Samantha Garner, Literary Fantasy Author

As a kid, I was taught that certain spirits lived just beyond the edges of the path. In Filipino folklore, the nuno sa punso might curse you for disturbing its mound. In Finnish folklore, a type of haltija called a tonttu could guard your house and required certain behaviour. I grew up saying “tabi tabi po, nuno” in the forest to avoid a nuno’s curse, and I often wondered if my house’s tonttu would ever appear to say hi.

To me, belonging is about how we enter a space and how we shape it while there. And as a mixed-race person, I’ve always fallen in the boundary between worlds. Maybe this is why certain stories and “creatures” come back into my life over and over.

The Boundary Keepers: 🜃 Nuno sa punso, a Filipino ancestor spirit protecting the land. 🜃 Haltija, a Finnish spirit guarding nature, home, and soul.

These guardians live in liminal spaces and teach relationship over conquest.

The Path Shifters: 🜃 Tikbalang, a Filipino trickster who spins travelers in circles. Precolonial Tagalog people believed they were guardians of forests or elemental kingdoms. Precolonial Kapampángan people saw them with the head of a bird. Spanish colonization brought the half-horse description. 🜃 Ajatar, a Finnish serpentine spirit who lures you into wild woods.

To learn more, check out my blog post sharing more about these mythic figures!

In Finnish paganism, the bear was never just an animal. Its name was too sacred to speak aloud lest you attract it. It was replaced with euphemistic, respectful names instead.

Because speaking the true name of the bear was taboo to ancient Finno-Ugric people, they used  terms of endearment and euphemisms like mesikämmen ("honey-paw",) metsän omena ("apple of the forest",) and metsän kuningas ("king of the forest"). One common name for the bear in Finnish paganism was “Otso” (in fact, Otso is a Finnish male name today, and it’s even the name of the bear character in Finnish Duolingo). Even in the Kalevala, the post-Christianity 19th century collection of Finnish epic poetry, the bear is called by many names.

Today, the modern Finnish word for bear, karhu, began as one of these sacred nicknames.

Check out my blog to read more about the bear spirit in Finnish paganism: the birth of Otso, the ritual of peijaiset, and the bear spirit as ancestor to Finno-Ugric peoples.

Why do I write historically-inspired SF/F set in societies that disregard personal autonomy? I admit, when I first noticed it I got a little concerned.⁠ Shouldn’t I be writing about dragons or something lighthearted and fun? ⁠ Then I took a step back and looked at the broad strokes history of my parents’ countries of origin. ⁠ ⁠ 🇫🇮 Finland: Under Swedish rule for hundreds of years, then ceded to Russia until full & formal independence in the 20th century.⁠ 🇵🇭 The Philippines: Under Spanish rule for hundreds of years, then ceded to the USA until full & formal independence in the 20th century.⁠ ⁠ This is what I grew up hearing about. I don’t pretend to have a perfect understanding of the events and of course the above are over-simplifications of complicated histories. But these stories are in my blood. No wonder I can’t stop writing about this shit! I have this innate need to tell stories inspired by Finnish and Filipino history and mythology, even if it’s not direct.⁠ ⁠ My recent work is inspired by the history of Finland and the Philippines, but that theme of autonomy shows up in my unrelated novellas-in-progress too. My books are character-driven and not direct commentaries on imperialism and colonialism. You won’t find clashes of large armies or overt revolutionary heroism. Yet being inspired by this history means my characters’ struggles stem from just wanting to define their own lives. Should be simple, but history proves again and again that it’s not.⁠ ⁠ By the way, I’m sure this is also fueled by the draw I’ve had to outsiders my whole life, and my own feelings of being an outsider. But I’ll end this here – I already feel like an old hippie just ranting about “the Establishment, maaaaan!” My brand, I suppose!

Ninety-nine percent of the time, my novels start with a character, theme, or “what if” situation – The Quiet is Loud started with a woman with prophetic dreams predicting her mother’s death. After that, this is where I go:

1) Setting

After the initial story idea, I typically figure out the setting. For me, where the idea will live is part of the story itself. I spend time on details that I feel are critical in creating a good story and believable characters. For example: What’s the climate? What are the flora and fauna? Where do people live? What do they eat? What do they wear? The answers to these questions can lead to some interesting worldbuilding-y answers

2) History, mythology & language

Sometimes this is where I start my worldbuilding, or sometimes it comes earlier in the process as I’m creating the characters. I’ll just freewrite the society’s history, losing myself in my imagination. Sometimes the history and mythology are based on real-world history and mythology, and in that case I’ll note what I’m changing and why. If I have to change real history that affected real people, I need to have a really good reason.

When it comes to the language and the names of people and places, I like to ground them in something from our world as well. This way I’m more confident that names will sound cohesive when necessary. However, language being incongruous is also realistic, as any English-language speaker can tell you. In my novella series, the settlers of its tidally-locked planet have Earth-names like Mi-kyung and Cécile, but some have more comparatively fantastical names like Jhaeros and Ektelian. To my mind, when you spend a century and a half building your society on a far-flung planet that’s been all but forgotten by Earth, you likely won’t be beholden to Earth’s naming conventions for very long.

3) Society & daily life

Some questions I ask myself about my characters’ lives and society are: What are their jobs? Who’s in charge? What’s the class system? What’s their economy like? Not only do the answers to these questions help to develop character, but they also offer chances for delicious little societial micro-conflicts that I love. As a writer, that is.

Of course, the worldbuilding process doesn’t end there, but these are my foundational elements. I spend a lot of time on worldbuilding and I don’t have a set pathway that I go down each time, but these are the top three ways I start my worldbuilding process as a sci-fi/fantasy author.

There’s an old-school style of Filipino restaurant called “turo-turo.” The name is an example of classic Filipino word reduplicating, and stems from the word for pointing at something. They’re often located in strip malls, and the typical feature is their cafeteria-style presentation, all food laid out in warming trays that you point at and someone dishes up for you.

As a child I didn’t know the turo-turo style of restaurant had a name—I just learned it recently. To me, they were always just “Filipino restaurants.” They always made me feel a mix of contentment and confusion. I was excited to have my favourite food, but also intimidated by the context I lacked for much of it. I would stand in front of the glass separating me from the food, looking at the names of each dish written there, wondering what some of them were.

In a recent blog post, I wrote a bit about the history of this style of Filipino restaurant and how I used them to create my own version of Filipinoness in my literary sci-fi novel The Quiet is Loud. Check it out here!

There are many themes and inspirations in The Quiet is Loud that I feel are quite overt – just a few off the top of my head: identity, belonging, self-reflection, mythology, tarot cards, Filipino food, and unexpected friendships. But I thought it might be fun to share four inspirations that are a little more unusual.

My novel in progress is a historically-inspired fantasy novel merging medieval Finnish & pre-colonial Filipino elements, and I wanted to share two elements of Filipino history I included.

☼ 1) Dulang, a low table ☼

One of my favourite tidbits from my research is that pre-colonial Filipinos ate at a low table, sitting on the floor. Part of me worries that readers will think “Hey you stole that from Japan!” but I’m excited for the chance to show my people at their own low table, eating rice with their hands.

☼ 2) The balangay boat ☼

Another pre-colonial Filipino element I included in the book was a balangay, an ancient Filipino boat that’s recently come back into the public consciousness, with ancient boats being excavated and working replicas made. A quote from this article in STARweek, from one of the people who worked to rebuild the balangay, really resonated with me:

“It is very sad because we are a maritime people. We should be gifted and natural in the waters but colonialization robbed us of that consciousness. I am doing this to help rekindle that spirit”

The world of my new fantasy novel in progress is inspired by pre-colonial Filipino culture, as well as the medieval Swedish rule of Finland. Its sequel is additionally inspired by the later Russian control of Finland. Finnish history is a major inspiration for both novels, even though they’re not historical fantasy.

Lord of the Rings was the first fantasy novel I read, way back at the age of 13. I read the Silmarillion shortly after that, and fell deeply in love with the world, the mythology, and the language. I didn’t intentionally set out to model TTB and Sequel after Tolkien’s work. I mean, they aren’t epic fantasy novels, and Tolkien’s specific flavour of worldbuilding has been done over and over ad nauseam.

However, there are five subtle ways that Tolkien’s influence has made its way into my work that I can’t deny.

(NB: Spoilers ahead for some of Tolkien’s work – proceed with caution!)

Since 2008, I’ve taken myself on three DIY writing retreats. I’m sharing the things I’ve learned about DIY writing retreats, and what I’d do differently next time. Or, will there be a next time?

You can read a detailed breakdown of each retreat at my blog, but here's the TL;DR:

Writing retreat #1: 2008, the small boutique hotel in an urban neighbourhood

Score: 5/10 Pro: Being able to walk to get coffee in an interesting neighbourhood was good for a brain break. Cons: Thanks to making absolutely no plans, I spun my wheels for most of the weekend instead of working. Additionally, choosing a boutique hotel with virtually no amenities meant that I was on my own for many things – no room service or in-room coffee, for example. If I had been in a writing phase, having to leave the hotel for these things wouldn’t have been ideal.

Writing retreat #2: 2018, the Airbnb farmhouse in the country(ish)

Score: 8/10 Pro: A quieter space with food and caffeine readily available helped me to focus and work. Cons: Good ol’ Sammy No-Plan strikes again - I didn't know exactly what I wanted to focus on. Also, the physical isolation felt a bit depressing at times. I was able to drive into town and go to a coffeeshop to write for a while, but I found myself actually missing the more “peopley” hotel environment now and then.

Writing retreat #3: 2023, the hotel in the suburbs

Score: 5/10 Pros: She made a writing plan! Amazing! Additionally, the room was clean and comfortable, and big enough that I didn’t feel as boxed in as I did in 2008. Having room service and in-room coffee plus easy access to a grocery store helped a lot too. Cons: LOUD HOCKEY TOURNAMENT PEOPLE. This would have been a 9/10 weekend if not for the hockey people.

___⁠

If you could thank non-humans in your book's Acknowledgements page, what would you include?⁠ ⁠ For my fantasy novel in progress:⁠ ᕯ The "askhistorians" subreddit⁠ ᕯ Wiktionary⁠ ᕯ nordicnames.de⁠ ᕯ Inkarnate's map creator⁠ ᕯ Genesis albums Foxtrot & The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway⁠

My book wouldn’t be what it is without them! ___⁠

⋇ IN PRAISE OF OLDER PROTAGONISTS ⋇⁠ ⁠ What are your favourite books with "older" protagonists?⁠ ⁠ I haven't been in my early twenties for a long time. I find it more natural to explore the ways "older" people grow, fuck up, discover themselves.⁠

I know mid-twenties is still young, but I'm thinking here of all the books written with 19-year-old protagonists saving the world. Those books are fine, but sometimes I worry that there is less room for protagonists with back pain, you know? I do read and enjoy books with early-/mid-twenties protagonists. But honestly, to think that there's no space for your world to be rocked once you hit 30 is laughable. ⁠ ⁠ I’m 43. I do NOT have my shit together. I probably never will have my shit together, because I am a living human person always experiencing new things. The last eight or so years have seen the most change of my entire life. The difference is that it's internal, more personal. I may not impulsively cut my own hair anymore or post 2am self-portraits online with a "THIS IS MY ART, DEAL WITH IT" energy anymore, but the desires at the heart of those things are still churning in me. I'm always going to be a little messy. I'm just messy with more life experience.⁠ ⁠ Also, from a storytelling standpoint I just think it's cool to have an older protagonist go on a quest. We know what we like. We often have less energy. We often have more responsibilities. We often face harsher societal expectations. These are ALL things that can add the most delicious tension and perspective to a story. ⁠ ⁠ In one of my favourite books, Fool's Errand by Robin Hobb, 35-year-old Fitz reluctantly leaves his safe and comfortable life to go on a quest for the first time since he was 20. Does he complete his quest capably and maturely? The fuck he does! And to me that's more interesting. He fights against his life experience, the lies he's told himself for 15 years, and he changes.⁠ ⁠ From the opening scene of the book: "I no longer had the excuse of callow youth, and I could not yet claim the eccentricities of age." ⁠ ___⁠

"The Lucid Fever Dream" chapter is what I call one of my favourite The Quiet is Loud chapters. Despite it being a very tumultuous night in Freya's life, it was so much fun to let loose with fantastical imagery and Filipino mythology/folklore characters (my dude nuno sa punso says hey later on in this chapter).

It was one of the chapters that flowed out of me quite freely, seemingly without me having to do much. Was I dreaming when I wrote it? Was I awake? Somewhere in between? Who can say? ___

The Quiet is Loud came out on May 4, 2021, and to celebrate, I had my favourite Filipino breakfast: longsilog. It's the novel’s main character Freya's favourite too, and I wrote it into the novel twice. I consider longsilog the meal mascot of The Quiet is Loud. Something about the combination of longanisa sausage, garlic fried rice, and a fried egg seems lucky now - especially when you add a dish of tomatoes in vinegar to go with it. Perfect. 👌🏼⁠⁠ ⁠⁠ If you're unfamiliar with Filipino breakfasts, they're called "silog," which is a portmanteau of sinangag (garlic fried rice) and itlog (egg). The meat you add to it forms the beginning of the dish's name. My favourite is longanisa - longsilog. I also like tocino, a sweet cured pork, in tocilog.⁠⁠ ⁠⁠ Including Filipino food in TQIL was so much fun, and it makes me so happy that readers got hungry while reading!⁠⁠

My fantasy novel in progress takes place in a mixed Filipino-Finnish culture where none of its very opposite features are unusual. Ube grows as easily as rye, for example. It's not lost on me that this could not have been plausible outside of speculative literature. Writing The Quiet is Loud gave me a hard look at the ways I have tried to force myself to fit in. I had to learn to extract myself from that expectation without judgement, which was NOT easy. I'm still not great at it. But it helped me notice how good it feels to embrace that ambiguity. After all, I do it happily in other areas of my life. I write and read what I like and don't think about the genre. I support people who feel outside the margins and find their own definitions. When I cook I get excited about flavour combinations that seem weird on paper. Yet, somehow, extending this feeling of acceptance to myself is taking the longest time. To have literally invented a weird homeland for myself in my WIP feels incredible. So I'll keep trying to honour my mixed-up-ness and suspend my own GD disbelief about myself. 

I’m going to take my lifelong mixed-up racial identity feeling of never neatly fitting in anywhere and turn it into some sort of creative superpower. I’m excited.

When Freya Tanangco was ten, she dreamed of her mother’s death days before it happened. Freya’s life since has been spent in hiding: from the troubled literary legacy created by her author father, and from the scrutiny of a society that is hostile to vekers—people who, like her, have enhanced mental abilities.⁠⁠ ⁠⁠ When her prophetic dreams take a dangerous turn, Freya finds herself increasingly forced to sacrifice her own anonymity—and the fragile safety that comes with it—in order to protect those around her.⁠⁠ ⁠⁠ The Quiet is Loud also features:⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠ ✧ Filipino and Norse mythology⁠⁠⁠ ✧ Themes of Filipino and mixed-race identity⁠⁠⁠ ✧ People with enhanced mental abilities including prophetic dreams, hyper-empathy, and catatonia inducement⁠⁠⁠ ✧ Tarot card symbolism ✧ People finding joy and trust in a society that fears and hates their existence⁠⁠⁠ ✧ Lucid dreaming, memory, and other facets of the mind⁠⁠⁠ ✧ Omens, signs, and superstitions⁠⁠⁠ ✧ Unexpected friendships and alliances⁠⁠⁠ ✧ Multiple Canadian settings 🇨🇦⁠⁠⁠ ✧ Lovingly- and hungrily-written descriptions of Filipino dishes like longsilog and pancit palabok 🇵🇭⁠⁠⁠

Sign of a Russian novel: You need to brace your foot against the wall while holding it.⁠

A couple of my recent days were spent doing not much more than reading. Thanks to an injury, I couldn't use my phone, couldn't use my laptop. The only thing that didn't hurt was holding a well-worn library paperback, its pages drifting lightly as I turned over in bed or shifted on the couch to get the best light.⁠

I was in a fog of another world, disconnected from everything else and most people. How easily I can slip away.⁠