Desuetude follows an elite hunter of dangerous creatures struggling to find her place in an ever-changing world dominated by factories and growing cityscapes. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?

The inspiration for my story was watching society develop and change, both as a whole and in my personal life. I have a background in the social sciences. This allowed me to see the underlying trends and possibilities for the future impartially. My hometown had transformed over the last fifteen years from about 50K people to 150K people. I watched my world being bulldozed and remade; this was a huge influence on my writing of Desuetude.

How long did it take you to imagine, draft, and write the world your characters live in?

I started the book in 2020. My final first draft was completed in 2022. It took me over another year of editing before I got it copyrighted in 2023. This work taught me a ton as a writer and helped me grow immensely.

There was a lot of time spent crafting the character traits in this novel. What was the most important factor for you to get right in your characters?

Isolation and observation were the most important factors for Desuetude. I wanted Val to seem and feel intensely separate from the world she was thrust into. The other characters she interacts with were designed to have a distant feel to them. Most of the characters don’t have name, and that was done purposely for reinforcing Val’s sense of isolation as Val’s world caves in around her. For the observations, Val was a hunter. Her entire job was to watch, study, and track her query. This translated over to her societal observations and reflections. Being detached gave her a unique perspective on urban life and technology. It gave her an objective view, free of technology’s influence.

I find a problem in well-written stories, in that I always want there to be another book to keep the story going. Is there a second book planned?

No. For this book there will not be a sequel. Val’s story is complete in this one installment.

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