Hi! I’m Finley Fenn, and I’m a Canadian writer of steamy, angsty fantasy romance books. My current obsession is orcs, and my ongoing Orc Sworn series is now up to eight books, with an ninth book on the way in early 2024!
While writing has been a lifelong passion for me, Orc Sworn has been a true highlight of my writing life. The community of readers that’s grown around these books has been incredible, and I’ve met so many generous, brilliant, and inspiring new friends. If you haven’t joined already, I’d love to see you at my Finley Fenn Readers’ Den Facebook group, on my private Discord server, or on Patreon.
For a bit more about me — I’m very happily married to my own “Canadian orc” (complete with grumping and epic hair, hehe), and when I’m not writing, I’m usually reading, listening to music, hanging out with my awesome readers online, or spending time with my family and doggo. I am also ADDICTED to art, and spend wayyy too much time drooling over delicious artwork online, and trying to decide what art to commission next! For my current collection of awesome orc commissions and fanart, see here.
Thanks so much for reading my books, and for your support! Hugs!
PRAISE FOR FINLEY AND ORC SWORN
- “I love this series. It’s filthy and scratches the fantasy itch admirably well.” —Author Ruby Dixon
- “It takes a huge amount of imagination to envision a setting utterly different from our own, and a huge amount of talent to convey this world in detail after detail. Finley Fenn has both in spades.” —Author E.J. Frost
- “Finley Fenn reinvented orcs and did them the justice they deserve. Period.” —Author V.C. Lancaster
- “A great series that has so much to offer … I am always pulled right back into this fascinating world so effortlessly.” —Beckie Bookworm
- “Each read has been filled with such well-rounded characters, each one complex in their own way, with enticing and thoughtful storylines.” —SBee Reviews
- “All her books are sexy, romantic, angsty, and captivating.” —Romantically Inclined Reviews
- “Finley Fenn has a special connection to my inner soul … the Queen of Angst.” —Niki Reads
Q&A WITH FINLEY
These are all questions I’ve been asked at some time or another, some as part of Romantically Inclined Reviews’ fabulous article here. If you have more questions, I’d love to hear them! Just fire me a note at info@finleyfenn.com.
ORC SWORN
For a complete FAQ about my Orc Sworn series, see here!
ON WRITING
What’s the best part of writing?
For me, it’s always that massively satisfying moment when everything coalesces into an epic conclusion, even if you didn’t quite see it coming that way. I spend disgusting amounts of time fretting and obsessing over my plots and character motivations, and even when I think I’ve got it all figured out, sometimes I’m still surprised at how it all fits together in the end!
I have also been so honoured by the extremely supportive friends, readers, and fellow authors I’ve discovered through all this. Their generosity and encouragement has been truly awe-inspiring.
What’s the worst part of writing?
Oh my god, the time. I’m not a fast writer by any stretch, and it’s so hard to juggle the time investment with everything else in life. Writing is such a mental health factor for me, though, so I really do try to make it a priority.
Also, editing really sucks. Especially the wild swings of “Oh wow, this is pretty good” all the way to “I hate EVERYTHING and EVERYONE in this book”, ha.
What authors have inspired you?
I know her books haven’t always aged well, but (those issues aside) I’m an absolute stan for Georgette Heyer, who I consider the reigning queen of romance. She’s hilarious and heartfelt, with very real characters and wonderfully clever prose. I also adore L.M. Montgomery, whose truly delightful book The Blue Castle was a massive inspiration to me.
I’ve also always had a deep-seated love of poetry — especially by John Donne, Gerard Manley Hopkins, and Keats. The Eve of St. Agnes is one of my favourite works of all time.
For more contemporary authors, I’ve loved everything KJ Charles has ever published (including her fabulous blog!), and I’m a huge fan of the totally fabulous Eris Adderly. I’ve also had so much fun digging into books by my fellow fantasy romance authors like Ruby Dixon, Kathryn Moon, and Tiffany Roberts (to name just a few!).
Finally, I also read a LOT of fanfiction… Manacled (Harry Potter/Dramione) remains one of my favourite reads of all time. I love how fanfiction’s less strict structures allow for so much cleverness and creativity.
What’s your writing process like?
So I’m mostly what’s called a “pantser”, which is writer-speak for “writing by the seat of your pants” (or “discovery writing”), as opposed to plotting out your entire story in advance. I do have a general idea of key points, scenes, etc. (especially when it comes to the sexy stuff!), but I personally enjoy writing a LOT more when the characters are in charge of the story, and I don’t always know what’s going to happen next. I find my writing flows better this way, and it allows for a lot of fun, unexpected moments when your characters surprise you!
That said, I’ve found that this actually requires a crap ton of extra work. Including:
- a lot of up-front character planning — I spend gobs of time writing through histories, past scenes, strengths/weaknesses, etc. before I even start writing.
- needing to track your plot points carefully — I keep a constantly updated list of “open/closed brackets” as I write (see: Brandon Sanderson’s excellent podcast), and for me this list is massive (like hundreds of bullet points, broken out by subplot).
- TONS of editing after the fact, because your stubborn characters will usually spend the entire book trying to drive the plot off the rails (or over into the sexy weeds, hehe). When I’m editing, I usually break the entire book out into a gigantic spreadsheet (the “Story Grid” is really helpful for this), and then work through it chapter by chapter to make sure that all the plots and subplots are moving at a good clip, there are no laggy parts or unresolved plot points, etc. I feel very strongly that pantsers need to be religious about this!
I also spend a lot of time doing overall developmental editing as well — making sure everything flows well and is consistent, that my main emotional/turning points are hitting strongly enough, that I have enough context/foreshadowing. Then I’ll go through again, cutting back fluff, and incorporating feedback from my lovely alpha/beta readers.
Once I’m happy with a book’s overall structure, I’ll then go through and tighten up more, chart out the timeline, check details like names/directions, review each character’s speech for grammatical/dialectal consistency… and THEN I get into line editing, and copy editing, and repeated-phrase-hunting, and then I run it all through at least two different proofreading programs, and read it several more times (in different fonts/formats!).
By the time I’m done, I’ll have gone through the entire book maybe 15 or 20 times… and yes, I will hate the entire world (AND the book)… until I start the next one. 🙂
Why do you sometimes use modern-feeling language in your books?
This is definitely something I have thought about a LOT, and while I’m open to argument, this is where I am currently.
Obviously, in a fantasy world/book, the English the book is written in is NOT presumed to be the actual language being spoken, right? As readers, we assume that the English that’s used is some kind of approximation or translation of the original world’s language (in the case of my Orc Sworn books, my English is a translation of their “common-tongue”). So then the question becomes — do you use a historical-feeling translation to better suit the mood of the book, or do you translate in a more modern-adjacent way, which gives you MANY more options for conveying unique character accents and dialects, overall expressiveness, and reader relatability?
So right now, with my Orc Sworn books, I try to straddle this a bit — I try to avoid anything that feels TOO modern-sounding, and I love giving my characters distinct accents and ways of speaking (many of them more “historical”-feeling than others). BUT I am definitely not writing in 19th-century English (or whatever) either, and I’m not actually trying to, if that makes sense!
You don’t use commas [or other punctuation, etc] properly!
This is also one I hear quite a bit, believe it or not! So yes, I AM very familiar with English grammar rules… but one of the things I love most about English is its flexibility as a language, and its ability to accommodate a variety of voices and preferences. And my preference on the comma “rules” around subordinate clauses/conjunctions is… they suck. And that using commas to represent pauses in speech (rather than in only the “right” places) is a totally legitimate way of writing in English, and has been for hundreds of years. So, yeah, I am not here for the comma “rules” (and many other rules too)… but if you are, I appreciate your patience with my books! 😁
THE MAGES
Will you be writing more books in your Mages series?
I’m always excited when readers mention they’ve enjoyed my Mages books! These were the first books I tried publishing, after spending my 20s writing 10+ other novels that shall never see the light of day, haha. I still have such a soft spot for them, though I realize they may be a bit intense for some folks! (I really wrote them for myself at the time, so honestly did not think about this!)
In terms of future Mages books, I hate to say, but the series is on a bit of a hiatus at the moment. They didn’t get many readers when I first put them out, so I switched gears toward orcs (which I obviously also adore!). However, I would still love to finish the series someday — I have thoroughly planned out books about Runar/Thora and Ilsa/Johan, all of which had MUCH delicious potential! So, maybe someday? And readers’ kind feedback definitely helps! 🥰
How do I download The Mage’s Groom?
If you missed the link in your email signup confirmation (or if you didn’t get the email at all, yikes), you can also access it here. Please note you’ll need to enter your email address again, but you won’t be signed up twice!
And if you EVER don’t receive a response from me (on any inquiry or email signup) please do let me know. I try to respond to every single email I get, so if I haven’t gotten back to you, something is definitely up!