"In December of 2004, the original concept for what became Sorceress of the Himalayas came to me on board a plane back from a vacation with my family. At the time, the concept was very undeveloped - all I knew was that there would be a bamboo grove atop a mountain range in which a hermit of sorts would live. At the time, Tien Ming herself was a character I had thought about, but not in relation to the grove I had already created. As I thought more about the grove and Tien Ming, I decided that she would live in the grove. The next question that came to my mind was the tale leading up to her solitary existence - how had she ended up that way?
After I asked myself this question, the novel began to unfold itself quickly. When I was writing, several ideas would be vying to be placed on the page - it was so hard to pick what I would include in the novel and what I would have to save for another story! The result of this explosion of ideas resulted in an action-packed novel (at one point I had several more involved battles between Tien and the Force), which I was only too eager to finish.
I did not, at any point in the writing process, create a timeline for my novel - I preferred to allow the story to twist and turn spontaneously as I wrote. What I often found was that the events occurring at a given point in time in my life would influence the kinds of scenes I wrote in the novel, and the way it progressed. This allowed a variety of emotions to seep into my book, sometimes subconsciously inserted as I wrote. Following the completion of Sorceress of the Himalayas in May 2005, I was encouraged by close friends to publish my novel."
It was the author's first publishing experience, and her first real taste of collaborating with a creative team - a process she enjoyed: "I was amazed by the scope of the illustrations because they served the purpose of hinting at the plot and themes of Sorceress, while simultaneously describing the colorful personalities of my various characters. Working with Scott Erwert (of The Book Designers) was very easy because we both had a similar vision for the cover and other illustrations. The Book Designers always went above and beyond any expectations I had."
Some of the illustrator's initial sketches for the main characters are shown below.
