Martin D. Rothery

Martin Rothery (AKA Damon Rathe) started creative writing in September 2008 after enrolling on a creative writing course at the local college as a hobby. By June 2009 he had joined a local writers group to develop his skills with like minded creative individuals, something that would always continue to have an influence on him.

After successfully having some poems and articles published, before he self-published his first charity book Nonagenarians in remembrance of his grandparents' writing, everything had been leading up to his first defining moment - the release of COWS!, his first novel in 2012.

Soon after, starting his own independent publishing company, Fishcake Publications, he honed his literature skills, before releasing and co-authoring another book of short stories, Souls of Darkness, under the pen name of Damon Rathe. He then published the prequel to Cows!, Sheep, and then followed this with the first full novel under the guise of Damon Rathe called Human Rights: Undead Set on Living.

Caught between writing in two different genres, children's stories and horror/fantasy/sci-fi, Martin likes to release the former under his own name and the latter under Damon Rathe, which is the dark side that sometimes wishes to be let out.

Also, having a design creative background, Martin also designed and illustrated the cover for COWS!, Sheep, Human Rights and A Fistful of Marigolds as well as some of the internal images for Souls of Darkness.

When given the opportunity, Martin often does workshops for children in the local community and Huddersfield Libraries and has historically been involved with the Pageturners Festival in Huddersfield, the Huddersfield Literature Festival, the Rochdale Literature Festival and the Holmfirth Arts Festival and most recently the Mooonraking Festival in Slaithwaite.

After a brief hiatus qualifying as a primary school teacher, working in schools and also and having a family, Martin has now wandered into the career of part-time tutoring with a view to spending more time on the things that he loves - creative writing, working with children and being creative in the community.