ABOUT ME
R.E. HODGES
The change of seasons is a constant fascination to me.
Born and bred in the industrial heart of the Black Country I now live in the northern tip of rural Worcestershire with my husband, two daughters and pet dog and cat. The natural world and the change of seasons is a constant fascination for me and I’m a keen amateur gardener.
I’ve been writing stories before I could actually write. Quite literally, I would dictate little tales to my dad who’d write them in tiny cardboard books and I’d fill in the pictures. One of my first was called ‘The Worm who walked for 100 miles’
A decade on and I was an avid junior-writer and illustrator – often creating highly imaginative stories in school when I should be doing lessons. At 15 I wrote my first novella Old Keele’s Oak, a teen-time-travelling tale, published by the Pentland Press in 1993.
At university, and later as a young adult teaching English in Secondary School, I completed two unpublished full-length adult novels as well as many more semi-completed ones. Historical fiction, fantasy, dystopia and magical realism were common themes. Most of all I loved creating believable, flawed and sympathetic characters you could root for facing incredible situations.
“ As in all good stories, there are some characters you’ll love, some you’ll love to hate. ”
R. E. HODGES
I took a break from writing fiction in the mid-noughties to concentrate on motherhood. However, the ideas kept brewing and in Spring 2011, keen to have time-out from the demands of two lively toddlers and a day-job in the funeral industry, I began writing what was supposed to be a short story about a wicked king who crosses the Spirit of Summer. A little over three years later this became The King’s Curse and the Summer Son, a 150,000 word epic, spanning 35 years and 3 fantasy Kingdoms.
Of course, I couldn’t stop there. Now I truly had the writing bug, the sequel Dark Star Rising followed (relatively) quickly. Another six years on (life got in the way a bit …) and finally the third and penultimate instalment Queen of Lies has landed.
Inspired by motherhood, I hope the series can be enjoyed by all the family – mums and dads, boys and girls, nans and granddads. As in all good stories there are some characters you’ll love, some you’ll love to hate, and some who’ll really divide opinion. Ultimately these are complex yet classic tales of good triumphing over evil, with more twists than a tornado and where nothing – and no one – is quite as they appear!
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