Once Upon A Wonderland follows a young woman trying to find her love while encountering numerous challenges and life-threatening situations. What was the inspiration for the original and fascinating idea at the center of the book?

The first Wonderland story I wrote – Alice Falls Again – was a self-contained story, where Alice meets characters from the dark origins of popular nursery rhymes. However, when one reader said that the ending begged a sequel, a new story began to grow in my head, where Alice’s quest to discover herself and find love would be taken to the next level. The premise that saving Wonderland is tied to Alice saving herself is present in both stories, even if the second stand-alone story introduces characters from the sinister backstories of fairy tales. It would be disrespectful of me not to mention the overriding inspiration for my version of Alice’s adventures, namely Lewis Carroll’s masterpieces.

Your novel has some very interesting characters that have their character flaws but are still likable. How do you go about creating characters for your story?

On a very practical level, I first thought about their role in the main story – in the plot or sub-plots – as well as their motives, fears, likes/dislikes, habits and so on. At times, I felt like a profiler, building up a character profile from clues and bits of evidence. I even Googled and edited images that represented the characters’ physical appearance in order to bring them to life and sit beside me as I wrote. After that, the characters pretty much decided themselves what they did and said as I wrote the story. I knew that if I could keep them true to their characters, then they would reflect the fact that every one of us has strengths and weaknesses and, even in the case of a talking bear or poltergeist, be somewhat credible.

I felt that there were a lot of great twists and turns throughout the novel. Did you plan this before writing the novel, or did the twists develop organically writing?

In the first book – Alice Falls Again – writing was pretty much conscious stream of thought. However, with Once upon a Wonderland, I spent more time planning the plot, sub-themes and cadence, as well as character arcs. I’d say most of the twists and turns were either planned or a result of planning. But not all. For example, I was not aware of the major twists at the end of the story until I got there. I was as surprised as readers will hopefully be. There is a real risk in over-planning and something to be said for conscious stream writing, so I would never want to orchestrate everything beforehand. If I did, my characters would change things anyway.

I hope the series continues in other books. If so, where will the story take readers? 

Never say never but for now Alice is where she wants to be. I have two or three other writing projects that need my attention. On the other hand, life has a way of throwing you curveballs. Life is full of surprises and Alice knows that from experience. With so much curiosity and a strong will, some might say she even embraces upheaval in her life.

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