The Unread Writer came to life from two main sources. I had self-published my first novel, The LaGrange Legacy, and a small publisher agreed to take on the manuscript for what became Dust & Cannibals.

Sales of The LaGrange Legacy started well online, which was how I planned to go with it since I live a long way from any population center. Sales quickly slid until they became nothing.

The relationship with the publisher started out wonderful, but slowly went downhill. It became doubtful that anything was going to happen, and the frustration was beyond anything I could have imagined.

National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) made a challenge to write 50,000 words. I had a gut feeling that nobody read the LaGrange Legacy even when they bought it, and The Unread Writer hit my computer screen like a non-stop rant that transformed into a fantasy.

That was several years ago. The publisher went out of business and I got my manuscript back. I soon self-published it. The fantasy element in the genealogical fantasy The LaGrange Legacy looked strong, so I wrote a stand-alone novel called Touch Stones.