A Goodreads user asked James Islington:

I just started reading the book, and honestly I am very impressed. Not very many books catch my attention and hold it as this one has. One of my favorite questions to ask authors is "What is the origin of this story you are telling?" I like to keep that in mind as I read a book. Do you mind answering that one for me?

James Islington Thanks! The origins of the story are actually a little tricky to explain, as they kind of give away the ending to 'The Shadow of What Was Lost'. So I'm marking below as a spoiler - I'd advise holding off reading any further here until you've finished the book....

------SPOILER------

I've always loved stories about redemption, characters with dark pasts striving to change but struggling with who they've become. So I was interested in exploring the idea of an epic fantasy bad guy - the legendary enemy who everyone 'knows' is evil - in that situation. Looking at why he was on the wrong side in the first place, and then how he'd go about trying to make up for / escape the terrible things he'd done.

That led to me thinking about memories and how much they shape who a person is - how their past experiences, decisions and knowledge influence them and make them capable of things they might not be otherwise.

I also wanted to write a story where prophecies weren't so wishy-washy and open to interpretation ("and the seven eagles shall rise on wings of fire, and the crown of iron shall be shattered, and blah blah blah"). It's not that this never works in a story, but I think it's an area of fantasy that still tends to get away with little to no explanation of why it's like that. In most cases it seems to just fall into the 'because magic' category, which I'm personally not a big fan of.

Anyway, that line of thinking ultimately resulted in the Augurs, as well as (to some extent) the inclusion of time travel in the story.

------END SPOILER------

So, I guess I had a lot of disparate ideas/inspirations rattling around in my head over the years. Then when I started reading Brandon Sanderson and Patrick Rothfuss a while back, I finally got inspired enough that I really knuckled down and gave writing a serious amount of my time. Thus, 'The Shadow of What Was Lost'.

Hope that answers your question!

Edit: Looks like spoiler tags don't work on answering questions, so I'm marking the whole thing as a spoiler.

Edit 2: Apparently I can't mark the whole thing as a spoiler after it's been submitted. I'll change the heading so it's nice and obvious instead.

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