Well… I’ve finally done it.
Welcome to my slightly scruffy little corner of the internet.
I’m a fifty-eight-year-old, so-far-unpublished author. Yes, I know that makes me an “author” only in my own head for now, but I’ve decided it’s time to stop writing just for myself and actually share some of the stories rattling around in there.
I’ve been scribbling since school, when short stories felt like a private pastime. Later, boarding school gave me the perfect excuse to dive into Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, where I became a dungeon master and spent countless hours building worlds for my friends to stumble through.
University took me to Plymouth, where I spent more time with dolphins than with other students, and more nights behind the Student Union bar than in the library. Then came years as an environmental field researcher, years full of those “I nearly died today” moments. From punching sharks in open water with nothing resembling armour to over-wintering alone in the far Arctic, I lived on the edge and read my way through the long nights.
Eventually, life tilted towards something more “normal”: ties, shiny shoes, and thirty years of office life split between big corporations and small businesses. Funny thing is, when I look back, it’s not the spreadsheets or meetings that stand out, but the adventures and the risks.
Six (nearly seven) years ago, my partner and I jumped off the hamster wheel and landed in a ramshackle old manor house in northeast Scotland. She believed I could do the impossible, still does, and together we’ve been restoring the house and gardens with little more than our own hands and the modest income from a small B&B.
That work continues, but this site is something different: my nudge to let the writer out.
My heart’s always been in Fantasy and Magical Realms. The old favourites: Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Stephen Donaldson, David Eddings built the foundations. Heavy Metal Magazine in the ’70s and ’80s twisted my imagination in wild new ways. Today, Naomi Novik (Temeraire, Scholomance, Uprooted) and Hannah Kaner (the Fallen Gods trilogy, waiting impatiently for the finale!) top my shelves.
Through this blog, I’m hoping to connect with other fantasy-lovers. My plan is to share short stories here, modern myths, hauntings, and creature features rooted in real places around Moray, Scotland. They’ll be free for anyone who joins the blog, and I’d love for readers to jump in, chat about the stories, and maybe even help me decide where to go next.
Meanwhile, I’m also working away on the first book of an epic fantasy trilogy, which I hope to publish the traditional way. When the time’s right, you’ll be the first to know.
Thanks for reading this far, I hope you’ll stick around for the stories, the experiments, and maybe a few surprises.
Nick B Kimber
