Turning a beast into a hero

This image was the inspiration for so much of the Rise of the Iliri series. It’s an animal, but not. It’s humanoid, but not. It’s adorable, strange, and intriguing. When I saw this little beasty, questions popped into my head. For me, that means a story is coming – andboy did it!

But readers want to have a hero who they can relate to. I wanted to write a villain’s story without making it clear that’s what it really was. Dozens of classics sprang to mind, all too often with a female “evil quee...