The hardest thing about writing fantasy is making the reactions of your protagonists ring true: as a writer, the challenge is to imagine, how would a normal human react to an abnormal situation? Gods of Avalon Road is an urban fantasy set in modern day London; the characters are everyday, people-next-door types.
One of my protagonists, Kerry, finds a 2000 year old golden artefact by the Thames. Since writing the novel, I have learned that mudlarks – people who scour the Thames for historical finds, or even treasure – need to have a permit to do so. If my main character Kerry were a real person, she would surely have been arrested for pocketing a valuable archaeological object from the Thames!
Leilanie Stewart 