Midas follows a recently divorced and unemployed man who ends up in a rehabilitation center where he discovers he has the power to heal with just a touch. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?

I have personally been in the character’s situation of being estranged with two small children. As Midas is my first novel and first attempt at writing for decades, I followed the write about what you know mantra. Andy is a good man who hesitates at the crucial moment when he has the option to heal someone he sees as an enemy and that leads to dire unforeseen consequences. Good people can sometimes do bad or selfish things. He then has to risk everything to help save his daughter.

Part of the theme of the book was based on what I had heard about certain charlatan faith healers. I found the idea of people pretending to possess the ability to heal others hugely abhorrent. I wanted an everyday and unassuming man to possess the power to heal, without making it public or seeking fame and fortune.

What were some of the emotional and moral guidelines you followed when developing your characters?

My own personal morality and values were the compass for the main character’s choices and development. Andy basically does, more or less, what I would have done in his place. Good, bad or indifferent. The real villain of the story is Dominic, the owner of the healing center. I wanted to develop his narcissistic attributes to the point where he borders on and then crosses over into psychopathic modes of behaviour. He will stop at nothing to get the gift for himself.

In fantasy novels, it’s easy to get carried away with the magical powers characters have. How did you balance the use of supernatural powers?

Once I had the idea that the healing power had rules, it was fairly easy for the characters possessing that power to have restraints. I wanted the story to have one foot and three toes in the real world and just a small slice of the supernatural. I felt less is more in Midas, the first book. Supernatural elements and themes are more developed in the sequels.

I hope the series continues in other books. If so, where will the story take readers? 

Indeed, the series continues with CHILLER. Without giving away too much of a spoiler, most of Midas’s main characters appear in this sequel, as well as a good many others. Whereas Midas was quite a slow burner, I tried to make the second book more fast-paced and entertaining. I develop the supernatural themes further in the subsequent books, whilst still allowing the characters to have feelings and experiences grounded in the everyday. The third book in the series, VIRAL, is a thrilling conclusion to the trilogy. The characters are tested to their limits,  both physically and metaphorically. VIRAL was supposed to be the series finale, yet I am a third of the way through writing the fourth and last instalment.

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