The first drafts of the four books that make Andarian Prophecy took about a year and a half. Fortunately, I had good notes and a solid idea of where the story was going to go. The last book took the longest. COVID-19 made writing very difficult with a little one at home.

I did use the organizational tools I learned during my career, however. I wrote extensive character notes, sketched flags, maps and scenes. I also have an excel spreadsheet for daily writing progress. The importance of setting goals cannot be emphasized enough, in my opinion. I religiously tracked word count throughout the process. In the beginning, my enthusiasm outstripped my goals. But revisions and the last half of Battle for Gavala benefited. I could predict when everything would be done, and the prediction pulled me out of more than one slump.

Some, yes. Each series will take place in the world of Arthos, but some of the timelines will overlap. The Arthos Sea trilogy will take place before the events in the Andarian Prophecy, but it spans many decades.

My plan is to expand the stories of some of the characters presented within the Andarian Prophecy after the Arthos Sea trilogy is completed.

Hmm. My gut reaction would be no. That's a bit of a chicken or egg question. My career choice was based on who I am, not the other way around.

My training in analysis and design doubtless creeps in. The first draft of Atrick's gamble had entire chapters devoted to the engineering marvels in Sko'Port, for example. I went to great pains to remove numbers from the logistics of war. I generated a notebook full of food, horses, soldier counts, types of weapons and armor during the series. Some people may feel like it is unimportant, but the scale of conflict would influence global politics.

Arthos has existed in some form since I was a child. My brother and I played RPG's growing up, and since we were military brats we didn't have access to Wizards of the Coast books. We created our own world to work with an AD&D second edition Player's Handbook we found. You might say the world of Arthos is an RPG open world. But it is more than that.

When I got into college, there just wasn't time to play anymore. But that didn't mean I forgot about Arthos. Over time, it evolved. The cultures of the Elves, Sullarians and Runlarians developed from their shared history. Arthos' origins became more important to me as I became more mature.

I want to expand the histories of the other nations in Arthos. Tolkien wrote the Silmarillion to encompass Elven history, but it took his whole lifetime. After finishing the Arthos Sea trilogy, I intend to create a timeline that people can search through.