History of Lies follows two people attempting to unlock the secrets of past lives in order to stop a powerful organization from controlling the world. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?

This book has been a long time in the making (over 15 years), and the original concept was much more basic. My writing partner and I came up with an idea for scientists to find a way to help blind people see. They created a technology that converted brain waves to visual images. At first, it worked as they expected, but when they applied the technology to different parts of the brain, the scientists realized they were accessing memories. Eventually, they realized they were memories from past lives. As the ideas continued to flow, the story became bigger and bigger until we considered the concept that there are some people who can remember their past lives, and these people have been manipulating the world for thousands of years. From there, the story required a lot of research because we had to recreate the world’s history under this new paradigm. At times, it was a lot of fun learning about the different historical periods, but it was also complicated as we had to keep track of the various timelines and storylines, but in the end, we were proud of the story we’d created.

The element I’m most proud about is having a story structure where the past not only informs the present storyline (for readers), but the present also informs the past. It sounds strange, but little tidbits that the reader may not be focusing on will come into play, so it works both backward and forward.

What was the collaboration process like for writing this novel? 

It was challenging because my writing partner and I both work full-time. That’s one reason the book took as long as it did. The other books we wrote together were much easier because the concepts were more straightforward. 

Did you find anything in your research of this story that surprised you?

I learned a lot about the Romans, and they were far more controversial than I realized. Some of their values are questionable, and the way they conquered and destroyed civilizations was also surprising. Many of the emperors were not good people, at least from what we know, which leads me to the next big lesson I learned from writing this story. Many people reference history in a very factual manner, but none of us were there, and we only have bits of evidence. The true history is likely far more complex than we’ve been taught in school. 

Do you think there’s a single moment in everyone’s life, maybe not as traumatic as discovering past lives, that is life-changing?

Yes, but just like many key historical events, sometimes you need enough time to pass before you understand the significance of it. When you experience something in the moment, you may not realize the ripple effect that it will ultimately have on your life until you’re several years or decades down the road and you understand just how significant something was. As an example, I was born later in the year, and my mom had the choice of holding me back in kindergarten or pushing me into first grade. I was small to begin with, and I believe that if I had been pushed into first grade, the whole trajectory of my life would’ve changed. I don’t think I would’ve done as well in school or sports. There are of course other moments that you know are significant at the time like getting married and having kids.

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