R E Hodges

I've been writing stories since before I could actually write. My dad used to write them down in little cardboard books when I was four, and I would fill in the pictures.

Throughout my childhood my head was full of stories - some fantastical, some staunchly realist. I had my first novel 'Old Keele's Oak' published back in 1993, written when I was just fifteen.

Since then I've been a student, an English teacher, a funeral director and a mother but have kept writing throughout. A little over a decade ago I put pen to paper to produce the opening passages of a story that had been brewing in my head for several years.That of King Morten of Verdisland - an uncompromising figure who crosses the spirits of both Winter and Summer to get what he desires.

Originally intended as a novella, 'The King's Curse & the Summer Son' became, two years later, a 160,000 word epic fantasy and only the first part in a planned four part series. Its lead characters; ruthless Morten, compassionate Francesca, charismatic Raphael and the ambitious and mercurial Zerbino became a sort of second family. And I knew that just one novel was too constricting a space for their story to enfold.

I have since written sequels 'Dark Star Rising' and 'Queen of Lies' and am working on the fourth and final novel in the series, 'Winter Born.' For more information please visit my website www.kingscurse.co.uk