How I got the Idea for The Azorea Trilogy

I must tell you, it is just an outgrowth of my twisted and demented mind. I was playing the pipes at a local cemetery one evening, (Sounds a little goth, but actually pipers love to play in cemetaries because no one complains about the noise. Unless, of course, you happen to wake the dead.)
As I was driving home, I began thinking of ideas I could write about. I had wanted to write a book for a long time. I love writing and enjoy manipulating and being creative with the English language. I had many ideas but nothing seemed to jump out at me. Suddenly, I began to think of all the Science Fiction shows and books I had read. They often dealt with humans venturing forth into the great unknown of space. Often they would become marooned on some distant planet, or just become "Lost in Space".
The more I thought about this, I began to realize something. I have never read about an alien race of people becoming marooned on planet earth. Oh, there was the Coneheads I suppose. But what if a race of people were forced to leave their home world due to it's imminent destruction. Then suppose half of them were horribly disfigured in some accident associated with that planet's demise.
I kept thinking about the what ifs and asking myself various questions. I thought, "What if half of their brain was destroyed and turned into useless rubbery cartilege. And What if that part of the brain is where the emotions of love, concern, and compassion originated. They would become ruthless barbarians.
That is how I got the idea for the LeathMairbh (Lee-ache-Mah-rahv) The name actually means, "Half-Dead" in the Gaelic tongue. So now I had a race of people, half of whom desired to kill the other half, both now plummeting out of control through space, toward planet earth. They both became marooned in the highlands of Scotland in the 16th century.
Why the 16th century? Well I wanted to incorporate the interesting historical battles and clan conflicts of that period into my tale. There is so much fascinating history to avail myself of. I wanted to portray this history in a different light by asking the question, "What if all those horrific events were the work of an evil race of people from another world?"
Why Scotland?, you ask. Uh, hello. I am obsessed with the Celtic culture. I also wanted to incorporate the Bagpipes into my tale. I began thinking how to do that. I thought, "What if the tones of the drones and chanter caused the evil ones damaged brain material to vibrate. And what if the vibrations would then render them helpless zombie like puppets, controlled by the one playing the pipes. Brilliant! I thought to myself. Well the rest, as they say, is literature. I invite you to get a copy of Azorea, The Piper o' the Glen, and see for yourself how the saga plays out.