I kept taking one wrong turn after another. And by wrong turn, I mean writing entire full-length book drafts that I ultimately had to throw away.

Here’s a summary:

Wrong Turn #1: The Blade of Atropos

The story of a warrior princess with daddy issues trying to rescue a tithe of young people being sent to an enemy nation (à la Theseus and the Minotaur, in keeping with the labyrinth theme). It wasn’t a terrible book, but the worldbuilding was more interesting than the characters, and I was drawing too directly from actual Greek mythology, rather than building my own cosmology.

Wrong Turn #2: The Obsidian Shield

The story of a warrior princess with daddy issues AND a bunch of emotional baggage and regrets. I honestly can’t remember what her goal was, which probably means it wasn’t nearly as exciting as I thought it was. But I’m glad I went down this wrong turn, because it’s where I found a pair of characters I loved: a brother forced to become a brutal assassin in order to safeguard his sister, a sibyl being controlled and manipulated by powerful men.

Wrong Turn #3: Poison Maid

The story of a poison-skinned nun who has to team up with an enemy prince to bring about the long-awaited rebirth of the Phoenix-god and the downfall of an ancient evil. In this version the sibyl is the prince’s sister, and is mostly comic relief. Also there’s an adorable sphinx! This is the first version where I finally realized I ought to have one of the characters actually go into the Labyrinth of Souls rather than just talking about this cool thing and never showing it on the page.

Wrong Turn #4: Tears of Blood and Ash

In this version, the sibyl is now the nun (and brotherless!), and she’s watched over by a maid who is secretly a spy with a lot of emotional baggage. The two women end up having to ally to thwart their enemies, and ultimately travel together into the Labyrinth of Souls, where they each must confront their demons (and I finally realized that they were secretly in love with each other). 

Finally Finding the Center: House of Dusk

At last! I found my two protagonists: Sephre, the aging war hero who fled to a monastic life seeking redemption for her past misdeeds, and Yeneris, the spy posing as a bodyguard, slowly falling for an enemy princess whose prophetic visions are the key to her brutal father’s power.

So that’s how I finally found my way through the labyrinth. It was a long and often disheartening journey, but I know that House of Dusk would not be the book it is today without all those wrong turns. I worked hard to make this big idea into reality, and I’m so grateful and proud that it’s out in the world now. 

House of Dusk: Amazon|Barnes & Noble|Bookshop|Powell’s|PRINT

Author socials: Website|Instagram|Bluesky|Patreon

Read an excerpt.

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/08/26/the-big-idea-deva-fagan/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=57000

Posted by John Scalzi

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/08/26/as-the-swallows-return-to-capistrano-so-does-the-pumpkin-spice-return-to-the-bradford-speedway/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=56982

This is the true harbinger of the change of the season. Not the cooler temperatures, not the kiddos returning to school, not the imminent arrival of Labor Day weekend; no, it’s when the Pumpkin Spice Cappuccino powder mix is added to the flavored coffee machine and the little sticker slapped over the usual “Skinny French Vanilla” sticker.

The Pumpkin Spice sticker will remain there until mid-November at least, when it will be replaced with the Candy Cane Cappuccino sticker, or whatever the hell they’re calling their holiday-themed coffee powder this year. But until then! Pumpkin Spice shall reign supreme!

— JS

https://whatever.scalzi.com/2025/08/26/as-the-swallows-return-to-capistrano-so-does-the-pumpkin-spice-return-to-the-bradford-speedway/

https://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=56982