The story behind The Sorceress
I have always been obsessed with myths and legends. Everything from Greek Myths to Egyptian myths to Arthurian legends.
And trust me when I say I have a bank of story ideas but the one that makes my heart flutter is Merlin.
An all powerful sorcerer. The one who stood behind Kings with unimaginable power and shaped history.
And of course, one very persistent question formed in my mind…
What if Merlin’s story was different… and I mean like way different.
A Story Eight Years in the Making
I have been working on Merlin’s story for a very long time, nearly eight years now.
There were times were the story flowed so easily and other times where it seemed impossible to finish (a lot of those times actually.) Life has a way of interrupting dreams, and for a while, writing had to take a back seat. I officially started writing The Sorceress in 2019, then stepped away for several years while life demanded my attention.
But that dream never left me.
The characters stayed in my mind, they evolved and grew alongside me. Scenes among scenes played in my head, never touching a page. And in 2025, I picked the story up again BUT this time determined to see it through to the end.
Finishing this book was one of the biggest surprises of my life.
Not because I didn’t believe in the story (I believe in it A LOT) but because the hardest part of writing for me isn’t the ideas, I have a lot of those too. It’s sitting down and putting them into words.
Reimagining Merlin
One of the BEST decisions I made was to gender-swap Merlin.
In The Sorceress, Merlin is not an old wizard in robes. She is a young female assassin who is very powerful, incredibly dangerous, and my favourite… very sarcastic.
I wanted to explore her strength and her struggles. I wanted to build a world around her that felt bigger and more complex than the stories I grew up with. To have a strong female main character on the outside with the vulnerability on the inside.
Most of all, I wanted the ending to be different. I wanted to create something familiar but unexpected.
Building a World
If you know anything about me, you’ll know that I am completely obsessed with mythology.
Greek mythology. Egyptian mythology. Ancient legends. Lost civilisations. Stories of gods and heroes. I even love video games like Assassin’s Creed because of how they blend myth, history, and science fiction into something absolutely amazing!
That passion shaped every part of The Sorceress.
So I built an entire world. I created my own language for the Esharan universe! I have a detailed history to guide the story, hidden cults and factions and so much more.
Some of these elements appear in the first book. Others are waiting to be revealed later in the series.
Because The Sorceress is only the beginning.
The Characters Who Stole My Heart
Merlin is the character I feel closest to. I have lived inside her head and her story for years.
But my favourite character might surprise you.
It’s Nimueh.
Her story was actually the first one I ever created, long, long, long, looong before The Sorceress even began. She holds a very special place in my heart, and although her full story isn’t told in this book, it does exist in the world behind the scenes, of course waiting for the right time to be revealed.
The hardest character for me to write was Arthur.
I needed readers to love him instantly.
He had to feel like the King Arthur from the legends, a man with a heart of gold, strong and brave, but never cruel. Finding that balance took a lot of time, tons of patience, and more revisions than I can count. (It was tiring)
The Moments I’ll Never Forget
There were two scenes while writing this book that stayed with me long after I finished them. (They replay over and over again in my head)
One is about loss.
The other is about love.
I won’t spoil them!! But they are moments that reminded me why I started writing this story in the first place.
Moments that made everything feel real.
What I Hope YOU Will Feel
More than anything, I hope my readers feel something when they read The Sorceress.
Whether it be sadness, anger, love, joy… if I have made you feel something then I have done what I set out to do.
This story is for readers who love twists and turns, high-stakes fantasy, slow-burn romance and yearning, found family, epic journeys filled with danger and magic
And for anyone who has ever wondered what it truly means to become who you were meant to be.
This is just the Beginning of a Series
The Sorceress is not just one story.
It is the first step into a much larger world, an epic fantasy series filled with legends and battles yet to come.
This journey has taken eight years to reach this point. And in many ways, it feels like it’s only just beginning.