The Rise of the Raidin follows a seemingly ordinary eighteen-year-old high school girl who is secretly training as a dragon slayer warrior. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?

The biggest inspiration started when I was in eighth grade and was diagnosed with idiopathic scoliosis. I already had terrible eyesight and bad teeth, and I found myself wishing to just wake up one day and all these broken parts of me were fixed. I was really into fantasy and sci-fi stories, and loved fast-paced stories with lots of action, especially in movies. So my brain basically asked the question, “What if when we woke up and everything was fixed, we also had wings and cool abilities? And maybe we had to save the world from something?” As I worked to develop the story, which initially had little by way of plot and was “just vibes,” I drew a lot of inspiration from fantasy and sci-fi books, movies, and TV shows like The Chronicles of Narnia, Lord of the Rings, Ender’s Game, Stargate SG-1, and Star Trek, as well as a bunch of my favorite animes, most notably Digimon and Zoids.

In a lot of contemporary coming-of-age fiction novels, authors often add their own life experiences to the story. Are there any bits of you in this story?

In the earliest drafts of the story, Jen was practically a carbon copy of me. By now, the only things we share are our love of photography, our drive to protect those we care about, and how deeply we love our families. She’s far wittier than I am, and far braver and more resilient, too. I can see where one of my brothers influenced bits of Krelien’s character, and where my deep love of animals influenced the creation of Blaze and Archer. Tyron has slowly become, quite truthfully, the picture of the sort of man I would want to marry someday. Ar’on and I have almost nothing in common, aside from maybe his favorite tea blend. But with Kaldok, I specifically gave him my love of baking. I really enjoy baking (though seldom do I give myself time for it), and I felt that of all the characters, it fit Kaldok the best to be this imposing werewolf that loves to bake treats for others.

What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?

I don’t write my books with themes or tropes in mind. The only themes I ever want to convey in my stories is that there is an absolute truth, that there is such a thing as being wrong, accepting the cost of our wrong actions, and seeking repentance. As a Christian, I want to hold my stories to a realistic standard so that my characters feel real (even if their circumstances are fantastical), but I won’t shy away from the truth. Any other themes and tropes that readers see in the story are ones I didn’t plan for. In fact, I rely heavily on my early readers to tell me what tropes and themes are in my books, because I have a very hard time figuring out what the “theme” of a story I’ve written is.

When will book 2 be available? Can you give us an idea of where that book will take readers?

Book 2 is available now! The Ties That Bind launched on February 7, 2023. Ties blasts readers into a worldwide adventure. Where Rise took place mostly over the course of a single day, Ties takes about two months of traveling and meeting the ever-expansive cast. Readers have said that it’s a story where they realize they’re “all in” with the series and are fully invested to see where things go. It’s a book that can be intimidating, with its 600+ page count, but almost every reader finishes Ties within a week, many within two days. Readers can expect loads of character development, meeting dynamic characters from diverse backgrounds, plenty of banter, higher stakes, some trauma recovery, some heartache and loss, the introduction to the world of Tilion, and more epic battles.

If readers enjoyed The Rise of the Raidin, there are 6 parallel side-stories to Rise in a novella series called The Human-Born Chronicles. They can learn more about all of my books via my website.

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