The modern city of Istanbul has been known by many names. Constantinople, Miklagard, the New Rome, the Queen of Cities, the Great City, Byzantium. But by any name, it has been the setting for many a great novel (and some not so great ones). I suppose when it comes to creative inspiration about a particular place, usually one experiences the place and then conceives of the story. For me it was the other way round. My current series, The Wanderer Chronicles, is about the advent

My first novel, A Mighty Dawn was set in the domain of Old Norse myth. The second book in the series, A Sacred Storm, progresses the story into the realm of legend. Is there a difference, you may ask? ...Well, I think so. When I first began weaving together the plot running through the two books, the climax of the second was to centre on a fictitious blood feud between two rival kingdoms that escalates into a battle of epic proportions. But then, during the course of my resea