Where do I start?

Where do I start? I’m a child of the 1980s so I grew up with some of the most iconic fantasy and sci-fi films ever made (you will all agree, of course, that Back to the Future is the greatest film OF ALL TIME). Films such as Labyrinth, Neverending Story, The Goonies, Willow and Return to Oz all lit a flame within my imagination.

Those worlds and stories are amazing and breathtaking.

I loved reading books. My dad took me to the library every week. I’d borrow two or three books at a time, and it was only a matter of time before I discovered the Fighting
Fantasy books by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone. My love of fantasy was firmly cemented.

I always chose the wrong route, of course, and had to frantically try to find the numbered passage where it had all gone wrong!

I was then introduced to the classic fantasy books – C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia and J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings. I couldn’t get enough of these magical worlds and can remember making my parents leave the landing light on at night – not because I was afraid of the dark, but so I could continue reading my books when it was ‘lights out’!

As a teenager I was into Warhammer, the table top fantasy army game – Lizardmen and Beastmen if you were wondering. The mythos of the Warhammer world (very similar to Tolkiens) gripped my imagination and in between miniature painting sessions I would write my own little stories to bring the previous battle to life and give it more meaning. It’s a wonder I got anything done at school…

In a way, fantasy has shaped my life and so it is only natural that it is the genre I wanted to write within (sci-fi is a very close second – who knows, I might have a sci-fi novel in me too…).

I have tried not to go down the tried and tested medieval style fantasy route, instead opting to go for something in between medieval and industrial. People have guns, there are machines and steam engines, but there’s also magic, mystical weaponry and unnatural creatures.