book of choice: Elegy of the Leaves (2and place in The Butterfly Awards)

1

The inspiration for the storyline itself is hard to pin down, but the inspiration for the state of the world came mostly from an anime called Granblue Fantasy. The storyline itself just kind of evolved naturally out of that as I began building the characters, and has thoroughly impressed me as it's grown.

2

so many things. The world it's set in is one I've worked on for over 9 years now. It's set far into the future of the series that takes place within the world, so although there are some things that are the same, I've had to build most of the state from scratch. Currently, finding time to write, and doing the action scenes are my biggest challenges, but in the beginning it was designing the airships. How they fly, how they navigate, what are the right terms for the different sides and levels. Now I feel like I could step onto a real ship as a seasoned sailor.

3

the emotional aspects of it. They're huge, hard hitting, and absolutely the most enjoyable part of crafting this story. The dynamic between the two main characters, brother and sister, Evan and Claire Montresser promises to fill the reader with a spectrum of emotion from anger and frustration, to joy, and to sadness. I get chills every time I write a heavy exchange between them and any of the supporting characters.

4

They love it. Almost everyone has commented on how real the characters feel, how epic the action is, and how visceral the world is. Very few have found things that didn't suck them straight into the story from the beginning.

This story is unique in that it serves as both a prologue and epilogue to my series while still being a stand alone novel that may or may not have a stand alone sequel. The story will absolutely conclude in this book, but a new one may arise for one of the main characters that's not a continuation of this one ;)

I think the best thing they can take away from this is that no matter what, family, whomever you consider it to be, will always be the most important thing. They're the ones that, despite the trials and tribulations you may face, will always be there to support you.

7

Ignore 99% of what other people say and write the story as you see it. That is, at it's core, the most important reason you began writing after all because you've read what you like and seen what you wanted to change in any story you've ever read, so you decided to write to tell the story you see the way you see it, not the way others wish you saw it.

Evan definitely does share some similarities with me. He has a tempered arrogance, and a desire to do what's right. Those are probably the two most commonalities aside from us both being military.

9

The characters. There aren't very many sibling tales where the relationship is front and center concurrently through the story. There's the lost sibling trope which is the more popular one, where one sibling sets out to find the other after they were taken, or they never knew the sibling existed until whatever plot twist, but stories where they go through the events together are definitely less common. Also, the plot twists. There's almost always some sort of twist or reveal in every chapter, and everyone is carefully woven into the narrative so that even those that come as a surprise, are enticing instead of jarring.

After I complete this one, I have some editing to do on the first book in my series, then this one, and finally, I'll continue on to the next book in my series. After that, it's unknown. Maybe I'll write the independent sequel to this one. ;)