Mike Shackle’s What Evil Lurks is the first entry of the fantasy horror serial “The Witchfinder Chronicles” and is set during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. Lord Jon Willem Legray, Witchfinder General under the Queen, is a veteran of decades of monster slaying throughout 16^th century England.  

The story immediately throws the reader into the filthy, stinking streets of London as Legray is assigned to kill whatever is responsible behind citizens disappearing throughout the neighborhood. What starts as a simple contract killing quickly descends into a nightmarish hellscape of violence and terror. Armed with a divine sword and an iron will, Legray discovers he might just be scratching the surface of the true horrors to come.

This forty-page short story is immersive and atmospheric, and a ton of fun. Fans of Andrzej Sapkowski's “The Witcher” or Richard Swan’s “Empire of the Wolf” will enjoy it immensely.

I spoke with the author to discuss how this series came to fruition.

Q&A

What inspired you to take an episodic approach to Legray's story?

I was asked to write a short story for an anthology some friends were producing. While I thought about what to write, I knew I wanted something that was completely self-contained and yet felt like an event in a much bigger world. I grew up reading Robert E. Howard’s short stories about Conan and Solomon Kane and love that pulpy sword and sorcery style, so it also made sense to pay homage to those as well.

I really loved writing about Jon Willem Legray, our hero, and knew straight away that I wanted to go on more adventures with him.

Unfortunately, I ended up withdrawing the story from the anthology for various reasons, but I still wanted people to read about Legray. So, I had the idea to publish the first story on my website and have a new episode appear every month. Each story will be self-contained but will also build to tell a much bigger tale over the course of a year.

Once Season 1 is complete, I’m hoping to print a limited-edition hardback collecting them all but I’m not going to publish the stories anywhere else.

Also, on a creative level, writing a book takes a very long time, so this gives me a wonderful opportunity to have fun while I work on my new big epic fantasy series.

What influenced your decision to set the story in London during the reign of Elizabeth I?

Because of the constraints of a short story format, I needed a world that didn’t need much actual world-building on my part. People needed to be able to ‘get it quickly’ so there was more room for me to play with the fantastical elements while telling the story.

I’ve always loved the Elizabethan era ever since I studied it at school so many years ago, so it made sense to set the story there. The first episode is set just before England and Spain officially declare war so there’s lots of added drama to layer over the top of Legray’s adventures as things progress.

I’m also trying to use monsters that already exist in British mythology, again as a short cut in the world building process but also because I love learning about this stuff. Who doesn’t want to read about a Red Cap attack or a night visit from The Black Shuck?

Tell us about your writing process – how does it compare to writing The Last War?

My writing process is pure chaos if I’m honest. It often involves writing a lot and scrapping it all and starting again. And each book feels so much harder to write than the one before — probably because I get more ambitious with each one. The challenge with the short story format and it being episodic is to come up with something fun that can be told in ten thousand words and have people want to read the next episode as well.

Around many short stories do you have in mind to tell Legray’s full story?

Keeping the whole TV feel, I think the first season will have twelve episodes. The collected ‘box set’ of season one would then be around one hundred and twenty thousand words, a good length for a book.

And, depending on how people react to it, there’s plenty of potential for more seasons.

Are there any writers or particular works that have inspired you to go down this path?

Apart from Robert E. Howard, I was inspired by my good friend Sebastien De Castell, author of the Greatcoats series and the Malevolent Seven. He’s been writing short stories about the Greatcoats for ages now and publishing them on his website. I really enjoy them and there’s something that’s very refreshing about reading a fun tale in half an hour when most fantasy books take weeks to get through.

What do you do when you’re not writing?

I have two children who take up a huge amount of my time in the best possible way, I swim most days for an hour, I read as much as I can, and I love drawing. I’ve been teaching myself how to go digital in my art and loving the process. I’m creating all the covers for The Witchfinder Chronicles myself as well, so this project is really going to be me 100% (apart from help from my copyeditor and proof reader, the wonderful Julian Barr.)

Are there any recent books or other media that you'd like to recommend?

I’m really enjoying The Silverblood Promise by James Logan at the moment. Peter V. Brett’s new series is brilliant (the latest is The Hidden Queen). TV-wise, I’m very late in getting hooked on The Expanse and I adored Shogun. I haven’t seen many movies recently but the recent French films about the Three Musketeers are incredible.

WHAT EVIL LURKS, the first tale in The Witchfinder Chronicles, will be available on mikeshackle.co.uk on August 1^st with a new episode appearing on the first of every month from there on.