Legends Unearthed follows young adventurers as they decode a wartime notebook, evade dangerous treasure hunters, and discover that the true test is not finding a legendary hoard, but deciding what to do with it. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?

I’ve always thought it was incredible that there are real lost treasures in the world. I kept wondering, What if I actually found one? Around the same time, I wanted to challenge myself to write a fun adventure novel and prove to myself that my dyslexia wouldn’t stop me from becoming an author.

At first, I imagined one person finding a lost treasure, but I realized it would be much more interesting if a group of friends discovered it together. Then I started thinking about how that could realistically happen. A family trip with close friends traveling together seemed like the perfect setup, giving the characters opportunities to explore different locations, solve puzzles as a team, and face challenges together. From there, the story just kept growing until it became Legends Unearthed.

How did you develop the distinct personalities and complementary skills of Sam, Riley, Ava, and Jonah?

The four friends are really different parts of my own personality. I think everyone has different “voices” in their head depending on the situation, and I thought it would be fun to turn those into separate characters. Jonah is the part of me that’s always thinking about snacks and would rather avoid anything involving ghosts. Ava is the tech genius with skills I wish I had — she’s the one who keeps the adventure moving. Sam is the planner who likes to think everything through before taking action, and Riley is the brave one who’s willing to take risks.

Putting those personalities together made the team feel balanced and made the adventure a lot more fun to write. Sometimes we’re cautious like Sam, sometimes we’re adventurous like Riley, sometimes we’re curious like Ava, and sometimes we’re just hoping there’s food nearby like Jonah.

What research did you conduct to portray Filipino landscapes, foods, transportation, family terms, and cultural heritage authentically?

One of my favorite parts of writing the book was spending hours on maps of the Philippines, trying to find terrain and locations where the treasure could realistically be hidden. I wanted readers to feel like the adventure could actually happen — that the places were real, the routes made sense, and the landscape matched the clues the characters were following.

Beyond the maps, I researched Philippine history, animals, famous landmarks, local foods, common transportation, family terms, and cultural traditions. I also watched travel videos and read firsthand accounts to better understand what everyday life actually looks and feels like there. The goal was always to make the setting feel as authentic as possible, because the Philippines itself is such an incredible backdrop for this kind of story.

Why was it important for the treasure to become an ethical dilemma involving looted cultural property rather than simply a reward for the characters?

I wish I could say I planned that from the very beginning, but it actually came out of trying to make the story realistic. If I found a huge hoard of gold on a family vacation, my first thought would probably be, “This is amazing — I want to keep it!” But then I started asking practical questions. How would you even get it out of the country? The parents would have to get involved, and suddenly the story would become about a family trying to take cultural property that didn’t belong to them.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized the right thing for the characters to do would be to turn most of the treasure over so it could be preserved and shared — maybe in a museum where everyone could appreciate it. My original ending was actually for the kids to simply hide the treasure again so another group of adventurers could find it someday. But I ended up liking the final ending much better because it felt more believable. I think real kids might keep a small souvenir, but they’d eventually realize they couldn’t keep the rest — and that doing the right thing was the real victory.

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