Hello everyone:

This is my first novel, Son of Ivan, Book 1 of the Anhaga Series.

Richard Waters is marooned in a soul-crushing job and staring down the barrel of middle age with little to show for it. His days are spent in solitude, his life measured by the books he reads.

It wasn’t supposed to be this way. Richard wanted to be like his father, Ivan Waters, a respected man of letters and gifted eccentric. The literary life beckoned: writing, teaching, hobnobbing with illuminati. But plans change, circumstances conspire, fathers pass away.

So when a series of glowing white spheres appear to Richard, transporting him to worlds not found on any map, he can’t help but believe that he’s being given the chance to escape his mundane existence and do something extraordinary. Other signs are thrown his way, including clues from medieval poetry and ancient runes, a mysterious piece of parchment, and a sword that seems as though it was made just for him.

Richard’s quest eventually leads him to a land straight out of the storybooks—Gulvernass, the stone-realm—and his adventure kicks into high gear. He meets King Sveyne, who tells him of a terrible menace threatening the realm. He also discovers that, in this world, he himself hails from another land—Reev, the prosperous and remote western kingdom. Tapping into a courage he never knew he had, Richard pledges to do all he can to rid Gulvernass of its foe. Can he rise to the challenge? Will he achieve victory, or die in the attempt? And most important of all, will he finally succeed in making something of himself?

Son of Ivan is a blend of fantasy and contemporary fiction partly inspired by Old English poetry, Norse sagas, and Arthurian romance. It is not a young adult novel, but targeted toward a more mature readership, encompassing themes such as coping with a mid-life crisis, career burnout, the anxiety of aging, and the reclamation of the power of literature and history to excite the imagination in this increasingly complex and technological age.

I received a B.A. from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio (Class of ’93), and an M.A. in Creative Writing from Boston University in ’99. I live in Somerville, Massachusetts. I am currently working on Book 2 of the Anhaga series (well, "working" is a relative term. But I can assure you, ideas are forming), and finishing up a translation of Beowulf.