Interview conducted by Donovan M. Neal, author of The Third Heaven series:

 

On occasion I like to introduce my reading audience to authors similar to myself who

are writing in the genre of Christian Fiction.  Today I am happy to present such a person

in author Keanan Brand, author of the book Dragons Rook.

 

So tell us about your book. Why did you write it and who is it targeted towards?

 

This book is twenty years or more in the making. It began as a short story I wrote after a weird dream in which a girl falls asleep while ill and travels to a strange land where the various kingdoms are known by the colors of their flags and the map looks similar to a chessboard. Very Alice in Wonderland.

 

Then the world expanded, and I wrote several chapters of a novel, but the story stalled, and I never quite knew why people did what they did or lived as they lived. That’s when the world not only expanded once more, but the history grew deep and the characters became real.

 

At first, the story was targeted more toward younger readers, making it typical “coming of age” fantasy, but my characters skewed older, so I let them dictate the story’s direction. Contrary to advice and concern, that hasn’t kept pre-teen readers from enjoying Dragon’s Rook. However, there are grownup themes and a measure of violence that pushes the novel toward an adult readership.

 

 What advice would you give new novelists?

 

“Patience, grasshopper.”