I’ve been asked so many times how I’m able to create intricate imaginary worlds. Every time I try to answer, I’m stumped. I don’t know how I do it; I just write what I see in my head. Once a world is complete, the steps I took to create it are lost to me. As I was starting my next series, which takes place in a fantasy world, it occurred to me that this was a great opportunity to chronicle my process and see if I can break it down into steps.
So, where to begin?

I always start with a feeling. Every world will have a multitude of environments to offer and all of them will undoubtedly present a different ambiance. But a world begins with one location. One mood. Is it dark and creepy or light and uplifting? Heavy with tension or ridiculously cheerful? For my new series, The Dragons of Serai, I wanted something gritty. My MC is an assassin so my first view of this world will be through the eyes of a hired killer. Someone who lives in the midst of a bustling city but most hold pieces of himself apart from others.

I think it’s important to remember that when you write in first person as I do. Yes, you are describing something from your mind, but you are also filtering that description through another person. You must see their world as they do in order to present their experience accurately to the reader.

So that’s where I’ve begin. The crowded city of Mhavenna on the planet of Racul, full of unusual races of immortals and mortals. A world ruled by Dragons where humans are the lowest rung on the social ladder and sometimes the only work to be had is bloody.
I can’t wait to explore!

Okay, so you’ve got the mood you want and the scene is starting to unfold. You might start constructing that scene with architecture. That’s a fair path to take. I, however, think it’s better to start with the people of the world. Especially if you’re writing fantasy, the various races of your world will influence the environment. Besides, it’s the people that are going to feature predominantly in your story. And if we’re developing people, it’s best to start at the top. Who is your main character? What is their race? Are they a forest dweller or do they prefer a city? In The Dragon King’s Assassin, I began with my MC who is human and then decided who I wanted him to interact with. At first, I was went with the usual suspects of fantasy characters—Ogres, Werewolves, Fairies, Mermaids etc. The world I’m building revolves around Dragons after all; it seemed appropriate to add all these other well-known races. But once I started writing, they fell short for me. I was bored. I knew these people already and that meant I slipped into standard characters that I’d written before. I didn’t want that.

So I thought about it. I wanted one recognizable race that readers could immediately get a concept of what they were dealing with simply by the label. And I had that with the Dragons. No need to go further. Why couldn’t I have one identifiable race and then the rest be purely from my imagination? Even the Dragons would be my version of them. So I started coming up with new races and the attributes of those races helped me flesh out the rest of my world. I had begun with a crown city full of most of the world’s races and in developing those races, I learned not only that there were forests on the planet, but what type of forests. That yes, there were mountains, but these mountains were predominantly rocky peaks and that rock was gray. These are just minor examples, I don’t want to bore you with all the intricate details of my characters. The point is that with every feature you add to the people of your world, you also change your world. To make a very simple example; if you decided to have Mermaids, your world would need some type of water. So, the next step in building your world is creating its natives.

Now that you’ve got the atmosphere of your world and created people to inhabit it, you need to decide how advanced the civilizations on your world will be. Are they primitive? Somewhere around the middle ages? Equivalent to our modern capabilities? Beyond them? Or is this a world that doesn’t have a comparable time period on Earth? Perhaps you’re going steampunk. Or maybe there are several levels of advancement, depending on the race. If you go that route, you’ll need to give some thought as to why each race has different technologies. This could be a great jumping off point for stories. Maybe the races don’t mingle or are at war. Maybe they’re at war because of this difference in technology, as I did with the Demon race on the planet of Hell in my Spectra Series. My advice would be to really delve deep into the knowledge your world has as a whole and for each race that inhabits it.

Knowledge, intelligence, and technological advancement plays a huge role in what a world looks, feels, and even smells like. Will the world be full of skyscrapers and flying cars or castles and carriages? Will the weather be warm from chemical pollution or scented with exhaust? Or is the air cool and humid from the many aqueducts in use and the predominant scent that of salty sea breezes? So much information can be found in the technology you develop for your world.

Once you’ve established how technologically advanced your world is, it becomes easier to decide on what types of buildings your world’s inhabitants will make. Advanced races will probably live in something more sci-fi, but this is your world, so maybe your advanced race has learned to live in harmony with nature. Everything you’ve decided upon previously comes into play here. If the mood of your world is dark, you’ll want architecture that feels heavy or even creepy. If you have a more lighthearted mood, cottages with thatched roofs might be a better choice. Then there are your natives. Do they have special needs? For instance, a winged race might prefer to live on higher ground or maybe even a home that hovers. They’ll need wider hallways and taller ceilings. While a race with hooves might need floors with a bit of traction so they don’t go sliding about.

Region is also important when deciding on architecture. If the area is arid and hot, you might want structures to combat that. Again, high ceilings would do well. But if the region is cold, lower ceilings would condense the heat. My advice is to find a region of Earth similar to the one you’re creating architecture for and see what humans built and why. You can still make up your own style of buildings while keeping aspects that make sense.

Lastly is aesthetic. The culture of your world’s inhabitants will influence the artistic additions to your architecture. Are your people inclined to making everything beautiful? Then even the outside of their homes would reflect that. A quick scan of architectural embellishments online should give you ideas on jazzing up the buildings on your world. Or maybe you want to go the opposite route for a more Spartan type of feel. You might want to go with clean lines and very little decoration. You don’t have to describe every detail of every building in your book but I like to pick a few key things that give an overall feeling to a place. For instance, domed roofs combined with a desert region can give an Arabic atmosphere while a colonnade can make people think of Greek temples. Pick the details that really speak to you and use them wisely.

We’ve come to the final step of world building (for me). Money. Currency is important to any civilization but what you use for currency is very important. If you’re going for a fantasy feel, you might want to go with the standard coins made with different types of precious metals. This is what I did with the Dragons of Serai, and that might seem like a cop out to many people. By all means, get as creative as you want to be, so long as it fits your story. If you’re writing humorous fantasy, you could make the currency something really outrageous and it would only add to your story. The important thing here is that it make sense and not detract from your world. Coins are a common choice for a good reason—they make sense and they’re easy for most of us to relate to. If you’ve been creative with your natives, technology, and architecture, I feel as if you shouldn’t have to strain yourself about the money. As a reader, it doesn’t really matter to me. What do I care about the type of currency the characters are exchanging? Not much unless that currency really add something to the story. Perhaps the coins are minted by the Empire that runs your world and they all bear the image of the Emperor. That might be something worth mentioning. But, on the whole, I’d say to go with something easy that makes sense and be done with it. It’s my last step for a reason; it should just fall into place after you’ve created the rest of the world.

There you have it, my five steps to making a new world. I’m sure there are many things you could add to these steps, but these are the five that I feel make a complete atmosphere. Once you’ve got these five down, adding to them becomes instinctive. I hope this helps you with your world building or at least gives you some insight into my creative process. Happy writing, everyone.

When I first started to write paranormal novels, I came across the issue of clothing and shapeshifters. Mainly; what happens to it when they shift. A few authors have gone the easy route and have the clothes “magically” disappear and reappear during shifts. I’ve never been comfortable with that. In my opinion, magic can be used to explain away a lot of things in a paranormal story but it should always make sense; at least a little. So, I thought about it sensibly and this is what I came up with:

First, I considered shapeshifting itself. That alone is highly magical but there is a piece of realism to it. Shapeshifting does occur in Nature. Exhibit A; the butterfly. Butterflies are the most well known shapeshifter that we all take for granted. We admit there is something marvelous about it changing from a crawling caterpillar into a flying butterfly but we don’t think much about the change. I won’t go into all the science of it. Instead, let’s make it simple. The caterpillar makes a containment unit for itself then turns into soup. It completely destroys its body and rebuilds into something new.

Okay, we’ve got the concept of shapeshifting now; if you want to become something entirely new, you have to tear apart the old. I hardly wanted my shapeshifters turning to goo and reforming themselves from a puddle; especially not in a romance novel. Goo is not sexy. So, I went with a magical, rapid cellular destruction. The body is broken down and reforms so quickly that the eye can’t follow the process or—most importantly—see the goo. Shapeshifting premise down.

Now, onto the clothing. If we take into consideration the previous conclusion, I believe we can conclude that there is no place for clothing in this process. A caterpillar certainly wouldn’t want a bit of cloth in his soup. That might result in anything from mutation to death. Therefore, the only way I felt that I could reasonably describe a shapeshifter transforming would be to leave the clothing out of it. The next conclusion is that if you leave the clothing out of the transformation, the new shape would then affect it. If that new shape is bigger than the last, you have torn clothing. So, my shifters either disrobe or tear a lot of clothing in my books. Either way, I think it’s sexier and far more believable than clothing that transforms with the shifter.

Thank you for taking the time to read my paranormal pondering.

I did some research into the Yakuza for one of the books in the Godhunter Series. This is not by any means a complete research paper on the Yakuza, merely a glimpse into what I discovered and what inspired me to write about their Gods.

There are two main branches of the Yakuza:

The Tekiya: itinerant vendors and hawkers originally, like Japanese Gypsies. They do everything from fortune telling to committing crimes. No more than 20% actually engage in peddling anymore. In addition to Amaterasu and the Emperor, they worship the god, Shinnō.

The Bakuto: very simply, they’re gamblers. In addition to Amaterasu and the Emperor, they worship the god, Hachiman.

Both branches worship Amaterasu and the present Emperor of Japan. Honestly, I don’t know what the worship of a living man is all about, perhaps it’s more of a respectful thing than worship like that of a deity.

Classic Yakuza activities include pachinko (a game), prostitution, protection, extortion, illegal gambling, occasionally drugs, real estate, and construction.

Tattoos were once used to brand criminals, but they became the mark of laborers in Japan and then solely Yakuza. Members tattoo themselves to:

1. Show that they have passed an initiation.
2. Prove that they have endured pain.
3. Commit an irreversible act.
4. Bear a mark of their order with pride.

Yakuza men wear kimono only on special occasions. These days, they prefer flashy suits, bright ties, sunglasses, rings, and close-cropped hair.

Some Yakuza terms:

O-Oyabun: Boss

Kobun: Gang members

Katagi: Straight Society

Sokaiya: Protection racket: they harass stockholder meetings.

Mikajime: Protection fees

Gobu-gobu: Brother; a title given to a man of equal rank. The Yakuza uses familial ranks so the wife of a boss would be called an elder sister and a lower ranking man would be called a younger brother.

Dormanbai: “Muddy Pen” The process of selling bad products.

A Yakuza ritual~

Sakazuki: The Cup Exchange

Sakazuki is the most important Yakuza ritual. It’s conducted in a secret location and time that are only revealed at the last moment. At one end of the hall it’s held in there will be an altar, above which will hang three scrolls representing three gods: Amaterasu on the right, Shinnō in the middle, and the Emperor on the left.

The ritual is conducted to implore purification from the Gods then a visit is paid to a local hot spring, and, finally, a boisterous and licentious feast is held. It was during this ritual that the Yakuza was attacked by werewolves in the Godhunter Series.

The Gods:

Amaterasu is the Goddess of the Sun and is one of the few female sun goddesses there are. Her name means: Shining in Heaven. She is the ruler of the Sun and Heavens along with her brother, Tsukuyomi, the Moon God. She is also the ruler of Takama no Hara, the High Celestial Plain, the domain of Kami (spirits). Amaterasu is the daughter of Izanami and Izanagi, sister of Susanoo (the Storm God), and mother of Ama-no-Oshiho-mimi. She is associated with roosters, the Sun, and ravens (her messengers).

Shinnō was actually a Chinese god-emperor who was credited with discovering medicine. He’s a God of Agriculture, Music, Medicinal Herbs, and the Market. It’s not clear how the Japanese Tekiya Yakuza came to worship him but since they’re traveling merchants, they probably picked him up in China and brought him back to Japan like a divine memento.

Hachiman is the God of Archery and War and is the patron god of warriors. He was worshiped by the Samurai and is considered to be a protector of Japan. Obviously, the Yakuza craved such a strong god for their own, but I find it interesting that a crime syndicate has such an honorable god as their patron.

There you have it, the meager collection of information I have on the Yakuza. Don’t tell them I told you.

The book in which the Yakuza Gods first appear:

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While researching my latest Godhunter book, I decided to delve into the world of the Jinn (Also spelled as Djinn or Jinni) Who hasn’t been fascinated with the idea that a ghostly being could pop out of a bottle and grant them wishes? I want one! Me, please! But the Jinn aren’t just stories to Muslims; they believe in them as firmly as devout Christians believe in Angels. In fact, they believe that the Jinn were created by God the day after he made the Angels. God formed the Jinn from a “mix of fire” or “smokeless fire.” In my books, I took a bit of artistic liberty and made that smokeless fire into dragon fire. But I digress. There has been all sorts of speculation on what a smokeless fire is—many think it’s actually a type of energy that gives the Jinn their long lifespans—but nothing more about it seems to be mentioned in the Qur’an. Oh, and yes, the Jinn are mentioned numerous times in that holy book. In fact, it’s written that Muhammad (the last prophet of Allah) was sent to the Jinn as well as the humans to preach to them about Allah. Islamic tradition also says that King Solomon, the same one of Bible fame, was given the ability to speak with animals and Jinn.

Okay, we’ve established that there is serious belief in these beings. I read that “One can’t be a Muslim without faith in the Jinn’s existence.” So, please, do not make light of them to any Muslim friends you may have. These are not blue spirits with mustaches and the voice of Robin Williams.

The Jinn are reputedly fearsome beings who were on Earth long before humans. Evidently, they pissed off Allah by growing arrogant and corrupt so he sent a bunch of angels down to teach them a lesson. Jinn-butts smacked and lessons learned, Allah felt satisfied that justice had been dealt but decided he could do better as far as races were concerned. Boom! Humans were made.

Allah liked his new creation and demanded that the Angels and Jinn all bow down to us little humans. Most did, except for this guy called Iblis (I’ve also seen him referred to as Shaytan… hmmm, what does that name remind you of?) who said “Hell no, I’m made of smokeless fire and these things are made of clay. Obviously, I’m superior” (not a direct quote). Allah told him “Hell, yes, and that just happens to be where you’re going, buddy” (again, not a direct quote) and sent Iblis to Hell. That’s right; he’s the Muslim Devil. There’s a bit of contention over whether Iblis was a jinn or an angel, but I agree with one writer who said that since Angels could not disobey Allah, it makes sense that the one who did disobey would have to be a jinn.

Back to who they are. The Jinn are believed to live on another plane of existence (that worked really well into my story as I already had the perfect plane of existence to put them in) but enjoy interacting with humans in our realm. They are neutral entities, just like humans, and are neither good nor bad but able to be either. There are stories of Jinn helping humans and being a muse to poets and then other tales of them being nasty buttheads.

Jinn are said to be spirits who can take the shape of animals or people, some are even said to be able to take any form. They like human crafts and several became masters in human arts, and they also have power over the elements. Before Islam was established, the Jinn were supposedly worshiped by humans because of all of their mystical powers. Jinn can also possess people. The Arabic word majnun, used as a word for insanity, actually means “to be possessed by a jinni.” Because of this possession possibility, the Arabs have numerous ways to protect themselves from Jinn. Also of note is that when in their physical forms, the Jinn can be hurt. That’s the only time they can be hurt, actually. Despite this, they often take physical shape. One reason is to have sex, which Jinn engage in not only with each other, but also with humans. And yes, there can be offspring from such pairings.

Now, here’s the part that really surprised me; there are subclasses of Jinn. Lots of them. I won’t go too crazy with the descriptions, but I do want to give you a brief overview of each type.

The Jinn Tribes

Ifrits:

Ifrits are Jinn who can be found in ancient ruins. They are thought to be the protectors of the Pyramids of Egypt. They have societies like humans with social ranks within their tribes or clans. They have been known to marry humans and have children with them and have the power to grant wishes. Despite that, they’re also known to be mean motherpluckers and it’s probably best if you stay away from them.

Marid:

The Marid are the most powerful Jinn and are the basis for modern genie stories. The word marid means “giants.” I’ll let you draw your own conclusions on that. They can grant wishes but those wishes come at a high cost. Thy’re likely the origin of that whole “3 wishes” thing since they can also be forced to grant those wishes if you trap them with magic or perform a ritual in their honor.

Ghoul:

This one lifted my brows. I had no idea that Ghouls were Jinn. These Ghouls are shapeshifters with a craving for human flesh. They feed on corpses usually but wouldn’t turn down a fresh meal. Their women are especially scary because they can appear normal and even beautiful. They’ll trick men into marrying them and then eat their husbands. That seems like a lot of effort just for dinner, but I’m sure they have their reasons.

Hinn:

These are Jinn who appear as dogs or other animals. They’re found mostly in Arabia, Persia, and India. Evidently there were soldiers who disappeared during World War II who were led off into the desert by dogs. Those dogs are thought to be Hinn.

Jann:

These are shapeshifting Jinn who live in the desert. They’re more open-minded than other Jinn and are friendly toward humans. They like to appear as whirlwinds or white camels (interesting choices). They are particularly useful since they are the enemy of the Ghouls, but they are also mischievous so I wouldn’t count on their help even in the midst of a ghoul attack. They have been know to take sides in human wars and either help or hurt soldiers depending on their opinion of them.

Sila:

The Sila are shapeshifters who like to meddle in the affairs of humans, usually in a helpful way. They’re rarely seen.

Palis:

These Jinn are similar to vampires. They live in the desert and drink blood from humans via foot licking. That’s right; they lick people’s feet until they bleed then drink the blood. Evidently, this is done while the person sleeps and doesn’t wake them. (This must be why I can’t sleep with my feet exposed; I must have sensed that there were foot-licking monsters out there. I just thought they lived under my bed, not in the desert.) I also read that the Palis aren’t too bright, and I instantly thought to myself; well, that’s obvious. Anyone with intelligence would find a better way to drink blood. How many licks does it take to get to the center of a human foot?

Qareen:

Supposedly, we’re all born with one of these as a companion. They are the little devils on our shoulders telling us to do bad things. With a lot of work, you can train them. Muhammad trained his so that he was never tempted by evil again. Training your qareen has other benefits as well. You can learn anything about anyone since everyone has a qareen and they can talk to each other. You will know how to cure illness, be able to find lost things, and make others obey you—again through their qareen. Oh, and you’ll know before visitors arrive; that’s obviously the most awesome benefit. Maybe Muhammad wrote a book on how to train your jinn. That would be helpful and it would also be a great name for a movie.

Shayteen:

Okay, these are basically Muslim Demons. They are the followers of Iblis and love to do naughty things to humans. They can make you sick, destroy your life, and even kill you. They, like other Jinn, can possess humans, but they’re always mean about it. They’re malevolent asshats.

Vetala:

This is another type of vampire jinn. The Vetala are said to be the original vampires and are highly intelligent, as opposed to the foot-lickers. They can possess corpses and keep them from rotting. What purpose could they possibly have for that? Well, they use these fresh corpses as suits that they possess to walk among humans undetected. They’re also psychics who read thoughts and can tell the future.

Phew. When I first started researching, I honestly didn’t think there would be this much information on Jinn but in addition to the above, I found numerous stories, some sweet and horrifying, about Jinn interacting with humans. I hope this has opened your eyes about these fascinating beings—who may or may not be myths—and maybe even entertained you a bit. Now, stop reading this and go rub a lamp.

Meet the Jinn in this book:

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When I write about mermaids and mermen, I occasionally put in a sex scene. The first scene I wrote was done with careful consideration and a bit of research. I based my theory of mermaid sex on Nature. First let’s imagine there are mermaids. If there were real mermaids, they would have evolved from the same source as modern humans. That means, at some point, they went into the water and didn’t come out. This would make them mammals similar to dolphins except with the upper body of a human. So, I researched dolphin mating.

And I was a little blown away by what I found.

First off, dolphin sex lasts a mere ten seconds. It can happen several times a day and at any time of the year since they don’t have a mating season. Dolphins are intelligent mammals and enjoy mating just like humans; for the pure pleasure of it; thus the lack of a mating season. The sexual act itself is performed belly-to-belly. Both the male and female dolphins have slits on their lower bellies that give access to their sexual organs. Males have something that looks like an exclamation point with the anus being the dot and the genitals within the long slit. Females have a slit for both genitals and anus and then several slits for mammary glands.

Dolphin males perform courtship to win females, often singing, posturing, and bringing the females gifts. How sweet, I thought. Proof that these are incredible, intelligent creatures who have loving relationships. But wait, it gets even more interesting. Young males often form groups that swim around the ocean looking for unsuspecting females to woo together. This caught my attention. Are we talking about reverse harems here? Have dolphins been doing it all of this time? Yes, they have, and the female dolphins seem to like it. Male dolphin groups tend to have more success with the ladies.

Now, here’s where things get nefarious, and where I was seriously and deeply horrified. Sometimes, these male groups will abduct females from their pods, take that female away, and then all the males will try to mate with her. Yes, I’m talking about a dolphin gang bang. And if that female is unresponsive or unwilling, the males will sometimes attack her. Now, I don’t know about you, but that sounds like dolphin rape to me. If that’s not bad enough, no male—whether they’re sweet or not—stick around after the mating is done. They get their aquatic rocks off then take off, the wish-washy bastards, and leave the female to raise the young on her own. Females will often form pods of several females to protect themselves from males! Can you believe that? Frankly, it has put a damper on my affection for dolphins. At least the males. I feel rather sorry for the females.

But back to the mermaids. With the information of slit-access genitalia in hand (oh, that was awful phrasing), I wrote my first mermaid sex scene. Going by what Nature herself has provided ocean mammals with, I envisioned merfolk with front-slits in their beautiful tails. That would mean a belly-to-belly experience similar to dolphin mating, however, with human torsos involved, merfolk have a bit more leeway. A few positions can be imagined as long as the slits aligned with the proper places; 69 shouldn’t be too difficult to achieve and oral sex is, of course, easy enough. If you wanted to be a naughty mermaid and try anal, the experience probably wouldn’t be all that different, at least for the man, so I’d like to take some artistic leeway here and suggest that the anal slit be found on the back of a mermaid’s tail (and merman’s). Plus, who wants to think of that stuff coming out the front? Not I. When I wrote my Little Mermaid remake, Sea Legs, I went as far as to talk about mermaid bathroom facilities, but I won’t get into that now. Let’s just say it involves underground rivers.

With water to support sexual acrobatics and the usual human sex organs to provide pleasure, I’m sure that mermaids have a very healthy sex life that can be summed up in one word; slits. I hope that clears things up for you and maybe entertained you a bit. If you’re looking for a thorough example of mermaid sex, you can find one in my erotic novel, An Unseelie Understanding or my short story, Sea Legs (found in the Falling For Them anthology Vol. 5 and soon to be in my next installment of Happily Harem After Vol. 3) both are available on Amazon and are part of Kindle Unlimited.

Thank you for taking the time to indulge my pondering.

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