Meet Cameron Johnston

Every Friday, we meet a member of the BFS and peer deep into their soul (or, at least, a form they filled out). Want to be featured? Email us: online@britishfantasysociety.org

Name: 
Cameron Johnston (he/him)

Which region are you based in? 
Scotland

If you write, which genre: 
Fantasy

Are you drawn to any specific SFFH sub-genres? 
I love a good epic fantasy or swords and sorcery with all its mad gods, monsters and exploration of haunted tombs, and I tend to lean towards grittier or darker fantasies with touches of horror. Also, just to be contrarian, I do like some cosy fantasy too.

Your influences

Tell us about the book/film/thing that got you into SFFH: What was it? How old were you? What impact did it have on you?

I honestly cannot remember a time when I wasn’t interested in SFFH. My brother used to play Dungeons and Dragons and I would read every RPG sourcebook he had, and play Fighting Fantasy and Lone Wolf gamebooks myself, followed by the Heroquest and Space Crusade board games later on. 

As for non-gamebooks, there were many comics I cite as influences, like the X-men, Dr Strange, Spiderman, Conan, but also Asterix and Obelix. The Usborne Book of Ghosts also really caught my imagination.

Alan Garner, Susan Cooper and David Gemmell deserve a special mention here, along with Nicholas Fisk for Starstormers (more kids exploring space sans-adults! There is theme here).

(Image of Asterix and Obelix from Britannica)

TV and film-wise, when I was young I was obsessed with Explorers (1985 movie) with Ethan Hawke and River Phoenix building a spacecraft to explore space. I also saw Alien and Aliens young and it did not scar me – mostly because I had already seen Watership Down one bright and shiny Easter morning, and good luck beating that for horrific scenes. I adored all the old swords and sorcery movies like Krull, Dragonslayer, Beastmaster etc, and then there was the animated classic The Flight of Dragons which is still amazing!

How does that early influence show up in your work now?

There is a darker shade to a lot of my writing, where the heroes are not all good and the bad guys are (usually) not all bad, and a lot of that comes from the fiction I was reading at the time, including a love of writers like David Gemmell. All through my writing there is a special love of ancient places, ruins and prehistoric sites. Partly because of my love of history, and partly because of writers like Alan Garner and Susan Cooper that helped to bring it alive with folklore and mythology.

Where do you draw your creative inspiration from?

Most authors are like magpies, taking a bit of this and a chunk of that, and I’m no different. Ideas strike from every direction: a few months back a big seagull decided to plop all over my car windscreen and that got me thinking…dragons fly…dragon droppings…yikes!  A lot of my inspiration does come from history and archaeology, from stone circles and standing stones to castles, swords and armour, and onwards to the less monumental things like ancient farming methods, medicine, folklore and mythology.

Who do you look to as a genre hero? Why?

Terry Pratchett is one of them. Not just because of how fun his books are, but for the sheer insight into humanity he brought to them, using glorious wit and satire to skewer all manner of things, people and concepts. He was also a genuinely nice man, and I very much approve of that sort of thing.

Your work

You’re stuck in an elevator for 60 seconds with that hero, and they want you to describe your work. Give us the pitch.

Well, after we both got over to shock of him manifesting in the here and now, and then a quick chat about who I was gonna call, I would pitch my work as action-packed epic/swords and sorcery fantasies with magic and monsters and mayhem. And a few bad jokes along the way.

What are you working on right now?

A novel about Mages In Spaaaace! Also, a lower-budget horror screenplay for something quite different to writing a novel. Might never sell anything there, but it is very interesting to venture into those shark-infested waters.

Thinking about all the stories/work you’ve done, what sticks out most in your mind? Why?

I think it’s the monsters. Both human and other creatures. Even in the darkest of souls, there can be a spark of light waiting to erupt, lines they will not cross, or puppies they care for even if they hate humans. Conversely, to quote a Dr Who episode: “Demons run when a good man goes to war.”

Where and when do you create/are you at your most creative?

I like to be alone in a quiet place, preferably with an hour or more to dedicate to it. Coffee shops and the like are too distracting for me to concentrate. 

What’s the best advice you’ve received about creativity?

Do it your own way. It might take you time to discover your own particular methods that work for you as an individual, but don’t listen to people who say you MUST do this, and you MUST do that, or you MUST write every single day. Do whatever works for you, even if it’s a hundred words here and there. Every one of us is wired differently.

What’s your writing soundtrack?

Depending on the scenes I’m writing, anything from Two Steps From Hell, the LoTR movie soundtracks, 80s synthwave or folk music.

(Photo by Eugene Chystiakov on Unsplash)

The quickfire round

Sci-fi, fantasy or horror?
Fantasy

Quiet or loud?
Quiet

Dark or light?
Dark

Strict lines or genre blend?
Put it all in and hit high speed.

Awards or bestseller?
Neither. Unless you mean for mine, in which case, bestseller. Awards are often just a popularity contest.

Fiction or non-fiction?
I love both.

Poetry or prose?
Prose.

Plotter or pantser?
Pantser. Mostly.

Reading or listening?
Reading.

Notebook or computer?
Computer.

Favourite SFFH book of all time?
Is this even possible? Only one book? Which way is the wind blowing? Uh, lets go with one of the Discworld books today: Small Gods? Lords and Ladies? Wyrd Sisters? Oh no! Now I’ve fallen down a rabbit hole of research and I can’t get up…

Last book you read?
The Outcast Mage by Annabel Campbell

Any SFFH author on auto-buy?
No, my TBR mountain is far too large.

Favourite podcast?
The Magnus Archives

The home stretch

What’s the best thing about being part of the SFFH community?

In all honestly, it’s the other people and the community. My fellow writers, agents, publishing staff, booksellers, reviewers and fans are all incredible, amazing people, who all too often don’t realise that themselves.

Time to plug your stuff! Where can we find you and your work? What have you got coming up? Consider this your advertising space.

You can find me at:

• www.cameronjohnston.net
• Twitter/X: x.com/CamJohnston
• Bluesky: bsky.app/profile/cameronjohnston.bsky.social
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/cameronjohnstonwriter/
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/cameronjohnston13

My latest book was released on August 13^th (earlier this week!): The Last Shield, pitched as a gender-flipped Die Hard in a Castle. Lots of action, adventure, monsters and crawling through dusty secret tunnels. 

Previous to that, I wrote The Maleficent Seven (seven fantasy villains come together to protect a town from the ‘army of light’) and The Age of Tyranny duology of The Traitor God and God of Broken Things (a noirish second world urban fantasy, involving murders, magical mind-control and monsters). You can find these fine tomes at all your usual book emporiums or buy direct from Angry Robot Books.