The Beginning

A Fantasy Saga Sixteen Years in the Making

It all began in 2009 with a series of fantasy-based Machinima music videos I created for fun. Fifteen years later, a friend asked me to summarize them—and something unexpected happened. As I unraveled the story behind those digital fragments, I realized I wasn’t just looking at a music project. I was looking at the bones of a full-blown fantasy epic.

A screenplay followed. Then rewrites. Then real life.

The movie hasn’t been made. But the story found its shape—as a novel.

From the start, I knew I didn’t want to retell the usual tale of Elves and Dwarves squabbling over ancient relics. I turned to the Icelandic Eddas, drawing on Old Norse mythology to reshape familiar fantasy tropes. I reimagined the races, wove in Eastern practices like Reiki and Tai Chi, and set it all in the windswept outpost of Helsgaard Keep.

Originally, the story centered on Rohand, a smart-mouthed Ranger with a knack for trouble and a slow-burn romance with Lozen. Then a cover reviewer hit me with a game-changing suggestion: “What if Anja and Rylen—the warriors killed by dragons—were Lozen’s parents, and she never knew?”

Everything shifted.

The world expanded. I started mapping Lozen’s life, her hidden lineage, and the choices that shaped her. I wrote backstory, timelines, secret histories—until her journey took over the entire narrative.

One harsh screenplay review later (courtesy of a veteran with 27 IMDb credits), I shelved the script, licked my wounds, and came back swinging with a novel, which shortlisted in a competition against 6000+ writers. This was never just about fighting dragons and undead. This was about Lozen—her identity, her battle scars, her morally gray nature, and the truths waiting in the ashes.

Now, sixteen years since it all began, I finally get to share it with you.

Welcome to Helsgaard’s Heroine.