Scorpion Knight follows a battle-scarred former knight whose dream of a peaceful ranching life is threatened by political intrigue, dangerous loyalties, and a turbulent empire that refuses to release him from his past. What was the inspiration for your story?

As with all my stories and characters, there is no direct inspiration other than ideas I want to explore. The idea behind Scorpion Knight is a man, the main character Amos Kern, who has been through figurative Hell – he started as a young, naïve man and came of age, or rather was forged, in a war in one of the harshest places you can imagine. That kind of thing ages a man rapidly. In that regard, some inspiration was drawn from young Marines who served in Afghanistan and Iraq (I used to be a journalist, and covered the Afghan conflict). But what becomes of a man like this when the conflict, or his time involved in it, ends? And that’s Amos Kern’s situation. Obviously, he wants a peaceful life. I cannot imagine a life more peaceful than working with the land and animals in some fashion (which is my life when not writing). But the real world is not so simple nor accommodating—it is a hard struggle to achieve one’s dreams, especially the dreams worth having. And that’s Amos Kern’s story. And those difficult events he must overcome are part of the larger story unfolding in the Mountain Lords world. But overcoming them, surviving the storm, as it were, may mean going through the storm. So where Amos Kern wanted to find peace after his time in service, he faces yet more conflict, a new kind of conflict, before he can have his peace. And sadly, there is no guarantee that he will find his peace—the real world often has different plans for us than what we hoped.

Amos’s survival at Baldy Fortress has left him with painful memories and complicated relationships. How do these experiences influence his understanding of loyalty, courage, and freedom?

Amos Kern entered service as a young, naive man (in his teens), fresh off the farm and with precious little worldly experience. And he was thrust into a conflict in the desert, a harsh, unforgiving place, against an enemy likewise forged in the desert. During his time there, as part of his survival, he formed strong bonds with other, more experienced men—a brotherhood of life lived rather than blood. In that horrible, unendingly hostile situation, he grew and aged quickly by necessity. So when Baldy Fortress fell, he lost his home, his brothers, and all that he had known and come to rely on. So he is not only alone, but he has lost everything that gave him meaning. That’s a hard place to be, but he must survive all the same. Still, the experience has shaped Amos Kern so that he truly understands what it means to give your word and then stand by it, and to stand by another person, and that makes him a better man for the next stage of his life and the next tasks required of him (which is the journey of Scorpion Knight). He had taken an oath of honor, dedication, and loyalty at the beginning of his long military training, but by the end of the crucible of the desert, he knows what those words mean, and he knows what it is like when they are returned by others.

The Mountain Empire blends medieval traditions with a distinctly Western frontier atmosphere. What drew you to this combination, and how did it shape your world-building?

When I got started writing novels, I heard a lot of advice: of ‘write what you know’. Okay, I’ll go with that, I said. I have lived and worked in the American West most of my life. My great- grandparents were pioneer settlers traveling in a covered wagon to a land still wild and opening up where people were still afraid of a Comanche attack, and my grandmother was a little girl in the back of that wagon. For three generations, my family lived and worked on the Western frontier, and I grew up in that heritage. It’s my roots. As for the medieval element, I’d always been interested in knights and castles as a boy, like many young boys, and from the age of six I grew up reading medieval fantasy like Terry Brooks, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Robert E. Howard. So I knew and loved that genre well. That’s how I got started with this fusion of classic medieval with Western frontier. In my stories, you’ll see knights and desperados, swords and lariats, walled villages and Indian tribes with tipis, castles and cattle drives, kings and cattle barons, and, like my life, they are harmoniously fused together in such a way that it seems natural. And I like to believe it gives a fresh spin on both the Western genre and the Fantasy genre.

With political rivalries, religious institutions, and hints of prophecy shaping the story. How did you balance these larger forces against Amos’s desire to control his own destiny?

The people of the Western frontier, where I grew up, have always been independent and self- reliant. Their own lives and families come first, and society and its institutions come… somewhere down the list below their favorite horse. In fact, society’s institutions are a hindrance to the lives of the people of the Western frontier who just want to live in peace. And that’s not only the disposition of Amos Kern but is the cultural mindset of the world he lives in. So that creates this teetering imbalance and tension between people and their desire for independence, and the powers of society that seek to control them. For the touch of prophecy/spiritualism, there has always been that in people’s lives, more so in the lives of people in the wilderness. That can sometimes be a guiding element in their lives, or sometimes a more forceful element. It’s rare, and not unique to Amos Kern, and that helps with his decision-making process when prophecy comes to him. Other characters are aware of this spiritual reality, how it works, and can thus offer their insight. Otherwise, Amos would be hard-pressed to understand what he’s supposed to do with prophetic visions, and which way to turn in his life. And we, the readers, would have a hard time accepting the decisions and actions made. Amos still has the agency to turn left or right, but he’s receptive to and responsible for what a higher spiritual power is trying to show him for his betterment. Again, it’s a teetering balance, a tension, but now between a mortal man and the eternal, the sacred and the profane.

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