Goodreads asked Roman Colombo:

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

Roman Colombo For Trading Saints for Sinners, I had Mephistopheles stuck in my head. I was in college, and in an English Honors program. I wrote a really good paper on Mephistophilis--in Marlowe's "Dr. Faustus," exploring the demon character as a tragic hero. In fact, some of Mephistopheles's lines in TSFS are lines from Dr. Faustus. Mainly, what the name translates to, is "Destroyer of lies." And sure enough, the character never lies to Faustus (in the A-text. Lit people know what I mean). So there's a devil character actively trying to save the human character and stop him from making the deal. And he fails. I thought of what would happen next for Mephy, and how he would feel if he were an angel again.

Conrad is a reference to Heart of Darkness, obviously. Arianna is the mythical character. So, three different stories I loved I tied together.

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