About Me
An avid sf/fantasy reader, I write the kind of book I like to read: fantasy with intricate worlds and complex characters facing moral dilemmas. I started writing plays in college, then moved to Germany, where I continued to write while teaching ESL to executives. After moving back to the U.S., I supported my playwriting by teaching ballroom dance and working in a bookstore. Eventually, I decided that living in my parents' attic wasn't for me and went to law school. I spent the next seventeen years as a lawyer and compliance officer in New York City, until I quit Wall Street in 2017. Now, when I'm not writing, I help people resolve disputes as a mediator and arbitrator.
About the Series
The Fifth Mage War is epic fantasy with an urban twist. I’ve used classical fantasy elements (sirens, mages, fae, vampires, were-jaguars, etc.), but set the story in the modern world.
Because I love imagining myself in the stories I read, I designed that kind of world for my readers. In my books, magic is simply a part of everyone’s lives: while there are airplanes and computers just like we have them today, the people in Australia and Europe travel by flying carpet instead of cars, and air conditioners are magical appliances.
My favorite stories are character-centric, and so my epic focuses on the five members of the Bant family who are at the center of a world-shattering conflict. While the series title promises a war (and war you shall have!), the story begins before any shots are fired so that readers can discover how the main characters wind up on opposing sides.
The first two books feature medical and magical discoveries, political intrigue, physical transformation, and moral dilemmas. There are no true “villains,” and all my characters have flaws. I tried to build a balanced world, where all power comes with an off-setting disability. It's a story of people put in impossible positions, forced to make difficult decisions that affect themselves, their family and the world.
