About Author, K Robert Donovan

It all started when…

While in grade school, our teacher gave us the assignment to write a book. At a minimum it had to be three pages in length, handwritten. I finished mine at seventeen pages with no artwork. I don’t remember the story too well, but I do recall that it was a fantasy theme and had a flying horse in it.

Since that time, I have developed multiple story lines.

• A Sci Fi themed story dealing with teleportation and invisibility…

• A story of a wealthy American in Victorian Era Great Britain…

• A fantasy framed saga of a self-exiled Northman seeking solace in a quieter life, but trouble always seems to track him down…

I chose to pursue the Northman series because… well because I had some really dramatic material fleshed out and my first love of reading had fallen into the fantasy realm.

A little about myself …

I have lived across the US and in Europe but have made a long-term home in Middle Tennessee where we hope to retire someday and surround ourselves with family. My wife and I are approaching our thirtieth wedding anniversary. She has been a considerable influence in supporting and encouraging my writing. We have five wonderful children and our first grandchild.

I am a graduate of a Big Ten school with a business/industrial engineering related degree. I currently work in manufacturing, focusing on logistics. I have further developed my professional writing skills over the years working on contracts across a wide breadth of categories.

Besides writing, I continue to enjoy reading, spending time with family, watching college football and basketball, and watching a good movie or show with my wife.

A love of reading …

My favorite childhood book - Go Dog Go by P. D. Eastman - It has become a family favorite.

Earliest Series read:

• The Three Investigators by Alfred Hitchcock

• The Book of Three (Chronicles of Prydain) by Lloyd Alexander

• The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis

Favorite series read as a teen - The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen R Donaldson. I read two of these books over a two week period when bedridden with mono.

Additional Books and Series read as a youth:

• The Belgariad Series by David Eddings

• The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkein

• Histories of King Kelson and Chronicles of the Deryni by Katherine Kurtz

• The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkein

• Dragonlance Chronicles by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman

A sampling of noted books and authors read as an adult across genres:

• Tom Clancy

• Jane Austen

• Malazan Book of the Fallen by Steven Erikson (currently reading)

• The Killer Angels, and The Last Full Measure by Michael Shaara

• John Grisham

• D-Day and multiple military history books by Steven Ambrose

• Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield (I’ve read this one twice - great book)

• The Hornblower Series by C.S. Forester

• The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins

• Black Hawk Down by Mark Bowden

• The Liberation Trilogy (military History) by Rick Atkinson

• Dan Brown

• The Sharpe Series, Agincourt, and The Last Kingdom Series by Bernard Cornwell

• Michael Crichton

• and of course, The Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling - I started reading this with my kids. I had zero interest at first, but then really got into the series and enjoyed talking about the books with my kids. It was always a struggle to be the first to read the copy we purchased. Though I must confess, I purchased the Deathly Hallows the first day it released and read it before my kids.