UNC English professor and author of “Big Fish” Daniel Wallace just published his newest novel, “The Kings and Queens of Roam,” which follows the story of two sisters who live in a mythical town and who are polar opposites of each other.
Staff writer Kathryn Muller spoke with Wallace about the inspiration for his book and his writing process.
DAILY TAR HEEL: Where did your inspiration for “The Kings and Queens of Roam” come from?
DANIEL WALLACE: I don’t really believe in inspiration. When this book started, I wrote a kind of free writing exercise that I do all the time — where I start writing and see what comes out — and the very first paragraph of the book happened, and I liked it. But I didn’t know what came after it.
Stories, at their bottom, are just a series of logical events and consequences based on actions, no matter what the novel is. And so studying that paragraph, I started to see what the effects and consequences of it were. It broke open after about a year and I was able to see what happened next.