Why Las Vegas Became the Heartbeat of My Paranormal Novels

I have been to Las Vegas more times than I can count, and every single time I go, I come back with more story material than I left with.

That's not an accident. Vegas does something to people. It strips away the ordinary and replaces it with this strange, glittering version of reality where everyone is simultaneously in their own world and completely surrounded by strangers. I have stood in the middle of a casino floor and watched the most fascinating parade of humanity I have ever seen — people utterly oblivious to each other, each one carrying a whole private universe behind their eyes. For a writer, that is irresistible.

But honestly? The casinos weren't what got me. It was the Forum Shops at Caesars Palace.

If you haven't been, look it up. It's a shopping mall built to look like ancient Rome, and in the center is a fountain surrounded by animatronic gods—full-size statues that move, speak, and preside over the whole spectacle as they own it. Which, in their world, they do. I was like a kid in a candy store. I had my phone out the entire time, photographing statues and columns and gods from every angle.

Here's the thing though: I write Norse mythology, not Greek. So while everyone else saw Zeus on that throne, I saw Odin. Every god I photographed got mentally recast. Every statue became a reference point. I was standing in the middle of a Greek pantheon taking notes for a Norse universe, and it made complete sense to me.

That trip was a couple of years ago now — before Dragon World existed, back when I was deep in the brothers, the vampires, the werewolves, the paranormal world that became my first series. Vegas was the backdrop for it all. The energy of that city, the way it makes everything feel slightly larger than life, the people moving through it like they're in their own private stories — that's what I was writing into.

Dragon World came later. A year ago, give or take. Which means that in about twelve months, I built an entire fantasy universe from scratch. I didn't realize that until just now.

Vegas has a way of making things feel possible. Maybe that's why it keeps showing up in my books. 🐉