Goodreads asked K.S. Nikakis:

How do you get inspired to write?

K.S. Nikakis I think writers go around looking at things a lot, and thinking about things a lot. I write fantasy because I love creating new worlds and I would be bored if my characters had to go to work or school or got stuck in traffic jams. I'm interested in how landscapes affect people and used to teach geography in a previous life, so that fits well with fantasy as does the fact that I used to ride horses. I've also always had a love for language.

The Kira Chronicles grew out of my love for Lord of the Rings. I wanted an Eowyn-like character to have adventures and romance with an Aragorn-like character (so Kira and Caledon were born) but then Tierken appeared and the whole story changed.

The Kira Chronicles is a strong anti-war book and I was interested in how wars start and how hard they are to stop. I guess my own philosophies inspire me to write stories that explore them. I'm keen not to preach but also keen that sensitive readers pick up the deeper questions the stories pose.

The Hunter duology (hopefully launched as ebooks this year), started with the old version of the word shadow -- which is sceadu. I thought it would make a wonderful name for a tribe. A shadow is also the name for a ghost, works as the opposite of light, and is in the idea of a rainshadow (an absence of rain on the leeward side of mountains). One word gave me a tribe, the female protagonist and her male opposite, and a world afflicted by drought (because of a rainshadow) which the female protagonist needs to resolve. The Hunter duology also explores intuitive v. rational ways of thinking/viewing the world.

Like most writers I write for myself but as I've got older I get a big kick out of readers enjoying my books or being moved or changed by them - as I was by Lord of the rings.

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