Lynne Stringer is the author of The Verindon Alliance , Once Confronted, The Heir, The Crown and The Reign.

1) What inspired you to write The Verindon Alliance?

The Verindon Alliance tells the story of Princess Vashta of the Vendel and Brandonin, the heir to the Verindal throne. They are mentioned several times in my Verindon Trilogy, so I thought it would be a good idea to flesh out the ideas I’d developed in those three books. It covers a crucial part of the history of Verindon, the planet I created, and provides a lot more detail about life there and the wars between the Vendel and the Verindal. I think I managed to incorporate everything I mentioned in the trilogy.

2) Who is your favourite character in The Verindon Alliance?

You mean I have to choose one? ? Probably Vashta because she’s a bit impulsive and that was fun to write. It was entertaining to see her charge headfirst into any situation.

3) How many books have you written/published?

The Verindon Alliance will be my fifth full-length novel. I have previously had the Verindon Trilogy published – three books, consisting of The Heir, The Crown and The Reign. I also wrote Once Confronted, a contemporary drama. I have some short stories in a few published anthologies as well.

4) When did you first start writing?/What inspired you?

I wrote my first book when I was eight. It was called Goldie the Pony and was about ten pages long and written in felt tip, so not much of a book! But I continued writing, mainly for fun. I novelised at lot of movies and TV show episodes in my teen years just for the enjoyment of it.

5) How do you come up with your character?

I’m not sure where Vashta came from. She was just a side character that I created when working on the trilogy. She was just a means to include a few details that were necessary to enhance the plot of those three books. However, once I had the information about who she was and knew more or less what had happened to her, I started to think more about her story and developed it into a full-length novel.

6) How do you feel when you finish writing a story? How is this similar/or different to how you feel when you finish a story?

I feel relieved when I’ve finished writing the first draft, especially since I enjoy the next part of the process – the editing! I love rereading the story and refining it until it works.