Declan Finn is a veteran author having written over 40 books with one of his most popular series being his St. Tommy N.Y.P.D. series and he recently teamed up with Blaine Pardoe to write the tenth book in his Land & Sea series, On Tiber’s Edge.
He spoke with Fandom Pulse about On Tiber’s Edge, the current state of storytelling, how his faith influences his writing, and what some of his recommendations to read are.
Fandom Pulse (FP): You’ve got a new novel out, Land & Sea: On Tiber’s Edge, can you tell us about it?
Declan Finn: Land & Sea is Blaine Lee Pardoe’s military science fiction epic about battling aliens who have hidden in Earth’s oceans, building up forces in order to eradicate humanity. On Tiber’s Edge focuses on the Catholic Church calling for a crusade against the aliens, and how this crusade specifically manifests within Chicago. When the city is all but abandoned by the military, a Catholic priest, an unemployed spy, and a Colonel have to pull together an army of God, from scratch, before the aliens rise up out of the water and destroy the city and everyone in it.
FP: The book is the tenth book in Blaine Pardoe’s Land & Sea series; does one need to read the other nine books or can you jump right into this one?
Declan: No. You can jump straight into On Tiber’s Edge. But the overall series is brilliant, and I recommend it. On Tiber’s Edge only has a few spoilers for the first trilogy. Anyone can read this, and jump straight into the rest of the series.
FP: What was your biggest inspiration for the book?
Declan: This book was defined by my limitations. In the Venn diagram of cities by the water versus cities that Blaine didn’t already have plans for, we ended up on Chicago. The needs of the story drove the rest. I’m a historian, so I drew on a lot of miscellaneous knowledge to throw at the problem--from unique weapons to logistics issues, and I built from there. The priest was modeled on a seminarian student I knew in my philosophy classes back in college (a Marine who was becoming a monk). The spy might have some slight echoes of Burn Notice. And my Pope is inspired by John Paul II in the 1980s.
FP: What was your favorite scene to write?
Declan: My favorite scene involved my priest holding a discussion about aliens and how, yes, the Catholic church has had the discussion on aliens in one form or another since Thomas Aquinas. It was pretty funny.
FP: What was the biggest challenge you faced when writing the book?
Declan: Writing proper military tactics in the main battle.
While I have written military science fiction before, I use cheats; usually, I make my own little Special Forces group utilizing asymmetrical warfare, so I could throw out the usual military handbook. In this case, I was building a proper military engagement.
Since I’m a historian, we’re lucky I didn’t end up making it a scene out of a Richard Sharpe novel, utilizing Napoleonic warfare.
Funny enough, I’m told much of what I built from scratch is just another version of tactics and strategies that already exist. So I put in a lot of effort reinventing the wheel with a slightly different twist.
FP: How did this opportunity to write in Pardoe’s Land & Sea series come about?
Declan: I was chosen because I could give a good showing of the Catholic Church. Blaine had read some of my Saint Tommy NYPD series, an urban fantasy series that was “wonder worker policeman versus demons.” He thought it came off as The Dresden Files meets The Exorcist. From there, Blaine picked my brain for some dogma and some prayers that he needed in the Land & Sea books (somewhere around books 7 and 8). Since he mentioned the Pope’s Crusade in one book, he decided I could execute it well.
FP: What kind of collaboration did you have with Pardoe? Were you given free reign? Did he set up any kind of guardrails to ensure the lore stays intact?
Declan: I was mostly given free reign. I needed to hand in an outline for what I had in mind for his approval, and we hammered out some additional details. But after he offered me the book, I had read his series, taking copious notes. All he needed was to give me the right prompts, and we were off to the races.
FP: Do you plan to continue working in the Land & Sea series?
Declan: I’m already working on the next books.
FP: Your books often feature strong Catholic themes and moral dilemmas. How does your faith influence your storytelling, and what challenges have you faced in weaving these themes into genre fiction?
