Q
If you had to describe yourself in three words, what would they be?
A: Obsessive, loyal, and stubborn.
Q
Before you ask her, what three words do you think your wife would use to describe you? Write your prediction down first—no cheating. 😂 Then go ask her: “If you had to describe me in three words, what would they be?” Don’t show her your answers until she gives you hers.
A: My prediction was: stubborn, nerdy, and intelligent.
Her three were: creative, intelligent, and heart-felt.
So I got one exactly right. Apparently I expected her to be much harder on me than she actually was. I was completely convinced “stubborn” was making the list. 😂
Q
What’s something about you readers would probably never guess from your author bio?
A: I’m usually pretty emotionless in everyday life, but put on a movie I love with a really sad scene and apparently all bets are off. It doesn’t even matter how many times I’ve seen it. I know exactly what’s coming, and it still gets me every single time.
Q
Give me one completely random Alexander fact—the kind that makes people say, “Wait…seriously?”
A: I’m almost half the man I used to be—literally. At my heaviest, I weighed 423 pounds. I’m currently 236. So if you ever see an old picture of me and wonder, “Wait…seriously?” Yes. Seriously.
Q
What’s something completely unrelated to writing that you could probably talk about for four hours without even realizing it?
A: The Legend of Zelda. I could talk about the games, the lore, the timelines, the characters, the dungeon design, the theories, the things Nintendo definitely meant to connect, and the things fans have probably connected far more than Nintendo ever intended. Four hours might actually be underselling it.
Q
Who is the one person in the world who, if you met them face-to-face, would have you ridiculously fanboying and gushing over them—and why?
A: Denzel Washington. No hesitation. Man on Fire is, by far, the greatest movie I have ever seen. I watch it at least once every year, and I cry every single time. When Denzel and Dakota Fanning shared the screen again in The Equalizer 3, I actually cried—and it wasn’t even a sad scene. Seeing the two of them together again hit me that hard because Man on Fire means that much to me. I’ve also been hunting for a hardcover copy of A. J. Quinnell’s Man on Fire for years. Until I finally find one, my home library will never be complete. So yeah, if I ever met Denzel Washington in person, whatever composure I normally have would probably disappear immediately.
Q
What’s something you probably shouldn’t find funny, but you absolutely do? 😂
A: I’m a huge cinephile, so this one comes from a movie. Weapons is a serious movie about missing kids. I know it wasn’t meant to be funny, but for whatever reason, I found the entire movie hilarious. Not just one scene. The whole thing. I was sitting there in the theater laughing at moments I absolutely knew were not supposed to be funny, and the more serious it got, the harder it seemed to hit me that way. I still can’t fully explain why. It just completely broke my sense of humor.
Q
What’s one completely harmless thing—a pet peeve—that other people do or say that annoys you way more than it probably should?
A: People shaking their leg. I have no idea why it bothers me as much as it does, but if someone is sitting near me and their leg is bouncing nonstop, I notice it immediately and then somehow can’t stop noticing it.
Q
What harmless opinion or mindset would you defend even when everyone else is telling you you’re wrong? And why?
A: I’m color blind, so I will absolutely defend the position that the Minnesota Vikings’ background is blue. People can tell me it’s purple all they want. I know what they’re saying. It’s still blue to me.
Q
Name one thing you feel you are spectacularly bad at.
A: Whistling. I am spectacularly bad at it. Not “a little off-key” bad. I mean I genuinely cannot whistle.
Q
Do you have a completely useless talent? If so, what is it?
A: I can twist my tongue in both directions. It serves absolutely no useful purpose whatsoever, but apparently I can do it both ways.
Q
What are you surprisingly competitive about?
A: Scrabble. I can be perfectly relaxed about a lot of things, but put a Scrabble board in front of me and suddenly I care very much about winning.
Q
What do you enjoy doing when you’re not writing? Any particular hobbies?
A: Woodworking. I used to spend a lot of time in my shop, but when I started driving truck, it fell by the wayside. The shop has gathered dust, some of the tools have rusted, and I haven’t really been able to get back to it. I miss it more than I expected. There’s something about taking raw wood and turning it into something with your own hands that I love. Honestly, one of the things I want most is simply to get back into that shop and start building things again.
Q
You wake up tomorrow with absolutely nothing you have to do. No deadlines, no writing or editing, no work, no household chores, and no bills to pay. How would you spend the day?
A: That sounds wonderful. I’d like to say I’d spend the day in my woodshop, but if I’m being realistic, I’d probably end up in my home theater watching old movies and hanging out with my puppy. No deadlines, no responsibilities, just a good movie, a comfortable seat, and my dog nearby. That sounds pretty close to perfect.
Q
What’s something you’ve always wanted to try, do, experience, or learn but haven’t gotten around to yet?
A: I’ve always wanted to learn how to play the guitar. I’m tone deaf, which probably doesn’t help my chances, but I still think I could learn if I really committed to it. Maybe not well enough to impress anyone, but well enough to enjoy it.
Q
What’s something about yourself people might be surprised to see or know? Maybe it’s a side of you that only comes out around people who really know you.
A: My serious emotional side. Childhood trauma taught me pretty early to keep a lot of myself behind a thick layer of dry wit and sarcasm. That’s the version of me most people see. The people closest to me know there’s a much more emotional person underneath it. I think that’s also why the emotions in my stories come through so strongly. On the page, I don’t have the same instinct to hide them. A lot of what I keep guarded in real life gets expressed completely through my characters.
Q
If your family or friends were allowed to tell us one funny Alexander story, what kind of trouble would we hear about?
A: There is an Ambien-induced escapade involving a snowy night, a pair of boots, and me wearing nothing but my underwear. That is probably the story they would tell. And honestly, I think that is already more information than anyone needed. 😂
Q
You’ve been an entrepreneur, over-the-road truck driver, construction worker, and cell-tower climber. Which job gave you the best stories?
A: The one I didn’t mention: my time in the Army. Nothing else has given me quite the same collection of stories, personalities, ridiculous situations, and experiences. Some are funny, some are serious, and some probably shouldn’t be repeated in an author spotlight. 😂
Q
Did anything you learned from those jobs unexpectedly make its way into your writing? Maybe a lesson, an experience, or even an interesting characteristic you picked up from someone you met along the way?
A: Construction, definitely. A lot of Arden’s craft and the way he works with his hands comes from my own experience. There’s also a heavily edited version of that in the scene where Rafi fixes the wheel. The danger for me is that I know the tools and the process well enough that I can start putting far too much of it on the page. Sometimes I have to remind myself that the reader probably doesn’t need a full breakdown of every tool being used just because I happen to know exactly how the job would be done.
Q
If you could go back in time and give your younger self one piece of advice or one warning, what would you tell him? And no cheating with lottery numbers, winning teams, or ways to make yourself rich.
A: Avoid tequila. That’s it. That’s the advice. Younger me would know exactly why.
Q
You carried Andellian around in your imagination for about fifteen years. When did you decide you actually wanted to write it?
A: 2015. For about four years before that, I had been playing the plot of Forge and Shadow through my head every night while I was falling asleep. It started fairly simple, but the story kept growing—more characters, more scenes, more of the world—and eventually it became so large that it was taking me forever just to get through it all and fall asleep. That was when I realized I actually needed to write the damn thing.
Q
What finally made you stop just thinking about the story and actually start writing it?
A: Honestly? I wanted some damn sleep. The story had gotten too big to keep carrying entirely in my head, so writing it down became a way of finally getting it out of there. It worked, sort of. Now when I finish writing a scene, I don’t replay that scene in my head anymore. Unfortunately, the next scene immediately takes its place. Apparently Andellian has no interest whatsoever in letting me sleep.
Q
Did you always imagine yourself becoming an author, or did that come to you later?
A: I think I’ve always wanted to be an author. When I was about twenty, I told a senior officer in the Army that I wanted to write a book someday. He laughed and asked, “What could you possibly write about?” I was young, and I think he saw that as proof that I hadn’t lived enough to have anything worth saying. I never forgot it. So I already know what I’m seriously considering for the dedication in the final book of The Scar of Andellian: “For Paul, because you said I couldn’t. Fuck you.”
Q
What surprised you most once you actually started writing the novel?
A: How much the story grew in the telling. Originally, The Scar of Andellian was supposed to be a trilogy. But the plot I once thought would fit into the first book eventually became both Forge and Shadow and Oaths and Sacrifice. The characters grew too. Some people who were supposed to pass through the story ended up carrying emotional arcs I never planned for. Marven is probably the best example. His PTSD wasn’t something I sat down and outlined in advance. It emerged as I wrote him and started understanding what his experiences would realistically have done to him. That surprised me more than anything—the realization that once the story was alive on the page, it was going to become much larger and more emotionally complicated than the version I had carried around in my head.
Q
What part of writing came naturally to you? And which part was the most frustrating?
A: Worldbuilding came the most naturally, mostly because I had already built so much of Andellian in my head before I ever started writing. Ironically, worldbuilding was also the most frustrating part. I had so much of it already worked out that I wanted to put all of it on the page. The history, the cultures, the places, the systems, the little details—I kept adding more because I knew it was there. And in the first manuscript, it became overwhelming. So the thing that came easiest to me was also the thing I had to learn to control the most.
Q
Was there ever a point when you questioned yourself and wondered why you thought writing a book was a good idea in the first place?
A: Absolutely. The first time I got a genuinely negative beta review, I had one of those moments where I thought, “Why the hell did I think I could do this?” Until then, the book had mostly existed in this protected space between me and the people who already cared about me. A negative beta review was the first real reminder that once you put a story in front of other people, they’re going to see every weakness you missed. It stung. But after the initial reaction wore off, it also made the book better. I learned pretty quickly that criticism doesn’t mean the story is worthless. Sometimes it means someone found the exact place where you still have work to do.
Q
Are you a planner, a discovery writer, or somewhere in between?
A: Somewhere in between. I usually know the major plot beats and where the story ultimately needs to go, but I leave a lot of room for discovery along the way. The characters are the biggest source of that. Their emotional arcs, relationships, and even some of their decisions tend to develop as I write them. Sometimes I know what needs to happen in the plot, but the character I’ve created forces me to find a different way to get there. So I plan the road, but I don’t always know exactly what’s going to happen between stops.
Q
Do you usually write scenes in order, or does your brain sometimes hand you a scene from much earlier or later than where you are and demand that you write it now?
A: I write in order. I’m not sure I could move forward if the scene I’m currently working on wasn’t finished. Even if I know exactly what happens later, my brain needs the story to get there in sequence. I can think ahead, but I can’t really skip ahead.
Q
Do you ever talk through the dialogue, make your characters’ expressions, argue with them, or do anything else that would look questionable if someone walked in at the wrong moment?
A: Definitely talking through dialogue. I’ll say both sides of a conversation out loud to hear whether it actually sounds natural, and apparently I make the expressions too. From the outside, I’m sure it looks like I’m angry and arguing with myself. Which, technically, I suppose I am.
Q
What’s the strangest thing you’ve had to research for Andellian? Have you ever researched something that, if someone saw your search history, would immediately have you saying, “Wait, I can explain.”
A: Looking up how much force—and what kind of explosion—it would take to turn a mountain into a lake definitely comes to mind. There are probably a few searches in my history that would require explanation, but that one is near the top of the list. For the record: fantasy novel.
Q
What’s the worst research rabbit hole you’ve fallen into?
A: Religion. I went down a very deep rabbit hole researching different religions and religious institutions—their structures, sacraments, doctrines, hierarchies, and the reasoning behind why particular traditions developed the way they did. I wouldn’t call it unnecessary, because a lot of that research eventually helped shape the religious institutions in Andellian. But it was incredibly time-consuming. Religion is one of those subjects where you look up one small detail and suddenly you’re three hours deep into theology wondering how you got there.
Q
Do you keep organized notes about Andellian, or is an alarming amount of it still stored inside your head? When random ideas come to you, do you write them down for later?
A: It started almost entirely in my head. For years, an alarming amount of Andellian existed only in memory—characters, history, future plot points, little pieces of lore, all of it. That has changed a lot. Now the series is much more organized, with the story laid out in a detailed roadmap and supporting notes instead of relying on me to remember everything. Random ideas still tend to start in my head, but these days I’m much better about getting them recorded before they disappear—or contradict something I decided three books ago.
Q
What’s the funniest note, placeholder, temporary name, or reminder you’ve ever left yourself while writing?
A: Dwyren’s original name was Dwight. I was watching The Office while I was writing Chapter 6, needed a name, and apparently my brain just grabbed the first one sitting nearby. Thankfully, Dwight did not survive the drafting process.
Q
Do you have any personal writing “rules” you’re perfectly willing to ignore if the story works better without them?
A: Not really. The story is evolutionary, and I don’t like putting artificial constraints on it. I want characters, relationships, and even parts of the world to have room to change if the story gets better because of it. There are a few things I treat as fixed—the government structure of Welton, the temples, and the magic systems—but outside of those foundations, I keep things pretty fluid. So I guess my rule is not to make too many rules.
Q
When you’re stuck on a scene or something just isn’t working, what usually helps you get past it?
A: Take a break. If a scene isn’t working, I’ve learned that forcing it usually doesn’t help. Sometimes I need to step away and let the problem sit until I understand what’s wrong with it. And I mean really step away. I’ve gone months with a chapter sitting half-finished because I knew something about it wasn’t right and I wasn’t willing to push forward just for the sake of finishing it. Eventually the answer usually comes. I’d rather wait for the right version than force the wrong one.
Q
Are you someone who can easily delete a scene, character, or idea when you realize it isn’t working, or do you have trouble letting go of something you’ve already put a lot of time into?
A: I usually fight to save it first. If I’ve put real time into a scene, character, or idea, my instinct is to find a way to make it work rather than immediately throw it away. And if it truly doesn’t belong in the main series, I’m much more likely to repurpose it than delete it completely. I’m planning an anthology series, so some of those abandoned ideas may end up becoming short stories of their own. Very little in Andellian ever really dies. Sometimes it just gets relocated
Q
Why did you ultimately decide to publish independently and create Andellian Press?
A: Creative control and ownership. I wanted Andellian to remain mine—the story, the world, the decisions, and the rights to all of it. Independent publishing gave me that. I’m also not doing this because I expect to get rich or become a bestseller. Would I be ecstatic if either happened? Absolutely. But I try to keep my expectations grounded. What I really want is for someone to care about this story. If I can get even one reader to reach the end of the series and desperately want that final book the way I’ve spent fifteen years waiting for The Winds of Winter, I think I’ll be happy. That would mean Andellian mattered to somebody besides me.
Q
What part of independent publishing has been more complicated than you expected?
A: ARC distribution has been more complicated than I expected. Finding the right readers, reaching out to them, figuring out who might actually be interested in the book, and then waiting to see what they think has been its own learning curve. But the harder part has probably been preparing myself for the fact that eventually someone is going to hate it. I know intellectually that no book works for everyone. That doesn’t make it especially easy to send something this personal out into the world and know that a negative review is inevitable. I think learning how to accept that without letting it change how I feel about the story has been one of the harder parts of publishing.
Q
What publishing decision are you happiest you kept in your own hands?
A: The story. More than anything else, I’m glad I kept that in my own hands. This is mine. I can listen to feedback, take criticism seriously, and change something when I believe the story is stronger because of it. But no one else can make me change Andellian simply because they think their version would be better. I’m willing to improve the story. I’m not willing to surrender ownership of it.
Q
Looking back now, what’s one thing about writing or publishing you wish you had learned sooner? If you could give that advice to yourself when you were just starting out, what would you tell him?
A: If you have an idea, put it on paper. Don’t wait until you think you’re experienced enough, talented enough, or ready enough. Let it out and see what it becomes. Worst case, you learn something. Best case, it turns into something much bigger than you ever expected. And if nothing else, it might help you sleep better.
Q
Let’s go all the way back. What was the very first piece of Andellian you imagined, wrote, or created?
A: The very first scene in Chapter 1—the rock alcove. That was the first piece of Andellian I ever really saw clearly. Before the series became what it is now, before all the history and politics and character arcs grew around it, that scene was there. In a very real way, the entire world grew outward from that rock alcove.
Q
Who was the first character you created? Did the characters come first, or did you build the world before you really knew who would be living in it?
A: Alistair. The first character I really created was the idea of a flawed god—one who chose to go against the very nature that was supposed to be his divine purpose. That concept came before most of the people who would eventually inhabit Andellian, and in a lot of ways it became the catalyst for the entire series. The world and its characters grew around that question: what happens when even a god can choose against what he was made to be?
Q
How different was that original idea from the story we eventually got?
A: The actual story has stayed surprisingly close to the original idea. The overall plot has always moved in basically the same direction. Certain pieces have been rearranged, expanded, or even flipped completely on their head for dramatic effect, but the destination never really changed. What changed was everything around that spine—the characters became deeper, relationships grew more complicated, side stories became important, and what I thought would fit into three books became much larger. So the original story is still there. It just grew into a far more complicated version of itself.
Q
What’s the oldest part of Andellian that survived those fifteen years almost unchanged? And what changed the most?
A: The oldest parts of Andellian are probably the opening rock alcove, Alistair, and the core direction of the story. Those survived remarkably close to what I first imagined. What changed most were names—character names and book titles. Forge and Shadow was originally called Cold Iron right up until I was preparing it for Amazon. Then I discovered someone else had already used the title and, apparently, intended to use the next two titles I had planned as well. I had never heard of the series before that.
Arden and Keera have probably had four or five names each, although Arden was always going to have an A-name and Keera a K-name. Then, recently, I discovered there’s a spicy novel out there with main characters named Arden and Keera, which was slightly infuriating. Apparently you can spend fifteen years trying not to copy anyone and still eventually discover that someone, somewhere, had the same idea.
Q
Why do you think Andellian stayed with you for so many years instead of becoming one of those ideas that eventually disappeared?
A: Because I feel so closely connected to the characters and their lives. Writing Andellian has given me a way to process parts of my own trauma without having to talk about them directly. A lot of what I carry emotionally ends up finding another shape through the characters, their choices, their losses, and the way they keep moving forward. So I think the story stayed with me because, in some ways, I needed it. Cheaper than therapy, too.
Q
Was there a character who seemed to arrive almost completely formed? On the other hand, who took you the longest to create or really figure out?
A: Arden arrived almost completely formed. This was always his story, and he really hasn’t changed at his core. He’s stubborn, bullheaded, inwardly angry, and absolutely incapable of walking past someone who needs help without getting involved. Keera was the complete opposite. I don’t think she was fully formed until I finished Forge and Shadow. She kept revealing herself as I wrote, and somehow she has very quickly become the favorite character for a lot of readers. That surprised me. Now I feel a real responsibility to make sure I do her arc justice, because I know people are invested in her. I’ve got big plans for Keera. Arden will stay much more grounded. Keera is going to be world-changing.
Q
Did anyone start out as a minor character and become much more important than you originally planned? Or did anyone turn out completely different from the character you first imagined?
A: Marven, definitely. He started much smaller than the character he became. His PTSD developed as I wrote him, and it gave his story much more weight than I originally expected. He’s not finished yet, either. He returns in Book Four. But there’s another character readers haven’t met yet: Dusty. Dusty was originally meant to be comic relief. That was basically his job. Instead, he is very quickly becoming one of the emotional hearts of the entire story. Apparently I’m not very good at creating “minor” characters.
Q
Has a character ever ruined one of your plans because you reached a scene and realized, “They would never do that”—or that the choice would turn them into someone you didn’t want them to be? What did you end up changing?
A: Roderick. He was originally supposed to stay nameless—just someone in the background who served a purpose and moved on. But he kept getting involved. The more I wrote him, the more obvious it became that standing on the sidelines wasn’t who he was. He had opinions, loyalties, and a tendency to step into things whether the plot had made room for him or not. Eventually I had to stop pretending he was just a nameless character and let him become Roderick.
Q
Did anything unexpected happen while you were writing that gave you a new idea and ended up becoming part of Forge and Shadow? Maybe even something readers would assume you carefully planned from the beginning that was actually just a very fortunate accident.
A: The connection Arden has where he can somehow feel Keera. That wasn’t part of the original plan. When the first book grew large enough that it needed to become two books, I needed a way for Forge and Shadow to end gracefully. Later, I also needed a believable reason for Arden to eventually stop hunting for Keera. That warmth he feels when he focuses on her became the answer. It gave him a way to know she was still there—and eventually, that it was okay to let her go. What started as a practical solution became a meaningful part of their connection.
Q
Do pieces of people you’ve known in real life ever find their way into your characters—whether it’s a friend, family member, coworker, acquaintance, old school bully, or even someone you couldn’t stand? Maybe a personality trait, habit, mannerism, sense of humor, or way of speaking?
A: Everywhere. A lot of it is completely conscious, too. I borrow mannerisms, bits of humor, ways of speaking, and personality traits from people I’ve known all my life. I’ve even got jokes planned throughout the entire series that came directly from friends over the years. So if someone who knows me reads Andellian and thinks, “Wait, I’ve heard that before,” there’s a decent chance they have.
Q
Do any of your characters have little pieces of you in them? Have you ever written something and only realized afterward, “Oh. That’s me”? What about your wife? Do any of your female characters carry some of her personality, traits, or mannerisms?
A: Absolutely. Arden’s mental health is probably the clearest piece of me on the page. A lot of what goes on inside his head—what he carries, what he hides, and the way he processes things—is drawn from my own experience. My wife is in there too. There’s a small piece of her mentioned almost in passing in Book Two, but she shows up in a much bigger way in Book Three. I’m going to leave it at that for now. So yes, pieces of both of us are scattered throughout Andellian. Some are obvious. Some probably won’t be obvious until much later.
Q
Has anyone who knows you personally ever recognized a little piece of themselves—or someone else—in one of your characters and asked, “Wait…is that supposed to be me?” 😂 And were they right?
A: Not yet. But my best friend is in Book Two, and I didn’t exactly hide him very well. His character’s name is almost identical to his real name—I just swapped two letters around. So I’m curious to see how long it takes him to notice.
Q
Has someone you really didn’t like ever inspired part of a villain or particularly unpleasant character? No names needed. If so, was putting a little piece of them on the page at least somewhat satisfying?
A: Oh yes. Someone I really didn’t like absolutely inspired part of a particularly unpleasant character. And yes, he gets his in Forge and Shadow. I won’t name names, but I’ll admit it was satisfying.
Q
Authors supposedly aren’t supposed to have favorites, but who’s your favorite character? Be honest. No one’s judging you.
A: Magnus. He’s just fun to write.
Q
Who is the most fun to write, and what makes them so much fun?
A: Magnus. What makes him so much fun is that he very obviously cares about Arden, but that does absolutely nothing to stop him from tormenting him every chance he gets. The affection is real. The torture is just a bonus.
Q
Who makes you laugh the most, and who gives you the most trouble when you’re writing them? Why?
A: Magnus probably makes me laugh the most. His relationship with Arden gives me a lot of room to have fun. Tifa gives me the most trouble. There’s a lot going on with her that I can’t reveal yet, so I’m constantly trying to make sure I do her justice without accidentally giving too much away. I know where her story is going, but getting her there while protecting what the reader isn’t supposed to know yet can be difficult.
Q
Which character surprised you the most as they developed?
A: Keera. She really became her own person as I wrote her. Arden embodies a lot of my trauma on the page. Keera is my wonder. She carries more curiosity, possibility, and change than I ever expected when I first created her, and watching her grow has surprised me more than any other character.
Q
Is there a character you think readers misunderstand or don’t give enough credit to? What do you think they’re missing about them?
A: Nelly. She’s a horse. No one expects her connection to the entire world.
Q
If something went seriously wrong and you had to depend on one of your characters for survival, who are you looking for first? And which one could say, “Don’t worry, I have a plan,” and immediately have you thinking, “We’re doomed”?
A: Keera. If I had to depend on one character for survival, I’d want her. She’s probably the most capable person in the series. Magnus, on the other hand, is the one who would worry me. If he looked at me and said, “Don’t worry, I have a plan,” I’d immediately start wondering whether Jaegon’s reservations about him had been right all along.
Q
If you could actually choose one of your characters as a friend, who would you pick and why? And who do you love writing but know you’d have absolutely no patience for in real life?
A: Lililil is the one I’d actually choose as a friend. Braymont is the one I’d love writing but probably couldn’t tolerate in real life. He’s just too pretty.
Q
Who gives the best advice? And who should absolutely never be asked for advice?
A: Magnus is both. He probably gives the best advice in the series. He is also absolutely the person you should never ask for advice unless you’re prepared for whatever chaos comes attached to it.
Q
Who could actually keep a secret? And who would somehow have all of Andellian knowing it by breakfast?
A: You haven’t met Dusty yet.
Q
Which character has the most backstory living in your head that readers haven’t seen yet?
A: Magnus. There’s a lot more history behind him than readers have seen so far. A lot more.
Q
No spoilers: Which character should we be paying closer attention to?
A: Tifa. Pay closer attention to her.
Q
And give us one name with absolutely no context other than: Remember this person.
A: Tifa. Remember this person.
Q
What originally made you fall in love with fantasy, and what genres and tropes do you naturally gravitate toward now?
A: The Lord of the Rings is what made me fall in love with fantasy. I loved the scale of it—the history, the mythology, the feeling that the world existed long before the characters entered the story and would continue long after them. As far as tropes go, I tend to gravitate toward found family, damaged or reluctant heroes, morally complicated characters, ancient secrets, and ordinary people getting pulled into events much larger than themselves. I also love stories where the stakes are enormous but the emotional core stays personal. You can threaten the entire world, but I’m probably going to care more about whether two characters still trust each other when it’s over.
Q
What’s the quickest way for a book to lose you or end up on your DNF list? Are there any popular tropes or character types you’ve finally accepted just aren’t for you?
A: Unnecessary sexual violence. If it genuinely serves the story, the character, or the reality being portrayed, I can understand why it’s there. But if it feels like it was included purely for shock value or to make a story seem darker, I lose interest very quickly.
Q
What are your hard nos as a reader? Is there anything you simply won’t read?
A: That’s really the only hard no I’ve found so far. Unnecessary sexual violence is the only thing that has made me DNF a book.
Q
What’s your bookish kryptonite—the trope, character, creature, story element, or kind of story you have a hard time saying no to and could probably read a hundred different versions of?
A: Humor where I’m not expecting it. I love a story that can be serious, dark, or emotionally heavy and then suddenly land a genuinely funny moment without breaking the tone. That kind of humor gets me every time.
Q
What kind of character gets you invested almost immediately?
A: Flawed characters. If someone feels too perfect or too infallible, I lose interest pretty quickly. Give me someone who makes mistakes, carries baggage, gets things wrong, and still has to figure out how to move forward. Perfect characters are boring.
Q
Which fictional character created by another author are you far too attached to? What made you like them so much?
A: Jinx from Arcane. She’s deeply flawed, damaged, unpredictable, and constantly fighting against herself as much as anyone around her. You can understand why she makes the choices she does even when those choices are terrible. She’s tragic without ever feeling simple. I think that’s what keeps me attached to her—she’s the exact opposite of an infallible character.
Q
Has becoming an author changed the way you read other people’s books? Do you catch yourself noticing things now that you probably never would have noticed before?
A: Oh gods, yes. Continuity and timelines jump out at me now in a way they never used to. Apparently, once you’ve spent enough time trying to keep track of who was where, when something happened, how long a journey should take, and whether two events can actually coexist on the same timeline, you start noticing very quickly when other books treat those things as loose suggestions. It has absolutely changed the way I read.
Q
Has another author ever influenced the way you approach storytelling—not by making you want to write like them, but by showing you something about pacing, character development, worldbuilding, humor, or storytelling that made you think differently about your own work?
A: Humor. Kevin Hearne and Matt Dinniman especially changed the way I look at fantasy. The Lord of the Rings is a masterpiece, and I love that kind of sweeping, serious fantasy. But Hearne and Dinniman showed me how much humor can do inside a fantastical world. Used well, humor doesn’t make the world feel less serious. It can actually make it feel more real. People joke in terrible situations. They tease each other, use sarcasm, say inappropriate things at the wrong time, and sometimes laugh because the alternative is falling apart. That kind of humor grounds a fantasy world for me.
Q
Was there a particular review, beta-reader comment, or reader reaction that stuck with you?
A: The first beta reader who really connected with Keera. Until then, I don’t think I had fully seen her for who she really was. I knew who she was in the story, but seeing someone else respond to her so strongly made me realize there was much more there than I had consciously understood. That was probably the first time it really hit me that these characters didn’t belong only to me anymore. A stranger had connected with Keera in a way that actually changed how I saw her.
Q
Has a reader ever interpreted something in Forge and Shadow in a way you never intended, but you thought, “You know what…that actually works”?
A: Someone made a guess about what was really going on with a character that seemed to come completely out of nowhere. And they were exactly right. I remember reading it and thinking, “How in the hell did you get there?” Apparently I had put more on the page than I realized.
Q
Has a reader ever given you an idea that made you think, “Damn, I wish I’d thought of that”?
A: Not yet. But I’ve got my pen ready to take notes. If a reader comes up with something better than what I planned, I’m not above stealing from my own audience.
Q
Is there anything you put into Forge and Shadow that you thought was incredibly obvious, but readers keep missing? Or has anyone caught something you really didn’t expect them to notice yet?
A: There are definitely some things I’ve put on the page that I think are pretty close to “slap you in the face” obvious. So far, though, the only reader who really caught something I didn’t expect them to catch was the one I mentioned before—the person who somehow figured out what was going on with a character from almost nothing. There are still other things I’m waiting for someone to notice. I’m curious how long it takes.
Q
What reader reaction makes you happiest to hear?
A: When someone asks for the next book. That makes me genuinely happy, because it means someone else loves these characters enough to want more time with them. I get a similar feeling when I finish writing a chapter and immediately want to read it again. That excitement is what I’m always hoping a reader feels too.
Q
What’s something you understand about authors now that you didn’t fully understand before becoming one yourself?
A: How easy it is to care about these characters. Before I started writing, I understood that authors could be attached to their characters, but I didn’t really understand what that meant. Now I do. After spending this much time with them—building their histories, putting them through terrible things, watching them change—they stop feeling like pieces on a board and start feeling like people you’re responsible for. It becomes surprisingly easy to care about what happens to them.
Q
What’s your ultimate comfort food?
A: Macaroni and cheese. No hesitation.
Q
What’s something completely unnecessary that you still happily spend money on?
A: Legos. Completely unnecessary, absolutely enjoyable, and somehow they keep multiplying. I also spend more money than I probably should on hardcover editions of books I’ve already read. My home library is only about half full, and I’m determined to fill it properly. No paperbacks on those shelves.
Q
What show or movie can you rewatch endlessly and still enjoy?
A: Scrubs. I’ve watched it so many times that I can recite the punchlines before they happen, and somehow that has never made them less funny. At this point, I’m not even sure I’m watching the show so much as performing along with it.
Q
What’s something from childhood you still love just as much now?
A: Reading. When I was a kid, I would climb a tree just to get away from everything, find a place to settle among the branches, and disappear into another world for a while. I still love that feeling—the sense that a book can take you somewhere else completely. The only difference now is that I usually stay on the ground.
Q
What’s one small thing that can instantly make a bad day better?
A: A text from my son. I recently became an empty nester, and I’m not going to pretend I enjoy it. It sucks. So when my phone lights up and it’s him, even if it’s just a quick message about nothing important, it can make a bad day better almost immediately.
Q
When you’ve had enough of people and need to disappear for a while, where do you go or what do you do?
A: My home gym. It’s its own kind of therapy for me. When I’ve had enough of people or just need to clear my head, that’s where I disappear. There’s something about putting all of that frustration, noise, and restless energy into something physical that resets me better than almost anything else.
Q
What’s the most random object sitting near you right now?
A: Mjolnir. Because apparently having Thor’s hammer sitting near my writing space is a completely normal decorating choice.
Q
The world is ending. Which fictional character are you trusting to keep you alive?
A: Gandalf. Not because I think he could keep me alive. If it really were the end, I’d want him there to reassure me about what comes next. Green fields.
Q
You’re about to make a terrible decision. Which fictional character is trying to talk you out of it, and which one is already grabbing their coat and asking where we’re going? 😂
A: Tanis Half-Elven would be the one trying to talk me out of it. Atticus O’Sullivan would already be moving over and asking where we’re going.
Q
You have to live with one fictional character for a year. Who are you choosing? And who would have you looking for somewhere else to live by Day Two?
A: Gorm Ingerson for the year. He feels like someone I could actually live with. Kaladin Stormblessed would have me looking for somewhere else by Day Two. I love the character. I just don’t think I could survive that much brooding under one roof.
Q
You get one completely ordinary, plot-free day anywhere in fiction. Where are you going?
A: Rivendell. If I get one completely ordinary, plot-free day anywhere in fiction, that’s where I’m going. No quest. No war. No Ring. Just one quiet day in Rivendell.
Q
You can bring one object, creature, magical item, or completely impossible thing from another fictional universe into the real world and keep it permanently. What are you taking?
A: Bob the Skull. No hesitation. If I get one impossible thing from another fictional universe, I’m bringing Bob here permanently.
Q
Someone hands you $500 and tells you that you absolutely cannot spend it responsibly. What are you buying?
A: LEGO Gondor. The problem is that the $500 still wouldn’t cover it. So apparently someone giving me $500 specifically to spend irresponsibly would result in me immediately spending another $250 of my own money. I think that means I understood the assignment.
Q
If your life were a book, what star rating would readers give it—and what would the one-star reviews complain about? 😂
A: Probably two stars. The one-star reviews would all be variations of the same complaint: “Why did life have to hurt this much?” And honestly, that would be fair.
Q
The “ugly rabbit” scene made me laugh way harder than it probably should have. Where did that come from? Please tell me someone in your real life has insulted your artistic abilities that badly.
A: My son. He’s a genuinely talented artist. I am not. He is also an ass. That whole exchange came from the kind of relationship we have, where he has absolutely no problem looking at something I made and telling me exactly what he thinks of it. So Michel calling Arden’s work “an ugly rabbit” was very much pulled from real life.
Q
Magnus quickly became one of my favorite characters because of the way he constantly messes with Arden. Was he always that funny, or did that side of him develop as you wrote him?
A: Magnus was originally much more serious. The humor came later, after I started reading more fantasy that used comedy really well and realized how much it could add without weakening the story. Once I understood that humor could make a world feel more human instead of less serious, Magnus changed. And honestly, I think he became a much better character because of it.
Q
Arden dreaming about a peaceful life with Keera, a forge, a garden, and a family absolutely got me. Without spoiling anything… should I keep hoping they eventually get some version of that life, or am I setting myself up for emotional damage?
A: I can see a version of peace for them. The forge. The garden. The family. A life that’s much smaller and quieter than everything they’ve been pulled into. I know what that peace could look like. I just hope I can get them there.
Q
The relationship between religion, the gods, Light, Darkness, and the Stranger feels much more complicated than simply “good versus evil.” Was that something you intentionally wanted to explore from the beginning?
A: I grew up in East Texas going to church every Sunday. That shaped a lot of the divine conflict in Andellian. I wanted to explore the idea that organized religion isn’t infallible, and that being taught another religion is wrong doesn’t necessarily make it so. People inherit beliefs, traditions, and interpretations from the people who came before them. They can believe those things completely and sincerely—and still not have the whole truth. That’s a large part of why Light and Darkness were never meant to be as simple as good and evil.
Q
Which god came first when you were building Andellian?
A: Alistair. He was the first.
Q
One of the things I found most interesting was that the gods themselves don’t seem entirely infallible. They make mistakes, disagree, and even question whether the balance they created still works. Was that always part of the larger story you wanted to tell?
A: Yes. That’s really the central theme of The Scar of Andellian. No institution is inherently good or bad. Institutions are made up of people, and those people are shaped by the lives they’ve lived, the things they’ve been taught, the wounds they carry, and the choices they make. I never wanted Light to automatically mean good or Darkness to automatically mean evil. People are more complicated than that. So are gods.
Q
Arden doesn’t seem especially religious, yet Grace finds him anyway. Magnus even suggests that maybe Grace isn’t about Arden having faith in the Light, but the Light having faith in Arden. I loved that idea. Is that something readers should keep in mind as the series continues?
A: Because what comes next in Andellian isn’t really about worship. It’s about whether or not you’re a good person. Arden doesn’t need to be particularly faithful for Grace to find him, because Grace isn’t necessarily a reward for believing hard enough. The idea is that the divine can recognize something worthy in a person whether that person is kneeling in a temple or not. That’s what Magnus is getting at when he suggests that maybe Grace is about the Light placing faith in Arden instead of Arden placing faith in the Light.
Q
Should readers keep thinking about the divine conflict as Arden and Keera’s story continues, or is that something that stays more in the background for a while?
A: Readers should absolutely keep thinking about it. The divine conflict is part of Arden and Keera’s lives, but not immediately. The first two or three books are much more about them growing into themselves—figuring out who they are, what they believe, and what kind of people they want to become. The gods come later. And when they do, they are going to complicate their lives considerably.
Q
What do you think is the most important thing readers should understand about the gods in Andellian?
A: That they aren’t perfect. They can make mistakes. They can be blinded by grief, anger, pride, or fear. They can hurt people they love, make the wrong choice, and misunderstand what’s happening around them. But they can also learn. They can grow. Being a god in Andellian doesn’t mean being infallible. It just means their mistakes can have much larger consequences.
Q
Rorfargon seems to occupy an interesting place between Light and Darkness. Is he truly neutral, or is his role more complicated than simply refusing to choose a side?
A: Rorfargon forged the scales. His role is to maintain the balance between Light and Darkness, so he isn’t simply refusing to choose a side. He’s looking at the larger structure and asking whether the balance itself is still serving the world the way it was meant to. And in Book Two, we learn that even his understanding of that balance can grow. He maintains the scales, but that doesn’t mean his interpretation of what balance requires can never change.
Q
Do you have a favorite god to write? And which one would you least want to accidentally piss off?
A: Rorfargon. He’s my favorite because he isn’t afraid to use the impolite side of his hammer when the situation calls for it. He’s also probably the god I’d least like to irritate, for exactly the same reason.
Q
Arden’s connection to the forge feels like much more than simply his profession. Why was it important to you that he be a blacksmith?
A: I needed Arden’s strength to come from something other than Grace. The forge gives him strength that is entirely his own—earned through work, repetition, skill, and physical effort. It keeps him from being defined only by whatever the divine has given him. The craft also grounds him in the world around him. No matter how large the story becomes or how much the gods eventually intrude into his life, Arden can still put his hands to something real and make something with them.
The forge is part of what keeps him human.
Q
The Temple of Light has a lot of political power in Welton, and the Order of Truth feels like much more than simply a religious organization. Was that relationship between religion and government always part of the worldbuilding?
A: I always knew the Temple of Light would be deeply woven into how the Kingdom of Welton was governed. The paladins were always going to serve as judges, so religion and state authority were never meant to be completely separate. The Order of Truth grew out of the stories of the Stranger. As devotion to the Stranger began spreading, I figured the Temple wouldn’t simply ignore it. It would see that growing belief as a threat to its own influence and position.
So the Order was created partly as a political response. They travel throughout the kingdom performing visible acts of good, trying to reinforce the Temple’s place in people’s lives and counter the growing devotion to the Stranger. But they also became something more practical: an investigative and enforcement arm for the Temple—almost a kind of special police force. So despite the name, the Order of Truth wasn’t born entirely from some noble search for truth. It was born from politics.
Q
There are a lot of names, titles, and little details throughout Forge and Shadow that feel like they could be hiding something. How much do you enjoy sneaking meaning into things readers may not notice the first time through?
A: I foreshadowed the hell out of it. It’s in the names. That’s all I’m saying.
Q
You mentioned cutting a lot of worldbuilding from Forge and Shadow. Is there anything you removed that you still wish readers could have seen?
A: I cut about 40,000 words of worldbuilding from Forge and Shadow. At the time, I also regretted that some of the characters who become much more prominent in Book Two didn’t get introduced earlier. I don’t regret that anymore. Looking back, Arden and Keera needed this book for themselves. Forge and Shadow needed the space to establish who they were before the world around them became larger, louder, and more crowded. Those other characters get their time. But this one belonged to Arden and Keera.
Q
Since Forge and Shadow originally grew out of a much larger manuscript, how much of the ending had to change once you decided it needed to become its own book?
A: The entire ending and climax are new. When I finally accepted that the original manuscript was simply too large to remain one book, I had to create a proper ending for Forge and Shadow instead of just cutting it off at a convenient point. That meant going back into chapters that had been finished for years and adding or changing things so the first book would build naturally toward its own climax and end cleanly. So while the larger story stayed the same, the way Forge and Shadow reaches its ending changed considerably.
Q
Which chapter of Forge and Shadow gave you the most trouble to get right?
A: Chapter 9. I never want to see the earlier versions again.
Q
We need to talk about Penny. Your eight-pound Yorkshire terror already sounds like she runs the house. How much authority does she actually have over your writing schedule, bedtime, and general decision-making? And since she’s thirteen now, has she reached the age where everyone is simply expected to understand that Penny is in charge?
A: Penny has an unreasonable amount of authority in my house. She dictates bedtime, and she absolutely affects how quickly I write. My productivity drops considerably when I have to type one-handed because she has decided my other arm belongs to her. She’s thirteen now and very set in her ways. My son left us his three-year-old Border Collie when he moved, and Penny hates him. Completely. No ambiguity there. She also makes this absolutely terrible sound whenever anyone other than me tries to pick her up, which happens more often than you’d think because she’s tiny and adorable and people assume that means she wants to be held. She does not. But Penny means a lot more to me than the jokes probably suggest.
I got her when she was five. About six months earlier, I had lost my old man, Drogo, a Miniature Pinscher. After losing him, I gave myself what I thought was an unattainable condition for getting another dog: my next one would be a Yorkie. Part of it was because I loved the ridiculous image of a 400-pound guy walking around with this tiny little dog. But I also knew I was never going to spend thousands of dollars buying one, so I figured it probably wouldn’t happen. Then one day I passed a pet store that was holding an adoption event. On a whim, I stopped. And there she was.
I reached into her little cage, picked her up, and she immediately nestled into my arm and stuck out her tongue. I cried. While I was filling out the adoption paperwork, the workers kept asking if this was really the same dog. Apparently she hadn’t let anyone pick her up all week. She let me. I walked out with Penny, her AKC papers, and nothing more than the adoption fee. So yeah, she’s an eight-pound Yorkshire terror. But she also showed up at exactly the time I needed her.
Q
Without giving away anything you don’t want readers to know yet, what can you tell us about Oaths and Sacrifice?
A: Book Two is where Andellian starts getting bigger. Forge and Shadow needed to belong primarily to Arden and Keera. In Oaths and Sacrifice, the world around them begins opening up. There are more characters, more of the Temple and its Orders, more politics, and a much clearer sense that the things happening to Arden and Keera are connected to something larger than either of them understands yet. At the same time, it’s still very much about the two of them growing into who they’re going to become. The title is probably the best spoiler-free description I can give. It’s a book about the promises people make, what those promises demand of them, and what they’re willing to give up for the people and things they believe in. And some of those sacrifices hurt.
Q
Was writing Book Two easier because the world and characters were already established, or harder because now you had to keep track of everything you had already put into motion?
A: In some ways it was easier because the world already existed. In other ways, that made it worse. I’m very serious about continuity, so once the story started expanding, I had to keep track of timelines, travel, character knowledge, prior conversations, relationships, injuries, history, and all the little details that had already been established. That part is tormenting. The more Andellian grows, the more things there are to accidentally contradict.
Q
Give us three words to describe Oaths and Sacrifice. And should readers be excited, worried, or emotionally preparing themselves? 😂
A: Bigger. Darker. Costlier.
And definitely all three. Be excited, be worried and emotionally prepare yourselves.
Q
Once The Scar of Andellian is complete, do you already have another story or world you’d like to explore, or are you refusing to let your brain get that far ahead yet?
A: I already know there’s another story I want to explore someday. It isn’t Andellian. At least, not exactly. It’s a whole new world. Sort of. For now, I’ll give you one word: Svagloseeva. Remember it.
Q
After 114 questions, is there anything I somehow didn’t ask that you were sitting there thinking, “I can’t believe she didn’t ask me that”? 😂 Consider this your chance to tell readers absolutely anything you want them to know—about you, your books, Andellian, what’s coming next, or anything else we somehow missed.
A: After 115 questions, I’m honestly not sure you missed much. 😂 The only thing I’d add is that underneath all the worldbuilding, gods, trauma, continuity headaches, sarcasm, and bad jokes, I genuinely love these characters and this world. I started writing because I couldn’t get Andellian out of my head. Now one of the best parts is knowing that it lives in someone else’s head too. So no, I wasn’t really expecting another question. At this point, I’m mostly impressed you found 115 of them.
Although I suppose I should mention one thing: I may be looking for beta readers for Oaths and Sacrifice soon. Just saying.
