I was riding horses by the age of 4, which helped to write a book set in this period. It’s easier to write about what you know. Can you tell us a bit about what parts inspired your real life? You must have also drawn a bit from real life. With Jillian in particular, I created a near-insurmountable obstacle to overcome and unleashed a ferocious lioness to attack it. My favorite characters are feisty female protagonists who refuse to conform to what is expected of them. Luckily, early readers found that it helped them picture the setting, so I fully embraced the method and ran with it.Īs a male author, what was your motivation to write a fantasy story focusing on two women fighting in a patriarchal society? I set out on writing the Euro-inspired story without knowing what the reader would think about my imaginary places obviously being taken from real places.

What went into creating the world Jillian and Natalia live in?Įurope - its people, its landscapes, its cities, and its history - inspires me to write. The story is set in a European setting despite being an epic fantasy world. Early drafts did not portray her as spoiled during her youth, but I preferred to show her evolve into a proper heroine, with her love of Jillian being the reason.

Natalia, being a person who puts others before herself, should be considered the enigma. Natalia’s character evolved more over the revisions than Jillian’s.ĭespite some readers finding Jillian too quick-tempered and unfair, my thoughts are that she is the direct result of her childhood. I wanted to create twin sisters who were subjected to the same cruel upbringing yet emerged from their circumstances with completely different personalities. Could you go into what it was like to create these characters and the work it took to evolve them throughout the story? Jillian and Natalia are deeply developed characters in this story.

The Last Lion of Karkov by Dale Griffin