The Night Rider follows a curious boy whose friendship with a feared and hunted outcast forces both of them to question the legends, prejudices, and loyalties that shape their world. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?

That is a really great question. I’ve been working on this series for so long I almost don’t remember. In grade school I was always the kid in the library who would be reading all the books about fairy tales and Greek myths that I could find. I would literally have stacks of books on my desk that I had either read or was going to read, and I remember my teacher being really impressed with that. I was really into the fantasy genre even as a kid, especially Lloyd Alexander’s Prydain Chronicles. I do remember reading Great Expectations back then, and being particularly fond of the scene where Pip meets the escaped prisoner, Abel Magwitch, for the first time. There are several elements in that relationship that parallel the relationship between Marren and Yuriah. I think that was a huge inspiration for me.

How did you develop the friendship between Marren and Yuriah, and did you always know it would become the emotional center of the story?​

I did. What’s funny is that it was just a natural progression to where I wanted to take the story. It basically wrote itself. This whole series started when I was in my early twenties or maybe even in my late teens. The first book I wrote, which I never finished, was what will now be the fifth book in the Kingdomfall series called The Crown and the Maiden. That book started with Marren and Yuriah having already known each other for years, and I realized I needed more backstory. What I didn’t know is that I would have four novels worth of backstory before I could ever return to The Crown and the Maiden. Yuriah arriving in Angosia along with the burning ship just seemed like the best place to start the series. It was fun telling the story of how Marren and Yuriah first met.

Marren grows up hearing legends about elowan and other supposedly mythical beings. What interested you about exploring the gap between folklore and the reality behind those stories?​

I’ve always been fascinated by the way stories and legends can change over time. A real person, event, or culture can become something almost unrecognizable after being passed down through generations. Details get exaggerated, facts become distorted, and eventually people can begin to dismiss the original story as nothing more than myth.

That idea interested me with the elowan. Marren grows up hearing these stories and believing they belong to the realm of legend, only to discover that the reality is far more complicated. I liked the idea of turning that familiar fantasy trope on its head—not simply having a character discover that a mythical creature is real, but exploring what happens when the truth behind the legend is very different from what people have been told.

I also liked the idea that the legends might not tell the whole story. People tend to be afraid of things they don’t understand, and sometimes those fears become part of the stories we pass down. So as Marren learns more about the elowan, he has to start questioning some of the things he’s always believed.

What is the next book that you are working on, and when will it be available?

The next book I’m working on is The Seventh Mark, which is the third book in the Kingdomfall series. It continues Marren and Yuriah’s story as they try to deal with the curse that has followed Marren. They must figure out how they’re going to stop whatever is coming for him even though it seems impossible. There’s a lot more to the curse than they realize, so that’s going to take them in some interesting directions.

The second book in the series, Warrior-Born, is already finished, and it will be released alongside The Night Rider on October 1st. So readers won’t have to wait to continue the story after the first book. The Seventh Mark is currently planned for release around the middle of 2027, and I’m really looking forward to getting that one out there.

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