There are a lot of concepts being tackled in this story, from religion to memory to forgiveness to regret. What inspired “Ninnagan Says Remember”? What was the initial kernel of the story and what did you focus on while writing it?

A couple of winters ago, trudging up an icy hill, I realized I could revisit elements I loved from one of my first trunked novels. I could come at it fresh and make the fundamentals into short stories. That meant I could junk all the characters, setting, and plot—and still feel like the years I spent writing it were good for something beyond skill growth. (As my wife would tell you, or anyone who’s seen the piles of scrap wood in my workshop, I’m a salvager at heart.) I’d written and rewritten those first chapters once upon a time, so this story felt like putting on an old coat from storage, even though I was largely discovering the characters, setting, and plot from scratch.

While this is a fantasy world, the religion that the Fivefold Church demonstrates feels very real and historical. Did you base this on any actual religions? Was there any specific research involved in crafting this story?

The Fivefold Church is its own animal—it’s not a fictional version of real institutions. That said, its doctrines, practices, and values owe a lot to the Mormon history I grew up with. I’m especially grateful for the scholarship on two very different websites (Tokens and Signs and Keepapitchinin), which gave me some important perspective on primary sources a couple of years before I started writing the Churchlands stories.

I enjoyed the growing relationship between Liste and Carmora, one where the two parties involved eventually realize they need each other more than they might like. What drew you to these characters?

Carmora came first. I’d been reading The Shadow of the Torturer, Sometime Lofty Towers, and No Country for Old Men, which all have things to say about masculinity and irrevocable consequences. I wanted to build a character who could support a series, and a disillusioned tax/tithing collector at his breaking point felt perfect. I wanted to see what he latched onto instead of the usual kinds of escape. I don’t know that I’d recommend his solutions!

Liste started as a foil—she had her own dubious survival strategies and kind of grudging compassion just like him, but also a level of self-determination that he would have found unthinkable. She grew past the foil’s role pretty quickly when I realized how oddly light-hearted she could be about survival in the nooks and crannies of a massive theocracy. I’ve often felt she could’ve been the protagonist, and someday she’ll probably headline stories of her own.

What’s next for you? Do you have any upcoming projects we can look forward to?

“Ninnagan Says Remember” was the very first Churchlands story to find a home. The Churchlands are adjacent to another of my longstanding settings, the Five Deserts, and that’s not a good time for either one of them. As a result, I’ve done around fifteen Churchlands/Five Deserts stories with more to come.

Recent or upcoming instalments include “White in the Eye” (New Edge Sword & Sorcery), “At Third Hand Lodge” (BFS Horizons), “Here-and-Now-and-Then” and “The Good Life and the Gaze of Staivash”(both at Beneath Ceaseless Skies), and of course “Crickets in Lost Light” (Lightspeed). My recurring characters tend to take turns as each other’s opposition or instigation, so you’ll see plenty of Liste and Carmora here and there.