This book started years before either of us ever set pen to paper—or, as it happened more often, fingers to keyboard. We've always been addicted to stories. We read constantly, and occasionally, when we couldn't find exactly what we were looking for in a book, we'd tell each other stories. One of us would start it off, and then we'd start world-building, each of us adding characters and plots and subplots. This would go on until we had something like our own mythology—story-lines that sort of went together but didn't always quite make sense; characters that we loved but that would disappear and hop back into the story as we felt like it; plots that we'd back up and change or erase completely.

"Of Caverns and Casters" started as one of these stories. We'd been playing around in that particular world for almost a year, when, one spring break night, we were lying in a hammock, staring up at the stars. We started talking about how much we loved Avadel, the world that we'd built, and all its characters—Aster, Sean, and Leavi among them. Aria mentioned how cool it'd be to turn it into a book. However, we both immediately dismissed the idea. The story was too mixed-up, too dreamlike for us to be able to translate it into something anyone else could understand.

But then we kept talking, starting a long chain of what if's and minor tweaks that turned into bigger what if's and major tweaks, that a year and a half later, turned into the "Of Caverns and Casters" you see today.

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Since this book is mostly about the characters battling their situations and inner struggles, we had a hard time building up the antagonists of the story. However, with some advice from our father and some serious editing, we got the villains to be as dark and realistic as we hoped for.

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We loved the chance to show how people think differently and how that affects our interactions with each other. Since we write for three different POVs, the audience gets to see that sometimes what is justified or innocent to one character seems baseless or loaded with intent to another. One of our favorite scenes is when the logical, reserved Sean Rahkifellar refuses an offer to dance from his friend Leavi. She is hurt, thinking that he doesn't care about her, when in reality, he refuses because dancing reminds him of something painful from his past. People only have their own perception to rely on, and because of that, there is often something we miss. We loved highlighting that in this story.

Readers love our lyrical descriptions, fantastical world, and strong character dynamics. They also love to hate Sean. (;

It's the first book in our four-book series, The Lost Roads Quartet. It's currently the only one published, but right now, we're working hard on the sequel, "Of Whispers and Daggers." We hope, if it be God's will, to finish it by the end of the summer.

Our perception is biased, and sometimes the truth isn't what we think it is. We shouldn't shy away from reality, but should seek to rationalize new ideas with what we already know. However, don't take rationality too far—sometimes it takes a little faith, grit, and good luck to accomplish the fantastic

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Finish the rough draft. It doesn't matter how out-of-order, inconsistent with the intended result, or awkward it is—just finish it. The rough draft is the hardest part. Once you have the bare bones of your story, then you can make it good. Don't give up if you don't think the story sounds like you want it to. Just write. We like to joke whenever we write something that doesn't sound quite right that "it'll wash out in editing," and then we move on. Without that, we would get lost in the mire of perfect descriptions and lost commas and never reach the end.

Of course! In our minds, you can't write a character you don't know at least a little bit. Each one is a couple of our own traits, to get a solid base, mixed with some world-influenced conjecture. Aria writes Sean and Aster. Sean uses her tendency to analyze, and his character plays with the idea of taking it and occasional social distancing too far. Aster, on the other hand, is the compassionate and loyal side of her, thrown together with the idea that maybe someone can be too dedicated to even a good cause. Laine writes Leavi, who highlights the battle between emotion and logic. Sometimes Leavi doesn't seem consistent, and that's because her writer isn't; after all, aren't people just a bunch of walking contradictions?

We strive to make our characters think, act, and feel as much like real people as possible. Then, we put them into creative scenarios. What *would* happen if you thought the entire world was limited to one mountain range, and then you found out there was more beyond that? How *would* you react if your world was based on science and logic, only to see the impossible happen right in front of your eyes? What lengths would you go to do the right thing, even if you knew you were probably going to fail at it? "Of Caverns and Casters" is our answer to that.

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Absolutely! While we're currently working on the rest of the quartet, Aria also has a psychological novella she's editing, and Laine can't wait to get back to "The Hopes Project," a superhero thriller. We're also compiling an anthology of thought-provoking short stories titled "This Mockery of Light."