The Ties That Bind follows a teenage girl who, after surviving her initial encounter with the enemy, is now honing her powers and preparing to unite the other six Human-Borns. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?

I’ve always loved stories about teamwork and teens needing to learn how to work together despite differences. The anime, Digimon Adventure, proved to be a huge influence on my young mind, and upon recently rewatching it, I realized that it likely was the root of my inspiration for there to be a team of chosen ones, and that there would be tensions between the individuals. I’m someone who adores traveling, and that also played a big part in me wanting to turn this story into a global event, with each of the kids coming from different backgrounds, family structures, ethnic groups, and financial situations. I wanted to provide a sort of “we’re all in this together” idea, that no matter who you are or where you come from, you, too, could have been a Human-Born.

What character did you enjoy writing for? Was there one that was more challenging to write for?

I really enjoyed writing Jen in this book. Her struggles and growth were things that took me a while to convey well to the reader so that she came across fully believable in her reactions (I wrote the first draft of Ties back in 2011), but once I really focused on the trauma she’d been through and how she was feeling about it all, I was able to show my readers exactly where she is, and give her a cast that supported her growth and development (especially Tyron. Some of my favorite scenes in this book are the mentor/mentee scenes between Jen & Ty).

The hardest character to write for me was Lexa, and likely will be for a while. She’s so counter to my personality, and she thinks in such a selfish, brash way that I can understand but at the same time, I don’t understand because it’s not at all how I’d react to situations and people. I love her though, because there’s so much potential for growth in her. Naturally, my villains are hard to write (especially Cregorous), but Lexa proved difficult for me, because she’s supposed to be a good guy, and her way of seeing the world and even her motivations aren’t at all like the others’.

Are you a fan of the Young Adult and Coming-Of-Age genres? What books do you think most influenced your work?

It’s hard to say what books influenced my stories, especially in the YA and Coming-of-Age genres, because truthfully, I haven’t read many of them. My biggest influences, book-wise, came from the likes of Tolkien and Lewis, but when I was younger, I greatly enjoyed Orsen Scott Card’s books and I know I destroyed a copy of Where the Red Fern Grows. While I have read both Harry Potter and Percy Jackson, I never fell in love with them the way others did. I could appreciate the worldbuilding, and enjoyed aspects of the lore in both series, but I found more I didn’t like about them than things I did. So maybe they did influence me, but in a way that made me say, “I want my mentor character to never be compared to this character.” Or, “I want my characters and plot to be stronger than this.”

What will the next book in that series be about, and when will it be published?

Book 3, The Reflection of the Raidin, is available now! It launched June 25, 2024, and is all about the fact that the Human-Borns are now on the world of Tilion and are trying to figure out how to end the war with Caliga. (They don’t figure it out, because there’s still two books left in the series). Reflection is the book that shifts the series out of Young Adult and into New Adult, as the characters are growing, their situations are changing, the stakes are getting raised, and the themes discussed are deeper than your average upper YA reader might be ready to tackle.

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