Was the decision to start optioning The Band for television an easy one?

My friend Devon, who read the book three chapters at a time while I was writing it, was the inspiration for Larkspur, and Pete, the man-in-black who sits at the Riot House bar and radiates calm contentment, was based off of (and named for) a regular at my old restaurant who wore a Black Sabbath shirt every day of his life and remains the happiest man I’ve ever met. While plenty of other characters are inspired by music legends like David Bowie, Prince, or Pat Bentar, I’ve got a few friends who made it in as well. I’d like to think that if I were blind and we were joined at the hip, he’d go to every length to make sure the world I “saw” was a beautiful as possible. My brother lies-like, a lot-but always in service to telling a better story. My brother was also the inspiration for the two-headed ettin, Gregor and Dane (although they’re named for the Allman Brothers).

Have you used any other real world inspirations with any of the other characters? You have said there is a lot of your relationship with your brother written into the friendship between Clay Cooper and Gabriel (I am paraphrasing). That said, the death of one character can be a very useful tool for motivating another, which is why-Well, I suppose I’d better stop there… While this is a great tool for fostering tension and keeping the stakes high, I think it’s possible to do so while not killing off characters for shock value alone. When I wrote Kings of the Wyld I wanted it to be different from what I’d been reading for the last decade or so-which is to say books wherein the main characters could and would die at any moment. What difficulties do you face writing the death of a beloved character?

Of course, fantasy readers (and agents, and editors) love a good trilogy, so while I devised the plots of books two and three shortly after finishing the first, it was important to me that each book feature a new cast of characters, so as not to devalue the point of the first.

I wrote Kings of the Wyld to be a standalone book, since it’s very much a story about a band’s last great adventure. Did you know where the storylines of Bloody Rose and Outlaw Empire were heading when you wrote Kings of the Wyld?

Nicholas eames bloody rose