<p>I was born in a place called Trieste. At the time it was a city-state in its own right, nowadays it's a part of Italy.<br/><br/>I spent the first 18 years of my life bouncing between Trieste and Australia - the latter eventually won.<br/><br/>I discovered the fantasy genre in my thirties and I have never looked back. Sadly I find that quite a lot of the fantasy I come across is quite mediocre, so I have decided to add to it myself - and you, the reader, may judge whether I have succeeded in lifting or in lowering its standard...<br/><br/>When I read a book, I want to be taken on a journey that is at once believable, captivating, completely enthralling and preferably free of clichés. I do not care for formula writing - or formula anything, for that matter.<br/><br/>I want to feel the world depicted on the page and interact with the characters as if they were incarnate before me.<br/>I want to feel, for a time, as if the hero or heroine's flesh is forming itself around my bones, that I am living the tale that is being spun and that I will emerge enriched by the experience.<br/><br/>Perhaps I've set the benchmark too high... but I hope that I will always strive for the heights, even if they are beyond my current reach.<br/><br/>How else am I going to grow?</p>
