Contributor Biographies

2025 will see the publication of my sixth book, The Charred Blade, the first book in a quadrilogy, based on Norse mythology. My protagonist, Finlay Balder, suddenly finds himself plunged into fantastical realms that he knows only through books and Marvel films. Like all my stories, this one started with a picture in my head. A man peering through a wire mesh fence in the twilight, trying to make out a figure moving on an old stone bridge. I started asking myself questions. Who is the man? What is special about the bridge? Who is the figure on it, and what is it doing? My immediate thought was a troll who is there to take payment for crossing the bridge – a bridge that doesn’t seem to go anywhere. (The bridge actually exists across the road from where I live!) Over the space of an hour or so, I had fleshed out the bare bones of a story, including the end. I decided to do some research. Several hours later, my excitement ramping up and up, I had the beginning of my saga. Unbelievably, with only a few little tweaks, my story was a perfect fit into the mythology of the Norsemen, and the rest began to take shape. Interestingly, despite the plethora of stories and films, there is very little that survives of the Norse myths. Two longer pieces of work, The Poetic Edda, a collection of anonymous poems, and the Prose Edda by Snorri Sturluson, were both written around the thirteenth century after Iceland had converted to Christianity. The rest are fragments, or information gleaned from comparative cultures. As you can imagine, scholars still debate the veracity of these sources. For instance, we know there was a realm of the white elves, or Alfar, called Alfheim. And that is all we know. There are no descriptions of either the realm or its inhabitants. So, when my MC’s visit that realm, I had carte blanche when creating it. Probably the most famous piece of work derived from this mythology is JRR Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy. His interpretation has informed fantasy writers ever since, who use his descriptions of elves and dwarves without question. Even his names are rooted in the Old Norse language. Middle Earth is a direct translation of Midgard, the Norse name for our world. Gandalf is created from two Norse words: Gand, a magic stick, and Alf, 9 10 or elf. There are possible nods to characters like Vafthrudnir, who loved to engage in contests with riddles. Was he the source behind Bilbo and Gollum’s test of wits? Rather than stick slavishly to Tolkien’s interpretation, I wanted to make my own, although there is a wink to Tolkien within the fifth chapter. Despite that, I tried to stay as true to the mythology as I could, even while putting my own spin on it. Returning to the myths again and again has helped me craft all four books and get myself out of some tricky situations of my own making, When my MC became completely overwhelmed in the third book and I wasn’t sure how to get myself out of the corner I had painted myself in, I discovered a minor god who was the perfect “Get out of Jail Free” card. She also makes an appearance at the end of the last book, too. There are some characters who you won’t see within the pages of my books except for perhaps a passing mention. Thor and Loki are both absent. They have had far too much attention to comfortably cross into my worlds without bringing a lot of baggage with them, and I really didn’t want them to overshadow my MC. So they will remain firmly locked away within the Marvel universe. Writing this series has been a joy in so many ways. I have learnt a great deal about the Norsemen of old on this journey and my prayer is that my readers will appreciate and love the reimagining of the ancient myths.