In this episode, I . . .

Talk about how ideas evolve. My first published book, By Darkness Hid, evolved in many ways.
-The first nugget of story came from a science fiction-like dream I’d had.
-I started brainstorming the storyworld and made the decision to go with fantasy over science fiction.
-Another huge piece of the story was inspired by a half-burned tree I saw while on a walk with my then toddler son.

-A character in Megan Whalen Turner’s The Queen’s Theif series inspired a big change in Vrell’s character.
-I drew a map of the world filled with interesting places that helped.

The combination of all those things are what really combined to make the Blood of Kings story what it ended up becoming.