Steven Rowe

Steven L. Rowe (1956 to ----) Born, Easton, Pa. Currently in Brandon , Florida

"Jolly Roger and Dragons" and its sequel, "The Treasure of Dragon Island" are fantastic pirate adventures in the Burroughs' mold, with a spiritual hand from Rafael Sabatini,while "Brothers of the Black Flag" is more a classic swashbuckler with adventure, humor and romance. "Faded Runes, Hungry Shadow" is a modern fantasy/horror tale set in the Colorado Rockies, involving modern American Pagans, an ancient being of utter blackness and even a visit-in-disguise by the one-eyed Father of Gods.

For short stories, at the moment there is "The Legacy of Cyrus Jones" which falls into the Cthulhu Mythos and "The Long Halloween" were the creatures of the Pumpkin Night roam day and night without the calender rolling over to the 1st of November.

I have a great fondness for Edgar Rice Burroughs and H.P. Lovecraft, a love of pirates for who they really were and who they might have been. Belaying pins litter my desk and the umbrella stand beside the desk in full of cutlasses and Viking swords, the weapons that appear often in my novels and short stories.

My father believed in the immortal words of Horace Greely and went west. First to Ohio and then, when I was 10, to Colorado. My own travelling began when I graduated high school. I do not count the many trips my parents took my brother and me on, for we had no say in those driving vacations. We were merely the help, along to lift and carry, not enjoy.

After a trip east to see my grandparents, it was off to the west coast and basic training at Fort Ord, followed, with typical military logic, to A.I.T. at Fort Devons, Mass. and then an annex course back in California. Next stop, after a brief visit at home near Denver, was Frankfurt, West Germany, back in the day when there were still two Germanys.

A bit more than half a decade in Europe and I felt I had done my duty to my country and it was time to return to the civilian world with my collection of souvenirs, including my Austrian bride, and my notebooks of literary scribblings. Back once again in the Great American Desert, back in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains, back to Colorado.

Married life, civilian life, a fine life indeed. Burglar alarm repair, computer repair--when they were still rather primitive--and office equipment repair. Travel to Yellowstone with my wife, to the west coast with her, here and there as we could afford. And eventually, travel to the local maternaty ward for the greatest of adventures, the birth of our son.

All through those years, those decades, I have written. Science fiction, fantasy, mystery, horror, all for my own amusement. The stacks of paper pile up rapidly. Hand-written note books, type-written piles and finally printed from my computer. How many novels and stories? Well, to tell the truth, I do not know exactly. Some finished, some not. Short stories, long stories, partial ideas and sketches of situations, in boxes and bags.

Time enough, I have been informed, to put my scribbling in order. So commanded by my wife, I set about writing a novel that was finished in every respect and ready for the reading public. A story of horror from out of time, of the Old Gods of Northern Europe, of modern Pagan-Americans. Most of all, it was a novel of humor and terror, romance and prejudice, courage and walking dead, "Faded Runes, Hungry Shadow".

To test my skill, I turned over the thick stack of pages to some friend who were part of the SCA in Colorado. The test audience response was promising: "We loved it, but it should be longer". (At well over 100,000 words, more than 400 printed pages, I took the latter comment as simply a complement)

An unexpected change of fortune has taken me from the comforts of familiar surroundings in Colorado to the warmth and sun of Florida. Since so many of my stories--past and future--revolve around the ocean, I take this as a good omen and continue to produce the sort of novels and stories that I would love to read, if only someone wrote them.

With my wife and son reading each new chapter, I am currently hard at work on "Dragonbell Keep" set on Britania Minor, an island of giants, ogres, fairies and the human kingdom of Avlondale. For more than five hundred years, no dragon has been seen in Avlondale. With the arrival of a burnt-out Viking longship carrying a lone survivor, the fiery terror returns...

And also "Buried by Blackbeard", in which Black Pip, Asmus and the remnant of the brotherhood return. The rescue of a sloop flying the English flag from Spanish pirates involves some of Black Pip's crew with Israel Hands and his search for the treasure that Blackbeard stole from his own crew shortly before his death...

And there is "Sea-Road to Neverland", in which James, former bosun aboard Queen Anne's Revenge, meets Smee and is signed aboard the Jolly Roger to serve under a brutal and blustering pirate captain. In time he rises to be captain himself, though his triumph is marred by finding his ship and crew in strange and uncharted waters...

I have no fear of a lack of ideas. Gods grant me days enough to write out all that wonders that I dream of.