Today I welcome to the blog, author I.L. Cruz, for an interview about her upcoming book, The Mage’s Path. I interviewed her on this latest book in the Enchanted Isles series.

Q01 What has been your favourite part of writing/creating this book?

This is the last book in my Enchanted Path series, so my favorite part was being able to tie up all the sub-plots that have been floating throughout the four books.

I’ve been with these characters for over a decade! It’s nice to see where they ended up and finishing secondary and tertiary characters’ stories just as much as the main characters.

Q02 Was there a moment when you didn’t think this book would get completed?

Everyday! I rarely start a story knowing how it’ll end, and my longest bout of writer’s block with this book was figuring that out.

Part of it was just not knowing how to make it all come to an end and the other part was subconsciously not being ready to end it.

Also, I think writers of series, in particular, worry that the book their currently writing won’t stack up to the last one.

Q03 How long did it take you to write The Mage’s Path?

That’s a tough question. When I started the series, I made an effort to write the entire thing, even without knowing how the series would end.

I wrote part one of A Mage’s Path years ago, but I didn’t get back to and concentrate on this project until the start the beginning of this year. So, short answer—almost ten years.

Q04 What inspired this series?

I read to my daughter a lot when she was a baby, and it was mostly fairy tales and nursery rhymes. But I was not thrilled by the conclusions of the stories. It was also about the time fairy tale retellings were becoming very popular.

I wanted to see more stories where the female character could go on an adventure without a man. And with all the fairy tales out there, I wondered why no one wanted to write about nursery rhymes.

Some of them have fun backstories. All of that rattled around in my brain until I started writing a story.

Q05 How much planning did you need to do for your book?

I needed a lot more planning than I usually do for this book because I had to bring together all the threads from previous books.

Normally, I do minimal planning apart from knowing what I want the next chapter to include. My first drafts are usually very loose, to allow for twists.

I tend to start a book with a problem that needs addressing—probably a holdover from writing term papers—and then I spend the rest of the book trying to answer the question.

In another duology, I’m working on the problem, or the question was, “Who would choose to live next to a cemetery?” and then I worked on an answer.

Q06 Who is your favourite character in this book and why?

It sounds cliché, but I love my main character. Inez Garza, the MC, is capable and rarely holds back when she thinks someone should be put in their place.

She’s the antithesis of all the martyr characters I read to my daughter in fairy tales.

My best description is, she’s not good (in the traditional sense), but she does good because she believes in what’s right.

Q07 Is this the last book in the series, or are more books or spin-offs planned?

I’ve probably mentioned it way too many times in this interview, but it’s the last!

That said, when I finished this book, a spin-off did come to me in the form of a question, “What if someone makes a promise in your name and you have no choice but to sacrifice the hopes you had for your own life?”

It’s intriguing enough that I wrote the idea down, but I’m looking forward to new projects.

Q08 If you could transport into your book’s world, what would you visit first and who would you want to meet?

I would make a beeline to Froth for an amazing milkshake and their “milk toast” because I learn about places through food.

And since it’s one of those places that everyone eventually ends up in, I would have running conversations with everyone! Special shout-out to Rowley because who wouldn’t want to meet a talking dog!

Q09 What has been the hardest part of writing this series?

Starting over. When I first conceived this series, it was a completely different story. It was lighter and relied more heavily on the nursery rhyme source material. It even had a different name—Rhymes and Misdemeanors.

After writing, admittedly, a very short book, I realized I couldn’t sustain the story with what I had imagined. It was really disheartening.

Then I was watching Star Trek: Deep Space Nine of all things and it was one of those episodes where Quark (the shady bartender) was brokering yet another shady deal. And for some reason, it clicked for me.

My main character wasn’t an amateur detective, she was a smuggler. The realization was terrifying because it meant I had to start all over again. This was after sitting with it, as is, for at least a year!

But it was also liberating because I knew my characters already and the plot. I just had to come at it from a completely different angle.

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About I. L. Cruz

I.L. Cruz decided to make writing her full-time career during the economic downturn in 2008.

Since then, she’s used her BA in International Relations to sow political intrigue in her fantasy worlds and her MA in history to strive for the perfect prologue.

When she’s not engaged in this mad profession, she indulges her wanderlust as often as possible, watches too much sci-fi and reads until her eyes cross.

She lives in Maryland with her husband, daughter and a sun-seeking supermutt named Dipper.

Website | Blog | Instagram | X (twitter)

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The Mage’s Path

Book 4 of the Enchanted Isles Series

Noble by birth. Smuggler by trade. Mage by destiny.

Inez Garza is far from home with growing magic and no one to trust—including herself…

After breaking ties with all she’s known, Inez crosses the border between Canto, her beloved home, and the wider world of the Enchanted Isles to better understand her magic.

Armed only with the knowledge that she is the Ternion—a being endowed with Powers Abstract, Custodial and Martial meant to return magic to all in the Isles—she must seek answers from new friends, shadowy foes and even old rivals.

But what if Mythos is right and not everyone should have magic?

Inez encounters Islanders in hidden settlements, penal colonies, mysterious Faery and even distant Mythos and learns she isn’t the only one who wonders if her destiny is a potential disaster.

The only way for Inez to truly understand what she’s meant to do is embrace walking…a mage’s path.

Release Date: 30th November – Buy The Book

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Big thank you to I.L. Cruz, for joining me today on the blog.  Wish her all the best with her new release and please take the time to check out her links above.

Happy reading