Author, Christopher Goldthorn’s debut book, focusses on the Young Adult and older genre. After meeting him in a Facebook Authors group, I asked him these six questions about his book, The Godless Realm (The Heirson Chronicles Book 1). Here are his answers.

1. What inspired you to write this particular book? What was the spark or catalyst that got the story or idea flowing?

A: There isn’t really one moment I could pinpoint where I said “that’s the story I’m going to write!”. The Heirson Chronicles (the name for the overall series) was the culmination of several different elements. It started when I was about 9 or 10. I would sit a school and doodle maps in my rough book during lessons. Most of these would end up being created very basically in the ‘Age of Empires’ map builder when I got home, but one of them grew bigger and bigger until it took up two pages. That was what would become Rhydariel. Once I’d finished the map, I started thinking about what would happen there; what kind of place it was, the way it would be separated, how the various peoples of cultures would interact with one another. I’d been brought up on sagas like Lord of the Rings and Babylon 5, so I think it was natural for me to turn to that sort of style, and I went from there. I started writing properly when I was 14, and it’s been a “waves up the shore” kind of process since. I have now, 19 years later, finally got the entire story in place from beginning to end. All I have to do from here is write it.

2. Can you talk about a significant challenge you faced during the writing process and how you overcame it?

A: The biggest challenge I really faced was when it came time last year to finally stop procrastinating, realize that however much I tinkered with the story or rewrites it was never going to be ‘perfect’, and to take a story devised by a teenager and make it actually work. A lot of the ground work had been done, but getting over those final few hurdles was, for me, very tough. After having all of this world and everything that was going to happen in it in my head for so long, actually releasing it to the world to have a life of its own was one of the toughest things I’ve ever had to do. Also trying not to compare my book and its structure to any other works out there. The whole ‘your chapters need as many pages as they need – if they’re five or fifty pages long, it doesn’t matter so long as they serve the story’ mantra was something I had in my head a lot as I was editing and rewriting.

3. What do you hope readers will take away from your book, and what kind of discussion or impact do you envision it having?

A: I’ve deliberately tried to step away from making a pointed message to the reader – I prefer to let people draw their own inferences and make their own conclusions from all the work I do. There are messages for the characters within the story, and they make them quite clear to each other, but then they are in a specific situation. If anything, I would find it interesting to see what my readers would do if they found themselves in a similar position, and if they would have done anything differently to my characters.

4. How did your research (if applicable) shape the story or character development? Did you discover anything unexpected or fascinating during your research?

A: I didn’t really do a lot of research, other than reading more of other fantasy novels and sagas that I hadn’t previously. I suppose taking up Dungeons and Dragons, first as a player then as a Dungeon Master, has not only broadened my fictional horizons and given me more ideas to draw on, but it has also (particularly DM-ing) helped me hone my storytelling craft. Not just in terms of the words I use, but also the structuring and placing of story beats. That has been quite an eye opening learning curve, and one I continue to enjoy to this day.

5. What’s next for you? Are you working on any new projects, and if so, can you give us a sneak peek?

A: I have a number of other projects currently in the works; some long term and some that will be much quicker to complete. Since ‘The Heirson Chronicles’is a six book series, I’ve got books two through six that I am working on. I aim to have Book Two (“The Five Kingdoms”) available on Amazon no later than May next year, while work on the remaining books continues in the background. Outside of that, I have a Sci-Fi trilogy set in the far future that I am also in the early stages of developing. This is based directly off a Dungeons and Dragons game that I ran (albeit briefly)  few years ago, but the group fell away. However, I really like the story and I want to bring it to life, and now that I’ve published one book and have momentum it seems the right time to adapt it into a novel. Away from literature, I am developing an animated sitcom (again, in relatively early stages) that I hope to bring to YouTube and other streaming services, though that is someway off yet. It is very different to my writing work, both in style and subject matter, but I am equally passionate about it and look forward to sharing it with the world in due course. My wife and I also run a community theatre company in our local area, and we (especially she) pour a lot of our souls into that. We both love the theatre and we love bringing it to those who perhaps don’t have the opportunity to go to the West End.

6. Where can readers find your book?

A: Book One in ‘The Heirson Chronicles’ is entitled “The Godless Realm” and can be found in eBook, paperback, and hardback editions over on Amazon.