There are creators, like my guest today, debut author Ryan Van Loan (@RyanVanLoan), whose fresh insight and earnest goodwill go beyond what’s on the page or in the work and build you into a fan.

These are the conversations I (@JoshMonkwords) strive to have, and consistently manage to find (which I hope comes out in our chats – check the archive).

Ryan Van Loan’s debut novel, The Sin in the Steel, was released on July 21st of this year. It buckles the swashes and takes us on a journey of magic, manipulation, mayhem, and monsters across a fantastical sea as a young, violently scrappy investigator gets to the bottom of a mercantile mystery alongside her stalwart solider compatriot.

It goes deeper than all that, though – the sort of thing that gets glossed over in a lot of books gets confronted head-on in Sin. The trauma and presence of violence even past its end is a major factor that the heroes Buc and Eld face, and despite how prevalent conflict is in his novel, we don’t revel in it. The story also revels in found family and the growth of love over time you can feel for those with whom you walk the path of your life.

There’s another unavoidable reality we cover a lot in our chat, and that’s timing. Both of publication as well as of career. Ryan’s no stranger to writing, but it was only after a long string of attempts that publishing caught up with him. And to release your debut novel in 2020 is no joke, forcing a change in mindset and a radical shift in how you approach reaching an audience without any previous cache.