Too long I have been waiting for this! When the Alex Caine Series was released a couple of years back, it was only the first book – Bound – that was released in paperback (reviewed here). As a life-long lover and reader of print books… well, <insert sad face here>. But my happy face has been smacked on as Harper Voyager is re-releasing the series in print and with kick-arse new covers that far better represent the stories and themes of the books.

With this upcoming re-release at the end of June,  I asked the effervescently-barmy Alan Baxter to stop by and tell us a little about his creative process.

So without further ado… *hands over mic*

I’m very grateful to AJ for offering to host a spot on my blog tour for the re-release of The Alex Caine Series. AJ asked me to write a post about the tropes I explored in the series, and that’s quite exciting, because when she says explored, I think subvert.

With these books I set out from the beginning to turn some old ideas upside-down. The first book in the series, Bound, was originally going to be a standalone novel. The idea was to take two things that don’t normally go together and fuck around with them. In this case, I had an idea to write a novel about a career martial artist who maybe had a little bit of magic in him of which he wasn’t really aware. And I had this evil book idea, that I really wanted to find a story for. When those things came together I realised I had the opportunity to mess up a big old trope. I’ve always wanted to write what is essentially a big fat fantasy epic quest, but have it set in the modern day, in our world, paced like a thriller and full of dark and monstrous twists and turns. As you can imagine, with the martial artist and the evil book, I had a great scaffold for that exercise. And Bound was born.

By about halfway through the book I realised I had a much bigger story on my hands. The quest and all its associated elements meant I had to have a strong backstory. So, of course, the backstory had its own history, elements of the story I was telling were going to echo and reverberate, and I wanted to tell more of the story. So I had a much larger arc in mind and I started to think about how I was going to tell that.

The first book was very much the classic epic quest. I decided that the second book, Obsidian, would play with the old idea of the lost city. And the city in Obsidian is really lost. And then, by the third book, Abduction, I had characters and situations that had grown well beyond their humble beginnings, and I found myself with a real “Clash of the Titans” trope to play around with and subvert. I may have indulged my love of superheroes a little obliquely with book 3 too.

So while it’s all one story across three books, every individual book is a complete novel and a complete story as well. And, as I didn’t tie up every single loose end, I have all kinds of ideas for future Alex Caine books if the opportunity presents itself. With any luck the current trilogy will do well enough that I get to write more. There are so many tropes to subvert!

The Alex Caine Series – Bound, Obsidian and Abduction – is available in paperback and ebook now.

Alan Baxter is a British-Australian author who writes dark fantasy, horror and sci-fi, rides a motorcycle and loves his dog. He also teaches Kung Fu. He lives among dairy paddocks on the beautiful south coast of NSW, Australia, with his wife, son, dog and cat. He’s the award-winning author of several novels and over sixty short stories and novellas. So far. Read extracts from his novels, a novella and short stories at his website – www.warriorscribe.com – or find him on Twitter @AlanBaxter and Facebook, and feel free to tell him what you think. About anything.

So if you’re looking for a supernaturally good read, get on these!