Morton Faulkner

MORTON FAULKNER is the writing team of Nik Morton and Gordon Faulkner. Nik hails from Whitley Bay, North Tyneside and joined the Royal Navy as, appropriately, a Writer and has travelled all over the world both privately or with the Navy. He gained his Open University BA Degree in 1987 and, leaving the RN as a Chief Petty Officer Writer, began a civilian career in computing. Nik has sold articles and numerous genre short stories - espionage, science fiction, fantasy, horror, romance, adventure and ghost. He has sold comic-book illustrations and cartoons and his artwork for hundreds of Tae Kwon Do sequences was featured in Fighters Magazine. Nik learned Chinese kung fu (quanshu) in Malta where he teamed up with Gordon Faulkner to write the a fantasy series set in a mythical land – Floreskand.

Gordon was born and raised in the West Riding of Yorkshire. During an extended stay in hospital while young he developed what turned out to be a life-long passion for Oriental culture, especially Chinese, after reading the travels of Marco Polo. He started training in Oriental martial arts in the late 1960s and after joining the Royal Air Force in the early 1970s started to specialise in Chinese martial arts and Daoist philosophy. During his 22 year career in the RAF, he was one of the founders and General Secretary of the RAF Martial Arts Federation, a post he held until his retirement from military service, when he became a full-time Daoist Arts teacher. This resulted in extensive travel within Europe and North America where he was invited to run seminars and give lectures. For more years than he cares to remember he has planned and developed the mythical Floreskand, its characters, coinage, history, geology, religion and myths. When he met Nik Morton in Malta during martial arts training, they decided to work on a series of novels set in this colourfully imagined land. Floreskand: Wings was the first.

Nik sold his first story in 1971 and has had 120 short stories published – some winning awards – in various genres, among them action, adventure, romance, ghost, horror, sci-fi, western and crime. He has edited books and periodicals and contributed articles to many magazines. He has chaired writers’ circles and run writing and screenplay workshops, and judged competitions. For the period 2003-2007 he was sub-editor of the monthly magazine, Portsmouth Post, and for 2011-2013 Editor in Chief of Solstice Publishing (USA), but left to spend more time on his many writing projects. He’s had 37 books published; among them his latest co-authored fantasy novel Floreskand: Prophecy (Manatee Books); Rogue Prey, No Prisoners, Organ Symphony, Catalyst, Catacomb and Cataclysm (Rough Edges Press), a noir western for a US publisher, Death for a Dove; a vigilante novel, Some Kind of Justice, a psychic spy series Mission: Prague, Mission: Tehran and Mission: Khyber, a modern vampire thriller, Chill of the Shadow, and 6 books of collected short stories. His guide Write a Western in 30 Days – with plenty of bullet points has reviewers recommending it for writers of all genres, not just westerns. Nik lived in Spain with his wife Jennifer for 15 years but they now reside in Northumberland near their daughter, son-in-law, grandson and granddaughter.

Gordon is a member of the Society for Anglo-Chinese Understanding and a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society. In 1990 he had the first of what was to eventually become annual trips to China. These trips take students to study at the Beijing University of Physical Education (BUPE) and visit various research establishments, hospitals, temples, markets, bars, etc. He is the Principal Instructor of the Chanquanshu School of Daoist Arts which he founded in 1983; it now has in excess of 300 registered students. At a ceremony held at BUPE he became Ru Shi Dizi (an outstanding and close disciple) of Professor Zhang Guangde, the creator of Daoyin Yangsheng Gong which is a part of the Chinese National Fitness Program. And at a Ba Shi ceremony in a temple on Mount Wudang, Central China, he was initiated as a 15th generation Wudang Boxing disciple of Daoist Master You Xuande. He is the author of the award (Living Now Awards) winning book Managing Stress with Qigong from Singing Dragon Publications. Gordon and his wife, Maria, have two children and six grandchildren and live in the Scottish Highlands.