“Come with me, and you’ll be in a world of pure imagination.”
~ Willy Wonka – Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

One of the most frequent questions I am asked as an author is: What inspired me to write The Rite of Wands? I have always found that question interesting because when you think about it, inspiration is different for everyone. It may be a memory, a character from a book, song lyrics, a political speech, a TV series, or even an actor’s performance. Pure imagination is in all of us. We only need to discover it, and sometimes, storytelling helps.

Inspiration can come to us in any shape or form; you never know what or who may inspire you. That was the case for me in 2014 when I got the opportunity to attend Wizard World Chicago and meet actor Matt Smith, who at the time was known for playing the Eleventh Doctor on Doctor Who, and most recently Prince Philip on Netflix’s The Crown and Daemon Targaryen in HBO’s House of the Dragon. I had originally gone there because I really wanted to meet a Doctor and honestly felt it would be a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I never thought it would be possible to meet him again, being in America. If only I had known then that I was about to discover the main source of inspiration to get unstuck while writing my book!

A few months later, I was sitting at my desk in my writing office, trying to compose something, but nothing would come to me. I was staring at a blank page for what seemed like eternity. I was close to tears. Not because I was sad, but because I was so frustrated with myself! I thought I had what was called a dead book, and my dream of becoming an author was coming to an end. I wasn’t the writer I envisioned. In that moment of desperation, I literally shouted at my computer, “WHO are you? Show yourself!” And then inspiration hit.

I saw creeping out of a dark alley in Glendalow, Matt Smith, dressed in medieval warlock attire, with some kind of scar on his face, carrying an ebony wooden wand in his hand that contained a bloodstone crystal at the shaft. Then, I heard him say, “My name is Mierta, and that is NOT how it happened.”

Oddly, I have had this stupid fascination with the idea of someday perhaps hearing Matt actually say that to me, just to see if he could match the exact delivery I heard Mierta say. (No pressure, Matt, if you should someday come across this).

Anyway, I felt like I was having my own regeneration because I suddenly had all of this information, I swear I didn’t know. I had a series protagonist who, to me, was unique from other protagonists I had come across in stories and would be super fun to write. A character that had unpredictability with a psychological complexity, where he could go from dark humor to emotional devastation in the same scene. 

At that moment, I regained my confidence, realizing that my dream of becoming a writer could still happen. If you’re struggling, don’t give up! Keep at it. Find what inspires you. You never know what or who that may be!