The Witch Hunter General follows a cursed man who’s dedicated his life to killing dark witches by any means. What was the inspiration for the setup to this exciting novel?

The initial inspiration for the story actually came from a song from the British heavy metal band, Saxon, about the Salem witch trials. In the original draft, the story took place in 1692, during the time of the Salem witch trials, but as the story progressed and grew, I realized it needed to be futuristic. From there, it sort of took on a life of its own and in fact became easier to write since I could make the future whatever I wanted it to be instead of having to adhere to being historically accurate the entire time.

Victor is an intriguing and well developed character. What were some driving ideals behind his character development?

Victor is a very stern individual, and completely unrelenting in his pursuit of dark witches. After being manipulated by his best friend and ordering the death of his wife, Victor shut down emotionally. He dedicated himself totally to the eradication of witches and was very reluctant to work with them following the peace treaty between the Inquisition and the World Tree coven. When I was developing his character, I didn’t really worry too much about whether he was likable or not. I just needed him to be someone who had suffered such an unimaginable trauma that he became driven by rage, hatred, and vengeance; motivated by overwhelming grief and anger to kill witches in whatever way he could. To kill, period. But on a deeper level, he’s also driven by the unanswerable philosophical questions: Why would a benevolent god allow this to happen? And: Is there a god at all?

I enjoyed the depth of the world you’ve created in this novel. What were some themes you wanted to explore in your story?

The biggest themes I tried to explore in this story were the concept of good and evil, guilt, and redemption. Oftentimes, good and evil are a matter of perspective. Not everything that seems evil is evil, and not everything that seems good is good. The theme of guilt played a very large role in this story and was actually therapeutic for me to write because, as a veteran, I’ve grappled with a great deal of guilt from my time in the service. Victor is consumed by guilt and it’s part of what makes him who he is: on the surface, a hard, unflinching zealot of the Inquisition. But underneath, a bitter, broken man languishing in agony and heartache. Going hand-in-hand with guilt, is redemption. Redemption was also a big piece of the story, and of Victor as a character, and in the end, the story is really all about Victor chasing redemption and whether or not he attains it.

Do you plan to continue this story in future novels?

Yes, it is currently planned to be a trilogy, which I am working on finishing now. But there will also be a few short stories tied to the novels to flesh out the world and characters a little more. There might even be a spin-off series later on, but that is still very much in the development stage.

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