This was the hardest book I’ve ever written, I think, with the possible exception of Intangible (just because I’d never written a full length novel before at that point!) I suspect that it seemed so difficult because I was trying to both draw from a real historical event (the lives of the biblical kings David and Saul), and also intersperse fictional elements. In this case, I set their story in a fantasy world with magic, added a love story with a princess of a rival kingdom, and at least initially attempted to interweave snippets of the story of the Knights Templar. All of this required massive rewrites, as my instinct is very much to do either a straight retelling (as in the Biblical Retellings series), or else to make up the whole story from start to finish. I probably won’t ever try anything like this again, but I’m glad to say I’ve done it once!
I also enjoyed bringing David’s story to life (Rion, in the realm of Tryferos). He’s one of my favorite biblical characters.
