Basilisk is a story which grew out of several disparate elements:

   1. I had started a SF story about a boy who lived underground in some strange underworld peopled by criminals and outcasts. He was a street wise teenagers called 'Rej' as in 'reject.' I liked the character but the story didn't go anywhere.

   2. Several years ago I was in Amboise, a medieval French village and saw a chateau where Leonardo da Vinci had spent some time. There was an exhibition of his designs for weapons and warcraft and I thought how interesting it might have been if someone like him had turned his attention to chemical/psychological warfare instead. The Loire valley in France also has many troglodyte communities too, which also got me thinking.

   3. I have always loved the idea of dragons and stories about dragons and, as I know they are popular with other people too, I thought it would be fun to write a story about dragons.

   4. I love Florence and was very interested in the ruthless way in which politics was carried out in the Renaissance city states and fascinated by the power of a charismatic religious leader like Savaranola. I'm not sure those elements ended up as the story of 'Basilisk' but then ideas have a habit of developing in unexpected directions. I think I was heavily influenced by three books: George Orwell's 1984, Margaret Atwood's: The Handmaid's Tale and a much less well known YA SF book I found in a second hand book shop and read first as a child Dark Universe: Daniel F Galouye about a society living underground after a nuclear war. I wanted to create an atmosphere of oppression and fear and keep the reader uncertain as to the outcome of the novel. I enjoyed making up the swear words that are the bed rock of Rej's speech patterns. I asked my children to come up with as many as they could think of and went on from there. I always check my dialogue with my children anyway – the kiss of death for a novel is to have everyone speaking like a middle aged British woman!

I do most of my research from books but there are some links here that you might find interesting:
Closluce website
Shots of contemporary Florence
My basilisk looks nothing like this but I borrowed the idea of its association with sin and evil.