About me

I wrote my first story about a king who lost a battle and won a kingdom, when I was eleven. It had no maps, no dates and a great many swords. I have been trying to make it more believable ever since, and the way I do it is by researching more than I will ever put on a page.

The kingdom of Aderan is invented, but I treat it as if it had been real. It has a calendar, a salt road, a hill of churches cut from the rock, and a line of kings that I can recite. Before every novel I draw the map, make the timeline and work out what the people ate, wore and feared.

Every Monday I write a letter about the work: a source I found, a decision I made, a page I threw away. I also sell what I use myself: my novels as ebooks, the maps and timelines of Aderan, a workbook for researching historical fiction and two courses for writers who want to build a past that feels real.