AUTHOR’S NOTE
One of the number one things we get asked as authors is “Where do you get your ideas?” And I usually reply “Everywhere,” but I realize that’s not a good answer. I’ve joked that my ideas are a sticky ball of trash (if you’ve ever played Katamari Damacy, you know what I’m talking about) and the ball keeps rolling around picking up random bits until it becomes a story. As I worked on Bull Moon Rising, I made a list of the major influences that made this story pull together for me. I thought I’d discuss them here. Enjoy!
Before we begin, I should explain that every story spends a little time on the back burner of my imagination before it becomes ready to write. This is where the ball of trash is quietly rolling around in the far reaches of my mind, trying to pick up enough bits to become a story.
One of the major bits for this particular story is the Royal Geographical Society. My brain goes down the rabbit hole on certain topics and I read nonfiction obsessively about the subject until I can figure out how to use it in a book. For a while, it was historical shipwrecks (which showed up in Sworn to the Shadow God) and then it was the Trojan War (which flavored a lot of Bound to the Shadow Prince). This book’s rabbit hole was the Royal Geographical Society—a club of sorts that, during the Victorian era, was devoted entirely to exploring and mapping the world as they saw it. Like most societies and clubs, it had all kinds of backbiting and hierarchies, and of course female explorers were rarely welcome. I thought Isabella Bird (note the bird) was particularly inspiring. It might have been a boys’ club, but Isabella Bird ignored that and did her own thing. She became a member—the first female member elected—and wrote books of her experiences. I knew I wanted to write a story about a similar sort of club and what it would be like as a woman explorer of the time. Add this to the rolling ball of trash.
A while later, I watched an archaeological documentary called Secrets of the Saqqara Tomb. This was such a great documentary about ancient Egypt. In it, they had teams of excavators that would get to work on the Saqqara plain—literally anywhere on the plain—and they would uncover something. Someone could be eating a sandwich on the side of a hill and would kick at the dirt and boom, an artifact. Another person could drag a spade over the sand and boom, a sarcophagus. Now, while this is an exaggeration to a certain extent (and probably for the film, too), I was fascinated at the thought of this entire buried civilization being…not so buried? Like, do people show up on weekends and just dig stuff out? Can anyone show up to Saqqara with a shovel and pail and hope to find something? I’m sure there are answers for those questions, but I preferred to let my mind noodle with this—so into the trash ball it went.
All of these background items really started to coalesce into a story as I played more video games during the pandemic. It’s no secret I have a love for a good farming sim, and Stardew Valley, My Time at Portia, Rune Factory, and the like feed my exploration need without my having to leave home. Most of these games have some sort of “cavern” component where you go in and uncover minerals and gems, and the occasional artifact.
What if there was an old civilization that was readily explorable and full of all kinds of life-changing artifacts? What if a guild had a stranglehold on who gets to explore and who doesn’t? What if that guild is a total boys’ club? How would my heroine handle joining them?
Vastwarren and the seeds of the Royal Artifactual Guild were born. I wanted my heroine to be this sheltered, rose-colored glasses sort who doesn’t realize that women aren’t supposed to want to join. And because I’m me, and I love monster heroes, I thought about what kind of hero would be best to pair with this world and how he would relate to the heroine. Immediately I knew that he would be a Minotaur, because who else is better in an underground maze of tunnels than a Minotaur? Obviously! The bird imagery and fledglings and bird names were inspired by Isabella Bird, because I love a really random throwback, and Magpie being the only woman in the guild was also inspired by her.
(Side note: I don’t know anything about Isabella Bird’s drinking habits. Magpie being an alcoholic was of my own making.)
I had to do more thinking about what sort of world would be so focused on artifacts dug up from an ancient civilization, so I placed my story in a world with feudal-society callbacks. Each hold is a small kingdom unto itself, answering only to the overall king. This causes all kinds of issues when it comes to the guild and how they deal with the holders and Aspeth herself. Holders are considered untouchable, so what do you do when one is in your midst and keeps fucking up? It was fun to find out. I also wanted their world to be one familiar with magic, but not so familiar that magical artifacts wouldn’t be prized. I wanted there to be more than humans running amok—there are actually five races but not all are around at the time of the story. I wanted things to truly feel like Vastwarren had this big, heavy history behind it and Aspeth and Hawk are only experiencing a small slice.
A few other items made their way into the story that I wanted to explore—tomb robbing, for example. One of the earliest “archaeologists” was an ancient Egyptian man named Khaemweset who was a son of Ramses II. At the time that Khaemweset was alive (he was born in approximately 1285 BC), tomb robbing was already very much a thing. Egyptian monuments were being destroyed and tomb robbers would set in quickly post-burial. Khaemweset was big on exploring and preserving the ancient tombs and temples of the Egyptian people. Which sounds bananas to us because he was ancient Egyptian, but when he was born, the pyramids were already about 1,300 years old. I liked the idea of the later end of the empire excavating the earlier end of the empire. Just another tidbit for the trash pile!
Another tidbit is the field that Aspeth and Gwenna pass at the beginning of the book. This was inspired by my childhood visit to the Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas, which is not a crater as much as it is a dirt field. You can show up and dig, and if you find a diamond, it’s yours! But literally…you are digging in a muddy field. People have found diamonds, though! They are there. The Crater of Diamonds also sees thousands and thousands of tourists annually, because who doesn’t love the idea of digging out a priceless object that will change your life?
Kipp was originally not going to be a large part of the book, but I kinda fell in love with the competent little guy. He was also originally going to have a talking role—like there would be a big reveal at the end that he could talk after all and just didn’t want to—but I rather liked Kipp’s unique way of communicating. Also remaining silent until the end seemed like a dick move, and that felt very un-Kipp to me. Giving him a different method of communicating was a good way to remind myself—and my characters—that everyone brings different strengths.
I have to say that while I loved writing this story, one of my favorite things to write in was Squeaker, Aspeth’s fat and very spoiled cat. Squeaker is derived from my big orange goof who passed away in 2022. She was a cat that loved to sprawl on a chest to sleep, never mind that she was fifteen hefty pounds. She loved a bowl of chicken, she loved to be carried like a baby, and she would “talk” to you with meows that were practically commentary. Squeaker also shed like nothing I’d ever seen before. It did not matter how often you brushed her; the moment you petted her, hair would be flying in the air. You learned to love bringing tufts of orange hair with you everywhere, because they’d show up no matter how much you tried to avoid them. She was also lazy, and messy, and had so much personality you couldn’t help but love her. I miss her every single day and adding her to this story allowed me to spend a little more time with her. If she seems ridiculous, I assure you she was, but she was also the best.
