Land of the Dragon follows two siblings navigating the aftermath of their father’s assassination after he assisted Jews in Nazi Germany. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?

I have been writing this book for half of my lifetime; I started at the age of 12 years old, and I had next-door neighbours growing up who were from Nazi Germany. My neighbours told me so many stories from their experience in Nazi Germany that really piqued my interest as a child and got me researching and studying more about World War II in Nazi Germany. That is where my inspiration started to develop this narrative for the start of Land of the Dragon.

I have studied and interviewed a lot of people who lived in Nazi Germany during that time, and I have really grown to believe this is an important time that we should not forget because we don’t want to repeat history. If we are not to repeat history, we really need to recognize what happened. It’s easier to repeat history if we do not remember and recognize patterns that happened in history.

Were you able to achieve everything you wanted with the characters in the novel?

You know, I have been writing this novel and going over it for just about 20 years, and I took my time because I really wanted to feel satisfied with Land of the Dragon when it was published. I have finally reached a point with it that I feel no regrets with the characters and the development of the characters.

I have based each of my characters on a personality from the 16 Personalities test. I studied those personalities because I wanted to make sure that the choices my characters made were not just convenient for the story but would be an actual choice the character would make. Just to name a few characters, Andrew’s character would be INFJ, Eleanor is ENFP, and Tara is ESTJ, all personalities from the 16 Personalities test.

What was one scene in the novel that you felt captured the morals and message you were trying to deliver to readers?

I believe the scene that really sets the stage and moral of the story for Land of the Dragon is when Israel speaks to Eleanor and Thomas and says, “Let me tell you both something, you can spend all your life living just for yourself or you can sacrifice everything you hold dear in order to stand for the truth that everyone ignores.”

It is so easy to paint reality to our feelings in the moment that the actual truth behind a situation can be easily lost. So that scene captures the message to Land of the Dragon that to be able to recognize the actual truth behind a situation sometimes you need to sacrifice your own beliefs and feelings to be able to see the situation as a whole.

What is the next book you are working on, and when will it be available?

So as a writer, I have a lot of stories being worked on but to focus it back to Land of the Dragon, this book is meant to be a series, and I have already planned out 5 books for Land of the Dragon. Land of the Dragon 2: The Return of Kiki is what I am working on. The book is already written out, and I am just taking my time to rewrite it and improve it before publishing. A rough estimate of Land of the Dragon 2 being published would be two years from now. I believe strongly in taking the necessary time to really develop the book and layer it out with details and symbolism. Like that quote says “You can’t rush art.”

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Original source: https://literarytitan.com/2024/02/11/stand-for-the-truth/