Interview with B.S.H. Garcia ~ Author of 'In The Shadow of Duty'

B.S.H. Garcia is the first invited writer of Unearthed Stories for 2025, and the author of our latest acquisition—In The Shadow of Duty, a dark epic fantasy interactive short-story set in her world The Heart of Quinaria.

In this post, our lead writer (and editor of invited stories) Livia J. Elliot interviews Bethany about his writing, her novels (for the series The Heart of Quinaria), and his experience writing an interactive story for the first time.

Livia: Thank you, Bethany, for working with us to bring a bit of Quinaria into Unearthed Stories. Before we can dive into writing-related questions, would you introduce yourself?

B.S.H. Garcia: Hi, and thank you so much for having me! It’s been an honor to collaborate with you on this story, and I’ve learned so much.

For those who don’t know me, my name is Bethany Garcia, and I write under the pen name B. S. H. Garcia (because all epic fantasy writers must utilize excessive initials–right?). I’m an indie author hailing from Colorado, and my primary focus right now is epic fantasy; though, I will be exploring both sci-fi and horror in future projects. In my stories, you’ll find complex, diverse, and morally gray characters alongside vibrant world-building and genre-mixing. My work has been positively reviewed by reputable blogs such as the Before We Go Blog and SFF Insiders. My novellas have also placed as semi-finalists in the indie SFF novella competition, SFINCS.

Your series, The Heart of Quinaria, is an expansive universe, rich in lore and but also incredibly complex–both thematically and character-wise. What inspired you to craft this world? What audience would you recommend it to?

It all started with a cinematic vision. Rewind thirteen years: I was studying acting and spending a lot of time getting into character. One of the ways I achieved this was by going on jogs or hikes with instrumental (usually epic) music blasting in my headphones. On one such day, instead of embodying the character I was getting ready to audition for, a scene kept usurping my thoughts. After fighting it for a bit, I allowed it to unfold. This turned out to be the closing scene of my first book, Of Thieves and Shadows.

Fast-forward a few years: I’d just finished college with a major in English Writing and a focus in Creative Writing. With a newly opened spot in my schedule created by a place that course work had previously occupied, I decided to give fleshing out my first novel a go (I’d already written multiple pieces of short fiction at this point). Aside from the initial vision and bits of characters that had haunted me over the years, I know I wanted to bring something fresh to fantasy outside the usual medieval setting and tropes. Quinaria was born as a way for me to better process the world and reimagine fantasy in a way that spoke to me.

The rest is history.

Recommendations are always hard, but I’d say if you’re a fan of Martin’s politics and morally gray characters, Tolkien’s in-depth world-building, and N. K. Jemisin’s complex and diverse characters and plots alongside genre-blending, you’d probably enjoy your time in Quinaria.

We talked quite a bit on my podcast about your character work, and your focus on childhood trauma and how it affects adulthood. You also touched on these themes in In The Shadow of Duty. Why did you choose this focus?

When a character first introduces themself to me, I spend a lot of time unpacking who they are and why they are that way. Usually, this points to their background and upbringing because we are so strongly shaped by those early years. As my son says, most people are fully bad, they’re just making bad choices. I believe that strongly and work to convey the complexity I see in the world in my work.

Childhood trauma is not something I see explored too often in SFF outside of sexual assault, and I think that’s a miss because there’s so much to uncover there. Those scars remain with us the rest of our lives, and showing how different characters react to different upbringing just comes naturally to me, especially when the character is someone we’d knee-jerk label as bad or morally gray. I see all my characters on a spectrum, and they constantly move this way or that based on their past and present choices and situations. I think this brings them to life in the most realistic way possible. For my Unearthed story, I knew the MC had a complex past to act the way she did, and it was wonderful to be able to delve into all her potential paths by asking the question, “what if?”

Writing for Unearthed Stories was your first dive into interactive fiction, right? What did you find challenging and what did you enjoy the most?

It was! I have to admit I was a little nervous to dive in at first. The writing style is different from novels and other short fiction, and it initially overwhelmed me. However, once I began working, the opportunities to really hone in on that morally gray and varying paths aspect was thrilling. Instead of settling on one believable path, I got to explore multiple outcomes–something I might experiment with in my novel writing to find the best paths going forward! I also love how it forced me to be concise and economical with my words. It’s easy to get carried away in epic fantasy, and this helped me to continue tightening my prose and deliver the most impact with the fewest words. As I was working, I kept thinking of some of my favorite RPG games, and I have the utmost respect for people who write this way all the time. I enjoyed my time on this story and would love to tackle similar work in the future.

Your interactive short-story, In The Shadow of Duty, is a prequel to the main series within Quinaria, right? What would be your recommended reading order for your work?

It technically is, yes! While I strived to make it a stand-alone (and I think it reads as such), it, like all my other Quinaria stories, will have extra easter eggs and revelations if you’ve read all the published works to date. I’m working on revising the read order on my website, but my personal reading order would be as follows:

• From the Ashes or Of Thieves and Shadows (I’ve written the first novelette and novel to be choose-your-own starting places for the series). People have been equally happy with each choice, and neither spoils the other. From the Ashes is technically the first timeline-wise, but Of Thieves and Shadows is the true series starter and first Quinaria story I wrote.
• In the Shadow of Duty (a prequel and my interactive Unearthed Story!)
• From the Depths (another prequel novella taking place after From the Ashes and In the Shadow of Duty but before Of Thieves and Shadows). It does contain some spoilers for Of Thieves and Shadows, so although it can be read as stand-alone, it is optimal to read it after the first book.
• Of Love and Loss. This is my latest release and the second full-length book in the main series.

Thank you, Bethany! Can you share your socials (so everyone can find you), and any news on upcoming releases?

Of course! I’m @BSHGarcia on all platforms, though I’m most active on Instagram and Twitter. I’m trying to build a following on BlueSky as we speak, and I’m occasionally on TikTok. The best way to stay in touch with me is through my monthly newsletter. You can subscribe at www.bshgarcia.com. Subscribers also get a free digital copy of my aforementioned novelette, From the Ashes!

Thank you again for this opportunity, and I look forward to reading more Unearthed stories soon!

If you want to read/play In The Shadow of Duty (and you should definitely be keen on doing so), you can install Unearthed Stories for free on any Android or iPhone/iPad devices, and read!