The Crimson Plains follows the inhabitants of a border town who are being threatened by a powerful enemy; alliances are forged in the name of survival. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?

The inspiration for the story actually came from an old daydream I had when I was a child. I grew up as a single child, so I often got lost in my imagination. One daydream I kept coming back to was a gigantic warrior facing off against goblins in a very muddy town/city. You can probably guess the scene in the book that pulls from that directly. Eventually, when I got into writing, that daydream fully came back to me, and since I had grown up, I decided to make the daydream grow up too. Now, since that particular daydream/scene is at the end of the book, I started working backward to see what events would lead up to that scene and what kind of characters would be involved with it all. 

I find the world you created in this novel brimming with possibilities. Where did the inspiration for the setting come from, and how did it change as you were writing?

That’s a bit of a difficult one to answer. I’ve always played a tonne of fantasy games, read a lot of fantasy books, and watched more than my fair share of fantasy movies and shows. I picked the technological period I always preferred, the late middle ages, and started throwing my own spin on things. I’ve always loved larger-than-life architecture, so that’s why the walls of Valenfaar’s Central Cities are way too big! A lot of the setting of Valenfaar came while I was writing it, ideas would pop in my head and I’d note them down to keep things consistent and I would just roll with it. I also looked at all the fantasy media I had consumed and looked at the things I liked (gigantic battles such as Lord of the Rings) and the things I didn’t like (prophecies/chosen ones) to make my world something that feels familiar yet refreshing. I never wanted magic in the reader’s face all the time, while I love magic, it can get exhausting to always have various fantasies throwing their own systems in your face like it’s the air the characters breathe. I wanted my magic to be a side thing, like any other trade: A town has a blacksmith or two, a carpenter or three, a herbalist or two, and a mage or two. It’s just another facet.

As for how things changed while I wrote, it didn’t change all too much since I kept my notes consistent, but I would say that the walls of the Central Cities did actually shrink a few times. Oh, and FAR more characters made it out alive than I had initially planned. Originally only 2 primary characters were going to make it to the end of the book but now many more make it through.

It seemed like you took your time in building the characters and the story to great emotional effect. How did you manage the pacing of the story while keeping readers engaged?

Ultimately I plan out all the major plot points ahead of time. Things like: “I want this fight to happen” and “I want so and so to die” but how we get there I rarely plot out. When I write the parts of the book that connect those major plot points I’m on just as much a journey as the reader. I pull back and look at it from a reader’s point of view. I start to ask myself questions like: “What would my friends and I like in this chapter if we were to read it?” and I plop it on in. What’s great about this method — as long as I keep my notes updated and don’t contradict myself — is that I get excited at certain points too. As for pacing, I’ve watched a fair amount of TV and I’ve tried to emulate the episode structure of shows that I’ve loved. Relaxing chapter here, build up there, battle here, drama there, and if I spend a lot of time in Plainsview, I’d try to pull away to Valen for a chapter as a quick breather. Ultimately though, I always wanted to approach the end of each chapter with a fade-to-black kind of feel. With some, if it was a cliffhanger, as a sudden black screen. Like a TV show. 

As for my characters, the bottom line is that I wanted them to be believable. When writing them I would essentially roleplay them and their perspective and even the narration would contain flavours of their personality or mindset. Not everything I wrote with my characters I agree with, and a lot of their thoughts I don’t agree with, but that’s the great thing about people, you don’t have to agree with someone to find them interesting. And it’s always fun to have a debate with yourself.

Can you tell us a little about where the story goes in book two and when the novel will be available?

Yes I can! The second book is actually detached from The Crimson Plains as it takes place at the same time as its predecessor but on the opposite side of the country. Throughout The Crimson Plains, you get references to children laughing, events happening in the west, and a “children’s song”. These are actually events taking place in the second book as news reaches the far east. The second book is titled The Children’s Song and follows the perspective of an older soldier, Garridan Lethar, as he’s tasked by the High Priest, Varen Highfold, to deal with a particular matter for the church. The book is actually already out! Because the events of The Children’s Song are separate from The Crimson Plains you can read either one first and not miss out. The second book contains more magic and religion than The Crimson Plains and has a completely separate cast of characters, though there is one scene that is shared with The Crimson Plains, it takes place from a different character’s point of view. For folks looking to see the continuation of Rel and Bronwin’s stories, they will have to wait until the 3rd book, Dance of Ashes releases next spring. The 3rd book will see the events and characters of The Crimson Plains AND The Children’s Song come together to deal with the problems plaguing their nation. 

Author Links: GoodReads | Twitter | Facebook | Website