Nick Richards

Visit me at nicolasrichards dot com

When I was nine years old, I picked up a copy of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit in the U.S. Ballantine edition. Something about Bilbo riding on the barrel along the lazy river with the fantasy trees spoke to my young self.

Needless to say, I re-read the books as a teen and got more out of them. I re-read them in my 20s and got a lot more out of them.

And then something funny happened in my early 20s. An idea had been growing in me through my teen years. Although I could never hope to even come close to Tolkien in anything I did, there were a few things about LoTR that I was not as fond of:

- Nine in the fellowship and they couldn’t get even one woman in the group?

- What do you mean the good guys wear white and the bad guys wear black? Really?

- An elf marrying a man requires that tragic an ending?

I wanted to play in that world, but tell my own story. So one Saturday afternoon I sat down — and I’m not kidding — I wrote the entire outline of Tranith Argan in one sitting. Oh sure, things changed later, but I got the idea all at once, even a scene in the last book that I knew had to be there.

My fantasy tale is:

- Character driven, not just action

- Not purely Young Adult, but is family friendly

- Heroic and hopeful, not dystopian

For example, if you like King Arthur or Robin Hood, you will enjoy Tranith Argan.

I am also the author of Living the Principled Life, and yes, my hero acts in a principled way