Long before the release of DAUNTLESS, the final book in the Age of Conquest series, this seat-of-the-pants writer began laying the foundation of the next series of books featuring the Wulfrith family.

Conceptualization of the Age of Honor series was relatively effortless since like the 11th-century Age of Conquest and 12th-century Age of Faith series it features the formidable Wulfrith family, trainers of England’s greatest defenders.

Next came the fun part—choosing character names and book titles. Since I’m a collector of medieval names, once I had an idea of the temperament of my first hero and heroine, I picked over my list until I hit on those that said, “I’m the one!” As for titles, after deciding on ones ending in -ous, I collected dozens I believed a fit for the heroes and heroines representing the Wulfrith family. And once I had the premise of the first book, I picked VALOROUS for Hector and Séverine’s love story.

The formidable and time-consuming part was—or should I say is—research (it never ends). To ground the series in an interesting, conflict-ridden time period suited to the Wulfrith family, I chose the 14th century of King Edward III during the Hundred Years War between England and France. After untold hours of research (books, audiobooks, internet searches), I created a timeline of the major events in which to set each of the books which will likely number eight. In a nutshell, that’s how I poured the foundation of the new series.