From Pencil Sketch to Flame: How Jia Peach Found Her Magic
A peek behind the curtain of Jia Peach’s creation—and the author’s own magical learning curve.
The serialization of my novel Forged in Ancient Fire is in its sixth week on Substack. But what many readers may not realize is that I’ve written six novels featuring Jia Peach. Forged in Ancient Fire wasn’t the first—it was actually the fifth. And yet, it’s where her story truly begins.
When I started writing about Jia, I had a reasonably clear idea of who she was: a young woman with some hidden magic, a few martial arts skills (though that’s another story), and a quiet kind of resilience. But most of what I thought I knew about her was just a pencil sketch, with rough lines and fleeting impressions. I needed a layered and textured full-color painting to understand who she was.
Characters Don’t Arrive Fully Formed
As a novelist still finding his sea legs, one lesson I’ve returned to often is this: characters don’t usually arrive fully formed. Sometimes they come to you like a stranger on a bus or a plane—someone you chat with for a while and think you’ve got a read on. You notice their mannerisms, how they dress, the way they laugh, or avoid eye contact. Maybe you learn they’re divorced, a parent, or a saxophone player. You pick up the basics. But you still don’t know them. Not really.
You don’t know what made them who they are.
That’s what fiction is for—slowly unspooling the threads of who a character truly is. And if you’re lucky, they surprise you. Jia Peach has surprised me more than any character I’ve ever written.
Meeting Jia Peach
She wore Doc Martens and played in a punk band. She lived in a small Portland apartment and worked as a waitress, occasionally composing music for a scrappy video production company. She was shy but capable, emotionally guarded but spiritually attuned. She had dreams that bled into daylight. She didn’t explain herself, but she made herself known.

That’s how she first appeared in my earliest novel, titled initially Dream Heart (later retitled Fractal Dreams). In that story, Jia is in her mid-20s when a murder investigation and a string of dreams reveal a dangerous creature from another realm slipping into the real world. Jia’s connection to it is mysterious and profound, but her magic was vague and undefined back then. I knew it was there. I didn’t know what it meant yet.
Writing Backward Through the Future
The next day—literally—I started a second book: Sisters. In that one, Jia takes a solo vacation to the Central Oregon town of Sisters (where I actually went to school from grades 1 to 7), only to stumble into a time-travel kidnapping mystery involving two sisters. This one was even more fun to write. But again, the magic felt improvised. I hadn’t yet built the rules of the world she inhabited.
That’s when I realized that to understand Jia, I needed to understand the magical framework around her. So I dove into research: the types of magic common in urban fantasy—wizards, warlocks, druids, sorcerers—and the kinds of powers they could possess.
Urban fantasy, I’ve discovered, allows for a remarkably wide range of magic—some flashy, some subtle, some that quietly rewrite the rules of reality. There’s elemental magic: conjuring fire, controlling water or metal, even bending the weather. There’s psychic and sensory magic: telepathy, postcognition, psychometry, tracking. Some magic leans toward conjuration—crafting pure energy tendrils out of thin air, or summoning spirits and demons without needing ceremonial trappings. There are glamours and shields, telekinesis, speaking to animals or plants, and creating “crossing points” between dimensions. And then there’s the most personal magic—the kind that doesn’t fit any known category. Unique abilities that no one else has. Even the wielder might not fully understand them.
That’s the kind of magic I’ve come to associate with Jia Peach.
Adventures, Music, and Alternate Timelines
Once I leaned into those ideas, the stories kept coming. In Day of the Eagle, Jia investigates a murder tied to her musician mentor. In Reunion, she and that same mentor, Peck, travel to England for a mini-tour—only to be swept into an alternate timeline where the Beatles are still alive (and estranged). That one was a one-draft wild ride—odd, emotional, heartfelt. Probably never to be published, but it helped me understand Jia’s emotional core better than any outline ever could. Plus, as a lifetime Beatles fan, getting the band back together was incredibly fun!
By early 2023, I realized something crucial: I’d been writing stories about a character whose origin I didn’t actually know. That’s when I paused and started sketching out the past—the real beginning. Where her magic came from. Who her family was. Why she was always looking over her shoulder. Why her dreams were never just dreams.
That book became Forged in Ancient Fire.
Finding the Real Story
Before I typed a word, I took my time. I journaled, mapped out relationships, and developed the lore of two ancient magical families—one Irish, one Korean—and the amulets that bind their destinies together. Only then did I begin to write Jia’s origin story with some confidence that I finally knew her.
To bring the book to life, I worked with a small team of professionals. Daniel David Wallace helped me reshape the plot and get the story beats right, especially the ending. Then two editors, Kourtney (Heartfelt Editorial Services) and Emma (Emma Robbins Editorial Services), gave thoughtful, detailed feedback that helped refine the manuscript into the version I’m now sharing, week by week, with readers.
What Comes Next?
Jia Peach still surprises me. I’ve written her into time travel, alternate timelines, sleuthing adventures, and full-blown magical showdowns. And there’s more coming—more stories that push her further into the unknown, deeper into herself.
If you’ve been reading Forged in Ancient Fire, you’re getting to see where it all began—not just for Jia, but for me, too.