How did the Anchored Worlds come about?

I get this question a lot also, and it’s something I never really figured I’d have to answer. Back when I first started writing, I never thought I’d be writing multiple series that were all interlinked. The thing is, when I finished The Castes and the OutCastes, I thought I’d revisit Arisa at some point in time and find out what Rukh and Jessira had been doing.

But then I wrote William Wilde, and in that first chapter, Jessira forced her way into the book. She basically showed up and said, “I belong here.” I figured, “Let’s see if she does.” Then she dragged Rukh into the story in book 2, and by book 3, one of the hardest things I had was reining them in. That series could easily have become Rukh and Jessira on Earth and co-starring William Wilde. And when book 4 came around, the world I’d had rolling in my head for most of a few years, the series that has become Instrument of Omens, there they were again: Rukh and Jessira.