Meet Bookbinder and Writer
Santiago Muguiro Olagaray
1. Tell something interesting about yourself.
My name is Santiago Muguiro Olagaray. I was born in Mexico City. I am a fantasy writer deeply in love with myth, folklore, and the sacred imagination. I grew up between modern city life and a fascination with ancient stories, which eventually turned into a desire to write worlds of my own.
I am also a bookbinder, which feels fitting. I do not just like writing stories; I like physically giving them form. There is something sacramental about turning loose pages into something bound and enduring.
2. What makes a good Catholic writer?
For me, it is about both art and soul. A good Catholic writer must first be a good writer, serious about beauty. But they must also be striving to live the Faith sincerely.
If the art is strong but the faith is shallow, the work lacks depth. If the faith is strong but the craft is weak, the work will not endure. When both are cultivated, the Catholic worldview naturally permeates the story without becoming preachy. Truth radiates best when it is embodied rather than explained.
3. What do you like about being a Catholic/Christian writer?
I love that I can create fantastical and whimsical worlds while, in some way, participating in the building of the Kingdom of Heaven.
Fantasy allows me to explore sacrifice, redemption, kingship, exile, beauty, fall, and restoration, all themes deeply rooted in Christianity. Writing becomes both play and prayer.
4. What is the main focus of your writing?
I primarily write mythic fantasy, sometimes epic, sometimes slow and contemplative. Forests, forgotten kingdoms, ancient magic, and quiet moments beneath the stars tend to find their way into my stories.
Literature is an art because it incorporates elements from reality. Escapism is not about forgetting completely about reality, and neither is fantasy, for one has the responsibility to live in truth and act upon it. Rather, escapism in literature is about finding new more enlightened ways of approaching the mundane. It is a temporary relief that immerses you in a different truth where, when you emerge, you emerge better for it, refreshed, stronger, or with a new or better understanding of things. –Fantasy’s Hidden Mirror: Reflections of Truth and Reality
I also write poetry, especially when a theme feels too fragile or luminous for prose.
5. How does your Catholic faith influence your writing?
I try not to force it.
Occasionally there are visible motifs such as angelic imagery, sacrificial kings, pilgrimage, but I focus first on telling a beautiful story. I trust that beauty itself lifts the soul toward God.
My Catholic worldview inevitably shapes how I understand suffering, authority, mercy, and hope. I do not need to insert doctrine explicitly; the moral and metaphysical architecture is already there.
6. What’s your favorite article/post/book/story you have written?
My favorite short story is Lumina. It follows a young woman (never explicitly defined as elf or human, though I imagine her as elven) who lives in a coastal northern community beneath the aurora. She is tempted by something ancient in the forest, something that calls her away from her people, yet ultimately she returns.
My favorite novel is Crown of Moss and Flame, about a young prince who becomes lost in the forest and, in a sense, becomes part of it. At its heart, it is about reconciliation between a father and son, and about the tension between wildness and rightful kingship.
Unfortunately, these books are not published yet (I do plan on publishing them, but I’m just starting out).
There is this though on Smashwords.
7. What is your favorite topic/subject to write about?
I love fantasy in general, but especially forests. The forest is where I most feel the presence of God.
There is something both wild and sacred about it, ordered yet untamed. In a forest, you are small and yet held. I think that sense of humility and wonder often finds its way into my stories. Forests are not just settings for me; they are almost characters, places of testing, encounter, exile, and revelation.
8. Favorite scripture verse.
My favorite Scripture verse is John 6:68: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” I love it because it captures the moment when faith becomes a decision. Peter does not claim to understand everything, but he knows that Christ is the source of truth and life, and that there is nowhere else worth going.
9. What are you currently working on?
I am currently writing a mini-series for my blog about my experiences in the Scouts and the lessons we can draw from them, about leadership, suffering, brotherhood, and growth.
At the same time, I am developing a pirate-themed interactive story. It has been a refreshing change of pace; adventurous, morally layered, and playful, while still exploring deeper themes of loyalty, freedom, and destiny.
10. Name a favorite saint or Catholic figure who inspires you.
A saint who has always inspired me is Saint Faustina Kowalska.
Her approach to suffering and spiritual dryness speaks to me deeply. She teaches that faithfulness in darkness is as valuable as fervor in consolation. And of course, her Diary, written under divine inspiration, is itself a powerful example of how writing can become a vessel for grace.
11. Who is your favorite living writer?
I very much enjoy the works of Tim Powers. I admire his respect for myth and the spiritual dimension of reality, as well as the way he weaves obscure historical events into the “hidden rules” of magic within his stories. His work reminds me that history itself can feel enchanted when seen through the right lens.
12. If you could have lunch with any deceased writer, who would it be? What would you eat and what would you talk about?
J. R. R. Tolkien, without question.
We would eat bread, cheese, and good ale in a pub. I would ask him about sub-creation, about how to craft myths, about how he developed languages and scripts, and about the intersection of fantasy and theology. I would especially want to ask how he maintained faithfulness to beauty over decades of slow, patient work.
13. Name a favorite movie/TV show or music you find worth sharing with others.
A film I have always found deeply beautiful is Song of the Sea by Cartoon Saloon. It captures myth, sorrow, and healing with gentleness and reverence. It feels like a folktale told around a fire, luminous and melancholic at once.
14. Can you see one of your books being made into a movie or tv series?
I write with images in mind, so I suppose I can imagine one of my stories on screen someday. But the heart of the story would matter more than the medium. If it were ever adapted, I would hope it would preserve the sense of myth and moral struggle that inspired the book in the first place.
15. Favorite historical event.
I have always been fascinated by moments of heroic last stands, particularly the final stand of the Templars during the Siege of Acre in 1291, and the Battle of Lepanto.
Both moments carry a sense of sacrifice and civilizational turning points. They embody the drama of faith under pressure, something that often resonates with the themes I explore in fantasy.
Laureys a Castro, 1683
This interview was published on March 16, 2026
The day these events took place
1846 – Jurgis Bielinis (March 16, 1846 – January 18, 1918) is born. He was one of the main organizers of the illegal book-smuggling at the time of the Lithuanian press ban (1864–1904). It was around 1885 that founded the Garšviai Book Smuggling Society.
1872 – The Wanderers F.C. win the first FA Cup, the oldest football competition in the world, beating Royal Engineers A.F.C. 1–0 at The Oval in Kennington, London.
1885- Sydney Chaplin (March 16, 1885 – April 16, 1965) the elder half-brother of actor and filmmaker Charlie Chaplin is born.
1926 – History of rocketry: Robert Goddard launches the first liquid-fueled rocket, at Auburn, Massachusetts.
16. What else do you want people to know?
I believe beauty matters.
In an age that often feels cynical or fragmented, I want to write stories that remind people that goodness is real, that sacrifice is meaningful, that wilderness can be holy, and that even in exile, we are being called home.
If someone finishes reading one of my stories and feels a renewed sense of wonder or a pull toward God, then I have done what I hoped to do.
Where to find Santago on the web
Website: Home | Syganm
Twitter: @MuguiroOlagaray
Facebook: Facebook profile
LinkedIn: LinkedIn
Wattpad: @sansot_m
Blog: Blog | Syganm
Smashwords: Smashwords – About Santiago Muguiro Olagaray
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