He Could’ve Built a Video Game. Instead, He Wrote The Next Great Gothic Sci-Fi Saga. Maybe.
Discover Connor McGwire's journey from childhood rewrites to METANOIA—a series born from deep faith, moody synth beats, and a little Dr. Pepper.
Ever wonder what happens when a theology nerd, a video game lover, and a D&D dungeon master walk into a moody cyberpunk noir? Well, Connor’s your guy—and his worldbuilding is as wild and thoughtful as you'd expect. Check out
In this interview, he shares how writing’s always been more of a compulsion than a career dream (starting with Neopets fanfic, no less), and how his spiritual life—equal parts slow burn and sudden revelation—now colors everything he writes. What does a “sacramental view of the world” look like in a gritty sci-fi city built on the ruins of modern ambition?
Can dancing in circles really help you break through writer’s block? And how do Dr. Pepper and Deus Ex inspire the same book? Grab your favorite drink and dive in—you’ll want to see where this one goes.
When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer, and what did you write about?
I don’t know if there was a “realize I want to be a writer” point. I just started putting the stories in my head down on paper as soon as I was taught my letters.
I was writing full-page stories about my favorite Neopets when I was five or six, then I penned my “comedy opus” Private Eye Monkey in elementary school. Between that and my first proper novel, I have scattered short stories and many homebrewed Dungeons & Dragons adventures.
I wouldn't say I was “productive” when I was young, as I had a habit of rewriting things more often than I would finish them (a pattern that holds to today). Nevertheless, a “writer” has always just been something I “am” and wasn’t something I wanted to “become.”
Now, when did I finally kick my butt into gear to actually get a book out into the world? In 2018, when I realized that it’d be easier to try writing a novel first instead of trying to write and build an entire RPG video game. The game is still on the docket, but baby steps.
What are your favorite books, movies, games, or other media that inspire you?
Lots of video games. Mass Effect with its tight cinematic direction and wonderfully dynamic setting; Knights of the Old Republic II with its cutting, philosophical look at the beloved franchise; BioShock with its unforgettable visuals and well thought out socio-political themes; Deus Ex and its exploration of integration between man and machine; Final Fantasy and its sense of scale and grandeur; Persona and its symbolism and heart…. So, many…
For movies, I’d say Blade Runner has been a huge inspiration for me. I love the Final Cut and its quiet, moody, and mysterious form of telling its story. And I’ve seen The Lord of the Rings extended film trilogy more times than I can count since my family would put it on several times every Christmas.
Funnily, I only have a handful of strong book inspirations. Sign of my times, probably. I really enjoyed Dune recently, and Eragon as a kid. But a lot of my reading is theology, philosophy, science, and engineering. Lots of technical information…. I find it as inspiring as any other story.
What is your current WIP about and why does it matter to you?
My current project is the METANOIA series, a gothic sci-fi noir about a city built from the Modern dream, the demons in its shadows, and a foolish little man who can’t leave a mystery alone—for good or bad.
The series is a confluence of all the wonderful art I’ve experienced in my 29 years on this earth, the inspiration that's imparted, and the deeper questions of life I’ve wrestled with in that same time. In a way, the story is a reflection of my struggle to reconcile my grander, potentially harmful ambitions I can’t let go of, with my more humble, and probably healthier ones which I can’t seem to be content with. And then I extend that out into the conflicts I see in the world today.
And more than that, I just really wanted to share all these cool ideas that pop into my head!
Where does your self-discipline come from?
Any I have comes from God, my dad, then my old karate teachers, in that order.
God reminds me that there’s a greater standard that I am accountable to (even in his mercy); my dad demonstrated how to take responsibilities seriously and to value quality for its own sake and internal growth, even in the absence of (visible) external rewards; and my karate teachers pushed my sorry butt until I got over my excuses and just “put in the effort.”
On that last bit, there was a palpable moment in class one day, when I got sick of being called out for not trying hard enough, and the switch just… flipped. All the little distractions were put aside and everything I had went into my practice. It was… kind of awesome. It’s still incredibly difficult to get back to that level of focus, but once you get a taste of it, you start looking for it on your own more often than not.
How would you describe your spirituality, the unique way your faith is present to you as you enter more seriously into it?
I am an incredibly technically minded person. So much so, that even though I grew up Christian and have professed Christ is Lord since I was about three or four, there have been times where I could be in a room full of atheists and still feel like the least spiritually minded person present.
It’s only been more recently that God has granted me the wisdom to really begin reconciling the view of the world I had with the greater Truth behind it. And—consequently—I can see His wisdom in allowing me to travel this path.
I’ve found that my arduous journey, building up slowly to comprehending even the most basic facts of the mystical Truth of Christ, has set the stage to supercharge my appreciation for that side of His character now that He has begun to "remove the veil from my eyes." I don’t know where this will lead, ultimately, but I’m excited.
What are your writing habits like, and how do you get (and stay) in the writing zone?
I grab a drink (generally Dr. Pepper or green tea), my favorite keyboard, a cozy spot to sit, open one of my two preferred writing apps on my iPad (Ulysses for novels and Notion for articles), turn on moody music, and get going.
I’m easily distracted, so I like to be somewhere really quiet and I have noise cancelling headphones in case my family is watching TV in another room. But from there on I keep myself planted in that chair and if I come to any blocks, my only options are to write out my loose, tangential thoughts in a separate workspace or pace around in circles while chewing it over.
Or dance around in circles. I do that, too. But you didn’t hear this from me. (Scholarly though I may be inclined, I’m also a young dude: the brain works better when the body is moving.)
What do you think makes a good story?
First, I think all good stories are people driven. This is above “characters,” or “plot,” or “ideas,” or “the world.”
The connection between “people driven” and what we traditionally think of as “character driven” storytelling is kind of obvious: we see the growth, development, and interactions between individuals. But a plot becomes interesting for a similar cause—how the events impact the people involved or what they demonstrate about them. The ideas and world of a story are compelling because of what they mean to how people live their lives, or how we might imagine people’s lives could be different.
You could, of course, focus entirely on the non-human aspects of a fictional world—on its ecosystems and phenomena. But then, you could argue that's not writing a “story” so much as a text book (not a bad thing, see above).
What is your dream as an author, and what are you doing to get there?
Lofty though it may be, and as many missteps as I’m sure I will make, my greatest aspiration is to promote a sacramental understanding of the world through good art steeped in the truth of Christ.
That is, I want to spread the Christian worldview: the full of it. I’m tired of hearing (often justified) complaints about the degrading moral fabric on display in our shows, and games, and books but then so few people will take the steps they can to mend that fabric. They’ll either throw everything new out in some false assumption that the old was free of the flaws they lament, or they’ll give in and accept that every new perversion is “just the way the culture is moving.”
I think we can continue to participate in and experiment in the arts without compromising our Christian values, so that’s what I’m going to try and live out. And I really do think some of these stories in my head are super cool sounding and I want to see if anyone else enjoys them.
How can readers discover more about you and your work?
The hub of my writing efforts is my publication Ars Corvi.
I post my articles and links to my books there. You can also find METANOIA [1] on Amazon and The Great British Bookshop directly.
