The Lost Son follows the journey of a teenager who is transported to the mystical land of Zargothia, where he navigates a battle of good versus evil with a unique band of allies. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?

The original inspiration came from a quote I read from a famous scientist where he thought that Atomic Bombs could potentially form a ripple or open a hole in space to another world. So I was actually going to use the Enola Gay, which dropped the Atomic Bomb but decided not to as to not cause offense. So I really wanted WWII planes attacking dragons in the opening chapter, so when I read about the Flight 19 incident that occurred in 1945, that sparked an idea. As for Henry, he was a character in another short story that was going nowhere. So I sat down and had a rethink and decided to combine some of the characters from Henry’s short story with the idea of the WWII Plane attacking dragons over the Bermuda Triangle. It took a bit of tweaking, but it eventually was a happy marriage of the two ideas coming together. 

Can you elaborate on the process of creating your characters, particularly Henry Simmons, and making them relatable to your young readers?

Some of Henry’s characteristics are based on mine, but when I create a character, I always create an Excel spreadsheet where I have several headings like name, age, description, hobbies, dislikes, pet peeves, etc. By doing this and focusing on each character, it allows me to make them more realistic. To me, it fleshes them out and helps give each their own individuality or personality. 

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

I think for me, the main themes are: accepting and believing in oneself, overcoming our greatest fears, and you are enough to overcome any obstacle in life. 

What scene in the book did you have the most fun writing?

I loved writing the dogfight between the WWII Plane and the dragons. I also loved writing the epic battle scene at the end. The latter proved tough because it took a couple of days to finish it and re-edit it, but I love writing high-octane action scenes/battles like that. My tip is to play a song that makes you feel energized or upbeat beforehand, and that will get you ‘into the groove’. The song that I played to help me write the battle scene at the end was John Williams’ Superman The Movie theme tune. 

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