3) what order do you write in? front of book to back? chronological? favorite scenes first? something else?

As mentioned before, we start at the very beginning and power through to the end, then realize what the story actually is, at which point we start from the beginning again and fix all the problems.

There are always a lot of problems.

5) character you were most surprised to end up writing

Havemercy’s magician/creator! We knew we wanted it to be a woman, but we were super torn on what she should be like, so we ended up basing her off Jaida’s amazing great-aunt, who was a force of nature. Inappropriate, crass, rude, never realizing how beautiful she was, fucked up from a rough childhood, and magical in so many ways. She also loved making rice pudding and kept her recipes secret to the grave. It seemed right somehow that she should be behind a dragon because she was a dragon, basically.

15) why did you start writing?

Loneliness; not good at acting; frustration with lack of dragons in day-to-day life.