I'd been tinkering with a manuscript about memory, and turning over an abandoned project about a journey along an infinite wall. And I'd always wanted to do a parallel world story. Another huge influence was the heap of SF classics I worked my way through as a youngster - Ringworld, Orbitsville, Riverworld. I think I was seduced all those Big Dumb Objects. So I decided to create one of my own.

The wall-world of Stone is the result.

In the Dragoncharm books I'd explored the idea of a critical moment in our history where the world turned and all the magic went away. Now I wanted to zoom out from that picture, imagine the Turnings that came before and after that moment. What sort of world existed before even the world of charm? And what of the Turnings to come?

So I designed Stone to be not just a giant wall, but a also a storehouse of memory. A sort of index of all possible histories, both mythical and real. When Jonah Lightfoot travels along Stone's many ledges, he's moving not just through space but time as well.

If you think all that just sounds like an excuse for a writer to throw as much into the melting pot as he possibly can, maybe you're right. All I know is, once I'd assembled all the ingredients, cooking the thing was an absolute blast!

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