I am Russel, and I am a Constant Reader and first-time author.

My inspirations are mainly science fiction and horror, though I will read nearly everything I can reach. I play board and card games, with Android: Netrunner and Magic: The Gathering being my favourites.

I have, I hope, constructed a small universe for some of my first stories to inhabit, with Clutch describing the Wrenching and it’s many horrors. Later tales will use that event as their genesis.

The storyline narrated across the Clutch timeline is something I woke up with one morning several years ago, almost fully formed. I had originally intended to refer to the Wrenching and the Clutch itself as simply things that had already occurred and been invented, with everyone in the stories already knowing what they meant. The actual story, Clutch, was going to be written as a prequel as perhaps book 4 or 5. Having now thought about this over the past few years, I believe I need to write this backstory first - not only to answer some important questions you will have while reading Eden Fell (the next story, I think), but to set the technological and mythological tone for the series.

Much of the Clutch series has a near-future setting of around 40 years from now. I have made some extra effort to restrict technological advancement primarily to ideas that exist today, with the possible exception of the Clutch technology itself (although I believe we are already on the path to discovering it). That particular idea came from my memories of learning to ski at 3 years old in Mica Creek and the old T-bar the Mica Dam engineers hacked together for the so-called "bunny" hill - a slope steep enough that I could pick up enough speed to literally ski to my front door.