Goodreads asked R.R.S.:

Where did you get the idea for your most recent book?

R.R.S. Piercing Midnight was ultimately inspired by the conflicts between North and South Korea. It is so intriguing to me that a nation once united could split into two completely different people and cultures and end up arch enemies. It's like something out of a dark fairytale. Because then I learned how, because of the conditions in the North, the North Koreans have evolved differently in height and body structure and skin tone. The two sides have been apart for so long that they are nearly different races. They each are their own culture with their own values and ideas and welfare and yet the most remarkable thing is that they speak the same language. They are still united under that, despite all that has separated them they cannot escape the past and the reminder that they are still ultimately one people. In terms of Raine's world, Fluxaria would be South Korea and Thgindim would be North Korea. I drew inspiration from accounts I read by North Koreans for what everyday life in Thgindim would be like and researched North Korean and Chinese propaganda, but other than that let my own imagination develop the mysterious mountains into their own individual nations. I thought I could add some mystery to the series as well by imposing a spiritual presence. In Piercing Midnight, the reader learns that Raine and Destan and even Irene are all under the impression that spirits separated the feuding people form each other, placing Mythland between them. And yet there is a somewhat significant lack of mystical presence in the book. And so it raises the question if the people have chosen to believe this rather than investigate whether or not they were once one mountain or if a long term battle caused the distance between them. There's also the chilling fact that no other foreign presence is mentioned in Piercing Midnight. Is it just Thgindim and Fluxaria? where's the rest of the world? Is there a rest of the world? Why is it only those two? I'll let you chew on that for now in terms of the world where everything is situated. For character inspiration I remember being in a ballet rehearsal and during a break doodling a blue haired girl and placing her within this world and figuring out everything about her right there and then. I'm not sure about Destan. He kind of just jumped out the woods at me. And for Chantastic, Irene, Velle, and Carmen, they were inspired by my real life friends.

flag