Goodreads asked Iestyn Long:

Where did you get the idea for your most recent book?

Iestyn Long Initially, I set out to write a bedtime story for my two young boys, Isaac and Reuben. A request for heroes and battles was their only condition. Of course, if it was to be a bedtime story, it just had to be good versus evil, right against wrong - the young need such lessons! An idea for a doomsday scenario came to mind: at the end of each century, the forces of good and evil would do battle for the right to rule the next. An innocent would be chosen to defend a great fortress - a bastion of light - against the coming darkness. Before their final battle, the chosen would have time to recruit heroes through the ages to garrison the fortress. I'd seen a film once, many years ago, and in it, I remember a Second World War Sherman tank and her crew get sent back through time. The resulting mismatch between technologies fascinated me. What would happen if a tank came up against a column of French Napoleonic Lancers?
Anyway, after starting this tale, I soon began to modify; the good and evil theme was to be the backbone and remained unchanged, but what if evil chose a champion of its own? What if this all took place in the real world, and not a fortress in the ether? It was to be called Time Heroes, but one thing led to another, things changed, and eventually, Timothy Williams was born. A reluctant hero, chosen to battle the Devil and the forces of evil in both worlds - the real world and the world of dreams.

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