Mr Vasilis Petrovic

I grew up reading comics, fantasy and science-fiction and I still do. I discovered Conan in my childhood, heavy metal as my adolescence was beginning and role-playing games as it was ending. Having been born at the periphery of civilization, everything was a challenge during the 80s and 90s but I did my best to discover and procure as many comics and books as my abysmal financial situation allowed for. I’ve been writing stories since my late teens, mostly adventures and game worlds for fantasy rpgs and a few other genres. I’d tried my hand at writing short stories in my 20s but I was unschooled and inexperienced and didn’t make an effort to get better. To my defence, there are scant opportunities and resources if one isn’t born in the USA or the UK and doesn’t swim in money. I never had much money and I failed to become rich or even well-to-do so that's the end of it. Also, before the age of the Internet, information taken for granted today was a herculean feat to discover and access.

As my 40s waved menacingly from across the street, I decided to finally try my hand at this thing that I’ve always wanted to do and write a fantasy novel. As you're getting older and slower, your regrets catch up to you and beat you up until you capitulate. I came up with a one-paragraph concept while talking to a girl one night and began writing. I named it The Castle and I intended for it to be one self-contained book. The story, the world and the characters kept demanding more space and time and so I kept writing and it’s now the saga of The Cyclopean Castles. It sits at seven books at present in old-school metrics but only two in modern Malazan-style bricks. It will need another brick comprised of three to four old-school books to finish and I intend to see it done. It would annoy me to no end to leave this mortal coil before the story is finished.

I reached out to agents about getting the book published but I had no luck. No, not some small-time press where you pay the publisher to have a few hundred books printed, bury them in unknown shelves of unknown stores and call yourself a writer. It's either the big names or who cares. As expected, the big names didn't care for me so, I’ve been self-publishing. I have no expectations of success – I’m just getting my stuff out there. I’m also writing short stories and poems and I’ll do something with them as well. Since I began writing books, I also branched out to role-playing game material. I have written and designed tons of rpg material and I’m making some of it presentable and self-publish that stuff as well.

And there you have my personal story that I’m obligated to present. If you expected something cute, catchy or appropriate by business and marketing standards, I hope that you were disappointed. Regardless, here’s my stories and I hope that you find them interesting, entertaining and perhaps even inspirational.

Stay Heavy.