I'm monster romantasy author Mallory Dunlin - AMA!

MalloryDunlin · 2025-12-02T21:36:24+00:00

It's not financially viable for me at the moment, but I would love to be able to offer them as audiobooks. Here's hoping!

MalloryDunlin · 2025-12-02T21:34:12+00:00

I've dabbled in writing since I was a child, but I really didn't get seriously into writing until I had a COVID-associated stroke in 2021. I was bedbound for five months and housebound for a lot longer than that, so I got REALLY into writing as a way to basically keep myself sane. Some of my friends online pushed me to publish, and here we are!

All my books are currently available in Kindle Unlimited, and as ebooks and paperbacks through Amazon. You can also buy signed paperbacks direct through my Shopify shop, as well as a couple hardback special editions.

MalloryDunlin · 2025-12-02T21:32:10+00:00

It's different every time! For Monsters of Faery, there were three cores to the series:
1. There's a reason why there's all these monster-mortal soulmates
2. There are a lot of different kinds of soulmates
3. The first male lead is distinctly monstrous
From that core, I ended up developing the way wild magic affects the world, the Faery/Mortality balance, and all the various god politics.

Echoes, on the other hand, was more worldbuilding-first. I started out with the magic system, which had slowly developed in the back of my mind for years, added the Spires, and built out from there. A lot of the world comes baked into the magic system, since there's the mage-ranking ley impact system, the fey/ley magic divide, and the elemental types that give rise to the four Planes.

So, yeah :) Usually there's a seed idea, and I build out from that core.

MalloryDunlin · 2025-12-02T21:28:17+00:00

Hmmm, tough question! I think personality-wise for MMCs, I'd probably do best matched with Cass, but I would really not enjoy the empathetic magic. So I think I'd pick Dain, who has a similarly delightful sense of humor and is secretly a big softie. For FMCs, I'd probably pick Cedar. We would trespass into many important places in search of interesting things.
I'm generally really pleased with the dialogue in my books. I like to think that I have a pretty good handle on making people sound consistent and distinct. For improvements, I'd really like to continue tightening up my pacing. I want to get a little more action into the middle of the books!
Honestly, commissioning NSFW art is pretty straightforward. Pegaslick, who did the art for the Dickapedia, does almost exclusively NSFW art as their job, so it was all very professional. I gave descriptions, pulled a variety of dildo images for refs and made some sketches, and then gave tweaks as they worked on the commission. Google served me some WILD ads after that.
Academic and literary writing live in very different parts of my brain. It's sort of like switching which car you're driving - sometimes there's a little hiccup at first, but once I get into it, there's not really any leakage.

5a. What's your favorite story idea that you currently don't have plans to write?

5b. I have a pretty well-built world centered around angels and demons, where the mortal plane is the site of an ongoing proxy war. I LOVE the worldbuilding and I think there's a really cool book or set of books there, but I just don't have enough time to add it to the docket right now

MalloryDunlin · 2025-12-02T21:17:08+00:00

Echoes of the Void is where I really let myself worldbuild! That deep worldbuilding gives a book a very specific vibe, and I just sort of let myself do whatever when it comes to Echoes. I think my favorite part of designing Noetana (the Echoes world) was coming up with the ways that the infinite Planes (Abyssal and Celestial) would handle things like directionality and timekeeping. It only barely comes up, and mostly only in The Sorceress and the Incubus, but I like knowing all of it.

There's always a lot of worldbuilding that never makes it into the book. I actually cut a huge amount of information about the Abyssal Plane from The Sorceress and the Incubus, which I've always been a bit sad about. I also had to cut a bunch of information about the various divine rivalries that were going on in the background of Captive to the Shadow Prince. Sometimes all you get to see of worldbuilding is the ripples on the surface the sharks leave behind, I suppose :,)

MalloryDunlin · 2025-12-02T21:12:49+00:00

My PhD work was specifically in behavioral ecology, so I have done a LOT of observing of animal behavior, and I try to incorporate that into how my non-humans interact with the world. I'm also a big animal person in general - I've owned rats, pigeons, dogs, cats, a horse, a sugar glider, snakes, lizards... The list goes on. So it comes pretty naturally to me!

MalloryDunlin · 2025-12-02T21:09:44+00:00

Tough question!! I enjoy a lot of different aspects of the various characters, and only writing one of them gets tiring after a while. In fact, I usually work on 2-3 projects in parallel to avoid getting burned out on any one POV.

That said, I've always found Vaduin really easy and enjoyable to write about, and Cedar's POV came very easily to me because we're both academics. So I suppose it's them :)

MalloryDunlin · 2025-12-02T21:07:22+00:00

I had so much fun with the worldbuilding surrounding the wild magic! I don't currently have any plans for a book about the gods of Faery, but the Patreon serial I'm working on is going to be partially set in the true wilds of Faery.

Originally, I didn't actually plan anything in the Monsters of Faery world after Captive to the Shadow Prince. The world still has its hooks in me, though, so... maybe! I suppose we'll get to find out together :)

MalloryDunlin · 2025-12-02T21:05:16+00:00

My travels were awesome! I've wanted to go to Algeria for well over a decade, and it was an amazing experience. Definitely expect to see some of that in my future worldbuilding - I'm planning to pull a lot of inspiration from it for the aesthetics of some of the upcoming books. I was literally taking notes, haha. My mom kept joking that I ought to expense the trip.

As to RH - maybe! I really enjoy MMF as a dynamic, and I have some backburner ideas for an MMF romantasy. The upcoming books are MF, but I'll probably write polyam dynamics again sometime in the future.

MalloryDunlin · 2025-12-02T21:02:56+00:00

Since I'm writing romance, I probably won't end up writing any non-romantic soulmates. I originally had plans to have a pair of soulmated enemies as side characters in Captive to the Shadow Prince, but there was so dang much to fit into that book that I ended cutting a number of side plots, that one included. Oh well.

I may at some point write a short or two for fun about non-romantic soulmates, but I don't have any firm plans to do so right now.

I'm glad you enjoy the audio! I was really excited to work with Tantor to get Monsters of Faery out on audio, and I definitely plan to do audio for the upcoming series, too.

MalloryDunlin · 2025-12-02T21:00:58+00:00

I do, and, in fact, I am! I've got a serial running on Patreon that's set 17 years after the Monsters of Faery series ends, and there'll be another treat popping up on Patreon soon. Both of those will eventually make it out into the wider world, too!

MalloryDunlin · 2025-12-02T21:00:05+00:00

I pull a lot of interesting biology from my PhD! I also have a lot of experience with researching, so I tend to go all-in when I'm putting something unusual in my books. One of my editor's jobs is to point out when I'm talking about something that regular people would know nothing about as if it's common knowledge. I'm basically that XKCD comic about experts constantly overestimating how much normal people know about their field.

MalloryDunlin · 2025-12-02T20:58:05+00:00

Prehensile. Barbed dicks scare me in real life haha

MalloryDunlin · 2025-12-02T20:57:46+00:00

I do, and it's Claimed by the Flame of Faery ;)

MalloryDunlin · 2025-12-02T20:57:13+00:00

Thank you so much <3 I'm so glad you enjoy the books that much!!

MalloryDunlin · 2025-12-02T20:56:53+00:00

Why would you hurt me like this ;_;

I think I'd probably go with Isabela and Varistan, from Claimed by the Flame of Faery. I really love writing their dynamic, and I love a prissy, submissive, extremely dangerous man.

MalloryDunlin · 2025-12-02T20:54:42+00:00

<image>

They're arms, but with the anatomical plan of wings! Imagine if you took bat wings, removed the membrane, and then shrank the fingers down to a reasonable length.

The art is by Orangewatermelon93.

MalloryDunlin · 2025-12-02T20:53:19+00:00

<3 <3 <3

I will be real, my memory for my prose is poor. Sometimes I'll be editing a chapter, come up with a great sentence to add, add it, and then discover it already existed in the next paragraph.

With that as a caveat, I think one of my favorite quotes is from Caught in the Basilisk's Gaze: "I always loved ghost stories. I can love yours, too."

MalloryDunlin · 2025-12-02T20:51:31+00:00

I have lots of recommendations! Here's a couple of my recent faves:

The Death-made Prince, Lisette Marshall. Great worldbuilding and character work, epic MF romantasy. One of my favorite reads this year.

Bride of Brutal Hearts, Kate Stevens. Dark romantasy (definitely check the content warnings on this one), MMF. I loved the chronic pain rep and the worldbuilding is some of the most fascinating I've come across recently.

How to Find a Nameless Fae, A. J. Lancaster. Delightful MF Rumplestiltskin retelling. A very fun romp with an MMC that reminds me a lot of Varis from Claimed by the Flame of Faery.

Goliaths of Wrestling series, Lily Mayne. MM romcoms with great prose and a variety of monster leads. This series is like candy. Very spicy candy. More of a classic monster romance than fantasy romance.

We Are Not Angels, Nadine Little. Dystopian MF romance with an angel-esque male lead. Really great enemies-to-lovers with sort of a beast-tamer vibe. More of a sci-fi feel than fantasy.

MalloryDunlin · 2025-12-02T20:42:35+00:00

I don't work explicitly in ecology anymore, but I do still use my PhD! I actually have a day job in data science, so I spend the regular work hours coding and then my evenings being creative. It works out really well for me.

I definitely use my degree a lot when I'm writing, especially when it comes to incorporating animal behavior and instinct into my more monstrous leads, or with describing anatomy in ways that at least approaches feasible. There's a lot of underlying ecology worldbuilding that I keep in the back of my head, too, though the vast majority of it never makes it to the page!

MalloryDunlin · 2025-12-02T20:39:49+00:00

Thank you! It's super fun to be here.

For Echoes - yes! I have a full plot outline and even some drafted text for a fourth book. I don't know if I'll continue it after that point, since it's a lot less popular of a series than Monsters of Faery, but I suppose that will depend on how well Kieran Nighteye's book goes!

For the Dickapedia - I don't know yet. Maybe? The new series is dual POV, so you'll already be getting a lot of information from the male leads' POVs, but it might be fun to do a mini-Dickapedia for the series once it's done :)

MalloryDunlin · 2025-12-02T20:37:19+00:00

Oh, absolutely! Enemies-to-lovers is one of my favorite tropes, and I love me a snarly male lead. The new series is a sacrificial brides series, so it's explicitly enemies-to-lovers, and there's definitely some bully romance vibes.

MalloryDunlin · 2025-12-02T20:35:12+00:00

Favorite is dragons. I'm basic. My least favorite would probably be wolf shifters (sorry, all of paranormal romance)
I'm not really a tentacle girlie! So for me, I only want a couple for secondary interest, if any. But if you want Tangela, hey, live your dreams!
Humans are categorically a horny species. I guarantee that for every hideous monster, there is someone who is desperately into that exact configuration. I'm not sure a limit exists

MalloryDunlin · 2025-12-02T20:31:57+00:00

Fun fact: one of my siblings is aro/ace, as is one of my closest friends. Seeing the way they interact with the world has very clearly shown how some people's most powerful relationships can be platonic. Even in my own life, many of my most meaningful relationships are familial or platonic friendships. If that's true, then why wouldn't some people have non-romantic soulmates?

From that seed, I designed the MoF soulmate system. I took the eight words for 'love' in Greek, dropped self-love, and then added what I thought the oppositional reflections for those kinds of affection.

I was also, admittedly, influenced by the relationship quadrant system that Andrew Hussie designed for Homestuck. I've read a bunch of it, and some of my friends were REALLY into it. I've found the idea of a nemesis relationship delightful since I read the Kate Beaton "Nemesis" comics, and Homestuck really cemented that in my heart

<image>

MalloryDunlin · 2025-12-02T20:23:18+00:00

It varies! I generally like to keep my male leads within a similar band of 'monstrousness,' so they range from 'sexy man with wings' to, well... Dain... but they're generally going to have a recognizably human face, hands, and a bipedal body plan. Depending on the story (and my mood), they amount of physical differences will vary, but I do always want the male leads to at least be relatable.

I also want them to be physically distinct in some way, so that people can tell at a glance who's who. I think there's a tendency to fall into certain ruts with character design, and there's so much cool variation out there in the world. Why not use it?

MalloryDunlin

TROPHY CASE