Behind the Scenes of The Lost Heir

We thought we might share some behind-the-scenes moments in the making of The Lost Heir. First with the cover art 🎨, then with some commentary on the opening chapters 📖.

One of the most common questions we get asked is, "Who does your cover art?" His name is Josh Addessi, and he has done all of our covers for us! We love Josh's art and collaborating with him. At the beginning of each project, we give him a general idea of what we want and then step back and let him run with it. 🚀

He shows us sketches/mock-ups along the way, looking for feedback. It's a lot of fun and always super exciting to see his latest renditions. Whenever we open a new art file from him, we almost always squeal! 😍 or exclaim! 🎉 or otherwise freak out! 🤯 about how amazing it looks.

It usually takes him about a month from beginning to end. Check out this first sketch he did of The Lost Heir. Wouldn't you squeal?

G: Imagining the world from Gladwin's point of view was so much fun! Being only five inches tall but able to fly... 🧚‍♀️ We loved playing around with perspective, with Waldrick's "giant" hand coming to get her. 😱🖐️

E: And Oxley's giant knees towering over her. 🦵🦵

E: Ah, Waldrick. My favorite line of his in this chapter?🗣️ "I don't speak bumblebee." 🐝😂

G: Who do you think would make a good Waldrick if they made a movie of this? 🎥

E: Hmm, lots of good choices... You could go in a scary direction with Mark Strong (Stardust, Sherlock Holmes) 😈

G: Or a suave, smiley version of Waldrick with someone like Jude Law or Ioan Gruffudd. Or—imagine this—Colin Firth as a villain! Mr. Darcy, but evil! 😆

E: People also might like to know that the opening scene of the Prologue with the "creature" was actually one of the last passages to be added. 👀✨

G: Jake and Dani sprang to life very quickly in the writing of these scenes.

E: I think that has to do with all the character profile work we did before we started writing. 📋

G: One of the things I love about Jake is his attitude. Many times, middle grade protagonists are shown as being agonized with insecurity and riddled with self-doubt, making them come across like a sad, limp little dish rag. 🥀😔

E: Yeah, that's not really fun to read. 😑

G: We wanted Jake to have a little bit of Peter Pan-style confidence:🗣️ "Oh, the cleverness of me!" (Famous line from Peter Pan. Plus, the fairy friend. 🧚)

So Jake's insecurity is buried a little deeper and almost always comes out filtered through his smart-alecky humor. In his view, it's the rest of the world that's crazy, not him. 😆

E: Then there's Dani, who is probably G's most autobiographical character. Trust me, you don’t want to get her Irish up! ☘️🔥😤

G: It was tricky getting Waldrick's character right, striking the balance between making him comedic yet sinister. 🎭

E: Yeah, we learned that pretty quickly! Some readers may wonder why we let him spill a few pieces of background information to Jake in their first conversation—why that info wasn't hidden.

The reason is simple—it gets down to the difference between a MYSTERY and a SUSPENSE story. G, why don't you explain the difference? 🤔

G: Sure! It's pretty simple:

🕵️‍♂️ A Mystery is where the facts about something that has already happened in the past are the focus—the puzzle must be solved. The ending has to do with the sleuth putting all the pieces together, as in a Big Reveal. The all-important questions?➡️ "Who dunnit?" 🔎➡️ "How was the crime done?"

⚡ Suspense, on the other hand, focuses on the good guys preventing a bad thing from happening in the future. Sharing too many facts with the reader up front would ruin the puzzle-solving of a mystery—but in suspense, we have to share certain facts to inform the reader of the bad thing that’s probably going to happen if the bad guy gets his way.

G: 🕵️‍♀️ Mysteries = Solving a terrible thing that happened.⏳ Suspense = Stopping a terrible thing from happening.

E: Yeah, but often these two can be combined. 🔄

G: That's right. As is the case in The Lost Heir. Jake has to figure out what happened to his parents...

E: And stop something similar from happening to him. 😱

E: Chapter Three continues to unfold the story world of The Gryphon Chronicles by introducing a few new characters, starting with super-bodyguard Derek Stone. 💪

G: I always liked the dynamic in The Terminator between Arnold Schwarzenegger’s character and the spunky kid he had to protect. That’s probably where some of the inspiration came from for the interaction between a warrior figure who’s super strong and brave, but sort of emotionally challenged, and a kid who helps him find his humanity again. 🤖❤️

E: Well, I think every kid who’s ever run afoul of a bully at school would love to have either a Terminator or a Derek Stone escort him to his locker. 😆

Another unique characteristic we gave to Derek Stone was some Parkour skills. That’s an amazing thing to watch! Check this out! 🏃‍♂️💨

G: Well, that’s all for now! Hope you enjoyed this brief behind-the-scenes of The Lost Heir.

💙✨ All the best,
E. & G. Foley 📚🎩