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One question I think all writers are asked is: ‘Where do you get your ideas'? I usually respond by saying, "At Home Depot, next to plumbing supplies!" but what can I tell you? I'm a bit of a wiseacre. In my more lucid moments, I usually respond by saying the first step toward being a writer is to train your mind to observe the world around you. Because stories are everywhere.
My novel, The Youngest Templar: Keeper of the Grail is a case in point. As a youngster, I was fascinated by the middle ages and especially the Third Crusade. Stories like The Adventures of Robin Hood and Ivanhoe captured my imagination. As an adult, I loved reading history and biographies from the Middle Ages. When I began writing I knew I would someday write about this period for it was such a rich canvas.
However, when I started my novel, no one bothered to tell me you needed more than just a setting. Apparently, a good novel also needs a plot, characters, dramatic tension, and also things like words and punctuation if it is going to succeed. So I had my setting. Now I needed a character.
Tristan, the hero of The Youngest Templar: Keeper of the Grail was born in a magazine. (Well, according to my novel, he was born and abandoned at the steps of St. Alban's Abbey, never knowing who his parents were). But the ‘idea' that led me to Tristan came from a magazine article I read about The Roslyn Cathedral in Scotland. For centuries this cathedral has been rumored as the final resting place of the Holy Grail. Scholars and adventurers have spent hundreds of years examining every inch of the cathedral, trying to unlock the secrets which will tell us of the Grail's whereabouts.
What if? I said to myself, after I finished reading the article. What if the Grail is real? What if it is really hidden here at Roslyn Cathedral? If so, how did it get there? By asking those questions, I had not only the plot for The Youngest Templar: Keeper of the Grail, but my hero Tristan.
Tristan is an orphan raised by monks. One night a troop of Knights Templar visit the abbey where Tristan is living out his quiet life. When he is given an opportunity to join with them as a squire to Sir Thomas Leux, Tristan undertakes a grand adventure. With Sir Thomas he travels to the Holy Land and during a crucial battle, as the Templars are about to be overrun, he is given the Holy Grail and instructed by Sir Thomas to return with it to Roslin and to keep it safe at all costs.
Tristan begins his journey and it is a hero's journey filled with danger, intrigue and suspense. (Not to mention words and punctuation! I did warn you I was a bit of a wiseacre!) In writing The Youngest Templar: Keeper of the Grail, I tried to write the very kind of book I love reading as a kid: A ripping adventure yarn that keeps the pages turning.
I hope you'll read The Youngest Templar: Keeper of the Grail and tell me if I've succeeded!
Michael Spradlin, 
The Youngest Templar, 
young adult fiction, 
Knights Templar, 
Holy Grail,
historical fiction,
books, 
Penguin Books
