Frequently Asked Questions

Why did you (a white author) choose to make your characters black?

Short Answer: Because they were from Africa

Long Answer: In my very first outline of the series, the characters were typical Tolkien-esque elves. Tall, pale-skinned and pointy-eared. But then when I moved away from traditional fantasy to something I could ground in Earth's history, I started looking round for a candidate place that could hide a civilization. Atlantis? Bah! Boring! Done a million times before. But what about the Sahara? That's a huge place, barely explored and it used to be green enough to support a civilization. There could well be a lost city buried under the sand. And as soon as I'd decided that was the cherno homeland, I knew they had to be black. Also, knowing the cherno split from humans roughly 200,000 years ago, it would have been in a period before light skin had developed in humans.

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There was no political agenda in my choice and no sense of providing diversity, just a logical outcome of the backstory I had established. However, I find it interesting that many people who read The Wise and The Faithful, don't even realize the main character's are black, mentally skipping over that description and seeing what they expect instead. And equally curious that for those that do, the character's skin color is often the first thing they ask me about.

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In the years since I first conceived Of Shepherds and Mages it has become common to question if white authors can write about the black experience, or even to insist that only black authors should write about the black experience. Perhaps. But I don't see this as a problem in fantasy works, where the characters are completely removed from real-world cultures and constraints: they may be black, but never Black, or African or African-American. I do however conceded I still need prompts understanding black hair.

Is the story suitable for young teens?

I'd be a little cautious about giving any of my books to under 15s, but it depends on the teen. The Of Shepherds and Mages series has nothing explicit happening between characters 'on camera,' but occasional frank discussions between them about sex, anal sex, sexual assault, incest and slavery. If your teen already knows these exist in the world, then there will be nothing to shock them.

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(My short sci-fi stories tend to be more explicit and can include recreational drug use, explicit sex scenes, gory battles and characters with very strange kinks.)

Is the whole story an analogy about climate change?

Yes, yes it is.

When is the next book coming out?

Glad you asked! Book 2 is already written and will drop in late 2022 or early 2023, just as soon as the cover art is done. Book 3 has just been started and is likely to be the longest book in the series. It won't be finished until 2025 at the earliest. Though the more books sell, the more incentive I'll have to finish the series!

Why are so many creatures on Haven the same as on Earth - surely on a different world they would have different creatures?

Indeed they would. However, the simurgh have been meddling in the affairs of Earth and Haven for millions of years. At the very least, they were using Haven as a back up for their cherno project, and transported many Earth species to it to provide a similar habitat. They probably also transported a few useful ones the other way as well! Almost all the domestic creatures arrived on Haven 3000 years before the setting of the book, when they were taken by the first cherno colonists. I also consider it likely that cherno would follow the pattern of European colonist in the New World, and start naming things based on their vague shape and role, in the same way that Europeans christened a brightly coloured bird in America a 'robin' after the bright red birds from home, and named 'bison' after familiar 'buffaloes'