Where did some of the ideas come from for Prince Frederick’s fantasy world?

From World of Warcraft, of course.

As research for Along the Watchtower, I played a lot of World of Warcraft. I started when my son, an avid player, invited me to meet him in Azeroth and go on quests together as a way of visiting. With him on the west coast and me on the east, it was an invitation I could hardly ignore. Every Wednesday evening, our avatars would meet. We’d wave to each other and then go off on quests. While I only reached level 63 (I had to go write the book, after all), playing gave me an appreciation of the dreamlike quality of that fantasy world.

To give a sense of what I found, I put together a slide show of some of the images I used to help me describe key characters and moments in Prince Frederick’s part of the story.

Malfurion Stormrage, the night elf who advises Freddie on the trials The hollow-eyed assassin whose purpose was to make Prince Frederick relinquish his kingdom and give in to despair The Voidwalker, creatute of the Twisting Nether, whose touch brings back its victim's most painful meories Azuremist Isle, where Freddie starts playing WOW as a Dranei Priest The female warrior Freddie meets: He tells her he seeks oblivion; she responds: Believe in the future instead.