I was born in New York City, in the olden times when it was still a grimy stew of diverse cultures, and rich people stayed where they belonged on the Upper East Side. I grew up on a heady mix of CBGB’s, Zabar’s, and The Metropolitan Museum of Art. If you are not familiar with those institutions, they translate into punk music, Jewish deli food, and highfalutin’, snooty culture.
    I am not a writer; I did not major in English; I majored in psychology, with minors in philosophy and art. I have a graduate degree in photography and another in painting. I don’t know how all those factor into this series, but it’s all in there somewhere.
    I have aphantasia and, as a result, was never much of a fiction reader, but if I had to list some influences, you would need to put Terry Pratchett, Monty Python, and Douglass Adams in a blender, along with a bunch of philosophy, and some anarchism, feminism, atheism, and a hearty fistful of lexapro and blend it on high. If the resulting mixture sounds like something you could choke down, then you might give my books a whirl.
    The series is the result of a Dungeons & Dragons world I created for my ten-year-old son and his friends to campaign in. I wanted them to have complete freedom to do anything they wanted, so I made sure every NPC, every shop, and every location on the map had a backstory to explore. I got a little carried away, as I often do, and ended up writing hundreds of pages. Then, one fine day, a friend suggested I write them into a book, and so, over the course of a year, I wrote seven volumes. 
    When I was nine or ten years old at summer camp, I got stuck in quarantine for a few days, and they gave me Asterix comics to stave off the boredom. What I remember is enjoying the characters more than the plots. I didn’t like the whole magic potion thing, but I loved all the crazy villagers.
    It was the characters of New Stenchford that kept me writing. I conjured a cyclops shunned by her family because she was born with two eyes, a female orc mob-boss who dressed like a debutant, a creepy ne'er-do-well with a weasel head and tail, and a thirty foot existentialist spider who likes to argue with his prey before he eats them. 
    At the end of Book Six, I wrote a section concerning where the characters go after the reader finishes the book. It's a parody of philosophy, but it conveys a genuine attachment to the world I created.
    I think my writing changes over the series. The first two books are very similar. They are both fast-paced and cluttered with lots of characters. Books three and four are more streamlined with stronger plots. Books Five, Six, and Seven are a little stranger and a little more idiosyncratic.
    Book Eight is a collection of short stories, which enabled me to continue writing, but without the burden of having to manage a whole book. The ninth is based on the “Choose Your Own Adventure" books. I never read them when I was young, but the idea always sparked my imagination. 
    None of the books started with outlines. They all began with me just writing dialogue between characters. It wasn’t until I got halfway through a book that I started writing out plans and making outlines. 
    I wanted to stay away from the typical hero’s journey. I love all the creativity of author’s like J.R.R. Tolkien, but I don’t like the underlying ideology. A lot of my influences might be British, but I’m tired of stories that celebrate monarchy, individual heroism, and patriarchy.  I would much rather write about misfits and things going terribly wrong.
    I hope that the reader will be able to transport themselves to New Stenchford, and feel at home in the mud, booze, and mess.