The Nephilem follows a down-on-his-luck drifter who ends up in the middle of a sinister conspiracy with supernatural elements involved. What was the inspiration that created the fantastic journey these characters go on?

The inspiration came from a good friend of mine Jay Astill. Over twenty years ago, when we met, he was a short story writer and a fork-lift driver in a warehouse before he moved up to Executive level and I was a part-time warehouse picker whilst doing my Multimedia Bachelor’s Degree. He shared with me a crime story about a set of characters involving Seth, Nathaniel, and Solomon Vaughn. We would sit in pubs and evolve these characters’ situations over pints and the Kartel of the Blood was born. That was the beginning of the shadowy syndicate. Because we are both competitive, I asked him if I could take the characters and do my own thing for them, and he said he would do the same. And we see who came out better. I used the world for these characters in University assignments for music, animation, script writing, motion graphics, and motion comics etc. as it gave me an easy creative platform. When I finished uni that’s when I began the idea of writing it as a novel, but I did want it as a graphic novel in the beginning, and my ambitions eventually saw it turn into a novel. I still have graphic novel ideas and artists waiting in the wings for the call to begin on those projects. As a result, art played a major part in this project. I actually had the artwork created whilst I was writing the book. The art helped me realise the atmosphere for each chapter.

The Kartel of the Blood was always the basis then it was about how do I connect Seth, Solomon, and Nathaniel to the Kartel in their own little way? But the idea really moved forward when I watched the first series of the TV show 24. It was the President’s wife, Sherry that I was fascinated with. Sherry evolved into a character called The Mountain Witch, inspired by Japanese Mountain witches in fact, then finally into the Moirae. It was then I tore down everything I built up to that point about the high fantasy crime world Jay had gifted me. I began to make a new contemporary world, where the Kartel would have a type of political-economic relationship with its stakeholders and victims. This evolved into The Eternal Game. So yes, it evolved over time. The supernatural element came with me reading and researching more about religion and nephilem to understand how mysticism weaved its fabric into the heart of the Abrahamic religions, how it’s at the core of our philosophical thinking and being. It was something that I wanted to explore and wanted the reader to feel without slamming religion down their throat. So it was about creating another cluster of characters that dealt with the human side of The Eternal Game’s path of destruction. And that is where Hyienna, Sarah, and Yasmina came from. They are collateral damage in a sense to The Eternal Game. When I studied what I created. I found the most human angle to tell the story was from their perspective.

What was your approach to writing the interactions between characters?

My touchstones were Gatsby, Seven Pounds, foreign films from the early 2000’s – Italian, French, and Spanish ones and actually myself! The rawness conveyed in the acting of foreign language films captivated me and inspired me. I just think of Hyienna as me in that situation, a little bit of Nick Carraway mixed with a couple of people I am actually friends with! My late-wife helped me with making sure the female characters were strong. She was a strong willed character, so the female exchanges came naturally from my experiences with her. I also love Neil Gaimen and there is an awful lot of Sandman-esque atmosphere happening in there. I tried to wrap the story in its cloak. I think I succeeded in the end.

When you first sat down to write this story, did you know where you were going, or did the twists come as you were writing?

I absolutely knew where I was going. I am a planner not a pantser sort of writer. I had a clear idea of the beginning and the ending. I had those in my head for years upon years, but I didn’t know how to connect certain dots to make the ending happen the way I envisioned it. I sought help and advice from other writers, from my wife a whole lot. I wasn’t sure if everything made sense. Even when I finished the book and gave it to my first beta readers all I really wanted to know is if the story made sense. Did I make it make sense? When I was happy that readers could make sense of it, then I was ok.

A few of the twists did come as I was writing and the story was evolving in a certain way, away from the rails I had initially planned. For example, Hyienna going back to the cave under the lighthouse early on evolved because the narrative needed it and not from what I initially planned. Part of the twist was messing up the structure of his hero journey that had been planned to do. I wanted his initial quest to end early and leave the reader wondering what comes next. It’s an idea I will continue to play with in future narratives. I also had a sense of what I wanted left unsaid and left unanswered. This was very important to me because of the supernatural element. Mysticism doesn’t provide answers, clarity yes, but not answers. Sometimes more questions are your answer because it is the mystic quest for answers that drives humanity. It’s not important if Nathaniel is or isn’t a nephilem in the end, it’s the consequences to the people around him who believe in him on either side of the fence that is important.

Can you tell us what the second book will be about and when it will be available for fans to purchase?

I actually have 2 books in the works right now. One book is called Rapha’s Spiral. It is set before The Nephilem. I guess the press will call it a prequel, but honestly I don’t really see it as that. For a start, there are no returning characters…well, actually just a couple planned thus far. But it focuses on another part of Spain and another part of the mechanism of The Eternal Game. This one has been hard going in its development, and it hasn’t come naturally to me. A bit like The Nephilem really haha! The other book is called Conceição, and this story is more focussed on a smaller cast of characters. It’s a “smaller” story; its tighter in scope than Rapha’s Spiral.

I am dealing with personal issues surrounding my wife’s death which I need to work through, and I am sure writing is one therapy that will help make sense of the world again. As such, I can’t really put a timeline on it. I’m 52, and I would love to have these 2 books published with full original illustrations for both paperback and hardback within the next 5 years, but I will see how it goes.

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When Hyienna, a down-on-his-luck drifter, gets involved in complex relationships and a mysterious rucksack, he finds himself at the centre of a sinister age-long conspiracy that threatens everything.

The Nephilem is debut novelist Exquil’ s unforgettable slight-of-hand turn, exploring life in Formentera, perfect for a set of escapists from mainland Spain, looking for survival in the unrelenting dry winds and lively sea of the mysterious Balearics.

Drifter Hyienna is gifted a mysterious rucksack on arrival to the sun-soaked paradise of Formentera. From there, he gets involved in his cousin’s complex relationships with the promise of redemption from a past he is determined to outrun.

But it soon becomes clear that escaping the past is not possible as a sacred mystery conspires to take grip and cost Hyienna everything he holds dear.

The Nephilem is romantic, bittersweet, esoteric and has hints of a larger more eternal conspiracy; one that is determined to reset the established imagery of its Balearic setting.

A trip to the Mediterranean will never be the same again.