This is reply to Sirius’ question about where I get my ideas from. The first book, Guarding Stones was planned. I'd already thought up the character of Perry, and the characters of Iris and Coral are very loosely based on friends of mine. The primary ideas behind The Green Ring and The Blue Diamond came to me in a couple of vivid dreams years ago. The first two chapters of The Green Ring are more or less, just detailed descriptions of a couple of dreams. I seem to recall that one or two more chapters were based off of dreams too. They were further fleshed out in a series of mental wanderings while I was bored at work. You know those moments. When you are waiting for a report to generate, or are stuck on a two-hour conference call that has absolutely nothing to do with your job! I wrote the chapter, David’s Kitchen, on my phone while the power was temporarily out at work. (The power would go out at that office at least twice a year. Sometimes it would come back in a few minutes, other times it would take hours.)

When I started writing the stories out, I was often working rather late at night. Some of the ideas simply sprang out of nowhere. A good example is Coral’s bird feeder. I won’t go into details so that I don’t spoil it for people who haven’t read Guarding Stones, but I didn’t start off intending to add that detail at all. It just sort of happened as I was typing. I often end up laughing as I’m writing, as what’s being written is just as much a surprise to me is it is to my readers. In other words, I have an active and fertile unconscious that can sometimes turn on while I’m writing, but more often shows itself in dreams or daydreams.