Goodreads asked Brian Barr:

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

Brian Barr I took a trip to England in May of 2013. While visiting the Northwest and seeing Lancaster, Blackpool, and other cities, I was blown away by how old the buildings looked, how many cobblestone streets there were. I thought about the oldest place I knew in my state back at home (South Carolina, USA) and instantly thought of Charleston, where there are some cobblestone streets, old slave markets, and old naval ports.

During my stay in England, I got curious about steampunk (inspired by the old archetecture and thinking about Victorian England). I did a google search to find out more about steampunk and the first author to come up was China Mieville. I bought his book, Perdido Street Station, from a Waterstones and read it for nearly 500 or so pages within that week. Instantly, I was inspired and hooked by the idea of steampunk and decided to play with it myself.

Traveling down to Brighton in the south of England, I started to write Carolina Daemonic. What started as an intentional "steampunk" novel became something way more. The steampunk is actually minimal in comparsion to the stronger dark occult fantasy-horror that dominates the book, along with an alternative timeline where the Confederacy won the civil war. So, I have to thank my state, South Carolina, England, steampunk and China Mieville for inspiring me with the initial ideas. I was also inspired by Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. All of these things gave me the initial ideas for my most recent book and debut novel, Carolina Daemonic.

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