Author Interview with Cathryn deVries (Son of Osivirius)

Fellow Christian author Cathryn deVries joined me to discuss her debut novella Son of Osivirius (reviewed in episode 18), how faith plays a role in her writing, and the differences between romantic fantasy, fantasy romance, and romantasy. 

Son of Osivirius comes out of Kindle Unlimited on May 17th.

Connect with Cathryn:

• https://eclectaperennial.com/ 
• https://www.instagram.com/_eclecta_perennial/ 

What to do next:

• Read The Chronicles of Talahm starting with Book 1: Mark of Stars

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to the Christian Readers Podcast, where you can escape into fiction without sacrificing your values. I'm your host, Colin Mitchell, author of The Chronicles of Talam. Today I'm talking with Catherine DeVries, author of Son of Ossiverius, a science fantasy novella. Catherine and her daughter Emmeline are an award-winning writing team based in Australia who write No Spice, Romantic Fantasy, and Sci-Fi. Their fantasy stories meet readers in our messy realities and give us all the feels without the spice. Son of Osiverius is Catherine's debut, released in February of 2026. So, Catherine, welcome to the podcast. Thank you for having me. So great to be here. I'm excited to dive in. Let's just start with the question that all introverts dread, because I think most writers are introverts. But tell us about yourself and how you got into writing.

SPEAKER_00 0:43

Well, obviously, I'm Australian. I've always loved reading and writing. So of course it made perfect sense that I went into engineering as a career. Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_01 0:53

I have to stop you right there because I also have an engineering degree and yet I don't use it. I do writing instead.

SPEAKER_00 1:00

Yes, yeah. I think it happens to a lot of us actually. It's it's there's something there, I think. So I was in the Air Force for um a few years as an engineer, but when I when I became a mum, I well I actually I knew from my third year at uni that engineering wasn't for me. That's unfortunately when I decided, yeah, this is not what I want to be doing. But anyway, so I I served out my time. And then um when I became a mum, I thought that's what I want to do. And uh so I ended up homeschooling our four kids. I still home homeschooling one of one of them, and one of them is in senior, so that's that's happening. But how I got into writing was sort of through it was almost through that homeschooling experience because um I was always encouraging my kids writing. I'd sort of given up writing for the most part at the end of high school, even though I loved it. But I I didn't see I guess I didn't I didn't see a future in it for myself, I guess. And then as adult life went on, I'd still loved reading, but I figured my own creativity had dried up. But I could but when my when I was teaching my kids how to write, I could see their creativity blossoming. And uh I really was encouraging that. So my daughters in my uh in particular both very excellent writers, and it was through teaching my eldest daughter to to write and and like reading a lot of uh she got she got it really into fantasy novels like me because I had a whole lot on my shelf obviously, and like you know, it just kind of as a natural progression. And she got into Dungeons and Dragons at about age 14 and wanted us to play a campaign as a family, and I said, Yeah, that sounds cool, let's do that. So we all made characters and things, and I started off as the DM with the starter set. We got into a few months' play, and she's like, I really want to write a campaign, and I'm and I'm like, Okay, great. Like, you know, I'm always yeah, just anything that would encourage her to to follow her passions was yeah, something I was gonna go for. So she did that. Um, and she was gonna be the the DM for that campaign, obviously. So that's Dungeon Master in case anyone is not familiar with the with the term. So they basically lead lead the game. So we all made characters, I made my character. Emilyn kept on asking me about my character's backstory because that was going to be important for things she was planning, and we started playing the game, and I've got a we've got a few months in and just having so much fun, and it was a this was a real bright spot in our in my life at that time because our family was going through some very hard times, very like very challenging emotional stuff going on, and this was like just a spot of joy in our week playing our playing this game together for a few hours. And I didn't want to lose that. I wanted to hold on to it, and I just spur the moment, what if I start chronicling our gameplay so that we can revisit it and laugh and remember this time, and we can tell our grandchildren about this time because it's it's you know, it's there in hard copy, we know we've got it, and it and it's a just a great family story. I'm very much interested in leaving a legacy. Um, that's always been something very much on my heart to leave a legacy for my children and grandchildren and whatever. So I did. I started I started writing, first of all, starting with my character's backstory, because that was important, and then just that just unlocked something in me, and like the words were just coming out so fast and easily. I don't think I had writers blocked the entire time I was doing that first draft because I always knew what I was gonna write, because we'd we'd already played it, so I was I was just chronicling what we had played, so I didn't have to come up with any ideas of what happened because I was just writing down what I already knew had happened, you know, thousands and thousands and thousands of words just started to come out, and I got I don't I think I got to somewhere around the 50 or 80,000 word mark and realized that this was becoming a novel. It wasn't just me chronicling the game anymore. I was actually doing things that you know I was reading in books, like there was there was character development happening, and I was processing a lot of the emotional stuff that was going through in real life, I was processing on the page and it was coming out through the characters interactions and you know, and it and I was challenged at that point of what is what is this going to be? Is it going to remain just a chronicle? Or is God calling me into a direction that I had given up on, um, hadn't even really realistically considered for so long. And so I wrestled with that idea for a long time because this story was very personal and it was I didn't want something so special and meaningful to me to be basically torn apart to shreds by reviewers because I like I know that happened, like in the back of my mind, that was always like you know, the critique of my work of something so personal, like that was gonna be an issue. So I really wrestled with God about that. And it's like I I don't know if I want to publish this, I don't know if I want to expose that of that those deep parts of myself to to the world. But so I had lots and lots of long prayer walks talking about this with God and like and trying to just trying to hand it over every time. It's like, okay, it's your story, ultimately, it's it's your story. This writing is yours. I will do with it what you want me to do with it, and then I would take it back. And then I know it's yours, it's yours. So this went on for this went on for a little while, but yeah, eventually I was like, okay, fine, you're right, the story is bigger than just our family. Other people like could, you know, this could touch other people's hearts, and ultimately, if if that's what you want to do, if if that's the contribution you want me to make to the world, like to as part of its healing process, then okay, I'll do it. And so then I really threw myself into actually learning how to write properly, revising, and turning it into something publishable. It's very, very, very different now from the initial first draft chronicle, which sounded exactly like a DD game, and now it doesn't. But yeah, that's basically how I got into writing.

SPEAKER_01 8:14

So that original DD book is now a trilogy, right? With yes, it's it's it's with a publisher. Is that right?

SPEAKER_00 8:20

Yes, that's right. It's gonna be um hopefully published next year. I've had a little bit of news, like there might be a delay in the timeline, but hopefully next year, yes.

SPEAKER_01 8:29

Which means that Son of Osaverius is technically not your first book, even though it's your first published.

SPEAKER_00 8:36

That's right. It's actually the fourth book I've written, but yes, first published.

SPEAKER_01 8:40

Is the DD book, is that considered science fantasy as well, or is it no?

SPEAKER_00 8:45

No, I wouldn't call it lit RPG anymore because all the all the markers that would make it lit RPG have been stripped out. It's very much a fantasy novel, it's a romantic fantasy novel, but the the romance isn't the emphasis, it's the fantasy that's the emphasis.

SPEAKER_01 9:04

So for for science fantasy, which Son of Osaverius is, yes, what is that as a genre for people who don't know? Because your book was the first time I'd ever heard of science fantasy. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 9:14

Well, it looks a lot like science fiction on the outside. It's um it's futuristic, there's technology usually involved, but the thing that makes it a bit different from pure science fiction is that there is a magical element to the world building. So something that that cannot be purely explained by science. So actually, even though it's not a genre that is spoken of a lot, it's a genre that people know because Star Wars is science fantasy. Like the force is essentially magic. And Dune is science fantasy. There's, you know, the the whole Benet Jesseret religion kind of thing is is a fantastical element. There's the the sandworms, they're they're kind of pretty fantastical, even though it's a creature that I guess you know could is just regarded as an alien. But anything where where it's anything where there's a sort of a magical element to the to the futuristic environment can be considered science fantasy rather than science fiction, although there's a lot of crossover and a lot of debate, and there'll be people who tell you, no, Star Wars is science fiction, it's not there's no fantasy in there. Yeah, but you know, whatever.

SPEAKER_01 10:35

But yes, this makes me think of with Star Wars in particular, it makes me think of I think it's episode one when Qui-Gon is talking about the Midi Clorins, I'm like, this is dumb. Just let the force be the force. Yes, stop trying to explain it.

SPEAKER_00 10:52

Yeah, I really, yeah, the the the original ones like they yeah, they kind of wrecked the original uh the the original world building um in that those that prequel series.

SPEAKER_01 11:04

To be fair, Star Wars retcons itself a lot.

SPEAKER_00 11:09

Yes, true. But anyway, yeah, so that's that's the that's what it is as genre. Like most people just there's not a shelf, there's not a separate shelf for it in the bookshop. Um it's shelved it's shelved with science fiction, but that's what it is.

SPEAKER_01 11:24

Okay. So earlier you mentioned that you had a lot of prayer walks with God wrestling over this idea of publishing the DD story. So now how does your faith how does your faith in God play a part in your writing with your current projects?

SPEAKER_00 11:37

So there's a lot of there's a lot of theology gets subtly woven in, to the world building itself in particular. That's that's one area that I really wanted to to bring God into, because in my world is sort of a parallel to this world, and the same kind of underlying principles of who God is and how God operates is woven into that world, but in a way that is uh more visible, I guess, than our world. So that is something that I think Christians will notice, but non-Christians can still like accept as fantasy world building. I guess it you know, I wanted it to be subtle because I one of the one of the things that one of the things I did wrestle with God about was am I writing for Christians, am I writing for a secular audience? And it was it was really more I felt called to write for a secular audience and just help move people one or two or steps closer towards faith. So the the actual how the world is set up, how God works in this world through uh like a a musical sort of magic is very much something that I worked together with God about. It sounds weird, but like okay, so I I talk to God about that. How do I do this? You know, how do I bring this, how do I bring this, how do I bring you into this world in a way that feels natural, but still is obviously you. And every like every time I had I came up with a roadblock or a problem, I s like I there would a solution would come, like until it did feel just very natural. I wasn't forcing anything into the pages, also just with uh the emotional journey, like of the characters and the insights. I I've I received uh so many insights over the years, and a lot of them make their way into the book as well, of just different ways of seeing things, different ways of seeing problems and people and circumstances that I had to grow through myself, and now my cat so and and my my characters going through it helped me go through it as well, so I could bring the lessons into my own life and put them in there in the characters' lives, and so hopefully people will get a little window into the love of God and into the mysteriousness of God and how things don't always work out like we think they should, but there's a bigger purpose behind everything. So yeah, basically that's everything gets everything that goes into my books gets filtered through through my my relationship with God. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:01

I really did like it's it's magic flying cats for people who haven't read the book blurb, but yeah, they're they're very they're very awesome. I've I finished the book earlier today, but I really did like how they're like the way that they worked that that magic aspect was just so different from things that I've read before. But then at the at the end, not to I'm not gonna spoil anything, but there was a choice presented, and it's similar to the choice that that people are presented when they they're looking into into faith and belief. And the fact that a character was presented with this choice and then chose something that maybe we didn't want that character to choose, it was really interesting to read it like that because I really saw how uh how how faith came through in that point. It's like, yes, you you are presented this offer and everybody has to make that choice. And it was presented in a way that didn't feel like religion, which I really liked, because it reaches, like you said, to the secular audience. Because we can like even as a secular, even a secular person can look at that and go, that that's interesting. And maybe that's the thing that gets them one step closer, like you said. But yeah, magic flying cats, you should totally read the book.

SPEAKER_00 16:12

Yes, do I these cats are awesome? I love them so much.

SPEAKER_01 16:17

So since I try not to spoil that that scene, do you have a favorite non-spoilery scene in the book?

SPEAKER_00 16:23

Yeah, though that scene that you're talking about is one of my favorites, that philosophical confrontation. That was very, very satisfying to write. It wasn't funnily enough, it wasn't in the even in the it was it it didn't make it into the book until one of the last drafts, actually. And like, you know, now I think how could it, how could it not ever have been in there at one stage? Because it it just fits. But yeah, that was very, very satisfying to write. I also really enjoyed Jaden's first Masu ride. That is definitely a favourite scene, and really visualizing how all that sort of happened and just the freedom and release in that chapter was such a shift for him. And yeah, I really enjoyed writing that one. And probably my third favourite scene is the one is the ending scene with Jaden and Nettle. It's not your typical romantic ending, and I think that's what I love about it so much. And yeah, bringing bringing everything around to that conclusion that that wasn't like where you know my main character Jaden, like he re he really had to confront his own selfishness in that final scene. And yeah, so I I really that that scene sort of means a lot to me as well. And then as I said, it's not your typical romantic ending, and I think people are gonna really enjoy it too. I've had I've had reviews like you know point to that scene as a favorite, so I I think it works.

SPEAKER_01 17:56

Part I think part of why it works is because readers are so uh used to the typical romance ending that not having that typical romance ending is like, oh, this is a breath of fresh air, I like it. So yeah, Jayden and Nettle are your main characters, Masu are the flying cats. Again, flying cats go by the book. So uh do you have a favorite character? Is it one of your main characters? Is it a side character?

SPEAKER_00 18:21

Yeah, it's interesting. In this book, it's probably the side characters that are my favorites. Like, I'd I'd probably have to say, like, Flint and who is Nettle's brother, and Shanna, the uh main Masu, are probably my favourite characters. Yeah, I I I enjoyed like I like the two main characters. I think they work as main characters, but yeah, as to who I want to be friends with, it's probably definitely Flint and and Shanna.

SPEAKER_01 18:51

I was gonna say that Shanna was my favorite character. I was like, oh, big cuddly Mama Masu.

SPEAKER_00 18:58

Yes, yes, yeah. She is she's such a she she's such a wonderful matriarch. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:05

Were there any scenes that you loved that you ended up having to cut? Because that has happened to me plenty of times as an author.

SPEAKER_00 19:11

Thankfully, no, in this one. This draft, it was all adding. Every every draft had things added to it and the the it would grow. I had scenes that I needed to completely reshape. And so, yes, I had words that needed to cut, but they were not words I was attached to because I could see that something wasn't working in the scene, but this but the the scene itself still made it through. So yeah, it in um so the my first my very first draft, Nettle's POV wasn't even in there at all. It was a single POV m story, and I think it was a um I had a critique partner read it, and the the biggest issue that he found was the um move like it moved too fast and the the romance moved too fast, which is not what I wanted. And so the solution that I came up with that was actually to add Nettle's POV in and to slow the story down. Uh it's still fast-paced, but it's having her POV in there just dramatically improved the story because we now had both sides of the equation looking at the same problem. And so that was yeah, that was all in there. And actually, chapter two was the last chapter I wrote. So that's the one that in Nettle's point of view, and that didn't make it through, that didn't make it into the book until after beta readers had read it. So, you know, it was nearly ready for you know pub publishing, and that scene got written. So yeah, in this one, it was all adding, which was really great. In my in my trilogy, unfortunately, I have had to cut many, many, many scenes, which was yeah, that was hard. Uh, especially since like I I spent one entire draft learning how to write fight scenes well, and I and fight scenes are hard, and there were so many in this book because it was a DD campaign, we were fighting all the time, and so I polished, like I rewrote and polished every single fight scene in the entire trilogy, only to discover I had to cut half of them because there were just too many. That was pretty gutting. Um yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:41

Knife to the heart. Oh, that's funny.

SPEAKER_00 21:46

Yes, yes. Funny, but not funny at the time, but funny in hindsight. Funny in hindsight, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:52

Yeah, so so earlier when I introduced you, it's you write romantic fantasy. So I wanna one of the questions- one of my last questions is. About the differences between romantic fantasy, fantasy romance, and then romantic. Because you did an Instagram post about this explaining those differences. So for listeners who struggle to discern which which like which is which, which is right for them, what are the differences between romantic fantasy, fantasy romance, and then romantic?

SPEAKER_00 22:19

Yep, yep. So romantic is technically an umbrella term that covers both. I I personally don't like it much anymore because it has a lot of association with smut now, even though smut is not a key component of romanticy per se. So fantasy romance, the emphasis is on the romance. So whichever the the final word in the in the pair of words is the one that gets the emphasis. So fantasy romance has the emphasis on the romance, and it appeals to romance readers who want to take their like read about romance in a fantasy setting. So the themes and the stakes of fantasy romance are all romance themes. They're about love, belonging, the things you would find in romance novels. The world is kind of a backdrop for the romance in fantasy romance. In romantic fantasy, the emphasis is on the fantasy. The second word, fantasy, gets the emphasis. So if if fantasy romance is a 60-40 split with romance being the 60, it's the opposite in romantic fantasy. If if it's a 60-40 split, the 60% goes to the fantasy this time. So it appeals to fantasy readers. And the themes are more about survival, life and death stuff. But the it would be a very, very different book if the romance was taken out. So the romance serves to heighten the stakes and like significantly raise the stakes for any quest, war, political machinations that are actually carrying the plot. Um, because the plot is a fantasy plot, it's not a romance plot. And the world building is very, very important in romantic fantasy. The elements are significant and they have to stand up to pressure testing. Whereas in fantasy romance, authors can get away with some fairly thin world building. And it, you know, if for fantasy, like me, I'm a classic fantasy reader. I've been immersed in the genre since I was about 10 years old. Like um, I'm used to robust worlds and all that. So sometimes if I accidentally read a fantasy romance book thinking it's a romantic fantasy, like I like I start twitching, you know, and it's like that's not real that that would never like you, you know, and I I start picking holes in the world building because fantasy romance is is not my preferred split. I pref me personally, I prefer the romantic fantasy, where I get the the emotions and the relationships and the the love being really important, but it's the the plot that is at the end of the day is a quest or uh you know something that has a an adventure, has life and death stakes at the end of it, and like we're working towards, you know, we're we're working towards making the world a better place, not just two people getting together. So yeah, that's in a nutshell the the difference, and neither's right or wrong, it's a preference, but yeah, and romanticy is the umbrella term, it technically covers both. It's probably more associated with fantasy romance in the commercial side of things, but yeah, it it can refer to both, which makes it very confusing for readers, and so yeah, I'm glad to try and clear that up a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 26:13

Well, I'm I'm glad you did because I I actually thought it was the opposite way around, where the emphasis is on the first word, not on the second one, because like the first that's the first word you see is romantic fantasy. Ah, must be a romance. But now that you've explained it, it kind of does make more sense where fantasy romance, the actual genre of romance is in there, whereas romantic is not a genre. That's that's how it clicked in my brain. So thank you.

SPEAKER_00 26:37

No worries.

SPEAKER_01 26:39

Is romantic fantasy then going to be a consistent thing that you write in the rest of your books?

SPEAKER_00 26:43

Yes, probably. I enjoy I enjoy writing it. I guess that there'd be some times where maybe romance doesn't come into it, or it's not, but there'll there'll always be some kind of love in it, even if it's like a really strong friendship or familial love. So that's not technically romantic fantasy. But at yeah, at the moment, everything that I've got planned has a romantic element in it, which I haven't planned too far ahead, but I'm I'm not someone that is like overflowing with ideas. I and I'm very, very much a one project at a time person. I I don't I don't know how authors who are dealing with multiple projects do it. That's not how my brain works.

SPEAKER_01 27:28

But as someone with multiple projects that keep presenting themselves to me, it's a matter of I gotta focus on the current thing and then put everybody else on the back burner. And then if I have ideas for them, I go put them in their little note file. But like you get to go sit for a while while I finish this one thing. So uh what are you working on right now?

SPEAKER_00 27:47

What I'm working on right now is book two of my trilogy. So book one is all ready to go. It's with the publisher, just need to get edits done, cover designed, all that kind of stuff. Book but I in writing in rewriting book one, I'd I had it was a it was a page one rewrite. I had to completely re-engineer the entire story to make it work as a as a story. So in doing that, I broke lots of things in book two. So now I have to do the same process with book two, completely re-engineer it. And I'm in that process now of rewriting with my developmental editor and getting this story rewritten and in shape for when the publisher wants it, which is probably like at the end of this year. So yeah, that's my big focus right now.

SPEAKER_01 28:41

So for for those people who want to get familiar with your work and also read about Magic Flying Cats, uh, where is the best place to get a copy of Son of Osurius?

SPEAKER_00 28:49

Well, you can head to my website and there are lots of retail links to all different stores, including Amazon. It's currently on Kindle Unlimited, but not for much longer. I'm gonna go wide with the ebook. And on my website, there's also a link to buy directly from me, um, which is the only place you'll ever be able to get the illustrated version unless you're um come to a convention. But that's only gonna be relevant if you're living in Australia.

SPEAKER_01 29:18

Or want to take a flight there. Yes. And is your website also the best place to connect with you online?

SPEAKER_00 29:25

So on my website you'll see an opt-in to sign in for my sign up for my newsletter, and that's actually where you can get Lightning Hunter, which is a non-spoiler epilogue for the romantic fantasy trilogy that is coming out. So you can get a taste of that world and meet one of the characters who was played by my youngest daughter, and I'd love to connect with readers that way. And and it's it's free. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 29:50

All right, thank you so much for joining us to talk about your book and all the things that we discussed. It was really great talking with you.

SPEAKER_00 29:57

Thank you so much. I had such a great time.

SPEAKER_01 29:59

All right, everybody, thanks for listening to today's episode. If this resonated with you, please share it with your friends so they can find something new to read that involves magic flying cats. God bless, and until next time, goodbye.