I was reading (listening) to the Silmarillion and got to thinking, “if I were to create a fantasy world, what would it be like, how would it have started, and who would be the larger-than-life characters? I decided that whatever world I write about should somehow reflect the way I view the world we all live in – just a slightly more fantastic version of it. This led me to things like the four strands (four things that I think are critical to any universe), an earth that was shaped by many minds (to reinforce its complexity), and a major villain who just wants her world to be the way she imagined it.