After I read and reviewed the first two books in Shiloh Walker’s ash Trilogy, she was kind enough to answer some questions for me about the series and her writing. If you missed the reviews yesterday, go check them out! Then come back and read the interview. Then go buy the books.

How did you get the idea for the Ash Trilogy? Did it start with the characters, or the plot?

Lena. It all started with Lena… by now, it’s not a secret that the heroine of the first book is blind. I kind of kept that quiet because I didn’t want her blindness to define her. It plays very much into the story, I know, but it’s a story about a woman who just happens to be blind…not a story about a blind woman. Her blindness doesn’t define her and I didn’t want that to color anybody’s opinion of her before they started the story.

So it all started with her…and the scream she heard. That was my idea and it all evolved from there.

Ash is like a real town! Do you live in a small town, or have you?

LOL…kinda sorta, yes, no…maybe? I’m definitely familiar with small town life.

Lena is such a strong character! Do you have a blind friend, or did you research blindness to write her?

Well, I spoke to several friends online who are blind. I’m in the Louisville area and close to the Kentucky School for the Blind so I contacted them, asked if I could visit, speak with some of them. They were very helpful…I mentioned the ladies I spoke with in my acknowledgements.

Hope changes so much between the first and second books, it’s great to see her find her strength and identity. Was it hard to create the romance between her and Remy without making it seem like she’d been rushed?

Not really. Certain…incidents forced the change. She was tired of seeing herself as a victim, you see. When you get tired of seeing yourself a certain way, you have to do what it takes to make the change. That’s what she did.

The first two books had dirty cops, and hints near the end of  the second book indicate there’s a very dirty cop in the third book. Was it intentional to make that connection in all of the books?

No comment…you’re trying to get clues out of me…

The killer goes through a sort of transformation, his focus in the second book is different than in the first. Will he change again in the third book?

No comment.

This is the first series of yours I’ve read that has the same bad guy in all 3 books. Is there a reason you decided to connect the stories that way? Was it a challenge to draw out the bad guy and connect him to all of the other plots in each book?

Not at all…the hard part would have been doing it any other way. That’s the way the story needed to be told.

Do you think you might write more series that draw out the way Ash does with the evolving mystery?

It’s entirely possible. It’s fun to get that involved in a series. You get to know the characters more, get to spend more time with them.

I agree!

Anyone who follows you on Twitter (@shilohwalker) knows you’re a Pinterest addict. Any pics you’ve found that might feature in coming books?

Yes…absolutely. If you look at this board, it’s the one that has people that may well end up as characters…

http://pinterest.com/shilohwalker/characters/

Any other secret projects coming up this year that you’d like to share with us?

Secret? Well, if I tell, then they aren’t secret. There’s the next idea I’ve turned into Ballantine, called STOLEN. It’s set in Alaska and it’s…ah. Weird. Yeah. Weird. About a writer. It was inspired by something that happened on twitter.

Shiloh has graciously agreed to answer any reader questions today! (Although she won’t answer anything that might be a spoiler, as you can already see from me trying above.) So if you’re wondering anything else about the series, feel free to ask in the comments.