Nicolas FitzGerald lives in New Zealand, although he prefers to think of it as Middle-earth, with his wife, daughter, son, and a ridiculous Golden Retriever. He has a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in history, and a Master of Information Studies. Nicolas is a librarian in his day job and spends the rest of his time daydreaming about fantasy worlds. He is writing the classic epic fantasy series Forsworn & Forsaken.
Nicolas FitzGerald has immersed himself in fantasy worlds for as long as he can remember. Some of his fondest memories are of his mother and father reading The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings as a child. He loves the scale and sense of awe that epic fantasy inspires. The languages, cultures, and mythologies; the grand cities, impossibly high mountains, and dark magical forests; the almost-hopeless quests, massive battles, and final victories—he loves it all!
In early 2023, and after decades of dreaming about being an author, and occasionally writing a chapter or two of a story, Nicolas finally got serious about being an epic fantasy author. His first step was to spend several years starting about five different stories, none of which were ever finished.
Fast forward a few years and Nicolas finally settled on one epic fantasy story to write, well a massive series actually, now known as Forsworn & Forsaken. In true seat-of-the-pants style, and with his typical multiple project approach, he began writing book one in the series, before pivoting to a prequel novella to publish first, followed by a switch to a short story to release before even the novella.
The major challenges he faces are seeing each story through to its end before getting distracted by shiny new ideas and balancing his busy day job and family life with dedicated writing time. So far, the writing time frequently loses out here, but Nicolas is battling on none-the-less and it determined to publish the Forsworn & Forsaken series!
Nicolas's plan is to finish and publish the already mentioned, as yet untitled, short story followed by a novella, titled Blue Flame Ascension. These will lead nicely into book one in the series. At this point the short story and novella are close to completion. Book one is not.
Find out more about the series progress in the Books section. Here you can see blurbs for the stories being written plus writing progress trackers!
Helen Lowe. The epic fantasy author of The Wall of Night series is Nicolas's favourite author and her work is exerting the most influence on his writing. Helen's books have inspired him to write. The world she has created is rich and deep in a way that most books can only hint at.
Ryan Cahill. Vying for the strongest influence over Nicolas's writing is the classic fantasy, with a modern twist, that is The Bound and The Broken series by Ryan Cahill. No one does dragons better!
J. R. R. Tolkien. Nicolas will forever love the high fantasy of The Hobbit and The Lord of The Rings that fantasy writers owe so much to.
Raymond E. Feist. His novel, Magician, was the defining read of Nicolas's late teen years. He has read and loved many of Feist's other novels, especially the amazing Empire Trilogy, co-written with Janny Wurts, herself a highly acclaimed author whose other books Nicolas looks forward to reading!
Cecelia Holland. Nicolas's love of high fantasy has always been matched only by his love of history. He has a BA majoring in History and Cecelia Holland's beautifully crafted historical novels will always be dear to him, especially Jerusalem.
Rosemary Sutcliff. Her books set in Roman Britain are a joy to read but Nicolas especially loves her semi-historical Arthurian tale Sword at Sunset.