Trials of the Innermost by Jonathan Fuller

But in Remarkable Retirement, magic exists out in the open and is mainstream.

It’s a funky setting-mostly, I think, because I think magical stories set in the contemporary world often involve a lot of secrecy surrounding magic. So on one hand you have nursing homes and iPhones and Detroit and California, but on the other hand you have wizards and dragons and potions and crystal balls. (minus a certain pandemic), except that magic exists and everyone knows about it. Can you tell us a bit about the world Edna is from?Ī: Edna is from what I’ve been calling more-or-less the real world: the setting is the modern U.S. Q: The cover for your book seems to have a large city skyline in the background. That tweet lived in my Writing Inspo folder until I needed a new idea, and that’s the one that leapt out at me! But I’m also a grandma (in spirit), so I think it was only a matter of time until I wrote an elderly fantasy protagonist: the main character of the manuscript I recently signed with my agent is also elderly (well, immortal, but looks like he’s in his seventies rather than like a hot twenty-five-year-old), and the main character of the book I’m planning now is also older. You’d think they’d pick more emotionally stable people, with more free time. Author Interview Q: It’s not often you see a geriatric fantasy hero-what gave you the idea for your main character, Edna?Ī: Author Carrie Ann DiRisio runs a Twitter account called Brooding YA Hero that lovingly pokes fun at exactly that (brooding YA heroes, that is), which several years back tweeted: It’s amazing how many prophecies involve teens. But as Edna learns about the abuse in the ranks and the sorcerer’s history as a Knight, she questions if it’s really the sorcerer that needs stopping-or the Knights she’s trying to save. With her son long dead in the Knights’ service, she’s determined to save dragon-fighters like him and to ensure other mothers don’t suffer the same loss she did. Still, Edna leaps at the chance to leave the nursing home. And everyone knows the Council of Wizards always chooses a teenager-like the vengeful girl ready to snatch Edna’s destiny from under her nose. After all, Edna has never handled a magical weapon, faced down a dragon, or cast a spell.

No one understands why 83-year-old Edna Fisher is the Chosen One, destined to save the Knights from a dragon-riding sorcerer bent on their destruction. When you’re a geriatric armed with nothing but gumption and knitting needles, stopping a sorcerer from wiping out an entire dragon-fighting organization is a tall order.

Trials of the Innermost by Jonathan Fuller