Blood Ties follows the orphaned son of a blacksmith who is linked to an ancient prophecy that will determine the fate of two medieval kingdoms. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?

Growing up in Europe, I have always held a fascination with the medieval time period, and most of my stories are written in that era. The inspiration for Blood Ties, however, didn’t come from my many explorations in castle ruins but from a chance encounter with a circus goat in France. The first scene of Blood Ties that came to mind was of Lucas pulling a goat along on a lead rope behind some circus wagons with a castle in the distance. From there, I took the story back some years to understand who Lucas was, how he came to walk behind those circus wagons, and what quest he was on.

Lucas is an outsider who is ostracized by the village children and orphaned when his father is murdered. From then on, he is sought out by different groups for the power he is suspected of wielding inside him. Was the character’s backstory something you always had, or did it develop as you were writing?

It definitely developed while writing. I knew Lucas was special and shunted by his peers, but I didn’t know why. When I first put pen to paper to write Blood Ties, I wrote scenes as they came to me, and not always in order. Only when I had a notebook full did I start writing the first chapter and pieced things together.

When you first sat down to write this story, did you know where you were going, or did the twists come as you were writing?

I did know where I wanted Blood Ties to go, but what I wanted and where the story went, wasn’t something I planned. It’s the one thing I love about writing, having that aha moment as an author when one of your characters discloses something in dialogue I hadn’t thought of before. I always tell people that a story writes itself and I merely put the words down. Its how I describe ‘writers block’. I imagine myself standing at a cross roads and turning left, while the story wants to go right. I can carry on, but eventually I will come to a dead and will have to go back to where I took a wrong turn. The one thing I do try and aim for in my stories is to not make my twists predictable. It keeps the reader on their toes and makes it more fun to write.

Where does the story go in the next book, and where do you see it going in the future?

In the second book of The King’s Chosen, titled ‘Hidden Enemies‘, it is clear that Lucas is undoubtelby someones target, but when the king asks him to spy on a rival rular, Lucas readily obeys. During his dangerous journey, he will be reunited with his friends from the traveling circus, escape a dreadful attack and learn the truth of his existence. But when I plot by the maniacal King Boran is discovered, and Lucas experiences the loss of a friend, he realizes that the only way to save his people will be to surrender himself to the enemy.

At the moment I see The King’s Chosen as a four book series. I have already written Lost Souls, which is book three (due to be released in March 2024) and I am currently writing book four. I am still looking for that perfect ending that I, and my readers will be satisfied with. I could carry on with Lucas’s story, but I don’t want it to be a never ending series. I have other stories already playing on my mind that I have yet to write.

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